Mike Blumenthal

Here are some answers to your Google Website questions. Google My Business Website FAQ Does the site support Schema? No, while the data is structured in a way that makes it easy for Google to read, it does not use Schema Does Websites support SEO? Not really. There is a limit to a single page …

Today Google is announcing the worldwide release of their small business web builder, Websites. First spotted in January, it is a simple, single page web builder that allows a business to create a basic webpage in 5 minutes (or less if really simple). It is accessible either via the Google My Business dashboard. The Website …

Google Posts, a simple blogging like tool for the Google My Business Dashboard that posts directly to the Knowledge Panel, is still in beta and is, as yet,  unannounced as a product1. But it now has several Help Pages. The Post Help section has 3 pages: Create a post on Google Edit or delete a …

Google Website, their single page website builder, is becoming more widely available. The product is still in beta but the increasing user reports of its availability (h/t to Thibault Adda, the local seo at Darden Restaurants for his Tweet) and the increasing number of sites at the domain suggests that the product is moving toward release. …

Ok. I admit I don’t know if Mark Henderson, Google Local Guide Level 5 really did die from caffeine1 but I do know that he reviewed thousands of Starbucks across the Midwest, the Eastern Seaboard and the South last week. And I know that he is a Level 5 Local Guide and that if he …

Video Deep Dive: Sponsorships as an opportunity in Local Marketing – an educational interview with Megan Hannay of Zipsprout about ideas for leveraging a business’s relationship with local NFP agencies to enhance their digital marketing. (Now also available as a podcast). Video: Last Week in Local May 30, 2017 – Join Mary B and me and guest …

Which categories of businesses on Google are most likely to buy reviews? You will find many of the usual suspects and a few surprises as well. I have been exploring review spam networks, review spammers (aka spewers) and the businesses that buy these fake reviews.  In April I wrote about a particular review spam network …

Yelp is attempting to fix their lack of accurate hours by encouraging the input of special hours for Holidays. Yelp, for all of their consumer strengths in reviews, has been woefully behind in getting accurate business hours from their restaurants. More than once I have selected a restaurant that was stated as opened in Yelp …

This falls into the “learn something new everyday in local” category…. fellow Top Contributor Treebles (a more knowledgeable Google Mapping/MyBusiness expert you will not find) advised me that Google publishes their Streetview update schedule for the year and it includes details as to which countries, states and cities they will be visiting. Who knew? You …

Phil Barnhart, Director of Marketing at NehMedia, reported out a new test version of Google’s Website Builder. The product appears to have a few upgrades from the previous version I reviewed in January. As Phil noted in his post, it still is limited in many ways: It’s not ready for prime-time – there are no …