🌴 A Note From The Jungle
This week we talk about new GBP functionality and take a look at the new fake review labels that Google is rolling out in the US on affected profiles. Plus a couple of interesting link from around the search world.
🦍 Ask GMB Gorilla
Hey GMB Gorilla…why does it seem like all of Google’s focus these days are on improvements for hospitality and restaurants?
Howdy human! You know not too many ask about this, but I can tell you’ve been paying attention to the official Google Business Profile accounts online. While we have no official information from Google (outside of their own releases) about what features they are adding, improving, or removing, we can certainly speculate what’s driving this.
Hospitality and restaurants are two huge search verticals where billions of dollars are spent. Some of Google’s biggest competitors for their local products happen to be vertical integrators in the spaces - sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc compete with Google for eyeballs and ad dollars. Most forget that Google does have competitors for attention and dollars, but they do exist (even if smaller). If Google wants to keep attention and increase those ad dollars, they need to make the platform more compelling for both users and advertisers.
Google Business Profiles are a function of Google Maps which unless you’ve been living deep in the jungle should already know is an app used to navigate to places. This is one of the reason Google wants to prioritize physical places. It’s likely users of the Maps app will want to go there. Given how many people are getting directions to bars, restaurants, hotels, etc it makes sense that Google wants to make sure the user experience for those searching in these verticals is better than alternatives.
Google invests where there is the most activity and the reality is even the most popular service area business profile rarely comes close to the amount of interactions a bar, restaurant, or hotel gets during any given time period.
The reality is that service area businesses are a secondary priority on Google Maps and feature wise when it comes Google Business Profiles. If anything Google wants to drive service oriented businesses towards Local Services Ads.
We wouldn’t bet on Google doing more to help users looking for service area businesses on the map (or owners wanting to maximize their visibility) by way of new features. They’ve got limited resources, and so many other areas they need to put them into.
That’s not to say you can’t be successful, increase visibility, and get leads…it just means Google isn’t going to make it any easier for you.
🌴 Jungle Watch
Google now sending out rating and reviews restriction notifications
Google is now sending notices when profiles are in violation of their fake engagement policy and restricting the review functionality for a 30 day period.
Google has been cracking down on fake reviews: Even though it seems like fake reviews are on the rise, Google has been continually working to crack down on fake reviews. This latest move has them now sending out notices to Profile owners and managers if they have been found to be in violation of Google review guidelines. Affected profiles have the ability to file an appeal.
Google is trying to slow down bad actors: Google (and customers) know businesses are buying fake reviews, competitors are buying fake negative reviews, and that most businesses getting reviews from actual customers probably aren’t following Google’s rules. The sum of this hurts the value of reviews in consumer decision making, which in turn makes Google search less trustworthy.
Google wants consumers to trust them: Google doesn’t want fake reviews (positive and or negative) because it will eventually result in consumers not trusting the ratings and reviews on GBPs - a big reason that people have generally interacted with the profiles in the past. If consumers stop trusting Google and the information on Google Business Profiles, it will impact Google’s bottom line. Of course they don’t want that.
This isn’t going to stop fake reviews, but publicly outing companies participating in fake review efforts certainly can act as a strong deterrent. Especially if Google systems around this are accurate. While we think this is a great move overall, we do have concerns about false positives hurting businesses reputations given our experiences with Google’s other AI automated systems for GBPs.
🍌 Banana Bites
Google is still 210x bigger than ChatGPT in search 🕵️ Search Engine Roundtable
Google Business Profile suspensions are on the rise 📈 SE Roundtable
Local Pack appearing at the top of shopping search results. 🛒 SE Roundtable
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Did You Know? The genus Gorilla is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringer) and the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla). 🦍
Till next time,