Consumer behavior will always be a hot topic. As marketers, strategists, or decision-makers, understanding why people behave the way they do is not just fascinating but crucial for brand success. The online reviews business is hugely competitive. Reputation, as they say, is everything. Even on the research front, we increasingly see more consumer review reports enter the market. The Local Consumer Review Survey delves into all of the crucial questions. How are today’s consumers searching for and interacting with business reviews? Which review elements are most important to consumers, and how do online reviews measure up against personal recommendations? If you’ve been an avid follower of our consumer review research, you’ll recognize there are some questions we ask most years. This allows us to collect that juicy year-on-year trend data that shows how things may—or may not—be changing. But we also want to keep things fresh. The review landscape continues evolving, so we always aim to dig into the latest developments and bring brand-new insights to support your reputation management endeavors, be you a big brand, small brand, marketing consultant, or business owner. Here are just some of the key findings you can expect from the Local Consumer Review Survey 2024. Key Themes and Findings
Finding and Using Business ReviewsHow often are consumers reading online reviews?By asking how often consumers read consumer reviews during their business research process, we can get a clear picture of how important reviews are to their decision-making. The chart above shows that the percentage of consumers ‘always’ or ‘regularly’ reading online reviews has held fast over the last three years (75% in 2024 against 76% in 2023). Meanwhile, just 3% of consumers say they ‘never’ read online reviews, reflecting how ingrained reviews are in most consumers’ business research. Where are consumers reading online reviews?The review landscape has expanded in recent years, with many brands and apps incorporating review functionalities to support purchase decisions. In terms of ‘official’ review platforms, several long-standing sites are prominent in the USA (and beyond).
It won’t surprise many that Google remains at the top of the list for consumer review sites. The search giant is still, by far, the biggest review platform today. What’s more interesting is where we see a downward trend for almost all listed websites and directories, except for Google, Apple Maps, and Trustpilot. Despite remaining in the top three most-used platforms, Facebook and Yelp have seen decreases in percentage points over the years—3% for Facebook since 2022 and 9% for Yelp. The gap between the two has also become much closer in 2024, with consumer use of Facebook for online reviews overtaking Yelp for the first since time 2020. Back then, we noted that the dip in consumers using Yelp may have been caused by the impact covid-19 had on physical businesses like restaurants, hotels, and entertainment. It’s not entirely clear why the percentage of consumers using Yelp in 2024 is lower, however. The use of Tripadvisor and Better Business Bureau (BBB) has dropped significantly since 2022. Both platforms are typically known and used for industry-specific reviews: Tripadvisor for hospitality and entertainment business reviews and Better Business Bureau for professional trades and service-area businesses (SABs). As the most widely-used review platform, it could be that Google continues to eat the market share of other review platforms as it becomes more helpful to users. For example, Google and its business profile management product, Google Business Profile (GBP), introduced notable features over the last year that enable businesses in particular niches to optimize their listings. Price comparisons, booking availability, and business amenities are now prominent features of hotel business profiles, and SABs can set service areas and make specific services prominent on their profiles. Finally, Apple Maps and Trustpilot are the two platforms that beat the downward trend and show increasing consumer use instead. In early 2023, Apple announced Apple Business Connect, a late-coming rival to GBP. As we reported at the time, businesses have been slow to claim their business profiles, and a quick poll found that only 12% of consumers used Apple Maps over Google Maps. New features and an improved Apple Maps interface, including more appealing iconography to distinguish business types, could explain why we are seeing an increasing trend in consumers using this app. Meanwhile, while Trustpilot is an open review platform, businesses often invite verified customers to review their customer service experiences. These reviews are clearly labeled as ‘Invited’ or ‘Verified’. The increase in consumers using Trustpilot to read reviews could be related to a desire to read verified—or perhaps, to them, more trustworthy—reviews. How many sites do consumers check reviews on?Despite noting a downward trend in the use of some review platforms, we wanted to see how many sources consumers used to read reviews on average.
Less than a quarter of consumers only use one review site before choosing a local business. This finding is particularly significant as it reinforces the need to ensure your brand is represented consistently across multiple review platforms. When asking consumers for business reviews, providing them with several options is a good idea. As we know from the responses to the previous question, consumers have preferences and may have accounts with particular platforms. Giving them options and making the process as simple as possible can encourage them to leave reviews. Consistent Business Information Builds Trust Maintaining multiple review profiles is a key local marketing tactic. Not only does it ensure your presence on structured business listing sites (crucial for your local visibility and rankings), but it also means that consumers can find an accurate reflection of your brand wherever they look. In the Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023, consumers highlighted that correct and consistent business information was necessary for building trust with a business. Where else do consumers source business reviews?When it comes to reviews and recommendations, we have to acknowledge the importance of alternative sources, including the growth of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok for “unstructured” consumer reviews (i.e. reviews that don’t follow a dedicated review structure or scoring system). 2023 was a particularly interesting year for developments in these areas, with the introduction of Threads, the rebranding of Twitter to X, and the boom of generative AI. This is the first year we included ‘Threads’ and ‘ChatGPT/generative AI’ as responses.
Apart from YouTube, all of the sources we listed in 2023 have seen increases. Most notable is local news—an interesting source, as it could cover both digital and more traditional forms of media, including print, radio, and TV. Local news and community initiatives are classic local marketing tactics that can support your brand’s visibility in local areas but can also be effective for link-building. The increase in consumers using various social channels highlights the importance of maintaining your brand’s social presence. Being active and aware of these review alternatives will ensure you can find and respond to reviews and comments, engage with users, and maybe even win new audiences. Finally, almost 10% of consumers said they’re using ChatGPT or similar generative AI tools as an alternative source of review information. Considering the technology only burst into the mainstream in early 2023, and research in March 2023 found that 73% of consumers had not used generative AI, this is significant. Generative AI for Local Search In July 2023, we conducted a case study of several different generative AI tools, specifically in the context of local search. While a lot will undoubtedly have changed since then (e.g. Google Bard is now Google Gemini), there are some insights here on how to get your business cited by generative AI tools. How Consumers Interact with Review Platform FunctionalitiesWe’ve noted some of the improvements that Google has made to business review platforms to support visibility and show more useful information to prospective customers. Now, we will look at some of the features that make finding the right review content easier. For several years now, users have been able to use a search functionality within Google reviews to look for specific keywords and terms. More recently, it has improved filtering with ‘mentioned’ keywords, and now initially prioritizes the order of reviews shown on the default filter based on what it deems ‘most relevant.’ We provided consumers with an image of reference (below) and labeled eight prominent review features, asking consumers how useful they found each one when searching for business reviews on Google.
Clearly, all of the functions shown to consumers are useful in some way. The largest percentage of consumers who do not find a feature useful at all is 15% for a ‘highlighted’ review. From this, we can assume that consumers prefer to judge the relevance of the business’ reviews for themselves, rather than being guided by Google. 47% of consumers rated the ‘sort by newest’ function as ‘highly useful,’ which tells us that almost half of consumers consider review recency as important when deciding which business to use. Although this question is specific to Google review functions, it’s important to note that most prominent review platforms use similar features to support the user experience. The ‘sort by’ functionality is a standard tool across most digital experiences, while keyword filters and search functionalities are present on platforms such as Yelp and Tripadvisor. So, while we can only discuss the findings above concerning Google business reviews, it’s useful to consider how you can make review functionalities work for you on different platforms. Functionalities like ‘sort by newest’ and ‘sort by highest rating’ incentivize businesses to actively put more effort into their review profiles, achieving a regular stream of reviews if they know that’s how people filter. It also reinforces the importance of delivering excellent, memorable customer experiences. If there are things you want your brand to be known for, consider ways you could encourage customers to mention them in their reviews. Dog-friendly places or restaurant menus with particularly renowned items are just two examples users might be looking for. The Most Important Review FactorsWhat are consumers looking for when they’re browsing business reviews? Are they looking for a high number of ‘good’ star ratings, or are there other factors that would reassure them before using a business?
