Send us a text We discuss the latest developments in Google's antitrust trial and the introduction of new AI features in Google Business Profiles. They explore the implications of these changes for local SEO and user experience, as well as the potential future of search in an AI-driven world. The conversation highlights the challenges Google faces …

Send us a text Greg Sterling, Mike Blumenthal, and Sammy Paget of BrightLocal discuss the evolving landscape of consumer reviews, focusing on how consumer behavior has changed over the years, the importance of businesses responding to reviews, and the impact of AI on review management. They explore the future of reviews, the decline in trust, and G…

Send us a text 01:59 Evolution of Consumer Review Behavior 05:03 Trust in Reviews: A Declining Trend 08:14 The Impact of Fake Reviews and AI 14:18 Alternative Review Platforms and Their Trustworthiness 19:30 Key Findings from the 15-Year Review Study 22:07 Best Practices for Review Solicitation 29:22 Consumer Expectations and Business Responses In …

Send us a text In this milestone 200th episode, the NearMemo crew unpacks Google’s mounting regulatory woes in Europe, including fresh scrutiny under the Digital Markets Act. Mike breaks down a storm of GBP bugs and business suspensions and ponders the fact that Google is actually admitting to them.. Greg steers the convo into the evolving future o…

Send us a text Greg Sterling and Mike Blumenthal discuss the current state of Google suspensions, the impact of AI overviews on local search traffic, and the evolving landscape of digital marketing strategies. They emphasize the importance of businesses becoming less reliant on Google and exploring alternative marketing channels while navigating th…

Send us a text In this episode, Greg and Mike discuss the recent EU findings regarding Google's non-compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the implications of algorithm changes leading to increased suspensions and verifications, and the evolving landscape of AI competition, particularly focusing on Google's strategies to retain users amidst…

Send us a text Buckle up for another Near Memo packed with search drama, AI experiments, and a high-speed Tesla takedown. Mike and Greg dive into Google’s ongoing Business Profile suspensions, unpack the latest AI-driven search changes, and speculate on whether Elon Musk has permanently tanked Tesla’s brand. Plus, a peek at Google’s antitrust battl…

Send us a text 00:00 Overview of Topics 01:07 Increase in Business Suspensions - Resinstatements very slow 06:27 Google's Search Query Insights - Is Google Cooking the Books? 21:03 Google's AI Mode as the Future of Search We discuss the recent increase in suspensions and the delay of reinstatements on Google, the implications of Google's five trill…

Send us a text 00:00 Introduction to Last Mile Retail 06:04 Evolution of the Business Model 11:35 Market Changes and Competition 17:03 Understanding Good Local SEO 23:03 Microsite Strategy and Implementation 29:47 The Role of AI in Marketing Strategies 37:30 Navigating Paid Campaigns and Google Optimization 45:55 Enhancing Customer Journey and Cont…

Send us a text The Near Media team + several Google Product Experts and Brad Wetherall discuss various aspects of Google Business Profiles, including internal mobility at Google, the challenges of maintaining institutional knowledge, and the complexities of review management. They delve into the recent discrepancies in review counts, the importance…

Send us a text Greg and Mike discuss various topics related to Google's recent changes and features, including issues with review counts on Google Business Profiles, the introduction of the Ask for Me automated calling feature, and the implications for small businesses. They also explore the new Gemini reasoning model and its potential impact on lo…

Send us a text In this episode, Greg and Mike discuss the 20th anniversary of Google Maps, highlighting its evolution and new features. They delve into the newest Map Top Lists feature, the implications of recent messaging features for businesses and the ongoing decline in consumer trust in online reviews. The conversation also introduces Google's …

Send us a text In this episode, Mike Blumenthal and Greg Sterling continue their discussion with Curtis Boyd, CEO of the Transparency Company, focusing on the pervasive issue of review fraud. They explore the current landscape of consumer trust in online reviews, the implications of new FTC regulations, and the challenges businesses face in maintai…

Send us a text In this episode, Greg Sterling and Mike Blumenthal discuss the state of review fraud with Curtis Boyd, CEO of the Transparency Company. They explore the complexities of fake reviews, including the different types and metrics used to identify them. The conversation delves into the role of AI in generating fake reviews and the economic…

Send us a text In this episode, Greg and Mike welcome Brad Wetherall, former Director of Operations for Google Business Profile and now CEO of Bitwise Consulting. They discuss the challenges of fake reviews, Google's approach to detecting and managing them, and best practices for businesses to enhance their online reputation. Brad shares insights o…

Send us a text Ever wonder how GBP twists the dial to approve an edit? Why they use video verification and what a trust score is? In Part 1 of this interview we learn the answers to those many questions and more. 00:15 Introduction to Brad Wetherall and His Journey 02:53 Transitioning from Google to Bitwise Consulting 05:34 Understanding Google Bus…

