Yelp launches “health and safety measures” community feedback feature
Yelp launches new rating feature for community to leave feedback on local business social distancing and mask compliance.
Topic: Yelp
SEO year in review 2020: COVID forces platforms to adapt their local and e-commerce offerings, and more
Even a pandemic couldn’t slow down developments in the search industry. Here’s our recap of the year’s most important stories and news.
Even as more people shop online, searches for ‘available near me’ up over 100% vs. last year
Google's Reena Nadkarni explains what retailers can do to drive local sales.
Take a peek into PPC routines during Cyber Five week
After all the preparation, here's what paid search and social marketers will be doing this week to manage their holiday campaigns and promotions.
Tripadvisor launches new listings, reputation and data products to help hotels and restaurants gain insights, boost visibility
Restaurants and hotels have been hit especially hard during COVID-19.
Does the Google antitrust case make an Apple search engine more likely?
The DOJ may cause Apple to accelerate plans for its own engine.
Holiday 2020 is do or die for many SMBs
Small businesses need to focus their marketing on key consumer sites, especially Google, for survival into 2021.
DOJ antitrust suit: Google uses contracts, market power to neutralize rivals
Google thinks it will win but the DOJ used these arguments successfully before.
Google Search gets deeper into the ‘real-world’ with Busyness, Duplex and AR in Maps
Building the data bridge between online and offline.
Yelp introduces new ‘business accused of racist behavior’ consumer alert
Well-intentioned initiative might be problematic in some cases.
Congressional report blasts Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook as monopolistic ‘gatekeepers’ of the digital economy
Breaking up these companies will apparently be on the table.
Yelp brings Ads Dashboard into Yelp for Business, debuts new ads features
Advertisers can now optimize for goals such as phone calls, website visits or messages, add negative keyword targeting and more.
Google rolling out video appointments, online classes to local business profiles
The booking can occur through GMB but the class or consultation won't happen on the business profile.
Facebook Business Suite is a new cross-app management tool for SMBs
Seeks to bring simplicity and centralized control to content management on Facebook and Instagram.
Local businesses can highlight COVID-19 ‘health & safety’ measures with Google My Business
The attributes should start appearing in Search and Maps soon. They are intended to give consumers confidence and manage their expectations.
Apple Ratings is coming to iOS 14, how disruptive will it be?
The company may use device location to ensure review integrity.
Voice SEO: Different tactics required for Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa
Study by SEMrush found only 1% overlap in answers to the same voice queries across platforms.
Yelp’s updated ‘Request a Quote’ and new ‘Nearby Jobs’ provide lead-gen for SMBs
No longer merely a 'review site,' Yelp repositioning as a 'one-stop local platform' to communicate and transact with local businesses.
How to optimize your Google local Knowledge Panel
Turn your local business profiles in the search results into portals that can deliver customers right from your listings.
Majority of chains call local-digital marketing an ‘untapped opportunity’
But 77% of multi-location brands complain executing locally at scale is very challenging.
Google adds ‘last updated’ hours notification to GMB profiles
The move, maybe temporary, is designed to give consumers confidence the information displayed on business profiles is accurate.
COVID-19 is the asteroid that struck American small business
Billions will be lost to digital marketing if SMBs close their doors.
Google offering ‘upgraded’ GMB profile with Google Guaranteed badge for $50 per month
Google tested the idea of subscription-based services for GMB in April 2019.
With new ‘pilot program,’ Google again testing ads on local business profiles
The ads can't be removed or influenced by the business owner.
TripAdvisor, Yelp and others highlight venue safety, an emerging consumer decision factor
Cautious consumers want more information about COVID-19 precautions.
Nextdoor rolls out free Business Posts, best practices advice
Nextdoor is slowly building out a suite of paid and free promotional tools for national-local brands and SMBs.
Yelp offers upgraded COVID reopening tools for local businesses, restaurants
The company is also modifying Waitlist to help restaurants to better manage capacity during mandatory social distancing.
New Google My Business features aim to help SMBs pivot and survive COVID-19
The new tools and capabilities mirror the expanding role of GMB as a gateway to both offline and online services.
Let’s hope COVID-19 isn’t a ‘mass extinction event’ for small businesses
SMBs spend billions annually on digital advertising and marketing services.
More missing Google My Business reviews appearing as publication speed picks up
Google is now posting user reviews and photos in all countries and the vast majority of business categories.
Shopify launches post-COVID POS, Yelp rolls out omnichannel tools for SMBs
The companies are part of a shift toward deeper integration between online and offline operations.
Destructive impact of coronavirus on SMBs greater than an ‘economic hurricane’
Yelp analysis finds the devastation is 4X the magnitude of the biggest economic shocks of the past decade.
Fake reviews problem is much worse than people know
Like a virus it infects all the major review sites, especially Google and Amazon.
Chapter 7: User context signals & search engine rankings
Search results for a given query can vary from user to user. It’s not that everyone sees completely different results. Instead, everyone sees many of the same “generic” listings. But there will also be some listings appearing because of where someone is, who they know or how they surf the web. Search engines also try […]
Chapter 9: Emerging verticals in search
Search has expanded well beyond the traditional results page. New to Search Engine Land’s Periodic Table of SEO Factors is a look at emerging verticals within search. Voice, image, local and video search offerings provide users with options for locating information in the manner they prefer. These emerging verticals do not require a completely different […]
What location data can tell us about the COVID-19 pandemic
Tools used for ad analytics can provide enormous social insights and even speed recovery, but they require clear safeguards.
Should you continue to solicit reviews during the outbreak? Local SEOs disagree
There are a mix of considerations, on a spectrum from idealistic to pragmatic.
Yelp announces fundraising partnership with GoFundMe to support local businesses
Donate buttons will appear on profiles in selected categories by default.
Corona to COVID: How Google’s ‘corona’ results page has evolved
In less than a month, the SERP has shifted from brand results to one focused on the coronavirus outbreak.
Google temporarily disables local reviews
The company has hit pause on review creation or responding for now.