Category: Google Maps

Just a PSA, Google is fully deprecating the legacy Google My Business API on February 20, 2023 – this coming Monday. This is not new, most of those using the old API had most of its features deprecated now and we reported about this last year. But now…

For the past few weeks, there have been reports via the Local Search Forum that Google has been removing emojis and special characters from business names within Google Business Profiles. This means if you try to add an emoji for your name to stand ou…

Google has confirmed that its latest efforts to filter out local reviews against its policies and guidelines went too far. Google, over the next few weeks, is working to restore the policy-abiding reviews that were removed by its automated systems as f…

Google is now opening up its car or auto inventory feature within Google Business Profiles to all motor vehicle dealerships. Google began testing car listings in 2021 and then expanded the cars for sale feature in 2022 and now it is open to all dealers…

Now, Google is showing double justifications for some local results. Google’s local search results has a feature to highlight and/or summarize some of the local reviews in the map pack and local search results snippet. These highlights or summarizatio…

Google is testing the “order online” button from the bottom of the search result snippet to the top of that snippet. I see it on the bottom, but some can see it towards the top of the snippet, above the sitelinks but under the description area.

Google has posted a new help document for posting restrictions around user-generated content in Google Maps. This is specific to reviews, photos, and videos users may update to Google Maps. This may also include content such as ratings or Q&A topics.

Google Posts insights is no longer working, it has been discontinued according to the Google Business Profiles API documentation for the deprecation schedule.

Google is testing displaying a round map pin that has a business photo in the pin itself. This is supposedly working on some Google Maps devices when you request directions.

Google is testing a “check wait time” button for some local results in the Google search results. I guess this tells you how long you have to wait to receive service from the local business, like a restaurant.

Late last week, Google Business Profiles had a bug where uploading images to your business profile would fail. This was reported first by Tim Capper on Twitter on Thursday and the issue continued in through the weekend.

Google Business Profiles seems to be testing, beta testing, the ability for businesses to add more details, to “say more about” their business attributes.

Mike Blumenthal dropped a simple but thoughtful local SEO tip that all businesses should do some time in the near future. Just check the featured photos that Google selected to be displayed in your Google Maps pin overlay.

Google Business Profiles will stop supporting price ranges for products and custom call to actions, starting February 15, 2023. Google will also remove any existing price ranges and all landing pages will have a “visit site” label.

Google Maps can now show 360 views of the outside of some famous buildings and places. This gives some sort of aerial 360 view of the building in a video-like format in Google Maps.

There are reports in the Local Search Forum that in the past few weeks or so, Google has been offering fewer verification methods via postcards than other verification methods, compared to the past.

For the past few months or so, I’ve been tracking reports that suggest that Google Search Console is not properly tracking clicks and impressions from the local pack. This first came up in September and after numerous requests from SEOs, I have not se…

Another small study says that reviews with photos with them last a lot longer in the Google local listing for a business than reviews without photos. This was another study done by Joy Hawkins and her company.

Google is testing including the local business profile listings in Google Discover. There is this new section named “mentioned in this article” where Google can show the local business listing of companies that were noted in the article.

Google’s new Business Profile interface, aka NMX (I hate the name), in the web search results, for some business profile listings, is showing an option to “add a map to your website.” It says that adding a map to your website will “help customers find …