Send us a text Google Leaks & NavBoost: How Engagement & Brands Shape Local SEO Rankings in 2024: Mike unpacked revelations from Google's algorithm leaks and their likely importance for Local SEO. We dove into "NavBoost," a technique where Google rewards high engagement and brand signals with better rankings. Think clicks, brand searches, and even …

Send us a text Stephanie Verilhac of Siinda discusses the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) and its impact on search behavior. Siinda's research with Near Media showed Google's dominance persists despite compliance changes, with users favoring its ecosystem. Regional differences in search trends were highlighted, including Irish “near me” preferences,…

Send us a text AI and Maps: Current Limitations (many) and Future Prospects (good): We explore a recent piece by cartographer Kames Killick on how AI will be shaping the geospatial landscape & mapping, despite the mixed results today. Current tools struggle with complex queries, such as mapping open businesses along a route and broader queries that…

Send us a text Extended GBP Business Names - Spam or Legitimate Descriptors? We explore Google's growing tolerance for extended taglines & descriptors in business names via the Google Business Center and its impact on local SEO strategies. Examples include businesses embedding descriptors like “best plastic surgeon” or “sexual harassment lawyer” in…

Send us a text Google Business Profile Suspension Woes (01:32–11:03) The discussion highlights rising frustrations with Google Business Profiles, focusing on increasing suspension rates and difficult reinstatement processes. Businesses face bottlenecks with video verification and unclear policies. Legitimate operations often fall victim, showcasing…

Send us a text AI Overview and Google Search Trends: In a discussion on AI search trends, Mark Traphagen from SEO Clarity shared insights on Google’s search generative experience (SGE) and its limited functionality in delivering localized results. His analysis highlighted that SGE results in the U.S. tend to be highly informational (91%) and less t…

Send us a text Google's Antitrust Battle: Legal and Political Shifts: As Google’s antitrust trial unfolds, recent shifts in U.S. leadership may change the tech giant’s outlook. With Trump’s election win, the likelihood of drastic regulatory action against Google, such as a breakup, appears to be reduced. The new administration’s stance on big tech …

Send us a text AI in Local SEO: Challenges and Opportunities: We dive into how AI is reshaping local search. Key insights from Andrew Shotland’s analysis reveal that Google’s AI overviews appear inconsistently in local searches, mainly showing up for broader queries, while lower funnel searches rely on the local pack. New platforms like Perplexity,…

Send us a text Introduction and Background (00:01 - 10:30) The conversation opens with Greg Sterling introducing Raj Singh, the founder of Soloist.ai, an AI-powered website builder targeted at small businesses and freelancers. Raj shares his background as a serial entrepreneur, highlighting his previous ventures, such as Pulse, acquired by Mozilla,…

Send us a text Apple Expands Business Connect Beyond Brick-and-Mortar: It was announced that Apple Business Connect will now include a broader range of businesses, such as e-commerce, work-from-home, and service-area businesses. Businesses will still undergo the Apple verification process but will benefit from a consistent brand presence across app…

Send us a text Google Tests AI-organized Carousels in Local Search Results for Restaurants & Bars: Recent test search results for local businesses on Google, particularly restaurants and bars, have been dominated by AI-organized carousels. Searches like “best cocktail bar” now return multiple carousels sequentially down the page, with categories su…

Send us a text Google's Place Sites: A Compliance Gesture or A True Shift in Search? Google is rolling out a new feature called "Place Sites" in North America, following its initial launch in Europe as part of compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The feature presents a carousel of aggregator search results, such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, p…

Send us a text How Individual Hotels Can Win in EU Search: Our research on hotel searches in Europe, revealed that Booking.com dominated user clicks, especially through ads, while Google's Hotel Finder and Business Profiles saw significantly fewer interactions. One surprising discovery was the prominent role of ads, with over 50% of mobile clicks g…

Send us a text Google Testing Review Badge of Shame & More in UK for Review Abuses: Google has rolled out a new review “badge of shame” and a new help document titled "Business Profile Restrictions for Policy Violations," introducing stricter actions for businesses engaging in deceptive review practices. Currently being tested in the UK, the policy…

Send us a text Google and Booking: The Symbiotic Gatekeeper Relationship in European Hotel Search - We dive into our recent user behavior research findings about hotel searches in Europe. We recruited 100 users each from Spain, France, and Germany, asking them to find hotels in Paris or Rome, and observed how they interacted with Google's search re…

Send us a text Google Review Fraud Landscape (10:04): Estimates that 18% of reviews across various platforms are fake. Home service industries, such as locksmiths, moving companies, and HVAC, are heavily affected. Legal sector is also impacted, with fake reviews prevalent among personal injury, criminal defense, and DUI lawyers. LSA Review Fraud (2…

Send us a text LSA Increasingly relying on GBP Features: We delve into Google's ongoing “fixes” of LSA features, where reviews and booking tools for LSAs are being integrated from GBP. This move is seen as an attempt to streamline operations and reduce costs, especially in light of Google's recent staffing cuts as well as improve LSA’s ineffective …

