Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
What Percentage of Verified Businesses Use Google Posts?
TLDR: ~7% of businesses world wide that have verified their business listing are using Google Posts and roughly 26% of verified business in the US were doing so. On a percentage basis the use of posts was highest, around 30%, in Spain, Italy and Japan. The developed world has significantly more updake of this feature than Asia & South America.
Phil Rozak of Localvisibility did a nifty post a few weeks ago exploring business utilization levels of Google Posts. He manually examined a large sample of businesses in medium and large cities to determine that 17% of businesses in the US had used the feature.
In doing my Google Websites uptake analysis I realized that I might be able to use the Google site: search technique to examine this number both in the US and in countries around the world . While it wouldn’t provide me with nuance like Phil ferreted out that 4% had done an update within the past 7 days, it would give me high level detail. And while Google Websites created is not a perfect proxy for verified businesses, it is a pretty good one.
Results:
As of today that stands at 26% of those businesses in the United States with Google Websites (and are thus verified) that are using posts.
As you might expect, utilization as a percentage of those that have created Google Websites is consistently higher in Europe, Canada, Japan and the US than in Asia, Turkey and South American countries:
|
Country |
Total Websites |
Posts |
Posts % |
|
Espana Posts VER TODAS |
84,400 |
26,300 |
31% |
|
日本 (Japan) Post すべて表示 |
123,000 |
37,800 |
31% |
|
Deutschland |
80,100 |
23,500 |
29% |
|
United Kingdom |
88,500 |
25,900 |
29% |
|
Italia “MOSTRA TUTTO” |
121,000 |
34,500 |
29% |
|
Polska (Poland) Posts WYŚWIETL WSZYSTKO |
70,200 |
18,400 |
26% |
|
United States |
472,000 |
121,000 |
26% |
|
France Posts TOUT AFFICHER |
114,000 |
27,800 |
24% |
|
South Africa |
35,800 |
8,600 |
24% |
|
Australia |
68,000 |
15,200 |
22% |
|
Canada |
71,900 |
15,700 |
22% |
|
Brasil |
371,000 |
73,000 |
20% |
|
Türkiye (turkey) |
286,000 |
51,900 |
18% |
|
Malaysia |
51,200 |
8,840 |
17% |
|
Viet Nam Posts XEM TẤT CẢ |
111,000 |
16,590 |
15% |
|
Mexico |
241,000 |
20,900 |
9% |
|
Україна (Ukraine) Posts ПЕРЕГЛЯНУТИ ВСІ |
40,700 |
2,890 |
7% |
|
Argentina |
89,100 |
5,010 |
6% |
|
India |
4,200,000 |
197,000 |
5% |
|
Indonesia |
4,410,000 |
27,600 |
1% |
|
Россия (Russia) |
81300 |
|
0% |
Methodology:
Using the searches: site:business.site “United States” and site:business.site “United States” + “View All” you can get a rough idea of the use of Posts amongst businesses that are verified*.
Why is the number higher than Phil’s? Because my methodology is looking at usage of those that have created Google Webpages. That is a more engaged group and they have verified their listing. Both reasons would explain the higher than the overall usage number.
I am also making an assumption that the cohort of businesses that have created a Google Website is similar in behaviors to those that have just verified.
Some notes:
1- After a Twitter convo I realized that since Hotels and a few other categories don’t have posts, these numbers might be slightly high. That being said they are directionally accurate.
2- Also since we have no way of knowing how many businesses are verified in any country we have no way of knowing what the upside opportunity is for Google (or an agency). I did see Bill Hartzer noting that in a 10,000 listing sample of US SABs that 68% of them had been claimed. If that is the case then that would make my US numbers align perfectly with Phil’s. (.68 X .26 = .17)
* To see these numbers for any country you need to modiy the site:business.site search with the name of the country (in its original language) and the phrase “View All” translated to that language. So a search on Poland would look like: site:business.site Polska + “WYŚWIETL WSZYSTKO”
© Copyright 2024 - MIKE BLUMENTHAL, ALL RIGHT RESERVED.
Comments
14 Comments
Here is my question.
Where do these posts show up. I see them on brand searches, but keyword searches I’m not seeing them.
We actively (twice a week) did posts for a 4 clients for 2 months. We did see an increase impressions according to GMB statistics. However, we did not see an increase in calls or website traffic. We had CTA buttons for calls as well as website visits in ever post.
The clients where B2C.
Basically, I’m trying to understand the value and the ROI on time for doing these.
Are there any cases studies you can’t point me to?
While posts do get indexed now, they primarily are visible in two places: The Branded Knowledge Panel and the Local Finder.
Here are an interview and an article summarizing research done by Joel Headley of PatientPop:
Video Deep Dive: Google Posts Impact Study
How to Boost Bookings & Conversions with Google Posts: An Interview with Joel Headley
I think that there are several ways to get decent ROI and steps to make these worthwhile
1- Get some tool to automate the postings like this tool from CitationbuilderPro
2- Experiment on different posts types to find the one that works for you
– Story telling
– Education
– Calls to Action
– Discounts
3- Realize as well that there may be indirect benefit like an increase in phone calls from the Knowledge Panel that are not direct or even some rank increase on the long tail terms you write about.
Does it mean “America third”?
if so POTUS should take action asap!
A good idea woud be to introduce a remarkable posting tariff for Japanes posts
Helmut
Well you better speak quietly or otherwise we will soon be confronting some such effort. 🙂
well
But wouldn’t it a great business model for Google to sell payed posts (i.e. for lodging businesses, vapor shops. liqour shops, gun shops etc.)
They could sell it via Amazon perhaps – LOL
We’re doing some experiments with Offer Posts to see if posts are worth the effort. Most of our clients are SMBs that don’t get a ton of views so we’re just not sure. Do you think this falls into the realm of “social media posts & updates” or “Local SEO” – in other words, should the social media manager do Google posts?
This is not Social media, in my opinion. When properly keyworded and linked to the best page on your site, this is content and SEO. Good Social Media management is more about engagement. Though there is a great share tool, the share button, these posts and offers can be shared into Social Media with just a click.
We don’t have hard empirical data, we see major SERP improvement and continued improvements in actions, web visits, calls, and directions requested.
1- We have seen some small bump in rank
2- We have seen some additional click through when well designed
3- It looks really good and controls space and favorably positions you compared to your competitor
It is not a slam dunk gain a ton more rank in one easy stroke, it’s a solid, steady benefit that you can offer the client that, as Steve says, is likely to lead to sustained increases in other critical KPIs.
Thanks @Steve & @Mike ~ Glad to know this is heading in the right direction. I’ve learned not to be an early adopter of Google’s new toys – I’m more of an early majority guy. But it’s time now to jump in.
I had no idea posts were getting indexed. It seems like a good portion of my week goes into creating posts for clients…
@dave
For sure they are indexed if you have a Webpage. I am not sure about otherwise.
Hi Mike. What did you mean by “for sure they are indexed if you have a webpage.” Do you mean if you have a website? Or if you have a website linked in the GMB post?
Also, while these are indexed, do they get indexed very low (like Google Plus Posts), or do they perform well locally (index-wise)?
Thanks very much!
@Tina
They are indexed for sure if you have a Google website. The Google website doesn’t need to be linked in the GMB, it just needs to exist.
Well anything gets indexed low if it doesn’t have Google cred. Cred is site specific. But it could be links, or in the case of Plus shares etc
I’m having a difficult time finding my posts anywhere. Do these actually have any effect on GMB rankings?
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