Mike Blumenthal

The new Google Places Questions & Answers offers a lot of potential for both helping and hurting a business. Here are some thoughts on how your business should approach this new and untried feature in the local Knowledge Panel. 1- Get out in front of them. Crowd sourcing can be intimidating to the typical business …

Update: See my post 11 Tips to Optimize the New Google Questions & Answers to help plan your approach. Google has announced and started to roll out Questions & Answers, a crowd sourced and business sourced Q & A product for local Knowledge Panels places listings. Tim Capper has a great summary as well that is …

With help of Jason Brown, a fake review critic, I was invited to speak with WXYZ reporters while in Detroit last month on the issue of fake reviews and their impact.

Google is quite explicit in their guidelines that you can’t verify a listing via Google My Business prior to it opening. Apparently though, there is a new option within Google Maps Android to add a business under construction and indicate the date in the future that it will be open. Here is the relevant “rule” …

Here are some posts/interviews from around the web: I did an incredibly enjoyable interview with Stephan Spencer of Marketing Speak about Reputation, reviews and local ranking.  The link to the shownotes, transcript, and audio is here and the iTunes link is here. Last Week in Local with Mary Bowling and Ed Reese covered the recent …

Joel Headley of PatientPop pointed out on Twitter that Google had added the ability to add a “make an appointment” URL to physician listings and other verticals, It appears that they have expanded these in various verticals and not just physicians as well as adding vertical specific options. Professionals such as lawyers, doctors, insurance agencies, …

Early in July I wrote about a test that increased the presence of the Google My Business Dashboard via the front page of a Google branded search. Thibault Tadda alerted me via twitter of an upgrade to the test that now includes a to do list. If the business or a manager is logged in …

Here are articles that I published over the past week some place other than here: LocalU: Video: Last Week in Local July 31 Every week at LocalU Mary Bowling and I and the occasional guest discuss the news from the world of local. We look at strategic as well as tactical pieces that can inform your …

Google Websites is not a “blow your socks off” web building product. At least not by standards in the United States. That being said, should you as a web designer or SEO ignore it? That’s a good question. Scott Davis noted this about Websites on G+ in response to my noting that Google had hit …

Google is obviously expanding their Home Services Ads program. It has now moved east to Philadelphia and is also covering more verticals. In addition to the original plumbers and locksmiths it is expanding to the HVAC, electricians, garage door, roadside assistance, auto glass, painting, handyman, home cleaning and even appliance repair categories. Dave Squires, a …