Send us a text Google's PR Smoke and Mirrors: Old GBP Phone Hacking Problems Persist Despite Promises: Spammers and scammers have been able to hijack business phone numbers on Google listings with alarming ease, despite Google's assurances that such problems were swiftly resolved. We conducted an experiment, changing a listing's phone number throug…

Send us a text The Role of Brand in Seo: We speak with guest, Mordy Oberstein on the role of branding in SEO, particularly how it has re-emerged as a significant factor in conversions and SEO. We explore the interaction between brand and user experience, and the introduction of Google’s emphasis on brand in its algorithms. Brand Differentiation and…

Send us a text Google's Local Business Service Woes: Persistent Bugs and AI-Driven Layoffs Spark Concern: There have been ongoing support and technical issues with Google Business Profiles. Major bugs affecting local business profiles have persisted for months and in several cases years, including image misassignments and overzealous suspension alg…

Send us a text Segment 1: OpenAI & MindTrip bring AI to search, will it matter? Last Thursday, OpenAI made waves with an announcement about Search GPT, a prototype aimed at revamping the search experience for ChatGPT users. Promising a two-column format, it aims to ease the search process and challenge traditional search engines like Google. The pr…

Send us a text SEOs need to reframe how search ranking works - click thru data being the most important factor: Click data is a cornerstone of Google’s ranking algorithm, as highlighted by recent DOJ findings. Google uses its heavy reliance on click data to grasp new trends swiftly as well as to “understand” page quality. Traditional SEO elements l…

Send us a text In this extended episode of the Near Memo, Greg Sterling , Joy Hawkins, Darren Shaw & Mike Blumenthal explore the role of generative AI and how it has evolved one year after CHat GPT was released. We cover: Experiences and opinions on the use of AI tools like ChatGPT in SEO and content creation. The effectiveness of AI in different a…

Send us a text Seattle surgeon pays $5 mil fine for review fraud; What responsibility does Google have? Allure Esthetics and its owner Dr. Java Sagan, were convicted of violating the Consumer Review Fairness Act. They forced 21,000 clients to sign agreements preventing them from leaving honest reviews and engaged in additional deceptive practices l…

Send us a text The big picture of review fraud - who does it and why: We explore the full range of review fraud from fake positive reviews, black hat negative reviews and review extortion with Curtis Boyd of the Transparency Company. How widespread is it, is it growing, which categories are most likely to participate in it and why. How to deal with…

Send us a text Leadferno: a better tools to capture website leads - Leadferno is a conversion platform designed to transform website visitors into leads through seamless communication tools. Unlike traditional chatbots, Leadferno leverages SMS to facilitate human conversations, which studies show is the preferred communication channel for most peop…

Send us a text Google Expanding Local Results in the SERPS to the Exclusion of Organic: While many SEOs have been focused on AI answers and how they are disrupting search, the story in Local search is different. AI Answers have yet to have any impact in Local but Google, over the past several years has dramatically increased their control & dominat…

Send us a text In this week’s podcast we discussed the evolution of zero-click search and Rand’s upcoming study with Spark Toro's clickstream data provider, Datos, to explore the impact of AI overviews and changes in zero-click searches across different regions. Rand argued for more stringent antitrust measures, drawing parallels between Google's p…

Send us a text GBP Chat is Dead, Long Live WhatsApp: Google nuked both Google Business Profile Chat AND Google Business Messaging last week in a typical show of disregard for the product and the businesses supporting it. This decision comes amid concerns over increasing spam within the GBP chat service, which initially launched in 2017 with high ho…

Send us a text Rand helps us explore the implications of the Google Web Search leak and how it impacts our understanding of how the search ranking aglo actually works This week we interviewed Rand Fishkin of SparkToro on the details and importance of the Google Search API leak. In discussing the “biggest leak of the last 25 years” we look at how it…

Send us a text New SAB Local Ranking Factor: Service area businesses have long been a problem on Google Maps. Spam, privacy, suspension AND ranking issues have plagued them since the beginning. Now it appears that there may be hope on the ranking issue. Historically they were ranked around the location from which they were claimed regardless of the…

Send us a text ChatGPT 4o Makes an Impression: OpenAI, not so subtly, introduced improvements to ChatGPT 4.0 just before I/O Google's event. The presentation was crisp and focused highlighting OpenAI's ChatGPT 4o enhanced speech capabilities and creative functionalities, such as summarizing audio streams shows and organizing the resultant notes int…

Send us a text Is Google Finally fixing LSA reviews? In a significant update for advertisers and businesses in the UK, Google has announced changes to its Local Services Ads (LSA) review system. Effective July 7, the existing LSA customer review URLs will expire and be replaced with URLs from Google Business Profiles (GBP), centralizing review mana…

Send us a text We're taking the week off, but here's an episode (#126) from the "vault" that we think you'll enjoy! Do Google searchers enter the Local Finder? Local SEOs wonder whether searchers actually enter the Local Finder from the Pack results. We often think no but our research indicates that not only do searchers enter the Local Finder on a…