Last Updated on February 5, 2020
Join us for the latest in local search news for the week ending February 3, 2020! Video will be posted here and on our YouTube channel, The podcast is still available in your favorite apps, and the links to each story are below.
Mike’s Links
- SF restaurants asking to be removed from third party apps like Grubhub after false listings – SFGate.com
- Law Firm Website Content → The Ultimate Guide [2020] – Juris Digital
- How to Make a “Service Areas” Page That Hunts – LocalVisibilitySystem.com
- A LOT of GMB Suspensions Right Now – Support Bogged Down – Via Twitter
Mary:
- Brand Marketer’s Guide to GMB Bulk Verification – Krystal Taing of Rio Seo
- 3 Reasons Why You Should Ignore the Views Metric in Google My Business Insights – Sterlingsky.ca
- Webinar tomorrow at 11 Mountain – As a local bricks and mortar business, your brand SERP is your new Homepage – SEMRush.com & Greg Gifford, Claire Carlile & Andy Simpson
- Few CMOs Appreciate The Impact Of Google Search On Foot Traffic – Forbes
- With Jumpshot shuttered, where will SEOs get their ‘zero-click’ fix now? ~Greg Sterling
Carrie:
- Man Uses 99 Smartphones to Fool Google Maps and Create a Fake Traffic Jam: Video – Via Gadgets360
- Complaints of Indexing Issues via Google Search Console – SERoundtable.com
- Google’s Featured Snippet-Apocalypse, FAQ Schema, No Snippet & Max Snippets Tags – Claire Carlile
- Google weighs in on GMB Eligibility for SABs using Virtual Offices – ONLY If the business staffs the office during posted open hours – via Twitter
- LocalU Advanced GMB Masterclass in Atlanta March 25, 2020 – Prices go up Feb 18, and our hotel block with $40-50 off the regular price is running out of space – get your tickets ASAP!
Local SEO Analyst/Community Manager at Sterling Sky, Inc.
Carrie HIll is a Local Search Analyst with Sterling Sky, Inc., and community manager for LocalU.org.Her background in online marketing started 12 years ago in a small agency focused on the hospitality industry.
Since then Carrie has become an expert on technical SEO and website structure issues, as well as an industry speaker on Local Search, Google My Business, and the Semantic web.
Since then Carrie has become an expert on technical SEO and website structure issues, as well as an industry speaker on Local Search, Google My Business, and the Semantic web.
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Loyal listener. REALLY appreciate your aggregation of great resources! Would like to see someone authoritative out there write about “offices” or “stores” in a similar manner To what Phil Rozek wrote about. Tried to comment on his blog, but couldn’t.
Specifically, how to make GMB location and company website offices pages compliment one another. Particularly, one question I have is… in GMB, I read a while back that a company should only use its root URL on each individual page. In fact, I thought that was specified in their GMB guidelines. Although recent searches did not precisely address it. Then recently read a large reputable agency (DAC) blog post that indicated each page should use the specific URL to that office. It reads… “ Many businesses are unaware that their GMB profiles should point to a specific store page, not their homepage.”
These are the types of things it is tough to find good guidance on. Do you have any? It would be great if you guys did a “mailbag” type segment sometimes.
Hey Thomas,
I like the idea of doing a “from the mailbag” Deep Dive sporadically. I’ll talk to Mike, Mary, and Joy about it!
In the meantime – this is actually a pretty good question for LocalSearchForums.com. Its a free forum and at least 5 Gold/Platinum GMB Product Experts regularly contribute.
I THINK what they’ll tell you is that “it depends” and to test conversions and rankings both linking to store pages, and linking to category pages, and linking to homepage. Usability wise -the individual store page is better – but if you’re trying to balance that with ranking lifts – it’s worth testing.
Thanks for the great feedback and question!
Carrie
Carrie / Mike / Mary – Thank you so much for addressing my question! I really appreciate your thoughtful and insightful answer. Keep up the GREAT work, and thank you for the valuable service you are providing.
The 99 smartphones that tricked Google maps is crazy!