Not only are they still important, but they’re still misunderstood, whether that’s by the businesses that need them or the agencies that are trying to sell them. Many big SEO agencies still don’t understand the real difference between local SEO and traditional SEO, for starters, let alone why local citations and business listings are still more important for some businesses than they are for others.

But, here’s the thing, there’s an art to selling these services to stakeholders or clients. You need to sell the value, without overselling it. As experts in selling citation-building services and listing management, with years of experience, we know a thing or two about the mistakes people make.

So here’s how to do it properly.

6 Tips for Selling Local Citations Services and Listings Management

1. Educate, Educate, Educate

So let’s start with the truth here: many people simply don’t know what local citations are, or why they form part of a strategy.

We often find this to be true of both the businesses themselves and those that are doing the selling. A few people understand the concept, but then don’t understand the importance, or why they’re still useful in 2023.

The simplest thing to do is to educate. People talk about listings, citations, links, and Google Business Profiles… but they don’t understand the differences between them.

2. Don’t Sell Listings and Citations as Link Building

The truth of it is, many businesses are completely mislead when it comes to local citations.

A lot of people still talk about business directories like they’re link building. Sure, back in the day if you added your site to a hundred directories it was part of your link building campaign. But citation building isn’t quite the same thing. Yeah, links are involved, but there’s more to it than that.

Tell your clients what listings are and what citation building actually is and cover how it differs from link building. If you don’t know yourself, then read about local link building here.

Remember, they’re not links in the traditional sense, so they shouldn’t necessarily be used as link building. This means that when you build citations, if you’re buying a batch from a service like BrightLocal, they’ll all come through across a short period of time.

Agencies in particular have a habit of asking to buy batches so they can report on supplying clients with a certain number a month.

So, if you’d hoped to pay a one-off fee and then trickle out links to clients over a number of months, you’re looking at the wrong thing. Get out there and build actual links.

3. Don’t Oversell Them, and Be Honest

Citations aren’t going to take your client to the moon, so stop telling them they will.

We regularly get asked the classic SEO question “How quickly will this make me rank number 1?”, which further highlights both a misunderstanding and a complete misrepresentation of listings to businesses.

Citations and listings won’t propel your business to the top of the local rankings. But they will provide you with a solid base to build from. Google generally prefers businesses to have a solid listings profile so it can verify information about your business. It’s simply the first rung on the ladder.

Being dishonest with your clients is just going to lead to anger or disappointment when the work you deliver doesn’t fire them to the top of the SERPs as you promised. But it doesn’t mean you can’t show them real value.

4. But Really Show the Value

This makes it sound like there’s no point in building citations and listings in 2023. But the reality is they offer so much more value than just a link.

We have a lot of experience at selling in the true value, to help agencies and their clients really understand what it is they’re buying.

For local citations, we find that the true value comes in highlighting the brand perception. You need to make sure your external listings are all accurate—if you have name, address, and phone number (NAP) inconsistencies, it’s going to look bad to prospective buyers. Actively building your own citations and managing them will help your information stay accurate.

Sure, that takes a lot of time and effort, but it’s where services like Citation Builder and Active Sync come into play.

If you’re selling in more advanced listings management services, outside of just a one-off citation-building campaign, then things can get a little more complex. The value is still a great place to start, though.

5. Consider Angling Citations and Listings Differently

When we’re talking to potential clients we often find it easier to make these two things different.

For building citations, the conversations we have usually focus on the following:

• Getting to the bottom of the problem. Is there missing or inaccurate information? Is it causing poor brand perception?
• Is there a knowledge and time gap? Often one feeds into the other, a lack of understanding makes the job seem either pointless or like too big a task.
• It’s rarely about SEO. People usually come to us saying “Oh $#!+, something’s wrong and it’s affecting the business”.

For listings management, we center conversations around the following:

• We use the engagement and authority layer that ActiveSync targets.
• We highlight that these layers build a really solid foundation and are the first step everyone has to take.
• With our own system, we can highlight that businesses get access to their listings permanently, which is a real bonus to be able to sell to prospective clients. This is something to consider as a real bonus when you’re selling them yourself.
• Once these important listings are built, there’s always an option to bolt on the maintenance layer when it’s applicable. Interestingly, despite being a bolt-on, clients tend to want it.
• We know people don’t go to page 6 to find a MerchantCircle listing, for instance, and we’re open and honest about that.

6. Audit Your Potential Client’s Current Standing

Before you even start selling though, you need to get prepared. The most critical thing to do is audit your potential client’s current standing in terms of local citations and listings.

It’s no use approaching someone if they’ve already got a flawless listings profile. But the truth is that many local businesses don’t.

Highlight the issue and you’re on to a winner. Do something like this:

• Understand where they are performing in terms of share of voice. Are they getting the catchment on the keywords they are interested in?
• Look at their existing citation profile – use this using a tool like Citation Tracker or other citation scanning tools.
• Then go to them and show them the inconsistencies. Highlight it and ask them whether they know, then emphasize the negative impact these inconsistencies could have.
• A frequent response here is “Arrrgh what happened here???” followed by a bit of a panic.
• If they don’t rank, ask them when they ever last looked at this
• After you’ve looked at their citation profile, do a deeper audit based on industry and geography. This will help them see the opportunities against their competitors.

What else is important?

Outside of these tips, before you start selling citations we’d recommend getting to know the whole process yourself.

Understand:

• How long it will take if you do it yourself, and how long it will take if you use a service like Citation Builder.
• The platforms available for your client to get listed on. Find the best business directories.
• Pay attention to which directories are actually important for your client or business. Find the best citation sites by location and the best by industry.
• How you can monitor the listings once they’re live and keep them updated.
• That some services will only allow you to rent your listings (not us!).

It’s also worth pointing out that a lot of the bigger, more successful agencies don’t actually know much about local SEO. A shocker, I know. If you’re one of those agencies, and you’re doing local work for clients, then spend some time getting educated. There’s plenty of resources out there, like BrightLocal Academy and local SEO learning hub.

If you really don’t have the time though, and you’re not sure you can sell in a service you know is needed but aren’t as confident about, don’t be afraid to hand over the communications to people that do. We often work directly with agency’s clients to do this, helping clients sell the service that’s needed.

Your “Too Long, Didn’t Read” Tips for Selling Listings

Basically, what it all really boils down to is three simple things:

• Educate yourself and your clients.
• Be upfront and honest. Set expectations.
• Audit their presence.

If you do that, you should be on to a winner. If you need support with any of the steps, whether it’s a citation-building service or listings management, BrightLocal is here to help. We’re experts in both selling the value and actually doing the work so that we can help agencies at every step of the process.

Unsurprisingly, these announcements centered around AI. Yup, it’s the bots again.

It’s worth noting, though, that there were a couple of other things announced that weren’t specifically AI, but could be important to local marketers across the planet (starting in the USA, as is often the case).

In this piece, we’ll cover everything you need to have on your radar.

There’s a New Google Generative Search Experience

Undoubtedly the biggest change for businesses and marketers is the integration of generative AI into the search experience. It’s powered by PaLM2, the Large Language Model underpinning Google’s AI efforts. While they’d been toying with Google Bard’s generative qualities, they were also developing this search experience.

Crucially, it’s a generative AI that’s been specifically designed for search. It’s not just “Google Bard but in the SERPs”. Bard was designed as a showcase of logic learning machine (LLM) technology. What was announced yesterday is an entirely new approach to search.

This new integration has been called Search Generative Experience, or SGE (yup, that’s another acronym you’ll need to learn; I’m sorry). It’s their direct rival to BingGPT, and it’s going to shake up how people can use search. Or at least, that’s what Google is saying.

The goal appears to be to allow people to make granular searches, right off the bat, which could change the traditional search journey. A couple of key examples of what this means were highlighted in the talk.

Google AI Search for E-Commerce and Beyond

The first was a more traditional e-commerce search, for dresses. It showed that, rather than doing a series of broad searches to answer a complex question, you could just do all of it at once. It then showed a slightly more local example, which we’ll come to shortly.

Basically, rather than searching for each of these individually… e.g.

• Family activities Bryce Canyon
• Family activities Arches National Park
• Is [activity] dog friendly

…they’re saying you’ll be able to do all of that in one giant, long-tail search and receive granular answers.

i.e. “what’s better for a family with kids under 3 and a dog, bryce canyon or arches national park”

Then you can then make it more granular with the click of a button. Whether that’s a ‘ask a follow-up question’ or selecting one of the suggested questions they offer up.

As you can see, this is displayed front-and-center at the top of the SERPs. Although for anyone worrying that Google won’t want to take your money anymore, Google has confirmed that ads will still be displayed up there, too.

Currently, there’s a waitlist in the US for the SGE that will eventually be rolled out to everyone.

Google AI Search and Local Business Discovery

As ever with a lot of these announcements, Google used a couple of local search examples to highlight how it can look in those instances.

Hospitality is always an example they jump to, as it has such broad appeal, and this time it really highlights how it could affect more local searches when consumers have a strong idea of what they are after.