Overall, there is a downward trend in review factors helping consumers feel positive about using a business. This could suggest that people are less willing to take things at face value. There has been an increase in the percentage of consumers who said that reviews written by named users—as opposed to anonymous accounts—would make them feel positive about using a business. This points to a general sense of wariness around user-generated content and perhaps shows more digital ‘savviness.’ What star ratings do consumers expect to see?
At a glance, there is an upward trend in consumers willing to use businesses with ‘low’ (lower than 3.0 stars) star ratings, and a downward trend where consumers expect ‘high’ (higher than 3.0 stars) star ratings as the minimum. However, if we examine this further, the majority of consumers still expect a business to have a star rating between 4.0 and 5.0. This figure has remained static since 2022. The anomaly here is businesses with star ratings of 3.5, where we can see a percentage downshift of 6% since 2022. Could this suggest that consumers are now mistrustful of ratings that sit in the middle? If a business location has fewer reviews, its average star rating is likely to be skewed by an extremely low or high rating. An increasing willingness to give businesses with low ratings a chance suggests that consumers look beyond face value or are paying attention to review details to reach their conclusions. There is no denying, however, that businesses should aim for a minimum average star rating of 4.0. Does the number of reviews matter?So, how many reviews does a business need to have for consumers to trust the average star rating?
Interestingly, since 2023 there has been a very slight increase in consumers choosing the lower threshold of 0-19 reviews and a similarly slight decrease in consumers saying the number of reviews does not impact their perception. This hints, once again, that consumers will look beyond ‘at-a-glance’ numbers and ratings to make their own minds up. They don’t necessarily believe in the implied worth of star ratings or how many reviews a business has without reading into the details to verify their impressions. Almost two-thirds of consumers (59%) said that a business should have between 20-99 reviews in order for them to be able to trust the average star rating. So, while our findings suggest that consumers might be more willing to give businesses a chance, the majority expect between 20-99. Review Recency
Expectations of recent reviews is on the up, with 27% of consumers saying that reviews left within the past two weeks impact their decisions, compared to 22% in 2022. Reviews left within the past six months to a year are less likely to impact their choices. In most cases, it makes sense that this is the expectation. If consumers read business reviews, they want an accurate representation of the most recent experiences with that brand. This will be especially important for businesses within the hospitality industry, including food and drink brands or hotels. This finding highlights the importance of maintaining a regular stream of incoming customer reviews. A sporadic approach to review requests and followups won’t do, but a more robust reputation strategy or process can help. Build a 5-star Reputation Collect, monitor, and respond to reviews with ease
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Responding to Consumer ReviewsWe’ve been discussing review responses for several years, and our findings consistently showed that consumers expect businesses to respond to their reviews. 2024 is no different.
The chart above clearly indicates that review responses matter to customers. 88% of consumers would use a business that responds to both positive and negative reviews, compared to just 47% that said they would consider using a business that doesn’t respond to any reviews. Some consumers may see a business only responding to bad reviews as an attempt to save brand reputation without acknowledging the opinions of others. Similarly, consumers may see a business only responding to good reviews as just amplifying good feedback in order to gloss over the negative. Either approach can appear inauthentic, and consumers today are clearly pretty savvy when detecting this. As we know that review responses are an expectation in consumers’ minds, we wanted to find out if it was important when business owners respond to reviews.
A mighty 93% of consumers expect businesses to respond to their reviews! So, if this has not been a part of your reputation management strategy so far, take this as a call to action. Meanwhile, 87% of consumers said they expect review responses within two weeks, and only 4% feel it doesn’t matter when they receive one. This clearly shows how important timeliness is. Managing Reviews at Scale It’s not easy to keep on top of your brand’s reviews, ensuring those that need further action are in progress while responding to others, too. Reputation management software can make tracking this simple, so you can easily see when and where your new reviews are coming in and make notes to action them. BrightLocal’s Reputation Manager now includes Review Reply Templates. Now, monitoring your reviews and replying to them in one dashboard is easier than ever, with customizable templates. The Power of Generative AI in Reputation ManagementBack to the subject of AI… in this year’s survey, we wanted to test something a little different. We presented consumers with a business review sourced via Google. Then, we showed them two review responses and asked them to choose which response they would prefer to receive. Your turn! Which response would you prefer? Imagine your name is Jordan, and you have written this positive review for a Mexican restaurant: “My husband and I stumbled upon this gem for lunch. It has a funky, fun vibe we noticed as soon as we walked in the door. We ordered the chips and dip and brisket tacos. The food was all delicious. Our server, Bob, was very friendly and knowledgeable about the local area and surrounding areas. We had a pleasant experience and will come back next time we are in Louisville.” Which of the following review responses would you prefer to receive?
Jordan! We are glad to hear you found us tucked back before Whiskey Row. Thanks for the great review and we are so glad to hear Bob showed you a great time in downtown Louisville. Welcome to the Super Taco horde, we will see you on your next visit!
Dear Jordan, Thank you for your fantastic review! We’re thrilled you enjoyed our funky vibe and delicious food. Bob will be delighted by your kind words about his service. We can’t wait to welcome you back next time you’re in Louisville! What the consumers didn’t know about these options is that one (Response 1) was the human response sourced from a genuine business owner on Google, and the other (Response 2) was a review response that we generated using ChatGPT. 58% of consumers unknowingly chose the AI-generated review response as their preferred response! Of course, there are many reasons why someone might prefer the content and sentiment of one written response over another. When we considered the reasons behind their preferred response, it was interesting to note the sense of over-familiarity conveyed in response 1, compared to the more measured sentiment in response 2. Would you agree? We can’t say what prompted this finding, but it highlights an interesting use case for marketers who may struggle with crafting unique review responses at scale. Trust in Business ReviewsOne of the most prominent themes that reports such as this surface is the importance of consumer trust in brands. While brands cannot actively control the content of the reviews published by other consumers online, we know there are many ways to manage the reputation process. So, where do reviews sit in consumers’ minds compared to other types of recommendations? Reviews vs. Recommendations from Other Sources
The percentage of consumers who said they trust reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends has increased by 4% since 2023. It’s a significant finding, showing that half of consumers feel online reviews carry as much sway as personal recommendations. For this year’s report, we wanted to distinguish between social media influencers and local influencers—essentially, macro vs. micro-influencers. We wanted to learn: is there a significant difference between well-known social media influencers endorsing a brand and influencers within the local community? We found that the percentage of consumers who said they trust reviews as much as social media influencers has remained at 35% since 2023. 24% of consumers said they trust consumer reviews as much as local influencer recommendations. This could be lower than social media influencers as we tend to follow local personalities for specific recommendations, like restaurants and bars. If we were to examine the trust in macro and micro-influencers more closely, to look at businesses in different industries, the reasons might be much clearer. We can see a 4% increase in consumers who said they trust consumer reviews as much as professionally written articles since 2023. This suggests that they verify online reviews against the opinions from other sources they deem trustworthy. This could also show a sense of wariness in terms of trusting influencer-endorsed content. The Impact of Local Reviews on Big-brand ReputationAnother new question we had was how local branch reviews of big brands or franchises impact consumers’ choices, and whether this affects overall brand perception. For example, if your nearest McDonald’s branch has a Google star rating of 2.0, would you still use that store? And how would that affect your overall perception of the McDonald’s brand?
