Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Google+ Knowledge Panel Messaging Gone
One compelling reason for an SMB to use Google Plus was the fact that their most recent G+ posts and photo would appear on the Knowledge Panel for branded search results. First noticed disappearing by Mary Bowling about a month ago, it is now gone for good.
Google confirmed its passage by saying: “We’re always mixing things up on Search, and this change is no different. We’ve found that most people care about seeing hours of operation, directions, and photos when they search for businesses, so we’re making that information the most visible. You can still find all this info in Google+ of course.”
Here is a previous knowledge panel showing a G+ post and image and a current view showing its absence:
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Comments
11 Comments
Looks like they aren’t pushing the Google+. Oh well, we’ll see if this is a real change.
Ugh…thats another big change in the Google+, GMB model in recent weeks.
Seemed like G was pushing only its products – removing all other Reviews from the Panel – but now they are removing their products as well. G pushes the Panel and the Answer Box heavily but now takes information away from it? Think the Panel and the Answer Box will also be shrinking?!? haha…I got jokes.
Because it didn’t work 100% of the time, even with the recommended posting frequency, it’s better to have this gone.
It looks like it’s gone from the local knowledge panel, but I still see it for the general knowledge panel (the knowledge panel without a map and corresponding local page) for large businesses.
Still seeing it in personalized (logged in) search for brands I have circled who have posted recently, but as a small one line snippet, and you have to know to click the timestamp to go to the post.
Mike, it happens today? i can’t see the Knowledge Panel anymore.
Mike: You introduce your post referencing how something in the knowledge panel was a good reason to spend time in google my business.
But ultimately a business should focus on what is good for them, not good for “what google wants them to focus on”.
I noticed in the set of changes that previously the address and contact info was ABOVE the volume of reviews. Now its below the reviews. The KB emphasizes reviews….google reviews. 😀
There is no link to the website in the KB. That is something we would like. Ultimately if we are working our business hard, as we do, we get a lot of customer feedback.
The feedback comes from formal and informal querying we do that is ultimately marketing oriented. It comes down to how people found out about us, and why people chose us. What are the things and qualities; the features, and characteristics that potential customers value.
Then if we are listening hard, and we hear the same things over and over and over again…..our website features that “stuff”.
We feature the “things” that customers value.
The KB doesn’t do that. Its straight forward. It does feature reviews…but customers ultimately like to look at what YOU have to say…as well as what 3rd party reviewers.
I wish the KB would link back to the site. Cripes it links to competitors sites at the bottom.
Its google’s knowledge box. It’s not controlled by the smb.
My thinking was that it was good for the SMB because:
1- It didn’t take a lot of time
2- It pushed competitors in the People also search for down below the fold
3-Allowed them to message the consumer directly
Hey Mike!
How does this change how your advising a client like Barbara Oliver? Is there still good enough reason, in your view, for her to continue posting or will you emphasize this less from here on out? Thanks for the post and I hope you’re doing well!
Sorry for typos, Mike. Typing one-handed
@Miriam
I can see no reason for her to continue to post to her G+ stream.
Google+ as a social network, with 300 million or so users, doesn’t have the scale to work at local. If there were some mechanism where she could garner enough local followers then it would make sense in that her followers would see her posts in their Google search results…. but that seems like way too much work to be successful.
I was just thinking that Twitter might be a viable alternative for pushing a marketing message into her branded searches on Google. At least on mobile.
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