Here’s an example of them asking SGE to ‘compare two lunch spots near me that are good for big groups’

As you can see from what we’ve highlighted on that SERP, it surfaces key information from a business’s Google Business Profile, like reviews and particular dishes, as well as overall cost.

Not only that, it’s letting people directly compare a couple of institutions. This is something that the traditional Local Pack did ambiguously. It showed you all that information but it wasn’t saying “Here’s how they compare, side by side”.

With the generative aspect of the search, it also lets you dig even deeper. So if you wanted to add a specific business to this comparison, you can do that, as shown in the follow-up question above.

And, if you wanted to search by a specific dish, somewhere that was good for groups or, by the looks of it, somewhere that just matches your vibe, you’ll probably be able to do that. Basically, the context is carried over each time you ask a question within this conversation.

Google Has Learned, and Added Citations and Links to Publishers

One of the big annoyances (and concerns) that many people had about Google Bard was the lack of citations for their informational source. (For once, we aren’t talking about local citations, either.)

For those that weren’t aware, Google Bard didn’t provide sources or links for any of the information it surfaced. The good news is that SGE absolutely does.

Not only does it provide sources in the immediate SERP, as highlighted above, but there’s an option to ‘Toggle Deeper’ in the top right of the screen.

This should help reassure people that a zero-click apocalypse is slightly further off than people feared. And it highlights that creating content will still be useful, as Google will be highlighting where they got the information, even if it then merges it in the SERP.

It does still mean that zero-click searches will likely increase though, and even if you rank first you could still be a long way down the organic page due to all the non-traditional content.

I’m not freaking out about this – Google will continue answering questions and trying to meet users’ needs right there in the SERP. As search marketers we’ll need to assess how this will affect the search experience for our potential customers and we can do this when we get to test SGE and actually see how our potential customers will be experiencing search results based on the queries that we know are important to us as businesses. Then – as always – we’ll need to get our heads around the new opportunities to gain visibility in the SERP. And – of course, we need to make sure we don’t have all of our eggs in Google’s basket!

Claire Carlile, Local SEO Expert, BrightLocal

Google Is Being Careful

Unsurprisingly, as the international mood around generative AI is yet to settle, Google is perhaps wary of a backlash, or of people making potentially risky decisions based on an answer generated by its own AI. This means there are certain types of questions that you can’t ask in SGE.

Google has discussed responsibility at length in their documentation on SGE (which you can find here). But a quick snapshot of the kinds of things they aren’t allowing currently includes anything they deem as “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) content such as financial and health advice, which they touch on in the previously linked document.

At the very least, if they are unsure about the safety or accuracy of something, they will include a disclaimer.

Things you currently can’t ask SGE include explicit or dangerous topics, i.e. self-harm (where they’ll surface helplines instead) and medical advice queries, where a disclaimer will be displayed.

The SGE Includes Vertical Search

While not specific to all local businesses, the inclusion of vertical search is an interesting one for anyone that offers e-commerce capabilities. Essentially, SGE will be able to include Vertical searches like Google Shopping and pull large lists of information that could help users find the right products for them that are available in real-time.

When you click on one of the bikes in Google's AI-generated answers (including products), it brings up a sidebar with multiple options for where to buy.

Good for merchants, not so great for product review sites.

*But* at least Google does show 3 links to publisher/review sites pic.twitter.com/TskcC6NNet

— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) May 10, 2023

Reminder: SGE and Bard Are Two Different Tools

Essentially, SGE is Google’s attempt at catching up with Microsoft and OpenAI’s BingGPT, in order to offer generative AI within search.

Bard, on the other hand, will be a completely separate thing, and be used more for content creation than search, in the same way that ChatGPT, which can do anything from writing scripts (and causing Hollywood writers to, quite rightly, strike) to website code.

To summarise, then:

• Bard, ChatGPT: Generative AI tools designed to create content
• Google SGE, BingGPT: Generative AI tools designed to answer questions in search

The above isn’t exclusive, but it should help us define their uses a little better, especially as we’re still in the relatively early days of generative AI being a popular thing and things are likely to get a lot more complicated still.

If there’s a lot of goodwill behind Google on this, there’s a chance that SGE could nip that sudden increased market share Bing saw for a couple of months in the bud.

I think Google is definitely re-establishing it's street-cred on all thing related to AI and the future today. Pretty cool stuff!! I love it. It does make it exciting to be an SEO – at least for me!! #GoogleIO2023

— Cindy Krum (@Suzzicks) May 10, 2023

Google Maps Got in on the Action

“What about Google Maps??” I hear you cry. Well, that got a little love, too. Not quite at the same level, with a lot of these updates being a bit smaller, but there are a few things to be aware of.

There’s Now an Integration for Maps in Google Bard

While SGE and Google Bard are different things, people will still undoubtedly use Bard to perform some searches. The good news for local SEOs and businesses is that they’ve announced an integration to display Google Maps within the conversation on Bard.

Here’s a screenshot of this captured by the good folks at Search Engine Land (excuse the low res image):

As you can see, though, we’re not having quite so much luck over in BrightLocal HQ yet…

Ah, well. As the (other) bard once wrote, “To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.“

Aerial View Offers an Immersive Experience

While this won’t change the game right away, they’re something that some businesses may want to keep an eye on when it comes to their presence on Google Maps. They include:

• An ‘Aerial View’ API for developers. This will let devs include a birds-eye view video of a specific area on their website or apps. This could be a great way for businesses to showcase what they have to offer. An example, from an early partnership with Rent.com, shows how they can help renters see the surroundings of a property.

• Immersive Brand Experience. Google now offers the chance for businesses to provide 3D video and a whole new experience for businesses directly in Google Maps.

These updates offer businesses new opportunities to try and stand out from the crowd in Google Maps.

Everything Else Announced, From ‘About This Image’ to ‘Perspectives’

Okay, deep breath, you’ve already taken in a lot of information, but there’s more to come. These ones may not require you to put so much thought into them at this stage, but are things you should keep an eye on.

About This Image

In its quest for accuracy and fight against misinformation, Google has introduced a new tool to add context to images. It will give you information on the following:

• When it first got indexed by Google and when they indexed any similar images
• The site it originally appeared on
• Any other platforms it may have appeared on. i.e. news, fact-checking sites, or social media

It’s also worth noting that they added a markup for AI-generated images that will appear in the original file when they are created through their platform.

Perspectives

This is something Google actually started testing a little while ago and was live in some places from March. However, it’s only now that they’ve officially announced it. It will highlight long-form written posts, videos, images, and even social media posts to help give people a diverse range of perspectives.

It’s been added as part of Google’s desire to offer users better ways to understand a specific topic.

The Helpful Content System is Getting an(other) Update

Since the initial rollout of the Helpful Content Update last year, Google has made some updates. This next one is apparently to help surface content that Google sees as ‘hidden gems’ by focusing on individual contributors’ experience and expertise.

This sounds like a boosting of the much-discussed E-E-A-T ranking signals, but it will be nonetheless interesting to see what that actually means.

What do you need to do now?

Right now, there’s not a lot you can do. For starters, this is all rolling out in the US first. Some of it, like the aerial views and Perspectives, is live and available to play around with. However, for the SGE you’ll need to wait a little longer to truly see it live and in action, regardless of where you are.

If you’re in the US you can request to join the waiting list for Google Search Labs, which will give you access to play around with the new SGE before it goes live.

A good search marketer who specializes in local SEO won’t simply put all their eggs in one basket. It’s called ‘Search Engine’ Optimization rather than Google Search Optimization for a reason.

What Do We Mean by an Alternative Search Engine?

Quite simply, an alternative search engine is one that isn’t Google. There are around 160 search engines in existence today. Of course, you probably won’t be developing a local SEO strategy for every search engine in the world, but several alternative engines are well worth a second look.

The most obvious example of an alternative search engine to Google, is Bing. Out of all of the other search engines, it should be the next in line for your attention. And it’s become even more important with recent developments.

Since the launch of ChatGPT, Bing has surged in popularity and now welcomes more than 100 million daily active users. Although that may be small compared to Google’s market share, consider what an enormous difference even a tiny percentage of that traffic would make to your local business.

Other mainstream examples include Yahoo! (yup, it’s coming back), Baidu, Yandex, and DuckDuckGo. Alternatives you may not be familiar with include You, Naver, Yep, Startpage, and Brave.

Why These Google Alternatives Matter

There are several reasons why it’s advisable to incorporate alternative search engines into your marketing strategy. 

They Have Unique User Types

Different search engines have different types of users. Understanding those user types and aligning your local SEO activity to their needs is essential. Understanding where your users are searching, and how, offers you the chance to grow your presence in the right places. 

As an example, Bing is becoming more popular with users who want a cutting-edge search experience thanks to its AI innovations. As a result, if you provide tech-led products or services, you’ll naturally want to boost your Bing search visibility so you appear more prominently to those users.

Similarly, SwissCows is a G-rated search engine. It omits results that may cause offense or be unsuitable for some audiences, including adult content. If you’re a family-friendly local business, targeting enhanced search visibility on SwissCows could result in more high-quality traffic to your website.

