Mike Blumenthal

The lawyer Local Scroll Pack, like those for service area businesses, did not include images. In these however, the only visible call to action without visiting the Local Finder, was a click to call option.

Google appears to be testing (rolling out?) a new Local Scroll Pak display that provides a horizontal scrolling view of the top local search results. The result, first pointed out to me by Todd Moss, is currently showing on my iPhone for the search Moving Companies San Francisco. It is also showing for similar searches …

Apparently Google has turned on their Reserve relationship with Trip Advisor allowing consumers to purchase tickets directly from the Business Profile (aka Knowledge Panel). Only problem? Once activated within Google, a business can’t shut this off from within Google. I noted last week seeing these Reserve with Google “buy tickets” button in Business Profiles for a …

Google has started the rollout of “Short Names”; the ability of a business to create a custom, short URL that then can be used for easy access to their business profile on Google. Customers can enter the short name URL in the browser’s address bar, like “g.page/[yourcustomname]”, to go directly to your Business Profile. So …

TL;DR On the shoulders of others, a technique that can help you uncover Google Local Spam at greater scale. The Inspiration Over the years, Google Maps has lost many advanced search features* making spam identification harder and harder. A few weeks back Dave DiGregorio, a local SEO in NJ, posted a tip on Twitter that …

In 2009 I met with the then head of Google Local, Carter Maslan, and asked why they allowed so much spam to continue to exist in Maps after they were alerted to it. He assured me that it wasn’t very visible and it was being used to “inoculate the system” against future abuses. The Disease  …

Fake reviews are a long term AND growing problem at Google. The unfortunate reality is that Google helped create this illegal market place and benefits from it economically. Google has, over the years, created both new opportunities in existing markets AND created new market opportunities.  And Google often touts the economic benefits that it brings …

It appears that Google is discontinuing Google SMS in the Google My Business dashboard and in doing so leaving large companies in the lurch. Google My Business has yet to make a statement but it appears that the GMB SMS feature, which preceded their new App based messaging, is soon to be on the chopping …

Google has the unique ability to look like they are doing something about systemic problems in Local when in reality it is just misdirection. Spam reporting is but one flagrant example of this. I recently reported some obvious spam. Any effing idiot could see that it is spam and yet my edit was denied. #ShameOnGoogle …

Who knew? Near Me searches peak on the weekends. In October, I noted that Near Me searches, while generally going up, had a distinct seasonal peaks in July and December. Actually more careful analysis shows those peaks to fall around the 4th of July and the week right after Christmas.  Both correspond with high travel …