These findings are important because they show that marketers in big brands can’t afford to rest on their laurels in the hope that brand equity will win out. For more than a quarter of consumers, both of these things are true:
The power of local reputation to impact brand perception should not be underestimated, particularly if we consider the previous findings on how consumers trust personal recommendations from friends and family or those of online influencers. Fake Reviews and Suspicious ActivityThose in the reputation and local marketing game will know the perils of fake reviews. Even those who aren’t will likely have seen the reams of suspiciously gushing product reviews on e-commerce sites such as Amazon—generally known as the biggest culprit for fake reviews. As we’ve touched on in previous reports, and in our many resources on fake reviews, it’s a real industry problem. Most review and e-commerce sites take the issue seriously as a matter of policy, and Google in particular regularly takes strict action to prevent the practice. What kind of trends are we seeing fake reviews this year? Consumers are confident they’ve seen fake reviews across most platforms we asked about. Just 19% said they hadn’t seen any on the sites we provided, which remains static compared to 2023. Unsurprisingly, Amazon remains the top culprit for fake reviews. However, it’s interesting to note that, aside from Tripadvisor, Apple Maps, and BBB, the percentage of consumers who are confident they’ve spotted reviews on the other review giants has decreased. This could result from the efforts that platforms have put in to combat the issue in recent years, suggesting that there are genuinely fewer obviously fake reviews on these websites. According to Google, it removed over 170 million policy-violating reviews in 2023, 45% more than in 2022. Despite a lower percentage of consumers saying they’ve used BBB to read reviews in 2024, there has been an increase in the percentage of consumers who are confident they have seen fake reviews there (9% in 2024 vs. 5% in 2022). The platform itself has recently spoken out on the issue of fake and incentivized reviews, suggesting the practice is becoming notably widespread on different platforms. Can consumers tell if a review is fake?A fake review could be left for various reasons. Some businesses pay fake review sellers for positive reviews of their businesses and negative reviews of their competitors, for example. But fake reviews may also be written by disgruntled customers, employees, or even competitors! In some cases, people might write fake reviews to try to support friends or family, particularly if their business is struggling against negative feedback. With all these reasons in mind, the content and sentiment of such reviews can vary wildly. There may be a barrage of star ratings with no written context or review content that feels too unbelievably positive or negative, for example. So, which of these would make consumers suspicious that a review is fake? This year, we introduced the response ‘the review feels like it was written by AI’. Surprisingly, this answer came out top! 40% of consumers said they’d suspect a review was fake if they felt like AI had written it. It’s an interesting point because, as we know, there are plenty of legitimate use cases for generative AI in content writing. A consumer may feel unable to articulate what they want to say well enough and use generative AI tools for this. It’s also worth considering how, while standalone AI tools such as ChatGPT are available for anyone to use, generative AI is now being incorporated into other software and plugins. The Google Suite and Grammarly are just two everyday examples where generative AI can help predict and improve your writing, making suggestions based on tone and sentiment. The fact that consumers are collating AI with ‘fakeness’ suggests that there is a misunderstanding in terms of what the technology really is and does. Coupled with AI headlines entering the mainstream press, it’s easy to see how people might reach these conclusions. However, we also know from our review response test earlier in this survey that maybe consumers prefer the content generative AI can produce. Sure, they didn’t know that’s what they preferred, but it presents an interesting contrast in how consumers act vs. how consumers think. The remaining results highlight some big contrasts between 2023 and 2024. In 2023, consumers seemed confident that reviews with just ratings and no words would make them suspicious that reviews were fake (47%). This has decreased by 19% in 2024. They also seem less certain that seeing business owners suggesting a review is fake would make them suspicious of fakeness (19% vs 30% in 2023). Further, they’re now less suspicious of reviews from users without profile photos (17% vs 27% in 2023). As with the previous question on specific platforms, these responses could result from websites tackling fake review issues or consumers simply noticing fewer fake reviews while browsing. Alternatively, it could point to a greater sense of trust in online reviews. How Consumers Write ReviewsSo, we know how often consumers read reviews to support their business research and the elements they feel are most important to build trust. But how many consumers are leaving reviews themselves? Are they more likely to leave reviews for all experiences, positive or negative, or do they favor a particular type of review? What types of reviews are consumers leaving?While the numbers are roughly the same as last year, slightly more consumers have written reviews in the past year (73% vs 72% in 2023). The sentiment of these reviews has changed, though. The chart above highlights a positive shift in the percentage of consumers leaving positive reviews (38% in 2024 vs. 34% in 2022) and negative reviews (10% in 2024 vs. 7% in 2022). The percentage of consumers leaving both types of reviews has decreased from 33% in 2022 to 25% in 2024. This trend suggests a further waning of the ‘gray area’ between extreme personalities and opinions, as we’ve seen in political discourse over the years (though it would be too far a leap to suggest they’re directly related). Fewer people are being what you might call ‘balanced’ and leaving reviews for various experiences, and more are getting increasingly set in their ways. The good news is that, right now, there are more consumers only writing positive reviews than negative.
69% of consumers can recall leaving a business review after being prompted by the brand within the last year, vs. 60% in 2023. Coupled with this, only 12% of consumers said they were prompted but did not write a review, compared to 19% in 2023. So, we can infer that more consumers positively respond to review requests in 2024, even if they don’t always write them. What does this mean for your brand? Well, you may not always be successful, but it is absolutely worthwhile to ask customers for reviews. Nearly seven in every ten consumers will likely write a business review based on the above findings. So, if you aren’t currently asking, you are very likely missing out! As for how to ask them, and even when, that’s up next. Asking Consumers For Business ReviewsKnowing how and when to ask a customer to leave a brand review is tricky. Ask too soon, and they may not have had time to reflect on their experience; ask too late, and they may have forgotten about it entirely. Plus, let’s face it, we all get a lot of review requests these days, don’t we? Multiple prompts in a short window can be irritating, and email inboxes are overflowing with review prompts, promotions, and spam. So, how do consumers want to be asked for reviews? Methods of Requesting Reviews from Customers
Despite email being a busy place, 32% of consumers still say they are more likely to respond to review requests this way. The top three answers from 2023 are the same in 2024 (email, in-person, and social media), although you’ll notice there is a downward trend across all three. This finding, along with the 3% increase in consumers choosing ‘none of the above’ for review prompts, could point to a sense of review request fatigue. We’re all so used to being prompted to review transactions and experiences that it can run the risk of feeling meaningless. Brands need to make their requests count by using the right formats, making it simple (as we discussed earlier with the choice of review platforms), making their request stand out from the others, and timing it right. But when is “right”? The Window of Opportunity for Review PromptsWe asked consumers when they think brands should contact them with a review prompt, and provided seven different industries where this could differ. We’ve grouped hospitality, entertainment, and wellbeing together in one chart, as the industries share similarities in how their services focus on providing customers with experiences. Healthcare, professional trades/SABs, and real estate have been grouped in another.
‘Food and drink’ stands out as the industry where consumers expect the fastest turnaround for review prompts. Almost a quarter of consumers want these businesses to reach out on the very same day, although the majority would prefer between one and three days. For accommodation, entertainment, and beauty and wellbeing, we see larger proportions of consumers who think businesses should ask any time within a week. Our earlier discussion on review recency comes into play here. If you’re planning on visiting somewhere to eat, you’d expect to read about the most recent customer experiences with food and drink brands. It makes sense that consumers would expect these types of businesses to follow up quickly. The same might be true for recent experiences in the accommodation, entertainment, or beauty industries. However, consumers might require a slightly longer window to reflect on their experiences with these business types—for example, how well a particular beauty or cosmetic treatment lasts.