Trust and Privacy Considerations

A growing number of Internet users are jumping ship from Google to other engines because of trust issues and privacy considerations. For those who don’t want their search history to be tracked or stored, several engines are built specifically to offer users anonymity.

Geographical and Demographic Preferences 

Google isn’t the number one search engine for all countries and demographics. In China, for example, Baidu is the most popular engine. So if your local business is targeting a Chinese demographic in your local area or wishes to sell to Chinese consumers in China, you’ll need to have a strong search presence on Baidu to be in the running. 

Likewise, Yandex is the most visited search engine in Russia, with Google second and Ya.Ru third. If reaching Russian consumers is a priority, you must ensure a solid organic presence on those two engines.

Too Many Eggs in One Basket 

Relying too heavily on only one search engine for website traffic makes little sense when other engines also handle billions of monthly search queries. If you only focus on Google, you could be placing all your eggs in one risky basket.

Should your site suddenly fall foul of a new Google algorithm, your rankings would plummet. This could mean a total loss of search traffic if you focused only on Google rather than building organic visibility on other engines such as Bing.

The same can be said of almost any marketing tactic. Over-reliance on one tactic makes for weak foundations.

Do I Need to Invest Lots of Time in These Search Engines?

If you’re concerned that optimizing your search presence for alternatives to Google could be too time-consuming, don’t be. You don’t need to invest lots of time to achieve results, as there will be a lot of overlap in the tactics and algorithms between options such as Bing, Yahoo!, and others. 

That said, be mindful that specific engines will have their particular quirks. Especially for local.

For example, you’ll need to claim your Bing Places for Business listing, even if you already have your Google Business Profile optimized. Likewise, understanding how to claim your Apple Maps listing will ensure you can compete for Apple search traffic. On Baidu, you’ll need to obtain verification. 

The good news is that many of the best practice tactics you’re already using to rank well on Google will aid your rankings elsewhere. Things like unique page titles, good quality content, reviews, and a non-spammy link profile are pretty much universal, regardless of which search alternative you’re focusing on.

Alternative Search Engines to Google You Should Consider, and Tips for Local Businesses

Bing

Local search on Bing looks and operates similarly to the Google local pack but there are a few notable differences in ranking factors. Results are displayed on a map, with features such as images, star ratings, and opening times.

Local Search Tips for Bing 

• Learning how to claim your Bing Places listing is one of the most impactful things you can do to maximize your Bing local visibility. Be sure to choose the category that best describes your business and add as much information as possible, including multiple images. 

• As on Google, reviews are a crucial component of better local visibility on Bing. Tripadvisor and Yelp reviews feature prominently on search results pages, so it’s a good bet they heavily influence rankings, too. You can apply your existing Google review management practices to Bing, such as responding promptly to all new reviews via your Bing Places listing. 

• Backlinks from other local websites help to reinforce your local standing. Target your local link-building efforts in your neighborhood and the immediate local area. 

• Be sure to check in regularly with Bing Webmaster Tools. This will tell you if there are any issues with Bing accessing your site. It also provides useful keyword data and suggested keywords.

• Create locally focused content to upload to your site. Bing advises, “Develop rich content based on keyword research that shows what search users the information they are looking for.” 

• A key way that local optimization differs for Bing is its use of social media as a ranking signal. While Google denies social is factored into its algorithms, Bing explicitly says an active social presence can boost search visibility. It says, “Social media plays a role in today’s effort to rank well in search results. The most obvious part it plays is via influence. If you are influential socially, this leads to your followers sharing your information widely, which in turn results in Bing seeing these positive signals. These positive signals can have an impact on how you rank organically in the long run.” 

With Bing starting to implement ChatGPT for AI-powered search, you need to be aware of how that works too. We’re still in the early days of AI search, however, with changes coming almost weekly. This means that, right now, trying to make a deliberate play for something in Bing’s AI search is difficult. As it stands you currently have to use Microsoft Edge to access their AI features.

Yahoo!

Yahoo! exited the search landscape a few years ago and has been powered by Bing since 2018. That all looks set to change as it has been teasing a big return in recent months. A reactivated Yahoo Twitter account hints that the engine is working on a new search product behind the scenes. It’s also been actively recruiting so stay tuned for a new Yahoo engine in the future.  

Local Search Tips for Yahoo!

Yahoo! search is currently powered by Bing so just follow the tips above for now. If and when Yahoo! brings back its own search engine, we’ll let you know.

Yandex

Russian search engine Yandex has the fourth largest market share globally, behind Google, Bing, and Yahoo. However, a large chunk of those users is based in Russia. While it’s also very popular in Eastern Europe, it’s not an engine to necessarily dedicate huge amounts of time to if you’re a local business in somewhere like the United States.

Its local search function is also map-based. One of the major differences with local optimization for Yandex is that you can tell the search engine which geographic region you’re targeting via its webmaster tools interface.

Yandex strongly emphasizes geotargeting, and its search results are split between geo-independent (location doesn’t matter) and geo-dependent (location is important).

What’s more, a ‘leak’ in January 2023 revealed a full 1922 ranking factors, which gave SEOs an unprecedented look beneath the hood of one of the major search engines.

Local Search Tips for Yandex

• If you’re targeting a particular region, you can log in to your Yandex Webmaster account and set it as such.
  
• The emphasis placed on geotargeting means that it is harder to rank for multiple locations in Yandex than on Google. 

• It’s essential to submit your business information to the Yandex Business Directory. From here, you can specify up to seven regions.

• If you have a presence in Russia, your website should include the complete address along with your telephone number. 

• Yandex is much slower at indexing than Google, so you’ll need to manually submit your local business website’s sitemap via Yandex.Webmaster.

• Yandex algorithms do factor in meta tags, so make sure that your site has unique, descriptive meta tags in place for each page you want to see ranking. 

• The Yandex algorithm factors in user behavior metrics to determine if your site is useful to visitors. Focus on sharing helpful, good quality, and relevant content to answer search queries. Consider how your page performs too, and look for ways to improve navigation and page speed. Finding ways to keep visitors on site longer can boost your engagement rating, which can lead to higher search positions.

• Use Yandex Metrica (the Yandex equivalent of Google Analytics) to understand how users interact with your site. It provides heat maps, form analytics, and session replays so you can examine user behavior and refine your site accordingly – this will assist with the user behavior point above so you’re eligible for higher rankings.  

• Back in 2011, Yandex revealed that it had additional requirements for commercial websites. These include credibility, interface, product range, prices, payment methods, and delivery. These criteria boil to trust. Ensure contact information is easy to find, maintain a strong social media presence, and offer clear product descriptions and clear shipping information.

Baidu

Baidu is unequivocally the number one search engine in China. It handles more than three billion searches daily but differs significantly from Google on local ranking factors. You’ll need to pay a fee to improve your domain ranking. You’ll also need to avoid sharing any content on your site that could be considered to be anti-government sentiment or adult themed, as that would result in your domain being blocked from search results. 

Local Search Tips for Baidu

• To unlock higher rankings, you’ll need to have your site verified by Baidu. You’ll need to pay a fee for this and provide business information. Once achieved, your site will have one of three labels; V1, V2, or V3. V1 is the most basic, V2 is more expensive, and V3 is earned. Verification is obtained via Baidu PPC and applies to paid and organic results. The basic V1 label costs around $100 per year. 

• Baidu censors search results, so you’ll need to be very mindful of your web content to avoid being blocked. You’ll need to avoid anti-government sentiment as a matter of course (including in any outbound links on your site) along with other sensitive material such as adult content or gambling-related information. 

• Some words can also trigger blocklisting and make your site ineligible for local search rankings due to their political connotations. To ensure you stay on the right side of the censors and don’t hamper your chances of local rankings, it’s recommended that all content is created or checked by native speakers. 

• Content localization (rather than a standard translation) can also help you build higher local visibility. This ensures your content sounds natural and authentic to a native Chinese visitor. This can lower bounce rates – high bounce rates can be taken as a sign of mistrust which can hamper rankings.

• Place your most important local keywords at the top of the page. It’s thought Baidu will only index the first 100KB so having local keywords at the beginning of your content is essential for improved local rankings.

• Chinese search users heavily favor mobile search, and the ranking algorithm considers mobile friendliness. Ensure your site is optimized for mobile devices, not just to unlock better rankings but to ensure you can convert search users after they arrive on the site. 

Other Search Engines to Consider

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo was one of the original pioneers of private search. It promises no tracking and is popular with more tech-inclined search users. It crawls over 500 sources to return search results that closely match the search intent, so the standard rules of optimization apply. 

One important thing to note: because DuckDuckGo doesn’t collect data about its users, it doesn’t know where a search user is searching from. You’ll therefore need to add clear location markers to your website. This includes having your full business address and contact information present, plus using locally related keywords in your page titles, meta descriptions, and website content. 

Swisscows

Swisscows is another search engine allowing users to search anonymously. It doesn’t use cookies or tracking technology or record search history. One thing that sets Swisscows apart is its position as a family-friendly engine. It won’t return any offensive or potentially objectionable content, such as pornography or gambling, in search results, so it’s safe for the whole family to use.

