If you are a local business that provides home services in the United States, you should be bracing yourself for what will happen when Home Service Ads roll out in your industry and market. The changes are vast and make a huge difference in who ranks in the local results on Google. When they first […]
Are Home Service Ads the death of home-based businesses on Google? Read More »
If you wanted to boil down marketers’ fears in the digital economy to one single idea, you might argue it would be loss of control. How your brand is being presented and talked about across all the various sites, channels and platforms out there can sometimes feel entirely out of your hands. There’s always that
Google is making strides with Google My Business Read More »
I recently reported on an algorithm update impacting the local results that happened on August 22, 2017. This was a strictly-local update, from what I can tell so far, which means that it had no impact on the non-local organic results. What changed? The update, which I have dubbed “Hawk,” was a change to the
The day the ‘Hawk’ Google local algorithm update swooped in Read More »
In mid-August, Google rolled out a new feature on the Google Maps app for Android called Questions & Answers. This feature is currently also available on mobile browsers. Here are some aspects of this new feature that business owners and marketers may need to be aware of. 1. If you don’t see the feature, you
6 things you need to know about Google’s Q&A feature on Google Maps Read More »
Summer 2016 seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? Barack Obama was president, the Chicago Cubs were carrying on their 108-year losing streak and swimmer Ryan Lochte was busy fabricating a story about getting robbed at gunpoint while representing the US at the Rio Olympic Games. One of the biggest digital stories to come out of last
Where are we now, and what does it mean for marketers? Read More »
If you’re a business which has brick-and-mortar store locations, you may know that having a local search strategy is crucial to your business. Most business owners are aware that building a local search presence requires having profiles on Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Places, Yellow Pages, etc., so that you may show up for local
An important part of local search strategy Read More »
Recently, someone emailed me some information about a private Facebook group run by an SEO company in Austin, Texas, that is encouraging businesses to “swap reviews” on Google. In the post, the SEO company owner said: “It’s that time again – Let’s swap Google reviews! I have a REAL level 5 Local Guides account with
What are the risks for businesses that are getting fake reviews on Google? Read More »
If you own SEO at a multi-location brand (or an agency that works with them), it can be hard to sleep at night. Once upon a time, we were approached by a multi-location retailer about a Google My Business (GMB) problem. Apparently, at some point, Google updated the phone number on a decent percentage of
If your GMB page updates & no one knows, does it make a sound? Read More »
As a digital marketer, you have to stay on your toes. It sometimes feels like new market disruptions have become an annual rite of passage. What were once generational, seismic changes are now just the normal order of business. The latest development in a long line of digital commerce revolutions is the emergence of on-demand
How local businesses can turn the threat of on-demand deliveries to their own advantage Read More »
Is there any business that Amazon can’t disrupt? In recent weeks, I’ve seen Amazon entering businesses ranging from home furnishings to banana distribution to grocery stores. The company that arguably introduced the on-demand economy continues to spread its influence across multiple industries: fashion, entertainment, home automation… you name it, Amazon is there. Furthermore, Amazon has
Three ways local businesses can survive the on-demand threat Read More »