For healthcare, professional trades, and real estate, consumers would expect slightly longer windows before brands reach out to ask for a review, although within three days to a week is the sweet spot. 40% of consumers said they would prefer healthcare brands to ask within three days to a week. Given the nature of some healthcare services and procedures, it feels accurate that consumers wouldn’t want to receive prompts too soon after an experience. The key takeaway from these request findings is that brands need to be smart with their prompts, get the timing right, and avoid bombarding their customers at all costs. Remember, this is still a part of the transaction or experience, so annoying customers with endless review request emails could achieve an undesirable result. Incentivizing Customers to Write ReviewsNow, while we’ve included incentives within the following section of the report, it is crucial to note that BrightLocal does not endorse the incentivization of reviews in any way. We can appreciate that there is a lot of conflicting information out there and it’s easy to go down this route to attract more customers to write business reviews. What’s the harm of rewarding loyalty with a simple discount, right? Wrong, unfortunately. For brands and businesses that aren’t in the know—of which there are many, so if this is you, don’t panic!—it’s important to note that most review platforms prohibit review incentivization. The penalties for incentivizing or buying reviews can vary, including the disabling or removal of your review profiles, or having your profile labeled as one that has unlawfully incentivized reviews. Last year, we found that review incentivization is still sadly alive and well. Given the ongoing issues around the prevalence of fake reviews, we wanted to see if businesses were still going down the incentivization route in 2024. The results are… quite something. Not only is the practice of review incentivization up across the board but the percentage increases in consumers recalling being offered these incentives is significant. Increases in Review Incentivization: 2023 vs. 2024
It could be that such drastic increases in discounts or free gifts come from a lack of understanding of incentivization rules. As discussed, many businesses don’t know that these methods are prohibited on many platforms, and may have viewed discounts or free gifts as ‘harmless’ ways to reward loyalty. The fact is that incentivization encourages consumers to leave reviews that they might not have organically, and influences the content of the review—typically in the brands’ favor. Even if they are from verified customers, the reviews cannot be deemed authentic and trustworthy, therefore discrediting the entire system. SummaryWhile much of what was important to consumers in 2022 and 2023 holds today, some themes stand out in 2024. Firstly, it’s more apparent than ever that consumers are checking multiple sources for business reviews and recommendations, including those outside of traditional review platforms. It’s a pressing reminder that reputation management should be viewed as a strategy instead of a task; not something that can be picked up when there’s time. Reputation encompasses both digital and offline channels. Realistically, it should be a shared responsibility and actively factored into areas like social media and community management, email marketing, content strategy, and more. Next, brand marketers have to be more strategic with their review requests. Automation is a wonderful thing that can speed up tasks for us marketers. But without the human considerations of timeliness and providing customers with the choice of where and how they review, it remains ineffective—or worse, frustrating for consumers. Several findings hint at a sense of consumer apathy towards the expectation for them to provide reviews after almost every experience with a business. Brands must remain conscious and respectful of this when asking for customer favors. It’s a tricky balance, knowing that review recency is a particularly important review factor. Ultimately, with all things customer experience, the utmost focus should always come down to exactly that: delivering exceptional, memorable experiences. Give consumers a reason to want to write your brand a review actively; make sure they have things to talk about that others will find useful; be present across your reputation platforms (that includes the alternative channels, like social media), and always keep in mind how local brand experiences contribute to overall brand perception. MethodologyThe Local Consumer Review Survey 2024 was conducted using a representative panel of 1,141 US consumers via SurveyMonkey. Publications and individuals are welcome to use the research findings, charts, and data, provided that BrightLocal is cited as the author and the page URL (https://brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey) is linked to. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/4ImqoXa Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
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In 2021, I accidentally started talking about neurodiversity in SEO. I had no plan; I just happened to be on my own diagnosis journey for autism and ADHD and realised there wasn’t a lot of information available for others in the industry. I ended up recording a presentation used at two BrightonSEO events, and I haven’t stopped talking about it since. Three years later, there’s still work to be done. That’s why BrightLocal has supported me in writing this article all about how we can make the SEO industry more neurodivergent-friendly. Disclaimer: In the sections below, you’ll find some of my ideas about what more we can do, but it’s important to remember that many more areas of improvement exist outside of my own lived experiences. Speak to your neurodivergent peers, managers, and direct reports; you’ll learn much more. Every neurodivergent SEO will have their own needs and preferences. What actually is neurodivergence?You may already know about neurodivergence or heard the phrase “neurodiversity”. Very Well Mind explains that “neurodiversity is the concept that there are a variety of ways that people’s brains process information, function, and present behaviorally.” Within that, you have “neurotypical,” which refers to “someone who has the brain functions, behaviors, and processing considered standard or typical.” And then you have “neurodivergent,” which is the term for “people whose brains function differently in one or more ways than is considered standard or typical.” There’s a growing group of types of neurodivergence, but some that you may be familiar with include:
This isn’t an exclusive list; the umbrella of neurodivergence is wide. However, I recommend reading about any of the forms of neurodivergence in this list that you aren’t familiar with so you can start understanding more of your peers. I’m still learning something new every day. Neurodivergence in the SEO IndustryBack to SEO, more specifically. There are probably more neurodivergent SEOs in your network than you’re aware of! There’s now a whole community growing thanks to the founders of Neurodivergents in SEO, who have a Slack group and are starting to have a presence at industry conferences. Let’s move on and look at different areas which could become more neurodivergent-friendly. Working Arrangements for Neurodivergent PeopleIn the past, I’ve found office spaces to bring on sensory overload or just have too many distractions. As a freelancer, I can now work from home, in a coworking space, or in a coffee shop, depending on how I’m feeling on any given day. This isn’t possible for everyone with a permanent role, so a bit of flexibility can make a world of difference for some neurodivergent folks.
“A bit of flexibility can make a world of difference”
Flexibility may come in the form of hybrid working (some days in the office and some at home) or in working hours. I’m an early bird and like to get going in the morning, but over half of people with ADHD experience sleeping problems, so others would benefit from a later start to aid productivity. In the office itself, providing adjustable lighting, soundproofing, ergonomic furniture, and designated quiet areas where employees can retreat for focused work or sensory breaks could be welcome additions. Some individuals also need noise-canceling headphones or earplugs, so take a look at current office policies and make sure there isn’t a blanket ban on using these in communal spaces. Freelancing as a Neurodivergent IndividualOf course, not every professional in the industry works in a permanent role within an agency or in-house; we have a great number of freelancers and consultants, too. Having only gone freelance myself in early 2024 after 13 years agency-side, I asked one of my neurodivergent peers to give me their more informed insights as a longer-term freelancer in the industry. Meet Lois Neville, a freelance SEO copywriter: Lois Neville Freelance SEO Copywriter at Lois Neville SEO Copywriter “Having gone from in-house SEO to freelance, I’ve experienced different working perspectives in our industry. I’m keenly aware not to generalise my personal experience as to what it’s like to be neurodivergent working in SEO. But I’m hoping that, by participating in this conversation, action can be taken to make SEO a far friendlier place for neurodivergent people. And, importantly, give them a safe space to be their authentic selves. Disclosure is one of the biggest hurdles I’ve encountered. Weighing up whether to share my autism with a client is something I am still navigating. It takes an emotional toll to continuously say, “Hey, I’m autistic, and this means x, y, and z.” With the start of every new client prospect or relationship, it feels like a 50/50 gamble. You’re never quite sure what their reaction will be or whether you’ll even hear from them again. Having processes in place that make working with SEO freelancers generally more accessible—regardless if they’re neurodivergent—would relieve a significant amount of this pressure. If accessibility initiatives are in place from the get-go, people like me wouldn’t have to feel like they have to disclose to get the working conditions they need. Clients can be more proactive in ensuring that all SEO freelancers have everything they need to do their work. Such steps can include asking how a freelancer likes to work and their specific processes, agreeing on clear expectations from both sides, discussing suitable communication methods, factoring in scope for flexibility, and generally taking a more collaborative approach.” Neurodivergence and Job Interview NeedsIn the section above, Lois mentioned disclosure. I’m not here to tell anyone whether they should disclose their neurodivergence to an existing or prospective employer, as that’s a personal choice. But what I can help with is if someone has chosen to disclose this information before a job interview.
