In this new interview series we talk to the people who make a real impact on local search, through their insights, their tools, or their good-old-fashioned hard work. First up is UK-based local SEO consultant Claire Carlile, of Claire Carlile Marketing, who talked to us about setting client expectations, the power of GMB Products Editor… Read More

Jamie Pitman
September 19th, 2019

For a while now, local businesses have been able to push average star ratings from reviews about their businesses to their organic SERP results using review schema markup on their websites, but that is all set to change. Google have announced via their webmasters blog that they will will no longer display these star ratings… Read More

Jamie Pitman
September 17th, 2019

We’ve all been there: you fire up your ranking-monitoring tool of choice. You see a massive change in rankings. Your heart rate increases. WTF? Was it something you did? Was it something you didn’t do? Or was it (eek)… an update to Google’s search algorithm? There are plenty of free tools out there to help… Read More

Jamie Pitman
September 12th, 2019

Whether you’ve completed a Google My Business audit and identified several pieces of information to rectify or are simply guilty of neglecting your Google My Business profile for a while, you’ll need to pencil in some time to go through and edit Google business listing details. This could include amending opening hours, adding images, updating… Read More

Jamie Pitman
September 11th, 2019

Thanks to the dominance of mobile search and our ‘always-on’ consumer mindset, local SEO is today critical to every business in some way. We carry smartphones pretty much every waking moment, so it’s second nature to turn to Google when we’re in need of a local business. Whether that’s an emergency plumber to fix a… Read More

Jamie Pitman
August 21st, 2019

Online reviews for local businesses are more important than ever. They’re highly trusted, ubiquitous for pretty much every industry, and have a huge impact on your business. There are a ton of reasons, forces and even algorithms that make online reviews so important, and should all be taken into account when deciding whether to prioritize… Read More

Jamie Pitman
August 16th, 2019

For any local business looking to grow, and any multi-location business looking to solidify reputation across branches, earning reviews from the top review sites is imperative. More and more consumers’ purchase decisions are heavily influenced by business ratings on the best review sites, as proven in our Local Consumer Review Survey. And while there are… Read More

Jamie Pitman
August 8th, 2019

Online reviews are vital to modern consumers – they rival word of mouth recommendations and help with the decision making process. Generating reviews is an essential activity for any local business, but there are expectations of both quantity and quality which can be a troublesome mix to perfect for anyone appointed to increase customer reviews.… Read More

Jamie Pitman
August 6th, 2019

Our recently-released Google My Business Insights Study took 45,000 GMB profiles across 36 industries and analyzed their Insights to see which industries were outperforming others. Following on from our deep dive into car dealerships’ exceptional performance in Google My Business, it’s time to take a good look at the other big winners in the field,… Read More

Jamie Pitman
August 1st, 2019

Are you a data-driven marketer? As a small business owner or marketer for a local business, harnessing data can be a daunting prospect. It’s not just a question of where to look to access the most useful data but how to interpret it and put the findings of your analysis into action. Google My Business… Read More

Jamie Pitman
July 30th, 2019