Send us a Text Message. Is Google Finally fixing LSA reviews? In a significant update for advertisers and businesses in the UK, Google has announced changes to its Local Services Ads (LSA) review system. Effective July 7, the existing LSA customer review URLs will expire and be replaced with URLs from Google Business Profiles (GBP), centralizing re…

Send us a Text Message. We're taking the week off, but here's an episode (#126) from the "vault" that we think you'll enjoy! Do Google searchers enter the Local Finder? Local SEOs wonder whether searchers actually enter the Local Finder from the Pack results. We often think no but our research indicates that not only do searchers enter the Local Fi…

Send us a Text Message. Dana DiTomaso brings her practical insights to the often murky waters of Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Dana, who wears multiple hats as the president and co-founder of KickPoint, shares candid thoughts on the challenges of demystifying GA4. She discusses the shortcomings of GA4, emphasizing its strong data collection capabilitie…

Send us a Text Message. Ad market dominated by a few players: The Internet Advertising Bureau released their annual report for 2024. Digital advertising reached a record-high of $225 billion, with the biggest share going to search ($88.8 billion) & display ($66.1 billion). The bulk of this income is distributed across the top 10 advertising platfor…

Send us a Text Message. Reviews are Like Death & Taxes & Should be Treated that Way: Miriam Ellis wrote a great article at Moz providing small business owners tips on how to overcome their fear of reviews. But they really need to go further. Given that reviews, like death and taxes, are not going anywhere businesses need to not only remove their fe…

Send us a Text Message. The need to move SMBs from Tactics to Strategy & how fractional CMO’s can do that: John Jantsch is a seasoned consultant, speaker, and bestselling author, notably recognized for his Duct Tape Marketing brand. He shares his journey of owning an agency for 30 years, highlighting his affinity for small to midsize businesses and…

Send us a Text Message. In this special edition, Mike and David discuss their visit to Brussels to attend Google’s report on their compliance with the European Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA, targeting large tech entities including Google, aims to regulate their status as gatekeepers to the internet. This session, specifically addressing Google…

Send us a Text Message. What on-page factors are associated with sites that see big gains or declines after Google updates? Cyrus Shepard explains his recent research looking at correlations between a range of on page factors that might affect Google’s perception of your site and analyzes which factors were associated with increases or decreases in…

Send us a Text Message. Google’s March Core Update & FUD: David Mihm sheds light on Google's March core update, marking it as an unusually impactful monthly adjustment from the tech giant. The update has sparked extensive conversation among SEO experts. He highlighted three key focus areas of the update: scaled content, largely driven by AI technol…

Send us a Text Message. Consumer Research Highlights Limited Impact of DMA Mandated Google's SERP Changes: Near Media unveiled findings from their latest research on the restaurant vertical in Ireland, investigating the effects of Google's Search Engine Results Page (SERP) changes in light of the Digital Markets Act. The study aimed to ascertain wh…

Send us a Text Message. Long tail searcher behaviors: 10% of Discovery searches involve a brand search on Google: In our most recent multi-location consumer Google search behavior research analyzing restaurant searches we saw roughly 10% of all searchers use the scrolling map for location precision and we saw an equal number of searchers do a local…

Send us a Text Message. Google adds Reddit to product searches and spammers follow: We discuss a new study by Glenn Alsop that examines the prevalence of discussion and forum search features This module is a tacit admission on Google's part that its algorithm can no longer actually surface good organic content. LikeThe study, which analyzed 10,000 …

Send us a Text Message. Will AI Improve SMB Websites? Consumers overwhelmingly prefer AI-generated content over human-created content across various formats, signaling a potential shift in online content creation. Businesses and agencies are adopting AI for content creation, citing effectiveness and cost reduction. However, concerns about the loss …

Send us a Text Message. What 10 years of changes to the SERPS mean for marketers today: We discuss Andy Crestodina’s most recent article where he looks at 10+ years of changes to google search results and what they mean. He highlights the evolving dynamics of search engine optimization (SEO) and the importance of diversifying marketing strategies b…

Send us a Text Message. Will Fired Google Raters Be Replaced with AI? Last week Google terminated their relationship with one of the companies responsible for rating the quality of websites. Certainly Google has been on a cost cutting rampage of late with layoffs and product cancellations. But is the ending of one of their relationships with one of…

Send us a Text Message. SGE has huge impacts but is still just a testing ground: Some industries, like healthcare, are impacted by Google’s SGE (search generative experience) than others with 76% of queries analyzed being impacted by SGE. While other industries show lesser impact, it is still significant. But SGE is still just a test and one that i…

Send us a Text Message. How the Google Guarantee Scam Impacts Honest Businesses? The Google Guarantee Scam is frequently perpetrated by groups of foreign nationals working in relative anonymity and looking for a quick profit. While some blame goes to these actors, the ultimate fault and responsibility lies with Google. Honest businesses have been n…

