Category: Google Maps

Google has added to Google business profiles listings in the Google Maps interface a section named “updates from customers.” This seems to show some recent reviews from Google Local Guides and this might be a concern for some businesses where Google m…

Chris Tweten posted a photo the other day on Twitter of a dental office sign with its company name – the company name is named “Dentist Near Me.” Of course, the SEOs in all of you are thinking, oh, this dental practice wants to rank for all [near me] …

With Google’s new effort to get business owners to manage their business listing in web search and not in the Google Business Profile manager, formerly Google My Business, Google is now using large overlays to tell businesses they can do so in search.
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Google Maps, the map interface, is testing displaying review snippets, short selected reviews, directly under the name of the business or organization in the map interface under the pin. This was spotted by Allie Margeson who said on Twitter “seeing re…

Google is testing a new layout for location packs that show things to do, airports and transit stops based on the location you are looking at. This is Google mobile search feature that Brian Freiesleben spotted and posted on Twitter.

Google is putting new Google Business Profile owners and managers into a sandbox, penalty box or a waiting room for seven-days before they can manage all of the features in the Google Business Profile account. This is a new, I guess, security feature,…

Google is showing more and more cars for sales in the local search results. Saad AK spotted it the other day and shared a video of it in action and Riley Hope shared more details on how dealerships can get their cars in these spots.

Google is now showing bike icons for the bikeshare data it shows in the local search results, including the local pack and local listing for a bike share location. Google also shows the quantity of bikes that are available at that location. And Google …

Google Business Profiles (formerly Google My Business) seems to have added or is testing adding a new check box for products. There is an option named “mark as special” that will show that product at the top of the page in Google Search.

Google Maps seems to be rolling out or testing a new feature to dock locations and businesses to the bottom of the map page. You may see a “dock to bottom” button in blue that lets you quickly reopen a place your docked later. When you click it, it pla…

Ben Fisher notified me that now when you add a new business to Google Business Profiles (formerly Google My Business), Google now by default asks you as part of the verification workflow if you want to do the video verification.

A few weeks ago, Google announced a new feature named busy area – well, that feature now seems to be rolling out. Several folks started to notice this roll out over the past few days. When you are looking at the Google Maps app, Google will show you i…

In July we saw a number of hotels and hospitality business listings say they are seeing the ability to use Google Posts but Google we were told it might be a bug and not a feature. Well, it was a feature Google was testing, because now hotels can use G…

After many months of testing, Google has confirmed it is moving the local pack results to the top and the map on the right of those local results on desktop search. Google said the search company “expects this to be broadly available over the coming w…

Google is now showing up to two ads in the local search results – the local pack. Joy Hawkins spotted it the other day for a search on [lawn care near me] and shared a screenshot where Google’s local pack results showed two ads above the organic local …

As expected, Google is now letting health providers and facilities to go into their Google Business Profile and select the insurances they accept. This option should be under the info tab, then a section named “Accepted Health Insurance” should show up…

Google now lets searchers filter the local search listings for healthcare providers; facilities, doctors, etc by the types of insurances accepted and if they speak your language. So make sure, if you run search marketing for a healthcare organization …

Google has updated the Google Business Profiles Get Reviews help document to explicitly say that having a mix of positive and negative reviews are more trustworthy, than I guess just all positive reviews. Joy Hawkins spotted this and posted on Twitter…

If you go to Google Search on desktop and type in some local businesses, then click on the first photo in the local knowledge panel – Google will load a black or blank photo. It is some sort of weird bug that I’ve seen happen since this past Saturday n…

Google had added a bunch of Google Maps features today including more Pickup with Google specifically at Krogers, restaurant price ranges, indoor map navigation and how busy venues are in a specific neighborhood.