Swisscows uses Bing to serve search results, so you’ll need to rank well in Bing local search for Swisscows visibility.

Startpage

Startpage is another privacy-forward search engine that doesn’t track search users. Instead, consumers looking for local businesses and services must specify a location with their search term, for example, “coffee shop near Bourbon Street, New Orleans”. The standard local SEO rules for Google local search optimization apply. 

Gibiru

Launched in 2009, Gibiru doesn’t use cookies, log IP addresses, or record searches. As a privacy-first engine, it doesn’t share its ranking factors. But, having a similar mind for visitor security will likely help. It’s advisable to activate HTTPS, use secure encryption for form processing and payment process, and follow Google best practices.

Naver

Naver is South Korea’s search engine of choice and that’s because it’s highly focused on South Korea. Its search results are localized because Naver spiders don’t crawl the whole of the Internet.

If South Korea is a key market for your local business, you’ll need to create a strong pool of unique content, written in Korean. Your site should also be very mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, and load quickly.

Ask

Previously known as Ask Jeeves, the Ask algorithm works a little differently from other search engines. Intended to be the engine users visit when they need a question answered, Ask prioritizes expertise in its search results. Local listings aren’t presented on a map, they’re simply included in the main search results.

In addition to the standard SEO tactics of using localized keywords on the site and growing your link profile, sharing knowledgeable, useful content can help to boost search visibility.

Dogpile

Growing your local business presence on Dogpile depends on your rankings elsewhere. Dogpile pulls the top results from other search engines to create its own search results. That means you’ll naturally gain good visibility on Dogpile if you rank well on alternative search engines such as Bing and Yahoo.

Diversify Your Options

As you can see from this list, there are plenty of other search engines for potential clients to discover your business through. The good news is that you don’t need to worry too much about lots of fiddly optimization that’s unique to each one. We’d definitely recommend spending some time making yourself familiar with other search engines to Google though, because you could be missing out on customers you were previously ignoring.

A customer satisfaction survey is the easiest way to gauge how your customers are feeling about your business. That could mean rating the customer support they have received, describing how they feel about your products and services, or sharing their experiences of your brand.  

If you already know how to ask for reviews and get reviews on a regular basis – perhaps as a result of using a review management software – you’re in a great position to begin sending out customer satisfaction surveys. Don’t worry if you are new to this type of feedback though as we’ll be sharing plenty of good customer survey examples and useful tips throughout this article.

What is a customer satisfaction survey?

To put it simply, a customer satisfaction survey is a questionnaire that you ask your customers (both past and present) to complete. Sometimes also known as a customer feedback form, the survey guides customers through a series of questions about their experiences with your business. These questions give your customers an opportunity to tell you more about their overall experience.

As well as sharing how they feel about your business, it’s also a chance for customers to express what they particularly appreciate, what they would like to see more or less of, and what causes frustration or disappointment.

How does a customer survey differ from a review?

It should be noted that a customer satisfaction survey is different from a consumer review. Although some review platforms may ask a consumer to rate a few specific aspects of your service (such as the cleanliness of the hotel room or overall value for money), a consumer review is a broader, freeform comment.

The consumer won’t be prompted to reply to carefully considered questions about a range of business aspects when writing an online review. They’ll simply leave a short comment, often with a star rating, which sums up their experience publicly for others to see.

By contrast, a customer satisfaction survey guides the consumer through a set of very specific questions. Often you’ll have a specific goal in mind with a customer survey, where you want to address a particular issue or get feedback around a service or product. 

Customer service survey question examples could include things like ‘how likely are you to shop with us again?’, ‘Did we resolve your complaint within an acceptable timeframe?’ and ‘What can we do better’?. These are questions that you wouldn’t expect to be addressed by a consumer asked to leave an online review. 

What’s more, this type of feedback is intended to be used internally, rather than shared publicly on review sites. Rather than helping other consumers decide whether or not to use your business, survey responses help drive decision-making and improvements within the business itself. 

Why Customer Surveys Are Useful For Local Businesses

There are no two ways about it: customer feedback is vital for local businesses. But, why?

If you’re already meeting your sales goals and have good client retention rates, you might think you have your niche cornered. You may think that as you’re already doing well, you don’t need customer survey questions to tell you what your customers are thinking.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Regularly gathering targeted feedback via satisfaction questionnaires gives you the data you need to make data-driven decision-making. The client input you receive through this process can guide your decisions so that they’re perfectly aligned with what your customers specifically want and need.

This feedback could be useful in product and service development – asking real customers what else you can do to support them, or what other features would be helpful to them means you’re better placed to deliver on that need. In doing so, you can set yourself apart from the competition and become the go-to in your local area.

Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey

Being able to tap into authentic experiences across your business can also help pinpoint areas where change must be made. If feedback commonly cites frustration with slow customer service responses, for example, that’s an indicator that you need to revisit current processes or consider expanding the customer service team. While this may feel like criticism, in practice it gives you the opportunity to address pain points. In turn, that can help to reduce customer churn, increase retention, and deliver an even better experience to every customer. 

Tips for Creating Customer Satisfaction Surveys

When approached correctly, satisfaction surveys can bring you closer to your customers, enhance product and service delivery, and fuel company growth. 

You may be wondering what questions to ask in a customer survey so you can get started immediately. But before you do, read our following tips to get your strategy right before you hit that send button. 

Have a Clear Objective

The best customer survey examples all have one thing in common: they are focused on a specific objective. Therefore, a clear idea of what you want to discover will help you ask the right questions. This means that the insight you gather will be useful and help you achieve your objective.  

For example, if you would like to reduce customer churn, you could ask questions about what you could have done better. This will help you to pinpoint stumbling blocks for customers that you can address to boost retention rates. 

Don’t Gather Unnecessary Data

Gathering unnecessary personal data can inhibit respondents. For example, they may feel they don’t want to share specific details due to privacy concerns. You also risk recipients being reluctant to share genuine opinions if the survey isn’t anonymous. 

Certain questions may also overstep personal boundaries, such as asking about gender, salary, contact information, religious beliefs, etc. Audit your questionnaire and remove any request for identifying data or personal information that isn’t strictly necessary. 

Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey

Write an Introduction 

Begin your questionnaire with a short introduction. Explaining the purpose of your survey upfront increases the likelihood of useful responses. If you do need to gather personal information, use the introduction to explain why you’re asking those questions and how you will handle that data. 

Ask Specific Questions

Questions that are too vague or too open-ended will likely generate non-specific answers. To ensure feedback is valuable and gives you the insight you can work with, ask precise, specific questions. 

‘What did you think of our service?’ might seem quite specific, but if we consider it a little further, it becomes clear that this question can be interpreted in several different ways. One person reading the question could understand that you’re asking for an overall opinion of their experience buying from you, including things such as shipping speed, quality of product, and value for money. Another may understand the question to be asking only about the customer service they received. 

A better option would be to ask, ‘How would you rate the quality of this specific product?’ or ‘Did our customer services team resolve your query?’. 

Ask Different Types of Questions

Having different types of questions will give you a much richer pool of feedback to learn from. The best customer survey examples use a mix of open-ended questions and those that can be answered with a yes/no response or a rating out of five.

The yes/no or star rating questions make it easy for you to see, based on an average of all responses, whether your customers are happy, what they enjoy, and what they don’t like. 

If you were to ask your customers, ‘Would you recommend our dry cleaning service to a friend?’ simply counting up the number of yes versus no responses will allow you to conclude that ‘9 in 10 customers would recommend our service to a friend’. 

Questions that allow the customer to provide more detailed responses give you deeper insight. For example, asking something like, ‘What did you most enjoy about our service?’ or, ‘is there anything we could do differently in the future?’ can prove useful. Here, you’re giving the recipient space to share their opinion. This is a good way to draw out suggestions and extra details that you may not have access to otherwise. 

Allow Respondents to Skip Irrelevant Questions 

Despite your best efforts, it could be that some questions aren’t relevant to every recipient. Allowing respondents to skip irrelevant questions can remove friction and reduce frustration. It also means you aren’t in danger of gathering inaccurate or untruthful responses simply because the recipient had to answer to move on to the next question.  

Be Consistent 

A consistent rating scale system will make it easier for your recipients to share their opinions correctly. Giving satisfaction scales to grade responses is common in customer survey questions. A commonly used satisfaction scale is: 

• Very satisfied
• Somewhat satisfied
• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
• Somewhat dissatisfied
• Very dissatisfied

If you adopt this scale for your survey, ensure that the scale follows the same order each time and is presented in the same way. Changing the order of satisfaction levels could lead to the recipient choosing an incorrect scale by mistake. 

Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey

Don’t Make Your Questionnaire Too Long 

It’s important to strike the right balance when writing your questionnaire. Too many questions, and your recipients are less likely to complete it. But conversely, asking too few questions won’t generate much helpful insight. 

