Newsletter #52

Google SERP Testing Ramping Up + Technical SEO Guide For Local Businesses

August 29, 2019

Whitespark's Monthly Local Search Newsletter

Local InsiderAugust 2019

Testing, testing, 1,2,3. We hear you loud and clear Google... Changes are a coming.Google often tests variations of organic and local search engine result page (SERP) layouts, but as of late they seem to have ramped up their testing. It's easy to see how some of these SERP layouts, if fully rolled out, could really shake up how people search and find your business. Mike Blumenthal noticed testing of the "Scroll Pack" back in May and shared his thoughts on Why Brands Should Be Worried About the Local Scroll Pack. "A simple recovery search becomes a discovery search allowing consumers to explore outside of their normal habits. Google is actively highlighting related searches that might entice the brand searcher otherwise entrenched in their comfort zone. Similar businesses that might serve what your favorite brand does but cheaper, better or with fuller service [or who pay to get placement] are now readily highlighted front and center in the Branded Scroll Pack result." As Barry Schwartz pointed out, "In this new design Google is not showing as many local results by default." Sergey Alakov has been monitoring local search results for a few months and noticed that Google continues testing two variations of the feature - “similar to” and “explore” local carousels. He keenly observed that "the Explore feature is only triggered when user’s behavior suggests that they are still in consideration stage and have already searched for 3-5 similar businesses."

Paid ad placements got even more interesting when Ben Fisher spotted a competitor's ad in a GMB Business Profile on a branded search.It's likely that many of these tests will remain just that, but if we've learned anything from Google, it's that changes are inevitable. As a local search consultant, in-house SEO, or business owner, your best line of defence at this point in time is to ensure you're taking advantage of and managing the features that impact your branded search results, like:

Having a fully optimized GMB Business Profile.
Utilizing Google Posts, Questions & Answers, Services & Products.
Increasing your reviews on Google and across third-party sites, and implementing a review response strategy.
Adding photos and videos regularly.
Outside of your GMB listing, you can create branded Google Ads campaigns, ensure your title tags, page headers, and meta descriptions are well written, enhance your website content, get testimonials on your site and mark them up using structured data, and earn links to help enhance both your local and organic ranking results.

Cheers,Team Whitespark

From The Blog

A Beginner’s Guide to Technical SEO For Local Businesses – Part 1 & Part 2

If you're a DIY local business owner or new SEO consultant, implementing a technical SEO strategy is sometimes the last item on your digital marketing to do list.But technical SEO problems can have a serious effect on your site’s performance and rankings on search engines. Think of the technical aspects of your website as an engine. If an engine is not maintained or doesn't have all its parts working properly, the engine will perform poorly or even break down completely.

If onsite optimization is new to you, we've got a solution to all your technical SEO woes with a three-part series from Dani Owens of PigZilla. This series tackles beginner technical SEO items you can't ignore with instructions, screenshots and how-to's to keep you on track!

Gain Insights Into Your Reviews With IBM Watson

We’ve just launched the Insights Report Beta edition in the Reputation Builder! This report is powered by IBM Watson and uses artificial intelligence to analyze reviews automatically, discover keywords in the content and display insights into your customers experiences. Learn more about the latest Reputation Builder features and updates.

Around The Web

What Happened When I Removed My Google My Business Listing

"For certain businesses or even websites that have “national” customers and not any “local” customers, it doesn’t make any sense to have a GMB listing." Bill Hartzer decided to remove his GMB listing, and it ended up having a positive impact. Check out his article to learn more about his experiment, why he ultimately chose to remove the listing, and potential biases that exist in local search.

How Online Reviews Impact Small Business Revenue

Womply's data science team recently researched the correlation between reviews and revenues for small businesses by performing an in-depth analysis of transactions and online review data for over 200,000 U.S. SMB's in every state, across dozens of verticals. The key-findings are very interesting, and you can drill-down to industry specific results/analysis.

Google’s Inconsistency With Third-Party Reviews Is A Confusing User Experience

Joy Hawkins explores Google's lack of enforcement of their own schema guidelines for third-party review sites with the "Reviews from the web" that appear on GMB profiles. Not only is it a confusing user experience, but the rating calculations often don't make sense and many of the featured third-party review sites scrape their reviews directly from the GMB profile.

Yelp Adds ‘Powered by Grubhub’ On Controversial Referral Numbers

In response to the Vice article "Yelp is Screwing Over Restaurants By Quietly Replacing Their Phone Numbers", Nancy Luna reports on how Yelp has now updated its app to show customers ordering delivery or takeout that the phone numbers listed are Powered by Grubhub.