“Offer clear instructions about the interview process”
Regardless of neurodivergence, there’s one thing you can do for all candidates: offer clear instructions about the interview process, including what to expect, how to prepare, and any accommodations available upon request. If you’re able to offer flexibility, let candidates choose from a range of interview formats, such as in-person, virtual, or asynchronous options, to accommodate individual preferences and needs. You should also provide candidates with detailed information about the interview format, structure, and questions in advance. During the interview, think about offering extended time, breaks, or alternative communication methods. If you’re setting an interview task, send this in the candidate’s preferred format and let them send it back in the same way. For example, a dyslexic candidate may feel more comfortable sending a Loom recording than a written answer. Networking Events and Conferences Need Considerations for Neurodivergent FolkOn LinkedIn, I’ve shared a whole post just about being autistic at conferences, award ceremonies, and events. Many of the same things apply to office spaces, particularly regarding the environment and sensory overload. Some events already have quiet rooms, which is a great first step. But more could be done to offer more accessible routes that don’t have toilet queues, coffee/beer hurdles, or exhibition stands in the way. Networking can be hard for many people, so innovation in this area would benefit a large number of attendees, whether neurodivergent or introverted. Having alternative forms of networking could cater to more people, whether it’s building LEGO, playing video games, or maybe even a round of chess. Some people need to burn off energy, and others need to preserve it. This is Just the BeginningIt’s important that we understand the benefits that neurodivergent people bring to the industry without avoiding the necessary conversations about accommodations we should be making for them too. In the past, I’ve spoken about neurodivergent superpowers (the areas where neurodivergent individuals can have certain strengths), but I do that much less now in the fear that it over-glamorizes any form of neurodivergence and diminishes the struggles that individuals may face. But theoretically, neurodivergence should work well in SEO; we have roles that span analytical to creative, roles that are client-facing, and others that are not. Some people are managers, and others are consultants. Some are great at sharing stories on stage, others by podcast, text, or just through their day-to-day work. To turn that theory into reality means staying curious and informed and then making changes to nurture this and the next generation of neurodivergent talent in the industry. This article can be your springboard, but the next move is up to you. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/hK5kp4j Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
Join Andrew Shotland (Local SEO Guide), and Ross Kernez (Mavis) to learn more about the strategies and tactics needed for a successful local marketing strategy.
via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/udVlyaS Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Love it or loathe it, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has become the new reality in the analytics world. Embracing this change, BrightLocal is thrilled to present a gift to all marketers struggling to navigate GA4. Our latest course, “Google Analytics 4: Essentials for Local SEO ,” led by the expert Dana DiTomaso, is tailored for in-house marketers and SEOs at agencies, helping them unravel the intricacies of GA4 through a local SEO lens. Across the span of 22 informative lesson videos, you will:
Here’s Dana with an overview of the course: Like all BrightLocal Academy courses, you can strengthen your understanding through interactive activities and quizzes, guaranteeing a thorough grasp of the concepts. When completed, put your knowledge to the test with a final exam and show off your new-found skills with a shareable certificate. Who is this course for?This course is tailored for in-house marketers who need to use GA4 regularly, even if GA4 was set up for them. Additionally, SEOs at agencies without in-house analytics support will find valuable insights to enhance their GA4 proficiency. How can I join?Anyone can access this course, whether or not you’re a BrightLocal customer. You can also be among the first to find out when new courses drop by enrolling for free. Here’s how: If you’re a BrightLocal customer, you can access the academy via your BrightLocal account. Log in, click ‘Learning Resources’ at the top of the screen, and select ‘BrightLocal Academy’ from the dropdown menu. You must create a free BrightLocal Academy account before enrolling in the ‘Google Analytics 4: Essentials for Local SEO ’ course. If you’re not a BrightLocal customer, you can join BrightLocal Academy for free and follow the steps above to enroll in the course. Want to know more about BrightLocal Academy?Check out the official BrightLocal Academy FAQs here: What is BrightLocal Academy, how does it work, and how can I enroll? What courses does BrightLocal Academy offer, and how long do they take? If you have any questions of your own, feel free to get in touch with us or leave a comment below. We hope you find this fresh new course useful, and we can’t wait to hear how it’s helped you improve your local SEO skills. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/c3jKsyw Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ In today’s digital landscape, a Google Business Profile (GBP) is vital for attracting and engaging with local customers. To ensure that GBP is not just a placeholder but a powerful tool, you can turn to BrightLocal to help you supercharge your online presence. The Power of Google Business ProfileFirst, it’s important to emphasize why GBP matters. It’s often the first point of contact for potential customers, providing essential information about a local business, including location, hours, reviews, and photos. A well-optimized GBP can significantly impact local search visibility and customer trust. A study found it’s the top factor for ranking in the local pack on Google. Our research in 2020 also showed that 82% of local marketing experts agree that tweaking a GBP is a super effective way to improve your local search rankings. So, how can BrightLocal help you supercharge your or your client’s GBP? Let’s dive into the strategies and tools available: 1. Auditing for OptimizationAs well as being aware of what a critical tool Google Business Profile is, you’re probably also aware that Google doesn’t give away any competitor insights. For example, let’s imagine that you’ve just started work on local SEO for a dental practice in New York. You want to know why a specific competitor ranks above them in local search and what they need to do to outrank them. You head over to Google and search, but this is all you see: Without an intelligent tool, figuring out how to beat the competition and get into the top local results is challenging. That’s why we made our Google Business Profile Audit tool and Local Search Grid. They do all the checking and analysis you need. Once you’ve set up a Google Business Profile Audit report, you can ensure the accuracy of your listing and understand your performance. Ensuring Accuracy and Health of Your ListingOnce set up, the ‘Summary’ page of a Google Business Profile Audit serves as your primary dashboard for evaluating the overall health and accuracy of your GBP listing. Here, you can identify and eliminate any duplicate GBP listings associated with your business, scrutinize the consistency of Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) information, and identify and address essential local ranking factors. Embarking on these steps within the GBP Audit report not only ensures the accuracy of your listing but also lays the foundation for a robust and trustworthy online representation of your business. Understand Your GBP PerformanceYou can thoroughly understand your GBP performance by incorporating Insights into the GBP Audit’s report. Unlike Google Business Profile Insights, which only offers six months of data, GBP Audit extends its horizon to 18 months, providing a comprehensive and extended view of your listing’s performance. You can:
By utilizing the Google Business Profile Audit tool, you ensure the accuracy of your listing and gain in-depth insights into your GBP’s performance, enabling informed decisions for optimization and growth. Competitor InsightsLocal Search Grid provides essential data from Google Local Finder, offering insights into your competitors’ performance. For example, once you’ve set up a Local Search Grid report , you can see what primary and secondary categories your competitors are using. This allows you to ensure that you select categories that align with high-performing keywords and match those used by successful competitors. Learn more: Using Local Search Grid Reports to Get Ahead 2. Taking ActionCustomer reviews and GBP posts are crucial elements that significantly contribute to the credibility and utility of your GBP. Two BrightLocal tools can help you with these. Manage Your ReviewsReputation Manager enables you to monitor reviews, gather feedback, and address negative comments promptly. Helping you to cultivate a positive online reputation and attract more customers. Once you’ve created a Reputation Manager report, you’ll be able to keep tabs on all reviews from essential review sites, allowing you to observe the growth of reviews over time. If you also link your business’s Google Business Profile and Facebook accounts to the report, BrightLocal will automatically check for new reviews daily and notify you of any arrivals. With your report connected to your GBP and Facebook, you can conveniently respond to reviews directly from this report, streamlining the process and helping you stay on top of your reputation more efficiently. Managing your reviews is just the start. If you need help getting them in the first place, a tool like BrightLocal’s Get Reviews is key. It will help you grow your reviews and increase your star ratings. Schedule Google PostsGBP Post Scheduler makes managing your GBP much easier and simpler. It offers effortless scheduling, multi-location distribution, and AI content generation. Effortless SchedulingYou can set the perfect time for each post and decide when it should expire, ensuring a steady flow of content for potential customers. You can also monitor everything from one dashboard to keep an eye on what’s live, what’s scheduled, and what’s expired. Multi-location DistributionWhen dealing with a multi-location brand, there might be times when you want to share the latest national promotions with all locations at once. Instead of doing it individually, you can publish a post to multiple locations simultaneously, saving you hours of effort. It’s a quick and easy way to ensure consistent content across your entire network of locations. Craft Posts with AI-Powered Content GenerationInput a brief description of the message you want to convey, and within seconds, our AI writing assistant will provide you with creative content ideas to work with and enhance. Our Help Center has more information on how our GBP AI works. 