Every week we bring you a brief 15 minute video and the links of the best articles in Local Search. OK. It’s not always 15 minutes but we are never off by more than 10 minutes or so.
Last Week in Local is now available as a podcast. Sign up here for your regular Local Fix. What better way to spend your drive time? Interested in sponsoring Last Week in Local? Get in touch with us!
Google My Business Updates the Guidelines for Practitioners – Local Search Forum
Source: www.localsearchforum.com
Mary: We’ve always been confused as to what constitutes a legit “practitioner” at Google My Buisness in Google’s eyes. And I still find it vague and open to interpretation after this update to the GMB guidelines.
Bike Shop SEO’s Q + A Tool Walkthough
Source: www.youtube.com
Mary: @NoahLearner is working on a new Google My Business APi Powered Q + A Manager to add to his suite of tools.
See How Clever Call Tracking Helped This Agency Get 219% More Leads for Their Client
Source: unbounce.com
Mary: Phone calls count for local businesses! Here’s a case study explaining how to track calls like clicks using dynamic numbers on landing pages.
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Making Review Rich Results more helpful
Source: webmasters.googleblog.com
Carrie: I don’t even know what to think about this because it’s confusing and nobody really knows what the heck they’re talking about.
Business owners are no longer eligible for stars in the SERPs for their own domains? Or not eligible if they use LocalBusiness or Organization schema markup, but product markup will result in stars? It’s all very confusing.
Deep Dive: Answering Q&A Online with Brandon Schmidt – Local University
Source: localu.org
Carrie: I sit down with Brandon Smith of YDOP and talk all things Q&A – lots of tips for repurposing question & answer content in multiple ways – both on and off site.
Who Keeps Updating My Google My Business Listing? – Sterling Sky Inc
Source: www.sterlingsky.ca
Carrie: Nikki Brown at SterlingSky has a great article that will help you troubleshoot when GMB data keeps changing. It might be unauthorized edits, but it could also be an app or another invited user.
When is a Review More Than a Review? – GatherUp
Source: gatherup.com
Carrie: Mike Blumenthal gives thoughts and tips for analyzing reviews and understanding that there are many benefits that go beyond a peer leaving feedback. I like the thought of sentiment analysis and will be playing with the tool in GatherUp for a few of my clients.
Google Maps beta solicits ratings for hired professionals like plumbers, movers, and contractors
Source: www.androidpolice.com
Carrie: Google Maps is soliciting ratings of businesses but actually visiting or using their services doesn’t seem to be required. That’s a hot mess. Available in the latest beta version of Google Maps, 10.25.1 for android as far as I can tell, as I can’t seem to recreate this on my iPhone.
BrightLocal launches ‘Local RankFlux’ Google local algorithm tracking tool – Search Engine Land
Source: searchengineland.com
Carrie: BrightLocal launched a new RankFlux tool during BrightonSEO in the UK and it’s getting rave reviews from LocalSEOs. Basically it’s like Moz’ “Weather forecast” tool, but for local results that you can review by category. You can also subscribe to get a report daily, weekly, monthly that shows you how much flux the Local algorithm has had.
Want to subscribe to our podcast? Now you can:Subscribe here.
Thanks for the shout out! I am looking for testers for the Q + A Add-on while it is still in beta. If you are interested in testing it out, send me a quick note to noah at bikeshopseo.com.