Google Queries launched in Google My Business in July 2018 but was not open to everyone until the end of August. Now that this new functionality is completely rolled out knowing how it varies from data from the Search Console is the biggest problem we’ve run into.
Google My Company is a free resource that helps small businesses build and maintain their Google pages, which appear on Google Search and Maps when customers locate companies. It helps draw new clients and exchange knowledge about what makes them unique.
Google My Business (commonly referred to as GMB, and previously mentioned as Google Local and Google Places) is a business listing on Google, not unlike online business directory listings like Yelp. It is a central element of local SEO, as well. If you haven’t set up yours yet, you’ll find out how Google can put your company in here.
The main difference between Google My Business profiles and other directories is that your company listing on Google can be extremely comprehensive, and Google can deliver information from it to several very relevant places with high online visibility.
Google My Business listings provide everything you need to find and use your services, purchase your goods, or visit your company with a potential customer. Once you’ve registered or claimed your local listing on Google, you can respond to customer feedback, add photos, and much more to make your local search business stand out.
Simply put, if you don’t have a Google My Business profile, you’re practically unable to compete in local search, so Google My Business is one of the very first places you can start when you’re working for your company or a new client on local SEO.
If the name “Google Webmaster Tools” sounds like a bell for you, then you might already have an idea of what the Google Search Console is. Since Google Webmaster Tools have become a valuable resource for so many varied types of people aside from webmasters — SEOs, designers, marketing practitioners, business owners, as well as app developers, to name a few — Google agreed to change its name in May 2015 to be more inclusive of its diverse user community.
If you don’t know about GWT or the Google Search Console, let’s go back to square one. Google Search Console is a free tool that allows you to know a lot about your website and the people who use it. You can use it to find out stuff like how many people visit your site and how they find it if more people visit your website on a mobile device or desktop computer and which pages are the most common on your web. It will also help you identify and correct errors on the website, upload a sitemap and build and review a file called robots.txt.
Google Analytics is a compelling digital marketing device but has been severely underused by most businesses. It helps you to calculate in real-time the outcomes of individual campaigns, compare the data to previous times, and much more. Below are some of the reasons you would use Google Analytics to gauge your website’s success.
Google Analytics is a handy digital marketing tool but has been underused seriously by most businesses. It helps you to measure the results of individual campaigns in real-time as well as compare the data for any previous times. Below are some of the reasons you’d be using Google Analytics to determine the success of your website.
Google Analytics has a range of features that allow you to check how well your website and content connect with users. Such metrics track different facets of the consumer experience, showing how the consumer interacted.
This segment has become even more critical with the introduction of first rankings on the web. If you want them to be included in rankings for related search results, your website now needs to be mobile-friendly. Google Analytics helps you to track the platforms from which your visitors come, giving you an idea of how well your mobile site is performing relative to the desktop edition. If you receive a similar amount of visits from each platform, but fewer conversions on one platform, the user experience on that version of the site may be a concern.
There are three reasons we wanted to illustrate why your Google My Business Insights data could look different from what you see in the Search Console. Check Console reports on Google My Company traffic along with organic traffic (yes, it tracks both). By adding UTM codes to your Website field in Google My Company, you can separate this traffic. If you rank organically as well as in the local pack, Search Console will count it as two impressions for your account. When you are using UTM codes, you should break this down.
Here’s an example of what it looks like for a particular keyword client of ours. In this situation, the organic effect is more reliable as it doesn’t affect the position of the searcher. And for this keyword, clicks on the 3-pack are still higher even though almost a third of the impressions come from organic.
Check Console reports impressions and Google My Company data on single users. These two things are remarkably different.
Experience in the search console is registered when the website appears in a user’s search result, according to Google’s Help Center. It is significantly different from “special users” because one user could search multiple times for the same thing.
Additionally, it is essential to remember that without the website URL or a link to the website being displayed, your business can show results. Google My Company must comment on these requests — when your listing appears in results without a link to your website. Yet not the Search Console.