3. Active SyncActive Sync helps you care for your GBP and other vital listings like Facebook, Apple Maps, and Bing, ensuring they’re accurate and up-to-date. Once you’ve connected your GBP to your BrightLocal account, you can set up additional categories, opening hours, the business description, and additional data, such as Google Business Profile Attributes, from your BrightLocal account and push them out to those listings. Once you’ve set Active Sync up, it will send you alerts when external changes are published to a listing. For example, if Google publishes a suggested edit, you’ll be notified rather than having to log in. You can accept or reject the changes suggested within the BrightLocal platform, which allows you to shield the listings from external edits and ensure their accuracy. Your Google Business Profile is a powerful tool for local business success, and when combined with the comprehensive suite of BrightLocal tools, it becomes an unstoppable force. By conducting regular audits, managing your reputation, and optimizing your online presence, you can stand out in local searches, attract more customers, and drive business growth. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/wJIW1gh Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/
Click to set custom HTML
Local Service Ads (LSAs) have become a staple in local search engine marketing (SEM). While they began as a distant cousin to traditional Google Ads, they’ve since found their place in both local PPC (pay-per-click) and SEO strategy. However, the mechanics of LSAs are a little more black box than traditional PPC. This post will provide some foundational understanding of the ad type and how to think of it in your marketing plan. We will be doing a more advanced companion piece that will dive into more specific questions folks face when running these campaigns, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled! What are LSAs?First and foremost, LSAs are ads. This means they require a budget to serve. While they benefit quite a bit from local SEO, they are still, first and foremost, an ad. They are charged based on recorded phone calls that last at least two minutes or messages that get sent through (if you opt-in to that feature) that come via the ad. Think of LSAs as business cards, allowing your customers to identify and communicate with you directly. They allow white and blue-collar professionals to appear at the top of the Google search engine result page (SERP) for queries relating to the specific type of business they offer. An LSA placement can appear on a mobile or desktop device and can include:
LSAs require you to choose whether you are open to more “general” inquiries or if you require the leads to be more specific. If you opt not to go for the volume of general leads, you retain the right to dispute calls/messages that do not align with the categories you select. Where do LSAs appear?LSAs can appear on all types of SERPS (and have been spotted in Google’s AI Search Generative Experience). That said, they are predisposed to have a higher mobile focus. This is because the main call-to-action is “call”. The user is presented with three ads on both desktop and mobile. At the bottom of the ad unit, the user can click or tap to view additional ads for businesses. The number of ads in a market and within specific categories can vary considerably. You might see only a few, or you might see dozens. It just depends on how many businesses are in that market category. The most ads I’ve seen after clicking through to view the entire list for a specific search is 100, so that may be the maximum. This is what you’ll be presented with if you choose to expand the ad unit on desktop: Which countries are LSAs available in?Currently, LSAs are only available in a small number of countries. These are:
Benefits of LSAs for Local BusinessesThere are many benefits to LSAs, though depending on your business model, you may be predisposed to value some more than others. They’re cheaper than traditional paid searchFirst and foremost, LSAs are typically cheaper than traditional paid search. This is due to their ad format. It’s not bound by the same auction as paid search is. As such, you might pay anywhere from 10-40% less per call/message lead than you would otherwise. However, before you fully commit budget to LSAs, it’s important to remember they don’t always show and can be subject to far more volume volatility than traditional search. This is why it’s typically a good idea to include them as part of a holistic marketing strategy. Your local SEO efforts benefit themThe second big benefit is that they draw directly from solid local SEO practices. You’re golden if you’ve set the foundations well for your Google Business Profile, structured your site well (i.e., easily crawlable), and are active in your review responses/acquisitions. If those things aren’t true, you will likely take longer to ramp up your LSA profile. Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Local SEO You only pay per leadFinally, LSAs charge based on recorded phone calls or messages. This is a huge benefit over most other marketing channels because you can pay per lead. However, if your intake/sales team isn’t able to respond to the leads promptly or you’re not able to service the volume, you won’t just lose money; you’ll begin to lose rankings for your profile. What types of businesses are eligible for Local Service Ads?When LSAs first hit the market in 2016, there was a huge waiting list to get onboarded. Now, it’s fairly straightforward, and most local verticals are accepted. So long as you’re a local business that accepts clients through lead gen (as opposed to software that would let a person sign up on the site or buy a product directly), you’re likely eligible. The main distinction is between white collar vs blue collar work (i.e., is this a professional service where the customer will likely come to the business or vice versa). However, eligibility varies greatly from region to region, as seen in the examples below. LSA Verticals in the US
The list for the UK, while made up of many similar verticals, is much shorter. LSA Verticals in the UK
If you’re in a region that doesn’t yet support LSAs for your industry, don’t despair. Google (and Microsoft) see the need and desire for this ad product and are constantly adding new regions and verticals. The full Google list can be found here. How LSAs WorkLSAs behave slightly differently from traditional paid search campaigns. Rather than bidding on keywords or audiences, brands designate services you are interested in. In doing this, you gain a far simpler targeting method but lose the ability to “outsmart” the algorithm through more manual intervention. Unlike Local Search Ads (the map pack), you do not appear automatically just for connecting your Google Business Profile. These ads don’t require keywords, audiences, or ad creation (like traditional search ads or Performance Max). They require you to either set up a separate account or allow your LSAs to share the same client ID (CID) as your existing Google Ads account. You’ll rank better or worse based on the information you provide, the bids and budgets you set, and how well you respond to leads. Getting Google GuaranteedSetting up LSAs is much simpler than it used to be; however, it still requires careful planning. You’ll still need to verify your ad account and go through a background check to get the Google Guaranteed component. What is Google Guaranteed?The Google Guarantee is a badge displayed whenever your LSA is shown. It sends a trust signal to customers. Google Guaranteed vs Google Screened Google Guaranteed is typically available for home service professionals and works regarding customer satisfaction. If a customer who booked service via a Local Services Ad is not satisfied with the quality of the work, Google might reimburse the customer up to the amount they paid for the service (with a lifetime cap per customer of $2,000 in the United States). Think plumbers, electricians, lawn care, and the like. Google Screened, on the other hand, is regarding business professionals. It is a badge of verification but does not come with the associated possibility of reimbursement. Only businesses that provide professional services, including law, financial planning, and real estate, are eligible for the Google Screened badge. It is only available for select verticals in the US and the UK. What You Need to Get Google GuaranteedThe background check component used to take as much as two weeks to complete. Now, it’s usually a matter of a few business days. You’ll need the following information to set up your LSA profile:
