Mike Blumenthal

Yesterday Google announced that they were starting to finally roll out their interstitial penalty. Meant to improve mobile user experience when accessing a site the penalty targets sites that: Show a popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results, or while they are looking …

Google has update the Google GMB API to v. 3.2 this afternoon and included in the update is full access to 18 months of Insights data. Essentially the same data currently visible in the GMB Insights is available via the API and you can now subscribe to real-time notifications for new Google Updates. This release …

It appears that Google is either broadly testing or perhaps rolling out (or maybe they did this last week and I missed it) a more visual 3 pack with fewer direct contact CTAs for bricks and mortar locations. It appears, at least for now that professionals like lawyers, doctors, insurance agents and service businesses like …

Google has recently rolled out a number of upgrades to their mobile restaurant search results: Speedier Menu Data in an AMP like form More visual card like Local Finder results Addition of Happy Hours Speedier Menu Data in an AMP like form With the rollout of the updated Google search app, Google is starting to …

Sergey Alakov, an active local SEO from Toronto, just noted on Twitter that Google has finally rolled out the ability to segment all local rpack esults on both the desktop and mobile by ratings and by hours. The feature had been first spotted in tests in early September and the tests have recurred since then. It has been available for …

When Google rolled out the ability to add attributes to single locations earlier this month, they excluded professionals from adding attributes. I noticed yesterday that now all professionals (doctors, lawyers etc) are encouraged to add the attributes relating to wheelchair accessibility. Unfortunately this is the only attribute that they are allowed to add at this …

Over that past 6 months Google has gone to great lengths to get businesses to post most photos in the My Business Dashboard…. For months Google has encouraged business with the promise that (and I quote): Businesses with recent photos typically receive more clicks to their websites. Offering up ranking gains or at least more …

It’s time for every business to take a second look at their services page and be sure that it is a great page that converts your local customers. Last week Google added Attributes to the Google My Business Dashboard. Earlier this week they added the ability to add menus via the Google My Business API. …

Bricks and mortar has expenses like staffing that don’t exist in online shopping. They also have checkout friction that slows the process and is one of the pain points. Self checkout that you see at BJ’s or a few grocery stores might be good for the business but they have never been good for the …

If its good enough to do, its good enough to do in excess. Particularly with a name that gets verified in the GMB. The only questions I have remaining are his age, his wife’s name and how many children he has. Maybe Google should do away with categories and attributes and just allow businesses to …