There’s no hard and fast rule when deciding how long your survey should be, but 60% of people say they won’t complete a questionnaire that requires more than 10 minutes of their time. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself if a question is truly necessary. Don’t include it if it isn’t vital to achieving your primary objective. 

There’s one more thing to keep in mind. Research suggests that respondents spend less time per question when the survey is long. This indicates that longer questionnaires generate lower quality and less considered responses. 

Conclude With an Open-ended Question 

Having an open-ended question such as ‘is there anything else you’d like us to know?’ gives the respondent a space to share information not covered by your questions. 

Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey

Choose an Appropriate Medium 

To maximize the number of valuable responses you receive, you’ll need to consider the medium you use for distribution. The option you choose should ensure maximum convenience for your recipients.

Email: Email is one of the most popular survey channels. You can embed questions within an email or use the email as an invitation. In that case, you’ll provide a link within the message body to the survey. 

Text: A text message-based survey could be appropriate if your customers routinely deal with your local business via SMS messaging. 

In-app: Does your local business have an app to manage bookings and reservations? You could embed your survey within the app, allowing users to give feedback after a certain period. 

Website: Another option is to host your survey on your website and invite your customers to share their opinions after they check out their cart. 

In-store: Tablets at the point of sale can provide a convenient way for customers to share their feedback with you immediately. 

Don’t feel that you must limit your survey distribution to one channel. Combining channels can boost participation rates. For example, an SMS prompt after an email invite has gone unanswered may improve survey response rates. 

Segment Your Recipients

Creating customer segments can improve satisfaction survey results. You may already have those customer segments set up because of other marketing activities you’ve carried out. Email lists, for example, are commonly segmented to allow more targeted messages to be sent to customers. 

Segmenting your lists means you can be very specific about the questions asked. Targeting questions to smaller pools of customers also enhances the quality of the data you receive back. 

Think About Your Survey Invitation Wording 

How you ask your recipients to complete your survey is almost as important as what you ask. That’s because the wording of your invitation will determine whether that customer then continues to complete your feedback form.  

Begin by personalizing your message so the email addresses the customer by name. Next, it’s important to outline how the survey will benefit the recipient. This could be as simple as stating that responses will be used to improve the products and services you deliver to them. 

If your survey is being sent to only a small segment of customers, highlighting that within your message creates a sense of importance. Note how the recipient has been selected and is one of a select few invited to share their opinions and experiences. 

Giving an estimate of the time required to complete the questionnaire is a trick often used in the most successful survey examples. Finally, remember the importance of a compelling subject line, so your invitation is read.  

Source: BrightLocal Academy Customer Survey Email

Consider Offering an Incentive

Unlike reviews, you can offer incentives to customers to encourage them to share feedback via your satisfaction survey. This could be an entrance into a prize draw or a discount code for money off their next purchase with you. 

14 Customer Survey Example Questions

When it comes to what questions to ask in a customer survey, there’s an almost unlimited number of options. The specific questions you include will depend on your objective and who the survey is going to. These customer survey example questions can be used to form the basis of your own satisfaction form.

1. On a scale of 1-5, how happy were you with [name of product/service]?

This question gives you a clear idea of satisfaction levels for a particular product or service. A low score indicates that something isn’t quite right and that further work needs to be done.

2. Which three features of [name of product/service] are most helpful to you?

This is a great question to ask before product development or updates take place as it allows you to hone in on what your customers consider most valuable.

3. Does our [name of product/service] represent you good value for money?

Budget is a significant consideration for many local consumers. Tracking whether your business continues to be considered a good value for money option can improve client retention rates and reduce churn.

4. If you had to choose an alternative local [name of product/service], who would it be and why?

This question can be a useful source of competitor intel. You’re asking your customers which of your local rivals they are also aware of and what’s most compelling about those alternative options. Information gleaned here can help you address gaps and maintain your competitive advantage.

5. Why did you choose our [name of product/service] rather than a competitor’s?

Similar to the previous question, this is helpful for competitor benchmarking. The responses should tell you what customers most appreciate about your offering and what differentiates you from rivals. These are your differentiators. Once you know what they are, you’re better placed to leverage them in customer communications. To widen the gap, you may also want to build on these differentiators in future product and service development.

6. Which other [name of products/services] did you consider before choosing ours?

While you will have an idea of your competitors, this may be different from what your customers consider being alternative options. Asking this question could reveal alternatives that you weren’t aware of, such as new entrants to the local market, that warrant further investigation.

7. If you could change one thing about our [name of product/service] what would it be?

This question can play a direct role in your product or service development. It highlights unresolved needs and opportunities to serve your customers better. The most common responses should be implemented as quickly as possible.

8. How can we improve your experiences with us?

This is an open-ended question that could throw up lots of interesting responses. These answers should give you an idea of what customers want and expect from you. With that knowledge, you can work on delivering those desired changes.

9. How likely are you to return to our [website/physical location]?

This is a good barometer of how you’re performing overall, as it speaks to customer intent.

10. Did you find it easy to locate what you were looking for [in-store/app/online]?

Offering a superior customer experience is critical to securing repeat business. Customers who find your website difficult to navigate, or find it hard to locate items in-store, are likely to want to avoid repeating that experience. The responses you generate here could highlight customer friction and help you make a plan to make the path to purchase more straightforward and streamlined.

11. Was our customer service team able to resolve your problem?

When it comes to customer service matters, you’ll want to know that your team is delivering. Asking if queries were resolved speaks to the effectiveness of your service.

12. Did we respond to your query promptly?

Today’s consumers expect increasingly fast responses from customer service teams– a study found that nearly half expect a response in fewer than four hours, while 12% expect a response in less than 15 minutes. This question helps you to judge how well you’re meeting those expectations and whether additional team members or a more streamlined process is required.

13. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

This question gives the respondent space to provide additional feedback they’d like to convey. This is a great question to include as it could reveal valuable information not covered by the questions you’ve asked.

14. We may contact you to discuss your responses. Is that ok?

Asking if you can reach out for a further conversation allows you to have a deeper conversation and discuss any interesting responses further. Or to clarify comments that you didn’t understand.

Consider Surveys for Direct, Actionable Feedback

While reviews are a compelling way for users to provide you with feedback, they don’t always offer actions you can use to improve your business. As we’ve highlighted, a properly planned customer survey can provide you with clear actions and insights that you can use.

Why not try adding customer surveys to your review management strategy? Get direct feedback on specific aspects of your business, to create visible change.

Google Business Profile (GBP) and Google Maps

GBP Removed Emojis and Special Characters From Business Names

While Emojis in business names aren’t something many would recommend in the first place, Google started removing them from GBP in February. Not only that, but they started removing special characters too, like ® and others.

Source: SEO Roundtable

Many received notifications from Google showing them what their current name was and detailing what the new name would be. While this would make the results more accessible for users, it likely caused issues for many businesses that actually have those characters in their names.

Google Maps Removed Policy-abiding Reviews from Local Guides…

According to its own Google Local Guides Connect blog, there was an issue with moderation. Their own attempts to avoid spam and policy violations went too far and they removed completely legitimate reviews, including those from Google Local Guides.

… Then Reinstated Them

They stated right away that they were working on a fix though, and not long after they reinstated all the Google Local Guide reviews.

Crisis averted!

Updates to the NMX dashboard

Since rolling out the new, and much-maligned, NMX dashboard Google has been tweaking it left constantly.

In February alone each of these was added:

• First up, Google added an ‘Edit rates’ option for hotels

New: Another new addition to the in-search experience, now manage hotel booking rates. pic.twitter.com/0e6HlmNtok

— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) February 20, 2023

• Next, they added a ‘Get Started’ prompt for the Merchant Center in the NMX to encourage people to list their products on Google Shopping

Google is now prompting users to "Get Started" with the Merchant Center inside the NMX dashboard if you want to "show your online products across Google". pic.twitter.com/GEL7BS8yZL

— Colan Nielsen (@ColanNielsen) February 27, 2023

• Finally, they’ve started adding menu options for other tasks, such as ‘See photos’. We think this one is just a test at the moment.

NEW: Looks like Google Business Profiles have a menu item to go to your photos. (Test) pic.twitter.com/j6usANJTLM

— Ben Fisher (@TheSocialDude) February 18, 2023

The New “Profile Strength” Label

One of these updates to the dashboard was a new ‘profile strength’ meter, that appeared in the top corner. We’ve covered what this means, and why you shouldn’t panic if your score isn’t at 100, in a guide to the Profile Strength Label.

Business Tab added to Google Maps App

While you’ve been able to edit your GBP on the Google Maps app for a long time, they’ve added some functionality on Android to make it easier. Now you’ll find ‘Business’ added to the tab at the bottom of the screen. Now you just need to click here and it’ll take you to your GBP screen.

GBP Sunsetted the Old Insights API

Finally, and one that’s been on the cards for a while, Google has sunsetted the GMB Insights API for GBP.

This is specifically the Google My Business Insights reporting API. It went offline on February 20th, 2023. You should have already, but if you haven’t you need to update to the new Business Profile Performance API.

Local SEO

Yahoo search is coming back

Just popping in to remind everyone that we did search before it was cool.