Let us explain. As we looked at the account of one customer, we found that in Google My Business Insights, the “best criminal defence attorney near me” showed 12 unique users, and Search Console had one impression.
What could that be? Why do you have more users than mere impressions? The explanation for this is that mobile searches frequently return 3-packs, which do not show the field on the website.
Google My Business will report on searches in all of these situations because the Search Console would not.
The main lesson here is that you can add Google My Market Insights to your list of places to gather keyword research if you are working in the local search industry. You may be shocked at what you’ve come across.
If you look at the search console to see what your website is searching for, cross-check those results with your Google My Business Analytics, you could pull your hair out. We do! This Search Engine Land post helps clarify why you may see such differences.
Claiming and optimizing the Google My Company listing for SEO purposes sends a clear signal to Google that your company is involved and helps you to rank higher for your industry in local Google searches. Google has a clear preference for local searches that allows small businesses to compete with national brands when someone is searching for your neighborhood for a company or services. Google’s “local pack” of map listings is made up of businesses that have Google My Company listings. The more reliable and successful your entry, the more likely it would be for your industry locally to appear on page one!
Claiming and optimizing your listing helps you to monitor the details Google users see while searching for your company, or the products and services you are offering. When you test your information with Google My Company, you are twice as likely as consumers (source: Google) to consider it as reputable. Often, when people find your company on Google Maps and Google Search, they should make sure they see the correct details like operating hours, website, and street address.
You will also be able to see comprehensive insights into how visitors were looking and where those customers were searching for their company. In Search results and Google Maps, you can view details about how many people called your company from the phone number listed on the local search results.
The Google Maps App is used by many for driving directions. Ensuring that your address is correct helps them to conveniently navigate from their mobile device to your location. Making sure that the phone number is available and accurate also allows consumers to call your company directly from the results page of Google Search.
Many data aggregators and directory listing services such as Moz.com and Yext find the Google domain listing to be a ‘key’ data source. Ensuring that your listing is correct and up-to-date will help enhance and verify the other listings for directories.
Google Search Console is a collection of tools as well as resources in the Google Search Index for helping the website owners, web marketers, webmasters, and SEO professionals to monitor their website performance.
Apps include search appearance statistics, search traffic, updates to the technical status, crawl data, and additional educational tools.
Google Search Console was initially known as Google Webmaster Central and later as Google Webmaster Tools until 2015 when it took its current name.
When you have a business with a physical address, linking the business to Google (and thus making it searchable via Google Maps) is a perfect way to help customers to find their office, communicate with it, and develop a profitable company. It also gives your company an air of credibility-what company is unsearchable these days on Google Maps, right?
So if you’ve got a new company, whether it’s your first or fifteenth company, it’s essential to make sure it’s accessible through Google.
Here’s what you need to learn to get your company added to Google, and how you can claim rights to access the business page:
An essential first step in any local SEO campaign is to assert and test the Google My Business (GMB) listing for your local company. Being on Google My Business will increase your chances of appearing in Google’s Local Collection, Local Finder, Google Maps, and in general organic rankings. Qualifying local businesses can demand this free listing on Google and provide information about their company, such as their approved address, telephone number, operating hours, and types of payments.
Also, in the last few months, Google has added some fantastic functionality to Google My Business that companies can take advantage of that improves your Google My Business listing and helps catch the interest of audiences — which can boost your ranking in local search results.
Many local businesses just say and forget about their GMB page. What most businesses don’t know is that Google offers you several other tools that you can use to customize your Google My Business listing and many reasons why you should review your business listing regularly to ensure its accuracy remains intact. Want to learn more?
Google has several questions that you want to fill out to complete your Google My Company profile. When finished, your listing will have useful primary data to help potential customers find more information about your company. Because if you don’t fill this information out, someone else could. Most business owners may not know that anyone can make a change (or “edit”) to your business listing-even your competitors.
If you see updates, these are improvements that Google made to your company listing because either its algorithm found a Google user-submitted new knowledge about your company (maybe from another directory/citation site or a change found on your Google Map) or an edit that was published. (Yes, when people make “suggested edits,” they’re not necessarily “suggestions” – changes are often made without you ever being told or challenged!)