Send us a Text Message. Join us in this eye-opening discussion with Zachary Dotson, an experienced marketer in the home services industry, as he sheds light on a rampant scam in Google Local Service Ads. Learn how fake companies are exploiting the system with stolen licenses and profiles, bait-and-switch pricing tactics, and the impact on legitimat…

Send us a Text Message. What Should Businesses Do About Google SGE? Google has not yet announced any concrete plans for the future of Search Generative Experience (SGE), and it is unclear how it will evolve in the coming years. SGE is still in its early, very crude stages and it is not yet known how it will impact search traffic. Many SEOS reacted …

Send us a Text Message. The Google Review Fraud Landscape in Maps & LSA and How a Business Should Respond: Google Review Fraud Landscape (10:17): Estimates that 18% of reviews across various platforms are fake. Home service industries, such as locksmiths, moving companies, and HVAC, are heavily affected. Legal sector is also impacted, with fake rev…

Send us a Text Message. Will Google's Reactive Behavior to Search Quality & AI Solve Their Problems? Google is struggling to adapt to the changing market dynamics, including the rise of AI, TikTok, and criticism of declining search result quality. Google's efforts to retain younger users by modifying its search results to include more engaging cont…

Send us a Text Message. Can Gemini Fix Search? Google’s current interface and attempts at query refinement are largely broken. Google’s new Gemini upgrade to SGE appears to offer advanced search query refinement capabilities and individualized user interfaces that could resolve both of those issues. The potential or customized and visually diverse …

Send us a Text Message. In this extended episode of the Near Memo, Greg Sterling , Joy Hawkins, Darren Shaw & Mike Blumenthal explore the role of generative AI and how it has evolved one year after CHat GPT was released. We cover: Experiences and opinions on the use of AI tools like ChatGPT in SEO and content creation. The effectiveness of AI in di…

Send us a Text Message. Google’s Newest Search Features: “Whipped cream on S.H. I. .T”.? While Google's new features aim to enhance user interaction and personalize the search experience, they may not address broader user concerns about search result quality and privacy. And in fact may, as David points out, might just be whipped cream on a not ver…

Send us a Text Message. Google Maps from useful to bloat? Google Maps continues to add new features and functionality and as it has become a primary search engine for Google and its forward facing brand it has included so much functionality that it suffers from extreme bloat. The new immersive directions exemplifies the problem. but Maps is a deep …

Send us a Text Message. “Running a startup is like being in a knife fight,” BeanBox Co-Founder and CEO Matthew Berk unexpectedly says, as he describes the arduous but rewarding journey from the world of SaaS to making a real-world consumer product. From Local Search to the Speciality Coffee Business: Matthew Berk’s personal and professional path to…

Send us a Text Message. GBP Call History’s History - What does it say about Google? Google Business Profile Call History has been problematic from the start because it made the business of calling a business more like roulette. When it disappeared after months of barely functioning every thought it had been nuked. But it's back. Its chaotic develop…

Send us a Text Message. Bulk Dashboard Comeback?, GBP listing cleanup, Alternatives to Google search Segment 1 Title (100 chars): Will GBP rescue the multi-location Business Profile Manager dashboard from the trash bin? Google recently added a new functionality to the Business Profile Manager dashboard: they upgraded the bulk Insights download to m…

Send us a Text Message. “Clicks Are Not a ranking signal” except that they are: If we have learned anything over the years with Google it is that you need to take with a huge grain of salt. While they might not lie, they have such narrow definitions and unstated assumptions that you really don’t know what they mean. Recent evidence in the antitrust…

Send us a Text Message. What Is Content?: Purna Virji and I discuss what motivated her to write the book, how she defines “content” and why she took a very expansive approach to content strategy and marketing. She also discusses the foundation of great content and what digital marketers can learn from traditional marketing. Creating ‘High Impact’ C…

Send us a Text Message. The big picture of review fraud - who does it and why: We explore the full range of review fraud from fake positive reviews, black hat negative reviews and review extortion with Curtis Boyd of the Transparency Company. How widespread is it, is it growing, which categories are most likely to participate in it and why. How to …

Send us a Text Message. Upcoming Google Anit-trust case unlikely to change much of anything: Google’s antitrust case is starting next week. Google filed for a summary judgment and some of the issues were decided in their favor. Only two remain; The payment to Apple as the default iPhone search engine and whether Google uses Search Ads 360 to thwart…

Send us a Text Message. Local SEOs wonder whether searchers actually enter the Local Finder from the Pack results. We often think no but our research indicates that not only do searchers enter the Local Finder on a regular basis, they also scroll deep and often pick a business not in the top three. Local link building is hard but NearMedia research…