BRB making it cool again.

— Yahoo Search (@YahooSearch) January 20, 2023

Ok, ok, this was actually announced right at the end of January, but it’s something you may want to keep an eye on. Yahoo announced they were relaunching their own search engine sometime soon. There’s a growing appetite for alternative search engines to Google, so it’s understandable that they’re considering the move.

John Mueller Says Local Businesses Don’t Need to Worry so Much about Core Web Vitals

Speaking on Mastodon, John said that local businesses, “in most cases” shouldn’t have Core Web Vitals at the top of their list of priorities. This mainly comes down to page experience. Google generally only shows data in Search Console on Web Vitals and Page Experience for “sufficiently popular sites”.

This means that small businesses with only a few pages on their websites shouldn’t worry too much. John isn’t saying to ignore it, but more that you shouldn’t focus as much on it as some people do.

New location snippets appearing in Bing

This is currently just a test, but Bing is trying out serving maps within search snippets. At the moment you can only trigger this map within a snippet with specific search queries.

An example of this can be seen with our own brand name below.

Google says embedding third-party local reviews won’t help search rankings

This was another case of John Mueller being asked about a specific ranking factor. On Twitter, he was asked whether embedding reviews from GBP, Bing, or Facebook on your site through an API would provide a benefit.

Not really, at least not for search. Also, if you do that for other reasons, make sure not to use structured data markup on reviews not collected on your site.

— johnmu likes staplers (@JohnMu) February 20, 2023

He said that they won’t improve your rankings, and re-iterated previous guidance that any review not collected on your site shouldn’t use structured data if you choose to showcase it.

At BrightLocal, we obviously have some thoughts on showcasing reviews. While Google may not use them as a local ranking factor, they provide important social proof and add trust for your potential customers, so don’t ignore them simply because they may not improve your rankings.

The Local Pack Disappeared, for 15 Minutes

It’s been reported that the Google Local Pack disappeared in its entirety. The good news is that it only happened for about 15-20 minutes. It’s unlikely that it’s anything to worry about beyond a bug, but as ever, it’s good to be aware of these things.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI seems to be moving at a face pace lately, so there are a few things you should know from the last month.

ChatGPT is going to cost $20

We’ve known that ChatGPT wasn’t going to stay free forever. The good news is that the paid version isn’t as wallet-busting as originally thought. For now, the premium tier, known as ChatGPT Plus, is $20 a month and gets you access to a couple of features the free tier won’t have, including priority access at peak times.

Google Announced Bard

After all the noise from Bing and Open AI, Google finally announced their own search AI; Bard. Bard itself is a chatbot a little like ChatGPT, but Google is aiming to combine it with their regular search engine, in the way that Microsoft intends to with Bing.

Currently, the main use for Bard appears to be to field informational queries, often without sourcing the answers it supplies. We’ll keep you updated if and when Google gives us any updates on how it could affect local.

Test driving Bing

If you want to see how ChatGPT integrates with Bing then Search Engine Land has done a detailed deep dive into how AI will look on the platform that specifically uses local examples.

Update March 2023. This article was written when ChatGPT was still in its early stages and Google was yet to unveil Bard. Both of these technologies have since been launched or, in the case of ChatGPT, updated and both are ever-evolving. Learn more about AI in local search.

The year is 2023. A robot skeleton is walking across an apocalyptic wasteland. It turns to you, and while you quake in fear, its eyes glow red and it points a finger in your direction. Its mouth opens and…

It drops a battle rap about local SEO, with some sick bars.

So, er, while the early forays into AI aren’t exactly what everyone imagined them to be in movies, AI is most certainly advancing at an astonishing pace. The above screenshot from OpenAI’s ChatGPT is solid evidence of this. The question is not really a ‘what if’ but more of a ‘how can I use this to improve my work?’, and a lot of marketers are already doing just that.

Now we’re in a position where AI is readily available in the marketing and SEO industry, we want to see how it can help or hinder, and how it’s already being used by thousands of people.

AI and SEO

There are a number of reasons why the conversation around AI has become so prevalent in SEO. First of all, ChatGPT is owned by OpenAI, who are in partnership with Microsoft thanks to heavy investment by the tech leader, and there’s already talk about what that means for Bing.

Secondly, there’s been conversation about what services like ChatGPT mean for search in general. For instance, if you can ask AI a question and it gives you the answer, then what does that mean for search engines themselves and informational queries? If someone can ask it a question and not have to click through several different links, then what does that mean for informational searches? Is this the return to the “answer engine” as many predicted back in the day?

And then, finally, there’s the automation aspect. In search, this takes on a few different faces. These automations can save marketers hundreds or even thousands of dollars, as well as plenty of time and the cost savings that come with that.

Where is AI already being used?

The truth is that search marketers have been using forms of AI for years, it’s just ramped up with recent updates. Sure, ChatGPT has brought the conversation to the forefront, but there’s a bunch of other software that already uses AI. A few examples of where it’s already been used, specifically in search, include:

• Autocomplete and writing support. Google has had an autocomplete functionality for years, whether that’s in the search bar, Gmail or Google Docs. This uses AI and machine learning to guess what you want to write next. Not only that but all sorts of tools from Grammarly to Hemingway support writers by improving their copy.
• Google Vision. This is a pre-trained machine-learning model that allows developers to assign labels to images. This helps improve Google image search by identifying things within images like text and objects.
• Search algorithms themselves. It’s pretty safe to say that Google, and other search engines, have been using AI and machine learning in their algorithms for several years now, for both text and voice search.
• Spammy content creation. There have been reports of major sites using AI to make content, and sometimes the reaction has not been good, especially when the AI has extensively plagiarised other work. In reality, content farms have been creating spammy content for a long time; AI simply allows anyone like this, for whom cost trumps quality, to make massive cost savings in the labor department.

There are a number of other ways AI has been used specifically by marketers, though, and we’re going to touch on that a little later in this article.

Pros and Cons of AI in Search

Potential Uses for AI in Local SEO

As we’ve already established, search marketers are already using AI, but what they do and how they do it is evolving.

Are you already using AI for your local SEO activity?

What are you using it for? Let us know in the replies.

(And no, we don't just mean using Chat GPT to write humorous poems)

— BrightLocal (@brightlocal) January 6, 2023

But how are local businesses and local marketers using AI? Sure, everyone’s had an infuriating conversation with a chatbot that goes round and round in circles, but how are people using them specifically to do the jobs that help their visibility?

Let’s dive into just a few potential uses for AI in your local marketing.

AI for Content

One of the biggest uses for AI that’s often talked about is content creation. Many people are divided on this, but it’s still being used for each of the following tasks every day.

Writing Blog Posts

You know it’s happening. Whether it’s right or not is another issue. There are a lot of ethical considerations to be made, and while you’re unlikely to get something truly unique, many people will be doing this to generate content quickly.

The simple truth is that people already outsource huge amounts of content to cheap content farms, so if they can speed up the creation of spammy content, they’re going to do it. If you choose to do this, just be very careful. Google is investing in spotting AI content, remember? And, as you’ll see below, industry experts advise a great deal of caution when using ChatGPT for content.

Creating Scalable Content for Multiple Local Landing Pages

On the flip side of this, if you’re creating content for a huge number of location pages, AI like ChatGPT could be a quick way to make content for these without having to do extensive research.

You’d still need to take steps to differentiate your local landing pages, but automating a section could save you a whole lot of time when you’re creating large numbers of pages at scale. The below, with a few simple edits, could form the basis of one page. Then, with a few other prompts, it could let you create content at scale for multiple landing pages that only need a few additional things to make them truly unique.

Writing Simple ‘How To’ Content

Brands across the world spend many hours a year writing simple ‘how to’ content. Some of these brands will see something like AI as a real time-saver. As always, though, the question is whether the pieces will always be accurate, and how much time you’d need to spend tweaking them.

Creating Article Outlines

A more sensible approach that many are already using is consulting AI tools for article structures. This is better because you’re using the tool for inspiration rather than relying on its at-times-questionable ability to churn out accurate content.

Give the AI some keywords or prompts and it can spit out a proposed structure of headings and subheadings, much like Jasper’s Blog Post Outline feature, seen below.

Source: Medium

Ideas for Headlines or Email Subject Lines

Crafting the perfect headline or subject line is an art. AI, when given the right prompts, can spit out a bunch of different ideas for your piece that you may not have thought of yourself. At the very least they can be a kickoff point.

Ideas for Local Content

Inspiration is key here. If you have a subject or topic but aren’t sure what to write, you can simply ask. This is the kind of automation that could help busy content writers, or people without a team to bounce ideas off, to generate a variety of different things to write about.

FAQs

Along with metadata, creating FAQs is a least-favorite task for many a content writer. It’s something that feels like it saps the creativity out of you. Now, with a few simple prompts, you can get a list of FAQs for pretty much any page. Then, if you’re feeling brave, you could even get the AI to write the answers for you!

Metadata

Another task that can feel endless when you’re doing it at scale, writing metadata should be done with care to try and help your click-through rate, but when you’re doing it en masse, AI like ChatGPT could be a real help. You can even set parameters for length and tone in the prompts, too!

