Category: Google Maps

If you do a search for [top soil] where I am and in some other locations, Google will show you a local pack but the local pack will be filtered to only show results with 4.0+ ratings or higher. If I do another search, like [barber shop] I do not get …

We saw this coming and now Google officially released a new sign up process for service area businesses, businesses that don’t operate out of a specific location(s). Google now lets them specify the locations they service, instead of being stuck witho…

Google has reportedly resolved the issue where anyone can change the open date of a business listing in the local Google results and ultimately hurt that business from ranking in the Google local results. Jason Brown via Nate Somsen noticed Google fix…

In November, Google began supporting the option to specify when the business opens in the future. So if you are a new business and you want people to find you in Google local before you open, you can set a future open date for your business. But some …

Kara from the Google My Business team confirmed Google is working on a fix for the delays in getting review data from the Google My Business API, specifically webhooks. Kara said “Our teams are working on the issue but they don’t have an estimate for w…

I am not sure what this is about but one local SEO is being asked to verify their business by clicking verify now or reconfirm location. I am not sure what the difference is and neither are any of the local SEOs in the Local Search Forums.

Google is testing a feature in the local listings, the local pack, that shows how closely the listings match you. It is a feature Google announced but did not launch back in May 2018 called “your match.” Through machine learning Google shows “a number…

Earlier this week we reported how one Google My Business listing added unicode like text to their business name listing and it shows up all funky and cool in the local panel. Well, now it is gone – it no longer shows up as unicode. I guess Google did…

I cannot replicate this, but I suspect certain level Google Local Guides are being asked to upload specific photos to local businesses they are viewing. Here is a screen shot from Carrie Hill where she is being asked to upload a photo of food to this …

Joy Hawkins who follows the local SEO beat really closely spotted a new interface treatment that really calls out the messaging functionality within the Google local panels. The new button to message a local business, when available, is massive compare…

Andy Simpson spotted a local panel that was using unicode to make the business name stand out from the rest. Andy was doing a normal search for a barber shop and this listing came up in Google’s local results, which caught his eye.

A few months ago, Google stopped showing Google Posts in the top location, somewhat above the fold, in the local panel for a business. That seemed to have led to Google Posts performance drastically dropping off. Now, Google may be testing moving the …

Kara from Google said in the Google My Business Help thread that they have done a user interface refresh of the relatively new Product Editor interface. This can be found on some Google My Business consoles under the Product beta link.

A group of local SEO experts are saying in the Local Search Forums that the Google Posts traffic has significantly declined over the past month or so. This specifically happened when Google moved the Google Posts to the bottom of the knowledge panel a…

A month ago, Google began testing putting the hotel highlight details in an overlay window instead of a normal web page window. Well, today Google is rolling out that change.

Google announced they are expanding the “For You tab” in the Google search app to iOS devices and over 130 countries. Specifically adding For You to over 40 countries on iOS and 130+ new countries on Android. I am not sure why iOS has fewer than Andr…

Google has renamed the communication manager to site manager in Google My Business. With that site managers can create posts to promote events, share news, and more, update business hours, address, and phone number and manage information about amenitie…

Google is testing a new design for how they display images in a Google local or Google My Business listing in search. The new design shows a carousel of image categories at the top letting searchers filter by inside, by owner, videos, inside and other…

It looks like Google is testing a like button, thumbs up button, on some Google Posts within search and maps. Brodie Clark shared a screen shot of this in action on Twitter. You can see the thumbs up icon at the bottom right corner of the post.
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Google seems to have launched a new feature in the local pack named “sold here.” It shows, based on your query, if that product is sold in the store, directly in the local pack. This roll out was spotted by Sergey Alakov but was seen also in early Nov…