Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Google Expanding SMB Test of “Write Directly to Search” Feature
Google has confirmed that they are expanding the test of a “write directly to the search” results product first seen in January for presidential candidates and in the March time frame seen for small businesses. According to Google the test is expanding from “10’s of small businesses to thousands”.
Essentially the product, which has no formal name (I refer to it as Google Posts or Google Podium or maybe the product that “shall not be named”), allows an small business (or other entity) to easily create “cards” that present directly in search results much like an AMP page. In the March SMB tests these local “cards” showed on broad search terms but it appears that in the new test these “cards” will typically show on a brand search in close association with the Knowledge Panel.
Think of it as a live, real time stream of local business content for search. The local card is essentially a super lightweight, fast loading web page that resides directly on Google and may become one of the simplest ways for a business to create a web presence for user discovery.
The product apparently uses a dedicated app/environment that is a super simplified way for a small business to post images, text, links and videos in real time. With these cards, Google is opening up a more dynamic, real time content arena for local businesses. The cards, as in the previous test, can be easily shared by searchers via email or social channels. Essentially Google is attempting to make search results more of a destination and possibly viral.
Given that this current test is focused around showing these local cards on branded results only, I could envision a companion monetization by “boosting” a card to broader local search terms or charging for possible calls to action.
Given that the test is being expanded in Brazil and India as well implies that Google might be seeing this feature as a web alternative for small businesses in developing countries with less bandwidth and computing resources.
When viewed in conjunction with AMP, Places Actions (the ability to schedule a visit via the Knowledge Panel), Google Local Trip Planner and other long standing features like click to call, you can see a long term product arc that is making Local search results the final destination for users rather than a stopping point on a purchase journey.
Update (via Joy Hawkins): here is a search My Special Day that returns the results.
© Copyright 2024 - MIKE BLUMENTHAL, ALL RIGHT RESERVED.
Comments
14 Comments
Mike: who did you speak with at Google or how did Google confirm this?
Mike and I have special contacts Greg 😉 It’s legit.
Greg
We attended a webinar and it was confirmed by the Google GMB team.
Mike must have been writing this as we were on the Hangout.
If there were an Olympic event for speed to posting such news, Mike would win the Gold.
@Keenan
You know me… I move fast for an old fart.
I was at the demo with Google product managers too Greg – it’s official.
And I ditto Keenan. Mike is fast! I didn’t even try to write it up cuz I knew Mike and Joy would beat me to the punch! ;-p
The information that is going to be shown to users, can you clarify on where this is pulled from? Is this Google’s independent scouring of the web, or are there trigger flags that can be used on blog posts to make something show up over something else?
I’m guessing they’re not just pulling from a posting on a Google Plus page, or are they?
Conor you can see all of the posts, stored on Google, for the last example mentioned here: https://posts.google.com/share/PDkKprl4
New tool, new location but stored directly on Google.
Hey @Conor Traecy – it’s a self-contained web app so not it’s not from scouring a website, nor can trigger flags be used. They are not pulling from a G+ page
It looks like it’s pulling those posts directly from Facebook. They aren’t hosted on their blog anymore and I found that specific card on their Facebook.
Wonder if there’s a limit or a set schedule to be able to push out content out
@Simon we have not seen either a limit nor a schedule.
@Mike this looks to be completely independent of the GMB profile and is not using it to pull any data nor to confirm location. Started toying with it and the profile and notice it does not clone from the GMB itself. Good? Bad?
Ed – (ps I have not played with it yet so…) if I understand your question I would answer neutral. It currently is a function/app that creates content that is associated with your business. Where the app resides is largely irrelevant.
Since it is in very much of a beta state and the project isn’t very far along where the final interface resides is TBD. I assume that it will be an app for your phone and possibly when released a component of the GMB dashboard.
But you need to realize the GMB dashboard is nothing special. It’s just one more interface that feeds data to the local database like many other of Google’s interfaces.
Maybe if we are lucky the GMB interface will go away and everything will be accomplished via the first page of search?
Comments for this post are closed.