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In this study, GatherUp decided to look at ~38,000 reviews across 9 different business types with 3,641 locations written during the past 90 days to find out how common mask* complaints were and to explore the relationship of Coronavirus practices to reputation in general.

Just this week, we noticed Google surfacing the partner links within the GMB dashboard. Previously, you could only see these when looking at your listing on search or maps. Now, when you view your listing in the GMB dashboard, Google will include any links you've loaded as well as a count of the number of partner links per section.?

Google My Business has added the ability to add extra appointment links to the GMB knowledge panel.

Last Week in Local is a look back at the interesting and important articles from the previous week. It is 20-30 minutes long and covers critical industry trends, interesting local news, and tactical insights for anyone interested in Local Search. ???

This article was updated on October 6, 2020 to reflect the new changes Google made to their guidelines about this topic. Service area businesses are allowed multiple listings given certain criteria.

Google has changed the maximum file size for the videos you can upload to your Google My Business profile from 100 MB in size down to 75 MB in size.

When optimizing your listing, choosing the correct GMB Primary Category can have a profound effect on what features are available to the listing. Choose and proceed with care.

Have you received any reviews like this? "I was denied service because I wouldn't wear their socialist mask.?I will never ever shop at Menards ever again." Mike details out how you can get reviews like this one removed from Google.

As of June 15, there were nearly 140,000 total business closures on Yelp since March 1. In April they reported more than 175,000 business closures, indicating that more than 20% of businesses closed in April have reopened. Las Vegas, NV, endured the highest number of closures relative to the number of businesses in the city (1,921 total closures), while Los Angeles, CA, had the largest total number of closures (11,774 total closures).

A brand new help center document appeared that outlines the procedure for anyone to report a user profile if that user is "contributing false information, uploading offensive content, or taking other abusive actions that violate Google Maps user-contributed policy " This is another way that marketers can report spam.

Nicolai Helling reported over on twitter that when hours are updated in GMB, a post is automatically created in the GMB dashboard. Seeing auto-posts for updated hours for the first time today. This is the second auto-post feature after newly uploaded images went unasked in there in Dec 2019.

Among Google My Business (GMB) listings, which surface in the Maps and local searches, the top 20 results on June 3, 2020 for the keywords "alcohol detox," according to our source, included eight real businesses and 12 fake ones. Among the top seven, the most likely for users to engage with, only two were real.

Ads are being spotted again on the Knowledge Panels of businesses in healthcare, retail, and leisure verticals.

In Local Search, there are two different places where you could look for the search volume various keywords are getting - Search Console and Google My Business (GMB) insights.?In this case study, 66% of the top 10 keyword lists for Search Console vs Google My Business insights were different.

We are excited to offer access to an entire 8 hour LocalU Advanced to those that weren't able to attend for the low price of just $125!

Google is now showing Google Guaranteed badges on Google Maps.?We've only been able to spot this label on businesses that are a part of the Google Guaranteed program with Local Services Ads.?

Last week, we were hearing and seeing a disturbing trend - review replies in Google My Business have been removed or missing for some reviews. As of yesterday, we''re seeing them all back now.

For the next several weeks we're going to try a different format!?We'll be featuring a speaker from our most recent LocalU Advanced event as a guest to talk about their presentation and the news of the week! This week Craig Mount of ClassyBrain.com and NerdyNuts.com joins us to talk about PR, Pitching, Peanut Butter and more!?

This was a very interesting test on the impact of adding emojis to the meta description!?The overall impact of this SEO split test was a 5% drop in organic traffic for the variant pages compared to their expected performance.?

Our team has come to the conclusion that there are only four things inside the Google My Business dashboard that a business owner or a marketing agency can edit that will have a direct influence on where they rank in the local results on Google.

Wondering if you should hide your address on an SAB listing? What about service area pages - do those still bring in traffic? Brian Barwig digs into some strategies for service area businesses that you should be aware of.

Google started testing a new paid feature that allows eligible businesses the ability to upgrade their GMB listing to include the Google Guaranteed badge for $50USD/Month. Tom gives answers to your questions about this new service.

We''re seeing a strong uptick in suspensions to GMB listings after the simplest of edits like adding a secondary category or changing a suite number.

This is a great case study from Mike and one of the biggest takeaways is his finding on NAP consistency: "NAP consistency is no longer critical for success. And while citations aren't what they used to be they might, if done judicially, provide some benefit".

We monitor any changes to the list of GMB categories Google currently has in the United States of America (USA) and update this table monthly with any categories that get added, have their names changed, or get removed

You can include a Google map of your business, location, and reviews on your website. The map will show a Google pin with a view of your business location, address, reviews, review stars, and directions. If embedded correctly, this map can be a great addition to your website.?

Since Tuesday (11/11/20), when a customer left a new Google review it was not being published. Users who left new reviews would see them in their profile but these reviews are not visible to the public or the business. Google indicates that they have identified the issue and that it should be resolved.

The tactics Brian covers here are more advanced and out of the box than the standard types you have already heard.?

Google has changed the cut-off length for Q&A on Google My Business.?Answers now get cut off after 440 characters.?

This article explains the 2 types of suspensions, how you know if you received a suspension, why listings get suspended, clarification on if suspensions impact ranking, how to avoid a suspension, and how to get your listing reinstated if you end up getting a suspension.