You will see a box that allows you to “Check Updates” when you click on “Google Alerts.” It is where you can delete incorrect details that a problematic Google user might have made.
If you offer services, such as a spa, nail salon, hair salon, copying company, or even a holistic center, and have a “menu” of services, Google My Business’s latest Services List is a great addition. This feature is only available for businesses dealing with food and drink, wellness, fashion, and other services that don’t have a “menu” connection from third parties.
Today, Google is supposed to send emails when updates are made to the owner and those who run the Google My Business account, but sometimes such people never receive alerts about updates to their page. So look out: Google can (or may not) alert you if any changes are made to your page. (For example, your company category could be changed from a “criminal attorney” to a generic “lawyer” category, which could hurt your search rankings.) That’s why it’s extra essential for you to regularly log in and review your listing (especially when, very literally, some businesses have changed their address and website URLs in their GMB listing by nefarious users).
If you see an incorrect change and you have difficulty fixing it (such as a fake review, for example), create a new post describing the situation in-depth in the Google My Company Forum and reach out to one of Google’s top volunteer contributors for assistance.
It’s also important to note that Google is asking people who are familiar with your company to answer questions so that Google can know more about your company. They just click on the “Know this place?” Answer Questions Fast “connection. If the person knows the answer to the question, they may answer it, and then another question is usually asked. Otherwise, they may decline.
Now some business owners have cried foul, claiming that such apps will wreak havoc with rivals or those with malicious intent on their Google My Business listings. Google’s theory, however, is that this form of user-generated content helps create a community, completes a business’ profile more thoroughly, and encourages Google to experiment with different search strategies.
When you have an event (such as a webinar or a chiropractic seminar), you should set up a Post-event with a date and time, then add a link to the Registration page.
Will you have a sale going on at a specific time? Build a Post-event called “sale.”
Is your most recent blog post about rock? Add a short description on your blog and link it to the post.
Would you want to feature a new product? Display a photo of this cool gadget and make a connection to where people can buy.
Want to spread the joy of holidays? Send a holiday greeting to a potential customer’s Email.
The possibilities are infinite with updates! Posts appear prominently in the Knowledge Panel of your company so do not miss this chance to stand out.
TIP: You want to include an image in your Post to attract a searcher’s eye, but the Post image can be cut off on Google Maps. You may need to check a few Post image sizes to make sure it is suitably sized on desktop and mobile devices for maps and the information screen.
Do you just want to have more fun and maybe help your local SEO? Seek to add emojis specific to your Message. Google is beginning to index the search results which apply to emoji. (You can search Google now by “tweeting” an emoji at it!) Additionally, people — particularly younger people — are starting to search emojis (typically on their mobile devices). So if a person is looking for “[pizza emoji] + nearby” and you own a local pizza restaurant and use the [pizza emoji] somewhere on your Google My Business listing — like in a Post with a special pizza order offer — you could have an SEO advantage over other pizza competitors in your area.
Google also looks at the search interaction and you have your Google My Company page as the user. The more participation, the greater the chances of ranking higher overall in the local three-pack and organic rankings. That means that you need to keep your Google My Company listing optimized.
If you are running multiple listings or franchises, you can use Google’s API v4.1 to add details of Google My Company and Sell Posts more easily. And if you’re very techie, you can even add “customer media endpoints” that allow users to access images and videos posted by customers in their company (usually photo and video uploads are not notified to GMB users).
Google has also launched a new update that informs users who have opted on their Google My Business Locations to receive notifications about newly posted media. It would be an advantage if you have someone in your team who can do the coding.
At Reversed Out Creative, we understand the challenges and opportunities presented by AI disruption. Our team of experts specializes in web design, SEO, graphic design, and digital marketing services. Reach out to us through our contact form to learn more about navigating the evolving job market and embracing the potential of AI. Together, let’s shape a future that combines human ingenuity with the power of AI.
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