Mike Blumenthal

Google is formally announcing the world wide availability of Google Posts today. The product allows a business to micro-blog directly to their Knowledge Panel result, create Posts of up to 300 words in length and include a photo. The Post can be further defined as an event with a date range or a call to …

Summer has finally arrived to Western NY. And for me a burst of energy and new articles. Here are some of the articles I wrote (or in the case of LocalU or StreetFight co-wrote) around the web: Making Sense of Posts in Google’s SMB Product Portfolio – With David Mihmn at Streetfight. I have been following …

Consumers have long been fans of reading reviews but have been reticent to actually write reviews. It seems from my longitudinal surveys that that attitude is steadily changing. I was surprised to see the near linear increase in self reported review write AND to learn that those over 65 are just behind 25-35 year olds …

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 …