Category: Google Maps

Google in the local pack is now expanding its “justifications” (weird word for this) to show not just general justifications about the business and not just what is on the menu but highlights from the menu. Luca Bove noticed this and Mike Blumenthal …

Google lets businesses that do not want to display their addresses (like home based businesses) on Google Maps or Google Search the ability to label their business as “service level businesses.” But starting last Friday according to Tricia Clements (@y…

Google Local, I believe part of the local service ads product, is testing a feature to show estimated prices near you for specific types of queries. Anubhav Garg spotted this box for a query on [roofing companies hackensack] which showed estimated pric…

Google has added a local restaurant or businesses online ordering forms to the call to action overlays it provides in Google Maps and the local pack. Previously, Google only showed 3rd party integrated platforms in this overlay, not the custom URL ord…

There may be a bug with the Google My Business Google Posts feature. There is a spike in the number of complaints about rejection notices for Google Posts. So when a business owner posts an update to Google Posts, those updates are more likely to be …

Google has updated the directions icon it uses for its local search results. Before the icon had a shape with an arrow in white within it, now it has a simple arrow upwards. This is present both in the local pack and in the Google Maps listings on mob…

Google has updated the Google My Business “available performance metrics” help document to talk more about the new performance reports. Google added a section for “users who viewed your profile” and added more details to the other section.

Generally when it comes to a Google local ranking algorithm update, you need to wait a week or so to see the chatter from the local SEO community. I am not seeing that chatter yet but BrightLocal’s tracking tool is lighting up over the past two days, …

Google wrote about some of the efforts it takes towards preventing and removing “fake and fraudulent contributed content” on Google Maps. The numbers of how much Google has removed from the Google Maps ecosystem is pretty amazing.

Google is is showing a browse by filter that lets you filter down your restaurant selections by type. It is similar to the browse by photos we have seen before but this shows browse by takeout, delivery, Chinese, pizza and other categories.

Google is rolling out to some businesses the ability to respond to Google My Business messaging through your desktop browser. Previously you were only able to manage it from your mobile phone and before that, through SMS.

Google may be testing showing the “find results on” other search providers in the US. This is a feature Google launched in the European Union after the anti-competitive legislation and issues they had their. But now, I am seeing reports of this in the…

For the past few months or so, Google seems to have been auto populating the services section of your Google My Business listing. It is believed that Google is pulling the services based on the content of your web site.

Google is now labeling some businesses that are in coworking office spaces with that label in the local pack search results. I am not 100% if this is new, but Sarah Blocksidge spotted it and posted a screen shot of this in action.

Google is changing the local pack in the web search results to remove some of the addresses of those business listings. This is only for some businesses, I believe, and for the local pack. When you click through, you do get the address.

Google is now showing actual stars in the reviews section of the local knowledge panel reviews area. Tom Waddington showed a screen shot of this on Twitter and I can replicate it for some businesses.

Google has added one line to its Google My Business guidelines around co-working spaces. In short, if your business is out of a co-working space it must have signage, accept customers and be staffed to be eligible to have a Google My Business listing w…

Amy Toman spotted a new feature in Google Local and Google My Business. The feature seems to allow you to send additional feedback to Google when a suggested edit you make to a Google business listing is not accepted (i.e. not applied) for some reason….

Normally when you do a search for hotels in a specific location, Google will show you a hotel search box with pricing pins in a blue background color. Google is testing variations of the colors for those pins both in red and white background colors, a…

There are a number of reports in the Local Search Forum that businesses are seeing their logos disappear from their Google local listings in search. I currently see mine so maybe it was a temporary glitch and it is now fixed.