{"id":730,"date":"2020-01-24T14:49:43","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T19:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/?p=730"},"modified":"2020-01-24T14:51:23","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T19:51:23","slug":"google-my-business-changes-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/google-my-business-changes-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Google My Business Changes in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your Guide to GMB’s 2019 Changes<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\"Image<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Image via Flickr<\/a> by edowoo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you own a business online, keeping up with\nthe latest updates is vital to your success. Missing even the minute of changes\nin the digital world can affect your brand negatively and lower your conversion\nrate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google My Business (GMB) has become an effective\ntool for businesses in all different industries, especially ones that focus on\na local target market. Read on as we take you through the most important GMB\nchanges to know on a month-to-month basis in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

January \u2013 March<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beginning the year of 2019, Google stressed the\nimportance of Google My Business profile messaging using the GMB app. Google\ndemonstrated what it takes to be eligible for a Google My Business page and\nservice areas were given a new sign-up flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this time, Google also introduced a few\nnew features to users. Google also made it so hotel operators can check-in\/check-out\ndirectly in GMB. They also initiated testing for AR map directions. Restaurant\nowners can now add a \u2018join waitlist\u2019 button to their page. New functionalities\nmade GMB friendlier for users who prefer working on a desktop. By the end of\nthe quarter, 43 states in the US saw Google roll out over-the-phone Google\nDuplex restaurant reservations. While this feature was first reserved for\nGoogle Pixel users, it is now also available to iPhone and Android users. Finally,\nduring this time, Google completed testing for automated review posts and took\naway service-area business addresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

April \u2013 July<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although not classified as ads, Google\nGuaranteed listings became a source for search engine\/Google Assistant business\nlistings during this time. Businesses are also now able to do testimonial and\nreview promotions. During this time, we also saw the introduction of end-to-end\nfood ordering and automated customer service, while using machine learning to\nexpose selected popular dishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google also provided users with more details on\nits fight against spam and included more GMB features to enable profile\nclaiming for local brands. This is also when we saw the \u201cget a note\u201d feature in\nbusiness Knowledge Panels and the testing of \u201cplace topics\u201d, collected from\nuser reviews via machine learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

August \u2013 December<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From August-December, hotels were enabled to\nupdate details about their amenities and services. Small businesses were also\nintroduced to bulk review management for reviewing and replying to multiple\nlistings\u2019 reviews simultaneously. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this time, Google also did some testing\non Local Campaigns involving evaluating competitor ads. We saw Local Finder and\nLocal Pack showcase Google Post highlights, but with no effect on\nranking. \u201cSearch by Photos\u201d was also introduced in mobile results which\nleads users to more star-rated photos. Results also began to show carousels\nwith local reviews, as well as auto-post creation from GMB photos.  This was followed by the implementation of\nprivacy controls and a feature that helped users of Google Maps to see\nrecommendations from local guides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local GMB results also featured a \u201crequest\nquotes\u201d button for businesses involved in its LSAs program. You\u2019d remember this\nfeature underwent testing earlier in July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, in December, we saw Google test the\n\u201cChoose Area\u201d feature allowing even more search area refinement for mobile\nusers at the local level. Businesses can also cite service areas in large\nmetros instead of creating a list that showcases different smaller service\nareas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google My Business is<\/a> an Important Part of Your Marketing Plan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these changes are highly important for\nlocal marketers but it\u2019s clear that Google has turned to machine learning as a\nway of boosting search relevance. It is also using AI to create auto-content to\nfit different queries and contexts while making results more visual for mobile\nsearchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let 313 Digital\nMarketing Help You Optimize Your Google My Business (GMB)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Sticking to GMB guidelines<\/a> and continuing to optimize your GMB site for your service areas should be an important part of your marketing plan. The local experts at 313 Digital Marketing are ready to help you optimize your Google My Business page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your Guide to GMB’s 2019 Changes Image via Flickr by edowoo If you own a business online, keeping up with the latest updates is vital to your success. Missing even the minute of changes in the digital world can affect your brand negatively and lower your conversion rate.  Google My Business (GMB) has become an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,18],"tags":[36,34,37,38],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/313marketing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}