Search Engine Land just reported that Google’s Home Service Ads, which only launched last month, are already expanding from plumbing and locksmiths to house cleaners and handymen. For those who haven’t been following along at home, Home Service Ads are a new advertising block that literally replaces the local stack. That means… Read More »Where Exactly Are Google’s Home Service Ads Displaying?
Spend five minutes on the internet and there’s a good chance you’ll run into Google’s new local search result module, which Mike Blumenthal dubbed the “Local Stack”. If you have any issues with the new stack, you’re in good company. Critics have complained that the stack makes it harder for up and coming… Read More »4 Reasons the New Google Local Stack Sucks (that you probably didn’t think of)
It’s that magical time of the year again when everyone tries to guess what’s next for SEO. 2013 was a downright bizarre year for SEO, which is why you’re bound to see all sorts of wacky predictions for 2014. The good news is that you just started reading the blog post that makes all the right predictions.
If I had a dime for every time a business owner tore into Yelp, I’d already be retired.
It turns out that the internet’s most popular business review site, at over 100 million registered users, still isn’t popular with everyone. Many business owners, users, and bipeds in general tend to hate Yelp’s lack of transparency, aggressive sales staff, and the amount of power that they give to relatively anonymous users. If you don’t believe me, just check out Yelp-Sucks.com, a few recent horror stories from small businesses, or Yelp’s laughable 3/5 star rating on their own website.
Today, we’ll talk about how much Yelp can suck, we’ll take a look at some of the biggest complaints about Yelp, and then we’ll see what we can do about them.Read More »Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Yelp?
Every time you look at a search results page on Google, there is a good chance that you may see something new. It wasn’t too long ago that videos, images, author profiles, links to Google plus reviews, and maps weren’t all shown on the same screen. Many people who depend on Google for their livelihoods spend a lot of time and energy trying to predict which additions will be next, but nobody really knows for sure.
While there are many changes happening right now to the way Google displays listings for small businesses, Google has made it crystal clear that business reviews will play a huge role in the future. We’ve been able to see business reviews on Yelp, out of five stars, from Google’s search results for a few years, and we’ve already seen Google+ play a more serious role.
If you’re the kind of business owner who wants to stay ahead of the curve, one of the biggest things you can do for your business, right now, is to start earning Google+ reviews.
Read More »How to Get More Google+ Reviews for Your Business