Send us a Text Message. How SMBs buy services: Despite what we may think, neither word of mouth nor social are how small and very small businesses buy payment solutions. Search was where it was at. This survey likely can be extrapolated to any SAAS product or service. While it takes longer and is harder to gain search traffic, search and SEO ultima…

Send us a Text Message. Google Ambassadors (ie Gig Workers) now staffing GBP support poorly: Google Business Profile support has added a new layer of first level support using what they call Google Ambassadors. These are “passionate brand advocates” working as gig workers. While it provides a comforting, warm body to the chat support experience, it…

Send us a Text Message. Google VS Chat GPT Taste Test: In blind testing, users appear to prefer ChatGPT search results over Google by almost 2:1. Those are the findings of the test's creator, ClickPop, which requires some caveats. Nonetheless, the outcome suggests the Google brand and familiar UI may be a bigger factor in Google's dominant search p…

Send us a Text Message. New Local ad format, Updated GBP Guideline clarifies policies, Google SGE shows reference links: New Local Ad format is a local ad as local ads should be Google seems to have rolled out a new ad unit that relies on local assets like GBP photos for the the creatives. The ads include a map, review ratings and an image are very…

Send us a Text Message. Google continues to lose product search market share: A recent quarterly survey from Jungle Scout indicates that Google and to a lesser extent Amazon are both losing product search market share. Google has lost almost a 7% share on a year over year basis despite massive investments in Product search related tech. Social medi…

Send us a Text Message. Apple Maps & Local Opportunities: Apple Maps is ACTUALLY used for local discovery and it appears to be sending more traffic than either Yelp or Bing. According to Apple insights at least 28% of clicks came from category searches. While Apple Maps generates ~5% of the web visits and perhaps 10% of the phone calls of GBP, that…

Send us a Text Message. The enshittification of Google Analytics: Google analytics, with their forcing of GA4 on an audience that doesn’t need, understand or want the complexity, has created an opportunity for the market to deliver simple, easy to implement and understandable analytics. Will this fall to a third party or will it surface organically…

Send us a Text Message. Tiktok IS about Local but not the way you think While the Wall Street Journal thinksTikTok holds companies hostage and a small business in Philadelphia thinks it is unfair to get so many fake reviews, there is no denying that Tiktok has scale. While it hasn't really provided any real local discovery options, any given video …

Send us a Text Message. Does the world need another mapping project and an open source one at that? Meta, Amazon web Services, Tom Tom & Microsoft think so and teamed up to create the Overture Maps Foundation, with Marc Prioleau at the helm. The Overture Maps Foundation is a new organization within the open source Linux Foundation. It aims to impro…

Send us a Text Message. Google LSA reviews come, they go but LSA still sucks: Last week we saw seismic activity in the disappearance of Google Local Service Ads (LSA) reviews and there was hope, however faint, that they were fixing their fake review problem. But like with so much around Google local efforts, that was not the case. Fake reviews in L…

Send us a Text Message. When should you ask for reviews? Common wisdom in the world of reputation management is that you ask for reviews immediately following a client transaction. Research from the University of Nevada seems to indicate otherwise. But like many things in marketing, it depends. It depends on your demographic, your product or servic…

Send us a Text Message. Segment 1: Activist investor suggests Yelp sale Eric Semler of TCS Capital Management criticizes Yelp for not delivering enough value to its stockholders. He suggests that Yelp should sell itself to Angi, citing Yelp's strong services business and potential for synergy in a merger. While Yelp has found some success in its se…

Send us a Text Message. GBP Image Not Approved, a bug or feature & how to tell: Google Business Profile image upload has long exhibited a bug that prevents images from being published. The problem is that Google uses the exact same messaging for many conditions that lead to Google not publishing the image. How does a business know if they have brok…

Send us a Text Message. Google I/O - How to make the interesting seem mundane: We discuss the highlights of Google I/O, focusing on search and local search. While the hardware announcements, such as the foldable phone and affordable Pixel, were interesting, the overall event lacked excitement and vitality. The emphasis on AI felt overplayed, and so…

Send us a Text Message. The integration of AI into the SAAS world has unleashed unprecedented innovation and transformation. Darby Sieben discusses how Unbounce started using AI to improve their core products and to build additional products to help businesses achieve higher conversions. Companies that effectively harness AI capabilities can expect…

Send us a Text Message. Understanding and managing the ever expanding Google Local Knowledge Panel: Google's Knowledge Panel and Business Profile are essential components of a local digital marketing strategy. The Knowledge Panel is a rich search result that appears in response to a user's query and provides relevant information about the queried e…

Send us a Text Message. Will AI totally destroy the review economy? What will replace reviews? The appearance of AI-generated reviews on Amazon has significant implications for the future of reviews and will aid in increasing the scale of an already serious problem. While Google has attempted to combat this somewhat with critic reviews, the decimat…