Here is the new test that Barbara is involved in (you can also see in this search result<\/a>):<\/p>\n To a large extent, a great deal of consumer activity like click to calls & requesting driving directions now takes place either in the general local search results \u00a0or from within the Knowledge Panel in the branded result.<\/p>\n In a recent unpublished case study for a hotel, spa and restaurant with great brand recognition, 50% of their total click to calls across all of the internet came directly from the Knowledge Panel or a direct look up in Google Maps. Being able to speak directly to the consumer in this way would be a powerful and visible tool\u00a0that I think would have rapid adoption.<\/p>\n As Glenn Gabe noted in early March utilization of the product seems to be growing world wide.<\/p>\n A quick check reveals another increase in the number of Google Posts indexed. Now up to 22,300 from 14,700 last week. @mblumenthal<\/a> #seo<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/MUVcabHkdf<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 5, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n When I checked<\/a> today there were over 30,000 indexed posts. That is a doubling in the past month. I am not sure whether that is a result of increased usage from the same businesses or more businesses creating posts. Regardless that is a lot of content that is being created directly on Google’s servers.<\/p>\n When it is finally introduced, it would be\u00a0the first Google response to Facebook that makes sense from an SMB perspective and might shift some SMB mind share\u00a0back to Google.<\/p>\n I am guardedly optimistic that it will make it out of beta into the hands of the world of SMBs. How long it stays there and stays free are open questions.<\/p>\n In related news, Google has announced<\/a> the expansion of the Posts tests to organizations and individuals:<\/p>\n Starting today, in the U.S. and Brazil, we\u2019re taking it to the next step and opening up the\u00a0application process<\/a>\u00a0so that organizations and people within specific categories can post directly on Google.<\/em><\/p>\n Now, when you search for museums, sports teams, sports leagues, movies and, in Brazil for now, musicians, you can find content from that participating organization or person, right on Google. So if you\u2019re searching for the\u00a0Henry Ford Museum\u00a0<\/a>in the U.S. or for\u00a0Vanessa da Mata<\/a>\u00a0in Brazil, you’ll see updates directly from the source with relevant information, like new exhibits, timely updates and interesting facts. Beyond these categories in the U.S. and Brazil, we\u2019ll continue to experiment globally and look forward to making Search even more useful and timely.<\/em><\/p>\n Although announced today, it is clear that the Henry Ford Museum has been a participant<\/a> since September of 2016 and Vanessa Darlene Mata since the first of February this year. \u00a0While the program may or may not have been expanded today, Google’s publicity about it has.<\/p>\n Here is a screen shots of Barbara Oliver from last week for comparison and of the Henry Ford Museum for reference:<\/p>\n The product that was originally called Podium and is often referred to as Posts, continues to be tested as a small business tool that allows a business owner to post directly to their branded search result. We saw the “Posts” like\u00a0test in late January\u00a0that included a call to action and posting on the right. Recently, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-plus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20361"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20374,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20361\/revisions\/20374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/image-to-right2-1.jpg\")
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