AI for Research and Insights

Quick Local Keyword Research

ChatGPT and other AI platforms open up all sorts of new handy ways to perform localized keyword research:

• Discovering ‘near me’ keywords
• Finding how people are searching for a particular service, in a particular area
• Refining the intent behind a particular search, with tools like KeywordInsights.ai

Strategy Development

It’s safe to say that this one should be taken with a pinch of salt. I wouldn’t base your entire strategy on something ChatGPT gives you in 5 seconds, but it could offer some inspiration if you’re struggling to get started.

Automation for Regular Local SEO tasks

Writing a Google Business Profile Description

Look, writing isn’t for everyone, and your Google Business Profile will need some copy. If you’re stuck for a way to describe your own business, or that of your client, then AI can help. A number of local SEOs have commented on their surprise at the quality of the GBP descriptions they’ve seen come from AI.

As ever, though, you’ll probably need to add a few things to make it properly personal, as you probably know more about your own business than the bots do (for now).

Generate Local Schema Markup

Yes, you read that right: you can even use AI to generate schema for your website. All the different kinds. While this may sound great, it’s also not necessarily any more powerful than a standard schema generator, and you’re probably more likely to have to triple-check it.

Much like generating website code with AI, this option is best used by people who already know what good, accurate schema looks like!

Responding to Reviews

Whether or not you respond to reviews can play a big part in how much consumers trust businesses. However, if you’re doing particularly well at review generation, you might have far too many to deal with.

As Steady Demand’s Ben Fisher explained in our State of Local Search 2023 webinar, you can prompt ChatGPT to write detailed review responses for you—as always, though, be careful to check and edit before posting.

Creating a Site Structure for Local Content

If you’re not sure of the best way to lay out a section of your site, AI can help here, too. With the right prompts and questions, you could ask it to help with your services or even local content.

AI for Art and Design

It’s a cliché that a picture paints a thousand words, but in the world of prompt-based AI image generators, the opposite is finally true.

With tools like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Lensa AI and DALL-E now mostly available to the public and more advanced than ever before, anyone and their dog can create professional-looking images quickly and (sometimes) completely free.

For example, we created the image of our in-house AI, Randall Bott, using the simple prompt “40-year old male SEO expert in plaid shirt, headshot, professional lighting” on the Midjourney Discord server (yes, we leant heavily into the SEO stereotype, there).

Beyond the dizzying array of AI artists creating fictional and creative worlds (some, artists embracing new technology, and some, less visually-artistic people creating images for the first time), there are many using AI image generators to create uncannily photorealistic images in order to illustrate their content.

There are plenty of potential uses for AI image generators in local SEO, including:

• Blog post headers
• Location page “photos”
• Website backgrounds
• Inspiration for logos

However… due to the nature of visual art, in that it is immediate (and therefore immediately recognizable), the conversation around the ethics of these image generators is a far more heated one. Firstly, there’s an inherent bias towards non-minoritized people, due to the AI’s source material being skewed by images of white people. Then there’s the issue of copyright: who owns the copyright of these images when they’re based on, well, everything?

While some argue that AI art always creates completely new variants and mutations, there are plenty of examples (like the one below) of platforms clearly leaning into well-known imagery in its datasets:

The images below aren’t @McCurryStudios “Afghan Girl”.

They are AI generated images via Midjourney’s latest V4 release. Yet another example that AI models can *heavily* plagiarize. pic.twitter.com/XeeKqwsyrs

— Karla Ortiz (@kortizart) November 5, 2022

The short and skinny of AI art for local marketers: You can go ahead and use it to generate images if you like, but be prepared to have tough conversations around ethics, copyright, and more. You’ll need to decide for yourself whether it’s worth the potential backlash, which is admittedly a greater risk when working with larger brands.

Other SEO Tasks That You Could Automate

• XML sitemaps
• Creating a robots.txt
• Generating breadcrumbs

What do local marketers think of AI?

With subjects like this, it’s always good to get another opinion. Local SEO is a wider world than you may think, so we asked a few industry experts for their thoughts.

Andrew Shotland

CEO at Local SEO Guide

When you are using AI to produce local content, there are a few considerations to make for your approach: 1) What data do you use to create prompts? 2) What’s your method for refinement and editing? 3) How do you test your AI content?

AI shines when it’s being used to speed up the scale of content production with templates that have a find-and-replace type of copy for different versions (e.g, location pages). Ideally, you would use AI to make these kinds of repetitive pages more unique, as this can have an impact on their indexation and ranking.

At Local SEO Guide, our process includes code for fact-checking, fine-tuning, and avoiding plagiarism. We start with content written by people and then fold that into data we have about the location, subject, and so on. Through some careful editing and having checks in place, we make sure our content is good and original, and simultaneously avoid repetitive work.

Like Terminator 2, amazing results can happen when humans and machines team up against SkyNet.

Melissa Popp

Content Strategy Director at RicketyRoo

I have a few thoughts on ChatGPT/OpenAI and how content marketers could (and should) be using it now.

If anyone doubts AI is part of the future of SEO and content marketing, I don’t know how to convince them otherwise. So many are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, worried about the impact of AI-written content on our jobs and work. However, low-quality content has always been in our space; it’s always ranked, and it’s always found its way to the top until Google catches up, and it’s not there anymore.

This is the nature of our work as SEOs and content marketers with search engines. Something new comes along and knocks us around—then we find a way to use it to our advantage, for better or worse. Search engines do the same.

Where ChatGPT and OpenAI-based content platforms are going to succeed is with the guidance of content marketers and SEOs like us to build on the foundation of AI-generated content starts as. Anybody publishing the first draft of what they’ve written on the internet is lying to you—or shouldn’t be writing in the first place.

This is work we should already be doing to help ourselves, and our clients, create the best possible content. We’re just now going to be using ChatGPT as our “first draft.” From there, the possibilities are endless: where we take that content, how we add to it, or even how we leverage AI to help us create more around a given topic. With feedback from subject matter experts and our clients, we can create something unique from something that starts out as a diamond in the rough.

Ben Fisher

VP Marketing, Founder at Steady Demand

We need to tread very carefully. We need to understand the impact on our workflows. … Google, historically, had a huge spam department. They’re … probably looking at this with a fine-tooth comb right now. They’re tweaking their algorithms, they’re feeding the machine and they’re basically coming back and saying ‘okay, what kind of heuristics can we create to test and filter’.

There’s been some conversations in the back rooms with Google … They’re going to get good at this. Be really careful, don’t be too overzealous.

Amanda Jordan

Director of Digital Strategy at RicketyRoo

I see ChatGPT as an unreliable intern. ChatGPT … is a stepping block to make tools or things to make your job easier, but it should not be what you depend upon and rely upon for your final answer. If you’re depending on ChatGPT to give you any output and you’re just copying and pasting that, you’re gonna have a bad time. Even when it does things like schema, it’s not exactly correct. It has issues with it and you have to fix it.

Joy Hawkins

Owner at Sterling Sky

It’s a tool to help you do your job better and faster and pick up where it might be difficult. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out how to put the words ‘near me’ into content naturally … and it’ll do that, and probably do that faster than I could do it. The one tip I saw … was asking the AI to make something NLP friendly. That was really fascinating. What came back was very different to how I would have worded it. So using “semantically friendly”, “NLP format”, those kinds of prompts can really give you insight into “oh, maybe I should reword it like this.”

I do not suggest using it to spin out 50 pages of content without editing. But keep in mind that that’s not new … SEOs have been doing that for decades.

Things to Consider

When it comes to AI there are a few things you need to consider before you dive in and start using it for absolutely everything like a crazy person.

The Database for ChatGPT Has a ‘Knowledge Cut-off’

This means it only knows things up to a certain point in time (2021, to be exact). Therefore new products, changes in laws, or other updates just won’t be something it answers. In some instances, it even suggests using traditional search engines for a query instead.

Double-or-triple-check Everything

It’s one thing if the out-of-date knowledge gives you bad information in content, but if you’re using it to generate code or create markup, you need to be very careful, especially as language models can do what is known as ‘hallucinate’ and spit out complete falsehoods when it doesn’t understand the prompt.

The time it takes you to check over it may not save you as much time as you think, and in some cases, you may only spot an issue if you happen to be well-versed in the topic already.

Miriam Ellis, of Moz, touched on a number of times ChatGPT was just flat-out wrong when she gave it a try recently.

Be Careful with Tone and Personality

If you ask a basic ‘please write me something on [subject]’ prompt, you’re going to get something that’s (probably) factually correct, but lacking any kind of personality.

There are ways around this, sure, like you can ask it to write in a particular style or voice. But it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get it to speak in your brand tone of voice without major edits. AI content is functional, but you’ll struggle to rely on it when you’re building a brand. Even the stuff with a bit more ‘personality’ isn’t always great:

Things Could Get Tricky, Legally

As you can probably tell from the tone of this piece, we’re not here to expressly endorse using AI for all your tasks. We believe AI has the power to make mundane jobs more fun and hard jobs easier, but we’re also keenly aware that, as with any emerging technology, the legal ramifications (particularly around copyright) will only be truly understood once the waters have been tested via landmark court cases.