Google My Business has rolled out a new attribute that allows businesses to identify if they are Black-Owned. This makes it the third attribute highlighting ownership type in GMB; Women-Led and Veteran-Led were earlier releases.

• Colan Nielson of Sterling Sky spotted new categories that just became available in the US for Google Local Services Ads onboarding.?These new categories include Architect, Lawyer, Tax Specialist, and Videographer.

If you''re looking to attend a FREE virtual local search conference, this one by Whitespark has pretty much every local search speaker!

Wondering why your business doesn''t have a place label or icon on Google Maps? Stylistically, there isn''t room for every business to get one so how does Google decide who qualifies? This study looks at 12 different factors and which correlate with getting a place label on Google Maps.

We are proud to make the list of the top 5 most voted-for blogs in the Local SEO space.

Google seems to be testing a new ad unit, this one is in the Google Maps search feature. So as you type, Google Maps gives you autocomplete search predictions. Google is also showing ads now for those autocomplete suggestions.

Remember the days where you use to look at Google Maps to see how busy a place was before you went there? Oh you still do that, to make sure it is not busy at all because of the plaque? Well, it seems to be broken. Google wait times for restaurants and probably other local businesses are simply off.

Moz asked five local SEO experts to zero in on the trends and tactics businesses across five industries should focus on to get ahead - and stay ahead - during this time.

We compiled a list of tons of ranking fluctuations we were seeing with our clients and on the Local Search Forum and we sent this over to Google. They confirmed last week that the fluctuations were, in fact, the result of a bug.

Google is now showing top rated businesses on local finder for iPhone users. Google has four different ratings assigned to listings.

Last Week in Local is a look back at the interesting and important articles from the previous week. It is 20-30 minutes long and covers critical industry trends, interesting local news and tactical insights for anyone interested in Local Search.

Google is finally expanding their Business Messaging to support multi-location businesses. You can now integrate your customer service platform and streamline communication to create an optimal user experience.

• This study is packed with tons of great stats about click-through-rate, including:
• - The?average clickrate?for the?first position?in Google is?28.5%
• - Beyond position 1 the percentage falls quickly: In the?second position, the average clickrate is?15.7%?and the in the?third position,?11%

Last Week in Local is a look back at the interesting and important articles from the previous week. It is 20-30 minutes long and covers critical industry trends, interesting local news, and tactical insights for anyone interested in Local Search. ???

Joy is speaking at MozCon Virtual and the final agenda is here! Check out what your favorite speakers will be covering on stage and grab your ticket for 2020 (only $129). Joy''s presentation will be diving into common mistakes people make when coming up with a strategy in local search.

Bright Local recently released another addition to their suite of free tools called the Local Listings Health Scanner.

Google & Apple have released their COVID-19 mobility reports.?These reports?help?local businesses in retail, grocery, hotels, restaurants, ect. gauge how their community traffic is changing with the ever-evolving COVID-19 updates.

Prefer to get your news by listening/watching? Last Week in Local is a look back at the interesting and important articles from the previous week. It is 20-30 minutes long and covers critical industry trends, interesting local news, and tactical insights for anyone interested in Local Search.

This study by Whitespark looked at 15,503 GMB listings for auto dealers and found:

> 63% of have NEVER published a single Google post?

> 32% have not even been claimed

> 51% have Q&A questions that haven't been answered

Over the last twelve months, we have had around 38,000 people come to our website through a page that had some very prominent featured snippets.?Find out what we learned about featured snippets after months of people thinking we were Google My Business phone support.?

The new 3-Pack Carousel is showing for packs that are typically shopping related (jewelry, car dealers etc) but not for those packs that are service focused like lawyers or locksmiths.

On Monday Tom Waddington noticed a new attribute showing up on some knowledge panels for "Online Care" appearing in desktop local pack results.?The use case Monday was medical - but we're seeing the "Online Appointment" and "Online Estimates" attribute available and visible for a variety of business categories.

Prefer to get your news by listening/watching? Join us for the latest in local search news for the week ending June 22, 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 included.

If your site migrates to HTTPS, do all of the citations need to be changed to HTTPS as well, or is it okay to leave them as-is if the rest of the info is 100% accurate?

In this forum thread, agencies are discussing if they''re seeing ad credits from Google yet.

When I came up with the first template for our monthly SEO reports for Sterling Sky, I made a very firm decision that I didn't want to have rank tracking as a part of them.??But, we do use 4 different rank trackers here internally.....

Prefer to get your news by listening/watching? Join us for the latest in local search news for the week ending August 31, 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 included.

Does merging 2 listings help ranking??See what we found after merging a duplicate listing for a dentist in Florida.

We have updated this article on how to interpret GMB Insights many times and just added a ton of information based on things we''ve learned in the last 6 months.

If you missed our last event in June and want to get an entire day of education & training on local search, the videos are now available for purchase online.

Prefer to get your news by listening/watching? Join us for the latest in local search news for the week ending June 15, 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 included.

This survey data looks at how willing consumers are to write reviews for your business. Data from 2014 to 2020 shows the trends in reviews, requests and more.

PageRank is one of the oldest and yet least-understood aspects of SEO. In this article it explains the basic theory and how you can apply it.

This is part 1 in a series of posts that will dive into the questions, and answers, from the?2020 Local SEO Blackbelt Quiz.