Newsletter #53

Local Businesses: Say Goodbye to Review Snippets in Google

Whitespark's Monthly Local Search Newsletter

Local InsiderSeptember 2019

Local Businesses: Say Goodbye to Review Snippets in GoogleOn September 16th Google announced that they are going to be “making review rich results more helpful” and ultimately more meaningful by changing how they display review rich results.Example of rich snippet results with review schema:

“Self-serving reviews aren’t allowed for LocalBusiness and Organization Reviews that can be perceived as “self-serving” aren’t in the best interest of users. We call reviews “self-serving” when a review about entity A is placed on the website of entity A – either directly in their markup or via an embedded 3rd party widget. That’s why, with this change, we’re not going to display review rich results anymore for the schema types LocalBusiness and Organization (and their sub-types) in cases when the entity being reviewed controls the reviews themselves.”What does this mean? Google will no longer show review stars in search results for testimonials (1st-party reviews) displayed on a business website or 3rd-party reviews embedded using a widget or code. Review stars shown in search going forward will only be informed by 3rd-party review sites (Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, etc).In this article we discuss how this change impacts your current review strategy, what this means for using reviews on your site, and what to do going forward (note - everything is a-okay).

Cheers,Team Whitespark

From The Blog

A Beginner’s Guide to Technical SEO For Local Businesses - Part 3

In case you missed the final installment of the technical SEO guide for beginners from Dani Owens, it covers how-to:

Improve your site’s speed
Optimize your images
Ensure search engines can crawl and index your site
Setup an SSL certificate
Create an XML sitemap and submit it to Google
Find and fix all broken links and make sure there aren’t a billion internal redirects

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.

Around The Web

Who Keeps Updating My Google My Business Listing?

Has your GMB listing mysteriously been updated? Maybe your hours were updated, you have a different primary category, or a new phone number? Nikki Brown shares what's causing these changes to your listing without your consent, and how to arm yourself as a business owner.

6 Ways to Answer Frequently Asked Questions Online

Answering FAQ's online through GMB and your website can lead to better customer experience, set you apart from the competition, create a well-informed customer, ease the burden on customer support staff, and potentially increase clicks from search results. Brandon Schmidt of YDOP shares 6 ways your business can succeed at answering frequently asked questions online. If you haven't already implemented an FAQ strategy, bookmark this article!Bonus: If you're looking for a tool to help you mange your Google Q&A, check out this free chrome extension from Noah Learner!

Changes to Google My Business Messaging

GMB Messaging is confirmed to move from SMS to the GMB app on November 15. If you have this set up via SMS (original set up at launch), download the app to keep up with customer inquiries! If you're an agency and have permission to answer and engage with customers on behalf of your client, you can download and login to the GMB App using your agency account to respond. Be aware that the Google user account name your agency account uses will show up as the individual responding. For example, if your agency email is [email protected] and you have it set as ABC Inc., your responses to customers/prospects will appear as sent from ABC Inc. in Messages instead of your client's actual business name.

Are Co-working Spaces Against the Google My Business Guidelines?

Joy Hawkins shares her thoughts on whether co-working spaces are eligible for GMB listings: it depends. There have been some discussions regarding co-working spaces on Twitter and there's some confusion. Using a co-working space on your GMB listing is not against the guidelines as long as your business is always there during the stated hours, and Google doesn't care about suite numbers. You can encounter some issues and problems when you do use a co-working space, being aware of that is half the battle.

New Tool - Check Your GMB Listing's Verification Status

The team at GMB has launched a new tool that allows business owners to check on the status of their verification for GMB. *Note: If you have more 10 or more business listings in your dashboard, the tool will not work for you.