I find it’s best to collect the info you’ll need before you begin rather than trying to fix it once launched. This means setting up call recording numbers beforehand (use a non-dynamic number). LSA Best PracticeAs we discussed, you cannot do much to manage LSAs. However, the things you can do have a big impact. Consider your budget and bid aggressively early onFirst and foremost, your budget and bid will greatly impact how often your ad serves and where it serves in the LSA bracket. As a general rule, budgets should be set more aggressively than you intend actually to spend. This will give Google the room to ramp up while also ensuring you are competitive in the auction. For example, if you intend to spend $10K per month, the budget should be set closer to $30K-$50K per month during the first 60 days of the profile. Once your account is running, you can experiment with dialing the budget back. Experiment with manual bidsIf you’re struggling to get traction, you can experiment with manual bids, which will let you set more or less aggressive bids by the services you’ve opted into. While this usually isn’t ideal once an account is running and bringing in steady leads, it can be a useful tactic to help get the campaign going/improve performance during a slump. Be disciplined about the services and locations you targetOn the subject of services, it’s important to apply a disciplined approach to the number of services and locations you opt into. Profiles can’t really support all eligible services and markets—you’ll want to create multiple profiles to support multiple markets. As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to focus on no more than three main services and locations. This way, your budget can do the job you want it to do, rather than being spread too thin. While the three maximum is a good rule to live by, it’s also important to be practical. If you’ve historically valued leads the same and/or there isn’t enough volume for a service/location to get its own profile, it can be ok to include it. Just be aware that LSAs do factor proximity into ranking. Make sure your images include elbows (yes, really.)Finally, here’s a note about the images you use for your team members. Google has been known to disapprove of images that don’t show the elbow of the person in them. So make sure your headshot highlights at least that much of you. Monitoring the Performance of Your LSAsThe lead volume and cost are the main things to keep an eye on with LSAs. Lead volume is tracked based on calls and messages received. Reports will show you how many leads you received and how many you were charged for. You can also see a breakdown of new, active, and archived leads. Archiving a lead means it didn’t work out, so you couldn’t get the business. Disputing a lead means the lead flat out isn’t right. Disputing is a way to potentially get money back and teach Google that they need to amend the kind of traffic they’re sending you. Cost and cost per lead are shown in the reports section. It’s normal for lulls in the middle of the month and spikes at the end/beginning. This is due to Google doing its best to spend your budget. We also gained impression share in 2023. This means we can get useful insights into whether the volume we’re getting (or not) is due to competitiveness or lack of market. Get Started with LSAsLocal Service Ads are a powerful channel and are absolutely worth testing if you’re a local business. They have a “first person mover advantage” mechanic, so if you haven’t set them up yet, you may find main metros to be competitive. Consider targeting slightly outside the main metro, and don’t be afraid to restart a profile if it seems to be stuck. Don’t forget about Microsoft’s Bing. Microsoft launched a professional service ad offering that harnesses the same functionality as traditional campaigns. If Google is crowded, that’s a way to bypass the competition. via BrightLocal https://ift.tt/9biHuo6 Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ So you dove into Google Search Console (GSC) after reading “An Introduction to Google Search Console for Local Businesses,” or you took a look under the hood and thought, “That is just way too much search data. How can I make sense of it all?” Don’t worry, you’re not alone. That was one of the reasons I created a Looker Studio report to help break down and visualize the data in easy-to-understand chunks. The search data in GSC can be overwhelming, especially for many business owners venturing into GSC for the first time. But after following the steps in our first GSC post, we can now show you how to take a slightly deeper look at the search data from a more local perspective. (Not read the first post but eager to get advanced with GSC? No problem! Let’s dive in.) In this guide, I’ll show you how you can filter through the search data in Google Search Console to help you with:
Filtering the Search Data Using RegexWe’re mostly going to use something called ‘Regular Expressions’ (or ‘regex’) to filter the search data. What is regex?Imagine regex as a special kind of search tool within Search Console. It lets you zoom in on specific patterns in your website data, helping you uncover hidden insights about how people find your business online. Think of regex as a special search language that you write to tell Search Console exactly what you’re looking for. It’s like giving it a set of clear instructions to follow. In regex, instead of regular words, you use a few special symbols and characters to create these instructions. It might look a bit strange at first, but it’s not too hard to learn. When you apply a regex pattern, Search Console goes through your data and only shows you the parts that match your instructions. It’s like filtering out the clutter and zooming in on the important stuff. For example, if we want to find all queries that contain the word “local” or “near me”, it would look something like this:
What does it mean?
Example Matches If we looked at the search console data for a local restaurant we might see queries such as:
Note:
We are going to use the example above later in this post but let’s start with something a little easier. Let’s start with your local town/city and state It’s time to roll up your sleeves and dive into the search data. We’ll start easy and then increase the complexity of our regex filters. We’ll start by looking at how to filter the results just to show queries that contain just your town or city. The regex would look like this:
Just copy the above example and replace ‘cityname’ with the name of your town or city, but first, let me show you how and where we’re going to add it. Log into your GSC dashboard, and under ‘Performance’ choose ‘Search results’. Now, above the main table of search data, we’re going to edit the settings and apply our first filter. Select ‘+ New’ and then ‘Query…’ Select ‘Custom (regex)’ We now want to copy the regex example:
And paste it as follows: You will have replaced cityname with the name of your town or city. Now just click “APPLY”. Your ‘Queries’ table should now only contain the top queries containing the name of your town/city. Look at the search data and see what your customers are searching for that includes the name of your town. It can be very revealing. Well done, you’ve done your first filter using regex! Now let’s build on this. We’re now going to filter the search data by town/city and state. For example, my next example is going to use Atlanta, which is in the state of Georgia, which may also be written as ‘GA’. My regex would look something like this:
Note the use of the pipe ( | ) – the OR operator. Using this means that any of the three options, ‘atlanta’, ‘georgia’, or ‘ga’, can be matched. Now my search data will list any query containing the words ‘Atlanta’, ‘Georgia’, or ‘GA’. Local IntentIn our very first regex example, we used this example:
Now let’s expand on this just a little and include a couple more variations:
Example matches:
Context matters. Analyze queries within your specific industry and location. Intent can be implicit or explicit. Not all local queries contain obvious location terms. Tip: Increase the date range from 3 months to at least 12 months. This will increase the amount of query search data you are filtering and give you more insights. What questions are your users asking?Have you ever wanted to know what questions your potential customers are asking to find your product or service? Well, you can do so by using the simple regex snippet below. Just copy and paste the following, as we have done before.
You can now use the results from your search data on your website and GBP to:
Tip: You can always just trim down the regex and start with the what, where, when, and why.
You can adapt any of these patterns to include additional words beyond common question words. For example: Commercial Intent:
Transactional Intent:
Question and KeywordWhat if I wanted to know what questions were being asked that contained a particular keyword? For example, I have a personal injury lawyer and I want to know what questions are being asked concerning trucks. The regex for this would be:
Example Questions:
Just change the word ‘truck’ for the service or product that relates to your business. Company Name TrackingWith this regex snippet, you can gain valuable insights into your company’s online presence. By tracking trends in brand awareness, identifying top-performing pages, and even uncovering potential issues, you can use this information to improve your content, SEO strategies, and overall brand visibility. Pinpoint your company name variations. List all possible ways people might search for your company:
Replace placeholders with your actual company name variations.
