Google My Business Pages - Still Relevant or Phasing Out?
-
Google My Business plays a big part of getting your company to rank in the local pack for local search queries. Apart from making sure this is correct and up to date, where do you think the future of GMB pages is headed? Will Google eventually start phasing these out and come up with a different way to populate the local pack?
-
It's always my pleasure! I appreciate the good question you asked.
-
Hi Miriam! Once again, thank you for taking the time to leave such a great response. This was extremely helpful and I really appreciate it. You made some awesome points that I didn't even consider!
-
Thank you, John! I appreciate the response!
-
Another good question from you, Blue Corona!
Are GMB listings going away? Not any time soon, but as John mentions, be prepared for increased paid-packs as time goes by, in some industries. Basically, any industry into which Google can position itself as the middle man (leads for home service providers, bookings for hotels, etc.) will be one in which free packs could become obsolete.
If you're trying to take the long view of what's happening, basically, Google is trying to become the platform on which actions occur that would previously have occurred mainly on a company's own website. Google wants to provide directions, facilitate phone calls, govern reputation, show photos, book appointments and arbitrate leads all on their own product instead of on yours (your website). As Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm discuss in this interesting chat transcript, Google is becoming your new homepage: http://streetfightmag.com/2017/03/06/why-google-is-becoming-the-new-homepage-for-smbs/
So, whether we like the idea of Google having a finger in every pie or not, what you want to do as a local business owner is to influence as much as you can the accuracy and persuasiveness of your presence in all of Google's results (and that includes paid results in some industries and tough markets, as well). This is what users will be interacting with - this layer of data that exists on Google about your business, instead of only on your website. Your GMB listing will be a major factor in this for the foreseeable future.
So, that's basically the eagle's eye view, with some unknown quantities like the ultimate impact of voice search (controversial) and future updates to Google's algorithm (unpredictable). Hope this helps!
-
Some good gut feelings here, John, and you are so right about Google's rebranding history - it has been especially volatile in local!
-
Well, they are already starting to put ads in there so I expect this to go fully paid eventually. But that said, I don't see the idea of GMB going anywhere soon, but we have seen how they change things all the time and they could possibly rename it while only changing a few things.
Branding has never been Google's strong suit. Just look at their maze of chat apps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why is my site stuck on page 2 even though it has higher DA?
Hi, I'm just trying to figure out why we're still not on first page for 'criminal lawyer sydney' (stuck on result #15) - I checked out SEO Moz and I can see the Domain Authority for our site 'criminal-lawyer.com.au' - is at 23 which is higher than other sites that rank on first page of this search. I've done a bunch of technical stuff on the site too - so if anyone can give any insight on why this could be happening it would be much appreicated. Thanks!
Local Listings | | SEOByTheMinute0 -
Incorrect Google Places Listing Outranks Other
We have 2 Google Places listings (due to 2 Google Accounts). One listing (the one with the wrong address) outranks the correct listing. Am working on updating citations and have updated the website with the correct address. I do note that Google has not picked up that the contact page has changed and has not seen the changes to many of the citations. Do we: Update the incorrect listing with the correct address for the time being to resolve issues with clients. Remove the old (incorrect) listing. Or is there a better way to sort this out am concerned that removing the listing will lose us our Google Places rank.
Local Listings | | GrouchyKids0 -
Can you use Google Posts to make updates about emergency closures?
A client of mine asked about the new Google Posts feature that can be used via GMB. The question is can you use Google posts to give updates to visitors about emergency closures?
Local Listings | | BigChad20 -
Higher Value: Google Local Listing or .edu link?
A client of mine is putting together a partnership with a local university to offer a certain type of medical test through several of its clinics. They are writing up the contract now and asked me if there is anything they should ask for that would benefit us in our listings. Since we do not have an actual local footprint, my first inclination was to ask for them to help us get verified as owners of "practitioner" local listings at their business addresses (as discussed here). We would provide local numbers that would ring our call center. My thinking is that these listings and backlinks would benefit on searches similar to "medical testing in San Antonio". I have a number of concerns with this track but would love to hear from the community on why or why not this might be the way to go. Another potential option is to ask for a link from the university's website outlining the partnership. Something along the lines of "Our labs have partnered with BIZNAME to provide medical testing in San Antonio to our valued patients." I'd obviously love the EDU links, but I'm hesitant after Overstock's penalty a few years ago to try to set something like that up. I'm not sure which (if either) to ask for in the contract. I'm leaning toward the latter since it seems more in line with a long term strategy, and Google seems to change their treatment of the local listings pretty frequently. However, getting that high visibility real estate in the local listings is really appealing to me. What does everyone think?
Local Listings | | Andrew_Mac0 -
Google Maps redirect notice on track-able URL's (how do I track maps visits in analytics?)
We've been using trackable URL's to track Google My Business visits in analytics for years.
Local Listings | | RedNovaLabs91
Example: ?utm_source=GoogleLocal&utm_medium=example&utm_campaign=example In the past month I've noticed Google showing a redirect notice on any listing with a trackable URL. It happened for a day or so a few weeks ago - and then it's been a more permanent situation since this past week. Redirect Notice
The previous page is sending you to: www.example.com
If you do not want to visit that page, you can return to the previous page. I'm fine with removing the trackable URL's - however - I'm not sure how to track maps visits via analytics without using them. I can't find any updated information on options. The last post on moz was in 2011 (http://moz.com/blog/tracking-traffic-from-google-places-in-google-analytics). The alternate tactics in that post no longer work. So my question is:
- How do I track Google Maps (My Business) visits through analytics without using tracking URLs?1 -
Removing website from search while you have Pending Google Places Listing
Hello, If you have assign a website in Google places that is in Pending mode, and you removed the website in WMT, from the searches. Will be denied in google places? Thanks for your help.
Local Listings | | EVERWORLD.ENTERTAIMENT1 -
How does google choose the local searches?
In a larger city (london for example) when there are dozens of one specific industry, how does Google choose who to show in their local results? For example if I type "solicitor london" it shows me 7 local results, but I know there are far more than 7 solicitors in London. Do they change as frequently as the rest of the serps or is there something you can do to ensure you get in that local search? Added to this, does being part of a chain/franchise make a difference? Help/thoughts/advice would be appreciated.
Local Listings | | Gordon_Hall0 -
How is a competitor franchise ranking all for all 3 Local results with unclaimed G+ pages in a search for the national corporation?
My company is an individual franchise of a national corporation - every franchise is operates as [National Corporate Brand Name] + a chosen descriptor such as "Premiere" or the names of the owners such as "Smith Jones". A logged-out Google search for just the national brand name returns the corporate website first, followed by the website of a competing local franchise and 3 Local listings for their offices. These listings are all unclaimed and unverified on Google+ and have no reviews or posts. The corporate Twitter is next, followed by my franchise's website. The corporate Facebook is the last result on the page. How can this competing franchise rank for all 3 Local listings with unclaimed pages? My company operates several more offices than the competitor in the same area and I regularly post to their G+ pages which I verified several months ago. Is it because the competitor's website just holds significantly more weight in Google than our own? A search for the brand name + the town where our offices are in does usually return our Local listing pages, but that limits our reach to those specific towns. Anyone have any insight on this?
Local Listings | | WGW0