Mike Blumenthal

Update 10/24: I have tested the ? and it now seems to be working. It appears that Google has fixed this. Update: Solution found! Tony “Tiggerito” McCreath has figured out that apparently the problem is caused by the ? in the GA code. If you replace the ? With a # symbol it works, redirects …

This survey from Ipsos, a market survey company, claims to be on behalf of Google. If that is true then the questions are quite bizarre and really makes one wonder what Google is up to. Is Google looking to replicate what Yext has done with real time data distribution? Or just shooting an arrow across …

Here is a slight variation on the Pack results that Google has been testing. It was visible yesterday on IE (which I don’t have on my machine so I can replicate). The “more” links take the searcher to a brand search rather than a knowledge panel. In being more explicit than the current roll over …

Google has just announced the availability of My Business Locations (i.e. bulk) Business Accounts. Essentially this feature allows for an easy secure way to add social managers in bulk and to transfer the ownership of the bulk account or parts of the account to another users.Business accounts provide a safe way to share management of your locations …

Finding duplicates for the same listing with the Google local index is critical. Unfortunately the new Maps is terrible at it and G+ creates too many false positives. You can revert to the old Maps and its increasingly quirky behavior or MapMaker to find the duplicates in the Google Local index but both of those …

Last week Dr. Pete from Moz shared a new type of carousel replacement that was starting to show in some browsers. It was seen yesterday as well by Daniel Klotz of YDOP and by Max Minzer. It is similar to the test of the carousel replacement from early August but with the Map missing. Darren …

Google is sending out a new My Business Report via email to verified owners of listings. The report is attractive with meaningful calls to action to visit the My Business or to contact Google Help even if the report is glaringly inaccurate. On the several reports that I have received so far, the review number …

It has been a little over 2 months since the Pigeon update. And while quality issues continue, with some listings taking a hit and others gaining, Barbara Oliver & Co Jewelry seems to have netted out with slight gains in web traffic similar to what she saw immediately post update. Her total web traffic was …

In addition to the Local heat maps & CTR studies that I shared yesterday , Mediative also looked at the behaviors around the Carousel in their study: The Evolution of Google Search Results Pages and Their Effects on User Behaviour”. As with the 7-pack information yesterday, there are limits to this study. The CTR are particularly …

Mediative has published results of their recent eye-tracking and click through research performed last spring that included local pack and carousel results:  The Evolution of Google Search Results Pages and Their Effects on User Behaviour”. They discuss the local implications in a blog post today. While the study has some methodological issues the results are interesting …