Remember to monitor the results and adjust the pattern as needed, based on your specific needs and search trends. UTM TaggingIf you’ve been being a good local SEO, then you’ve been using UTM tagging within your GBP for many years now, for everything from your website links to GBP posts. If you haven’t, then read Claire’s guide on UTM Tagging for Google Business Profiles and fix that right away! You can see your UTM data quite easily within your GSC search data. However, because UTMs are associated with the page URL, we have to apply the regex to ‘Page…’ and not ‘Query…’. …and paste, as before:
Then, switch between the ‘Pages’ tab to see the top pages that are performing, and then switch to the ‘Queries’ tab to see which queries are producing clicks from your GBP. Tip: GSC and basic exports are limited to displaying a maximum of 1,000 rows of data per report (property). This can be frustrating, especially for large websites or specific scenarios where you need to analyze more data points. A workaround to get more data is to create more properties for the same website. In the example below, I’ve created six properties for different sections of the site. This way we’ll get 1,000 rows of data for each property and not just 1,000 rows for the whole domain. Verification is easy once the main domain has been verified. ConclusionFor local businesses, mastering regex can unlock a hidden vault of Google search data about your customers. But like any powerful tool, precision and ongoing adjustments are key to keeping up with evolving marketing goals and staying ahead of the game. I hope these regex examples prove valuable. Should you have any questions, please reach out to me on X (formerly Twitter). Additional GSC Resourcesvia BrightLocal https://ift.tt/RO9ToWi Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ Do things ever quiet down in December? In the search world? Are you kidding? As we wrote about recently, at the start of the month, Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky caused a slight thunderclap in the local search world. She announced a new local ranking factor: opening hours. You can read the thread of events in the piece linked above. But with such heated discussion on the matter, and only several small-scale tests conducted so far, we wanted to carry out a study with a greater breadth of business types, covering various US states and timezones. So, we took 50 business locations across 10 primary business categories and used BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid to analyze their local rankings outside of their listed opening hours and during opening hours. Study MethodologyFive businesses were chosen at random within each of the following primary categories, for a total of 50 locations. We selected a variety of business types to reflect different searcher intent. Business categories:
Each location was set up in Local Search Grid, using the following criteria for the report: Grid size: 7 x 7 Note: Grids were only adjusted if automatically placed over large bodies of water, national parks, or rural areas etc. Reports were run manually, twice a day for three days: once outside of business opening hours and once during opening hours. Exceptions are marked where some businesses are listed on Google Business profile as open 24 hours or have no opening hours associated. Local Search Grid Study ResultsThe charts below show the average local ranking for each primary category outside of business hours against their open hours. This average looks at all keywords tracked in the Local Search Grid reports. Across the board, it’s clear to see that Local Search Grid reports run during each business’s opening hours reflect higher local rankings, on average. The primary category ‘Fast food restaurant’ appears to show the biggest fluctuation, with local rankings improving by 2.4 positions on average during opening hours. However, if we compare these results with some of the previous tests conducted in recent weeks, the fluctuations we see are much less severe. While previous tests have shown dramatic fluctuations between reports for individual business locations and specific keywords, taking the average across a list of 10 keywords reflects a more steady variation. We can look in more detail at some of the business categories and show their results day by day. Open vs ClosedCoffee ShopWith the exception of Coffee Shop #3, each coffee shop business in the chart above reflects a fairly steady result across three days and shows higher local rankings during open hours. Although we did not use any navigational keywords for the coffee shop report (i.e. ‘coffee shop near me’), it does make sense that a coffee shop listing would be prioritized higher in local rankings if it is open when the user is searching. This doesn’t necessarily mean it is the most helpful result. As we’ll discuss later on, there are plenty of reasons a user might be searching for something like a coffee shop other than to visit it in the immediate future. DentistWe have included the above chart for Dentist here, as you will note that Dentist #1 and Dentist #2 offer slightly differing opening hours and are closed entirely for some days of the study. For example, Dentist #1 was closed on Fridays and Dentist #2 closed on Wednesdays. We continued to run manual Local Search Grid reports in the timeframe they would normally be open (10am CST for Dentist #1 and 9am EST for Dentist #2) to note what happened to local rankings. We can see here that their local rankings during the day—when other nearby dental practices are likely open and operating—drop much lower than their typical local rankings outside of normal practice hours. Businesses set to ‘Open 24 hours’Some locations selected for the study are listed on Google Business Profile (GBP) as ‘open 24 hours’. So, it’s interesting to compare their local rankings to similar businesses listed with standard business opening hours. HVAC ContractorFor HVAC Contractor #3, despite being listed as ‘open 24 hours’, we ran the reports at two different times of day (8am and 10am PST) to determine any fluctuations in local rankings. As you can see above, this remained steady across the three days at 3.5, except for one result showing an average of 3.6. However, Contractor #4 also shows a good level of consistency in its local rankings across the three-day study. It also maintains an average local ranking of around 2, so it does not appear that setting opening hours to ‘open 24 hours’ necessarily gives an advantage for better rankings. Real Estate AgentFor real estate agents, it does not look like setting opening hours to ‘open 24 hours’ helps maintain consistency in local rankings. Both Real Estate Agent #1 Real Estate Agent #3 show fluctuations across the three days. It’s not clear why this might be from just these results, but I do wonder if Google has somehow weighed up the legitimacy of these business opening hours. It makes sense for service area businesses to work outside of standard hours and on an emergency basis, but real estate agents? It feels a little bit like a ploy to be more visible on GBP (see also: Lawyer in Appendix). What if there are no opening hours listed on the Google Business Profile?Movie TheaterIt’s interesting to note that some business types appear not to show any opening hours on their GBPs as a sort of ‘industry standard’. We found that this was the case with the category ‘Movie theater’, which makes sense given the changing nature of movie releases and schedules, as well as one-off screenings such as late-night premiers. But would local rankings be penalized as a result? These results are particularly compelling as they show that movie theaters do not appear to be affected at all by using opening hours as a local ranking signal. It could be the case that each business has opted to show as ‘Open with no main hours’ as per the GBP editing screenshot below, and that they are technically shown as ‘always open’. However, a quick Google search for three of the five movie theaters’s names plus ‘opening hours’ does return an immediate snippet-type result by Google. So, it’s not entirely clear if Google is pulling this from other business listing sites like Yelp. Either way, it does not appear that any of the movie theaters are impacted by the existence of opening hours. ElectricianAs with the movie theaters, Electrician #1 has no opening hours listed on its GBP and is not ‘open 24 hours’. We ran two LSG reports a day, at times when most electricians would typically be closed (6am HST), and when they would typically be listed as open (8am HST). In this instance, as we saw with the dentists that were closed on typical days you might expect to be able to visit, it appears the local rankings suffered more for Electrician #1 at a time when searching for an electrician is deemed more common. Electrician #4 appears to follow the same pattern as discussed with HVAC Contractors listed as ‘open 24 hours’ and shows consistent local rankings throughout the study. What do these results mean?As of December 15 2023, Google Search Liason confirmed that Google has long used “openness” in its local ranking systems, but that it has recently become a stronger signal. However, given such polarized reactions within the local search community, this may change if Google decides to ‘dial back’ the signal strength.
And there are plenty of reasons why they should dial it back. Although for navigational queries or searches that demonstrate the intent of wanting/needing something ‘right now’, it makes sense to prioritize businesses that are open and available to you in that moment, there are a whole host of other reasons why people may be researching different businesses outside of typical open hours. I, for one, am an avid food researcher when I travel. I could be looking for brunch, lunch, street food, or dinner establishments in another European country at any given point in the day, weeks before I’m due to visit. For professional services such as law and real estate, or healthcare like dentistry, a prospective customer will likely be doing their research in several stages before deciding to book an appointment or instruct a professional.
As we stated in our previous write-up, it’s important not to make any drastic changes to your business’s GBP as a result of what we’re seeing currently. At the very core, your business information should be accurate so that it meets your customers’ needs and provides them with the most helpful and useful information. A refresher on managing your business's opening hours in GBP. As we found in the Local Business Discovery and Trust Report 2023, 62% of consumers would avoid using a business if they found it had incorrect business information listed. The report also delves into how things like incorrect opening hours can affect their trust in a business, therefore potentially damaging a business’s reputation, and even highlights the industries in which information like opening hours are deemed as most important to consumers. So, for the sake of a couple of ranking positions that may or may not fluctuate throughout the day, and may also change if Google does re-evaluate the signal strength, please ask yourself: is it really worth it to mess with your opening hours?! SummaryFor full study data, including the local rankings for each business category across the three days of the study, you can find the remaining charts in the appendix below. Publications and individuals are welcome to use the study findings, charts, and data, provided BrightLocal is credited and linked to via this page’s URL. If you have any questions about this study, or what the results mean, please do not hesitate to contact us via X (formerly Twitter), The Local Pack, or by emailing us at [email protected]. AppendixKeywords
Day SpaDepartment StoreFast Food RestaurantLawyervia BrightLocal https://ift.tt/AyVdbaJ Check out more SEO posts onhttps://seouk41.blogspot.com/ |
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