Tag Archives: GMB

GOOGLE NOW DISPLAYS ‘REQUEST QUOTES’ BUTTON ABOVE MOBILE LOCAL RESULTS

Looks like Google is out to test another new feature on local results. Last month, a ‘Request Quotes’ button made a sudden appearance above the local pack on mobile.

Request Quotes Seems to be a Part of the Messaging Feature in GMB.

The ‘Request Quotes’ button appears to be in line with Google’s efforts to make Google My Business (GMB) an engagement platform. First spotted by Tom Waddington, this new feature allows users to simultaneously request quotes from multiple businesses, provided they all have messaging enabled.

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While any listing can appear in the initial 3-pack, messaging has to be enabled for a business to appear in the results that come up after tapping the ‘Request Quotes’ button.

Final Takeaway

As of now, it is not very clear whether Google has already launched this feature or if it is still in test mode. However, what we do know is that besides enabling messaging within the GMB app, it is also important that the quote requests are replied to within 24 Hours. Failure to do so may lead to deactivation, for not being able to keep up with the responses.

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GOOGLE HAS MADE IT EASIER FOR YOU TO PROMOTE POSITIVE CUSTOMER REVIEWS WITH GOOGLE’S SUGGESTED POSTS FEATURE

You can now highlight positive customer reviews for your business with ease. Google has rolled out a new feature that allows you to highlight the reviews from your happy customers. It’s called Suggested Posts: Customer Testimonials.

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Why is it so important to promote your businesses positive Google reviews with Google’s Suggested Posts feature?

Beyond being a possible ranking factor. As much as 91% of customers read reviews while shopping online and that is why reviews are one of the most important factors you should pay attention to when evaluating your online marketing campaign. Reviews not only help you generate trust among your prospects but also help you stand out from the crowd as a trusted business.

Customers prefer a business that has a healthy number of reviews & it increases the click-through rate (CTR) up to 25%. The more reviews a business has, the more customers they will get as good reviews tend to correlate closely with CTR. More eyeballs to your site mean more possibilities to convert those eyeballs into customers. 

Read our blog, “Reviews & Ratings Are The Most Prominent Local Search Ranking Factor” to learn more about the importance of positive online reviews.

Here’s an excerpt from Google’s announcement:

We’re happy to announce a new feature that lets you post automatically suggested reviews as customer testimonials.

In some countries, Google My Business will provide suggested posts to help you showcase positive reviews left for your business. You may get suggestions for new testimonials to post when you sign in to Google My Business, or via email notifications.

These posts are automatically suggested based on 4 or 5-star reviews recently left for your business. You’ll be able to review and edit the post before publishing it.

Below is an example of how automatically Suggested Posts: Customer Testimonials looks:

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Google Suggested Posts Takeaway

Positive reviews are exceptionally beneficial to your business and your bottom line. If you have a verified Google My Business listing, you can use Google posts to highlight positive reviews from your happy customers. This can help your business in so many ways.

Do not forget to constantly use Google posts to promote your events, products & offers. In case you are new to Google posts or thinking about how much value it will bring to your business, we highly suggest you give this article a read.

What Can You Do Now?

Allow our specialists to help! Our proprietary reporting, marketing & SEO dashboard is full of capabilities and it is FREE to all of our clients.

A few of our marketing dashboard capabilities include:

We hope this article helps you understand the importance of reviews and how you can better track, react, and promote your businesses online reviews.

Contact us today!

Email us @ info@seosolutions.us 

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YOU CAN NOW CREATE A SHORT NAME & URL FOR YOUR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS LISTING

Google recently launched a new feature that lets business owners create a short name to define their GMB listing URL. The intention behind rolling out this feature was to make it easier for business owners to share details with their customers as short names are easy to remember (duh).

This is obviously a very useful and smart feature because earlier businesses had to market the extremely long Google My Business URLs. Also, keep in mind that just like the Emails, the short names will run out very quickly, so make sure you hurry up and claim your short name before someone else does.

It can even harm you if you don’t act on time as your competitors may use those short names to their advantage. Here’s how it works according to Google:

If you’re a verified business, you can create a short name, or a custom name, for your Business Profile to make it easier for customers to find you.

When you share your short name, customers can enter the short name URL in the browser’s address bar, like “g.page/[yourcustomname]”, to go directly to your Business Profile.

Note: For bulk users, short names have to be claimed individually per listing.

Having a short name for your GMB listing will not only help you in sharing it but will also help you to get more reviews. Not to mention that it will be easy for your customers to remember those names so they are more likely to click on that link, instead of passing it away as just another promotional message/Email.

Head straight to the Google support page to know how to create, change and delete your short name. In case you spot someone else using your brand name or spot any offensive or spammy content, you can submit a report using this link.

We can not emphasize more on how imperative it is to use it and act as quickly as possible because there’s not a single reason to not use it. It will help you with a lot of your marketing efforts. So get started as quickly as you can.

The process is very simple, just follow these instructions.

  • Sign in to Google My Business.
  • Open the location you want to create a short name for.
  • From the menu, click Info and then Add profile short name.
  • Enter your short name. You can enter up to 32 characters.
  • If your name isn’t available, you’ll receive an error message and have to choose a different name. Try abbreviating your name or adding other descriptions, like your location. You can also pick another word that describes your business or brand.
  • Click Apply. Your short name will show as pending, and when it’s ready, it’ll show on your Business Profile.