As such, there have already been a number of concerns about plagiarism and even a lawsuit directed at AI ‘art’. Things are still in their early days, and as AI uses existing content from around the internet to develop its knowledge, there’s a chance things could get murky in the future. For example, there’s already talk of a digital watermark being created to help identify AI content.

If this is a particular concern for you, the tool Originality.ai comes recommended as a plagiarism checker.

Google Has… Opinions… About AI Content

It’s not even a new subject for them. Historically, they’ve said it goes against their guidelines. Obviously, they have to identify that content first, but based on the potential of a watermark, and the fact that a number of people are already working on software to identify AI content, I think we can probably trust that Google isn’t too far off it. These are the folks, remember, that built an AI that one developer genuinely believed was sentient.

Final Thoughts: There’s Opportunity, but Be Careful

AI offers some really exciting opportunities for local marketers. Whether it’s speeding up your boring tasks, offering inspiration, or simply just a new outlet for creativity, there’s something it can help you with.

While that’s the case, though, you need to be extremely careful how you’re using it. If you’re generating anything technical, like code or markup, you’ll need to create new processes for checking accuracy.

Meanwhile, if you’re using it to generate content, you need to make sure you’re properly reviewing it to make sure it’s unique. There have already been issues with some AI-generated content and plagiarism. Running it through a plagiarism checker like Grammarly is a start, but uniqueness isn’t simply about the order of words. You need to make sure that you’re bringing true personality and expertise to the table.

Google’s E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust) parameters are more crucial than ever, especially since the rollout of the Helpful Content Update. So if you are truly keen to use AI, make sure you’re ready to make changes to the content. You’ll also need to be wary of those digital watermarks mentioned above.

Finally, it’s worth noting that, thanks to the widespread access to the legitimate phenomenon that is ChatGPT, this conversation is just getting started. We had to revise, redraft and expand on this piece multiple times to react to the AI news pieces that flew into our inboxes at gatling-gun pace.

But because it’s new, and because it’s fast-moving, it’s naturally exciting. That doesn’t mean you should abandon your tried-and-tested local SEO strategy just to play with the shiny new thing. Baby and bathwater, and all that…

In addition to your existing local SEO tools, it can be beneficial to add SEO extensions for Chrome to your digital toolkit. To help you make the most of your new Chrome SEO extensions, don’t forget to check out our local SEO resources for useful business listing information, citation sites, and review platforms.  

What are Chrome extensions and why are they useful?

Think of a Chrome extension as a small piece of software that adds an extra capability to your standard Chrome browser. Once downloaded from the Chrome Web Store, your extension will usually appear as a small icon next to the address bar of your browser. You can then click on it to perform the task that that extension has been designed to carry out.

Chrome extensions are useful as time-saving devices. They empower Chrome to accomplish a specific task that it may not have the functionality to achieve as easily or seamlessly otherwise. They also allow you to tailor your Chrome experience so that it behaves in a way that’s aligned with your specific needs. 

For example, if you want to know when you have new messages but don’t want to continually log in to Gmail or have an open tab, you can use a Gmail Chrome extension. Once installed, it will monitor for new email messages and offer a new message alert without you having to manually navigate to your Gmail inbox in the browser window.

There are a number of extensions that have been specifically designed for SEO, so we’re going to run through the best.

Chrome Extensions for Keyword Research 

Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a powerful keyword research tool. It packs in a whole host of useful information and handy functionality including ‘people also search for’ suggestions.

You can use Keywords Everywhere to quickly find search volumes for any keyword, see the cost per click on Google Ads, check competition levels, and view trends data.

If you’re keen to spy on your competitors, Keywords Everywhere will also show you the top 5,000 keywords any webpage is ranking for. Use this data to plug gaps in your own keyword strategy by discovering terms you aren’t targeting, but should be. 

Keywords Everywhere: Additional Information

Is it free? 

No. Keywords Everywhere works on a credit system. One credit equals one keyword. Credits are priced at $10 per 100,000.

What makes it useful?

Keywords Everywhere provides very useful keyword data, right within the browser window so you don’t need to waste time flicking back and forth between windows or applications. 

Link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keywords-everywhere-keywo/hbapdpeemoojbophdfndmlgdhppljgmp?hl=en 

Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner makes light work of keyword research for any local business hoping to dominate on Google, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, or Etsy.

To use this Chrome SEO extension for local businesses, simply enter a search term into your chosen platform. The extension will then display a list of related search terms below the search box. The keyword lists make it easier to identify keywords that consumers may be using that you aren’t yet targeting. Incorporate them into your SEO activity to grow your visibility on any of the supported platforms.  

As well as keyword lists, Keyword Planner provides useful reference data to help you prioritize new search terms. This includes search volume, competition levels, and cost per click.  

Keyword Planner: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

No. 

What makes it useful?

The extension uses supported platform APIs so you can generate relevant lists of long-tail keywords specific to Google, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, or Etsy in seconds. 

Link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keyword-planner/ohffmmbmebhcljgcdijjlepjaoladfag?hl=en 

Universal Keyword Planner Box

Another easy-to-use keyword extension for Chrome, Universal Keyword Planner Box does exactly as its name suggests. Simply head to one of the supported platforms, type in a search term, and then review the list of associated keywords displayed below the search bar.

You can copy and export the keyword suggestions presented, making it easier to analyze the keyword lists later. From there, you can pinpoint keywords to add to your local SEO strategy to close any gaps that may have appeared.

At present, Universal Keyword Planner Box is compatible with Google, YouTube, Aliepress, Amazon, eBay and Etsy.

Universal Keyword Planner Box: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

No.

What makes it useful?

The ability to export keyword suggestions is very useful, as you can then refer back to your data later.

Link: 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/universal-keyword-planner/niaagjifaifoebkdkkndbhdoamicolmj 

Chrome Extensions for On-page SEO

Lighthouse

Source: Lighthouse

Lighthouse is an excellent way to review your site’s Core Web Vitals. You can use it to audit specific pages on your domain. It runs a number of automated tests, at your request, to review various page performance metrics.

You simply need to install it, then run it on a page to be given a series of scores and insights across performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO. Each of these has a top-level score and a number of things it looks at, like page load speed, first contentful paint, problematic code, crawlability of links, and more.

It’s an excellent way to spot issues quickly and create a plan for improvement.

Lighthouse: Additional Information

Is it free?

Yes, Lighthouse is completely free.

Does it have a premium option?

No

What makes it useful?

The statistics and actionable insights it provides are incredibly valuable for all kinds of different SEO tasks, whether it’s tech or content.

Link:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lighthouse/blipmdconlkpinefehnmjammfjpmpbjk?hl=en

Ahrefs

Ahrefs also makes an appearance on our top SEO tools list. If you’re looking for an SEO extension for Chrome, Ahrefs has you covered with a range of features.

The Chrome extension gives you some of the same capabilities as the standard Ahrefs tool. This includes the ability to perform on-page audits, view link profiles and check for broken links, review content including images and headers, and track redirects.

Using the Chrome extension means much of this work can be done directly from your browser window. This means you can see relevant on-page SEO information, for your own and competitor sites, without having to tab between application windows. 

Ahrefs: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

Yes. $99-$999/mo.

What makes it useful?

Even without the premium subscription option to unlock Ahrefs metrics, you can still access a wealth of useful on-page data to inform your SEO strategy and conduct competitor research.

Link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ahrefs-seo-toolbar/hgmoccdbjhknikckedaaebbpdeebhiei?hl=en 

SEOquake

SEOquake brings together a range of on-page SEO tools to lighten the local search load for local business owners. It’s ideal for assessing your own on-page performance and snooping on competitors.

Accessing a wealth of on-page SEO information is as easy as hovering over the icon once you’ve landed on your target page. At-a-glance information includes domain information, indexing data, and backlinks analysis. You can also dig deeper to view internal and external link reports, view an on-page SEO audit, and check keyword density.

If you have a Semrush account, you can connect to SEOquake to unlock additional on-page metrics. 

SEOquake: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

No.

What makes it useful?

If you want to benchmark performance, you can add additional URLs and compare domains against each other for easy analysis. 

Link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/seoquake/akdgnmcogleenhbclghghlkkdndkjdjc 

Serpstat

If you want an easy way to see how a competitor is performing in local search, Serpstat SEO website checker does just that directly from your browser window. In addition to checking in on competitor performance, you can use this SEO extension for Chrome to keep tabs on how your own local business website is faring.

Simply navigate to any website and hit the Serpstat icon in your browser window to get a full SEO breakdown. This includes search visibility, competitors, traffic, and keywords. 

There’s also the option to check rankings and perform a full domain analysis, making this a useful extension for checking your own SEO progress and that of your rivals. 

Serpstat: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

Yes. $55-$399/mo.

What makes it useful?

Serpstat brings together more than 20 different tools to help keep track of your SEO effectiveness and conduct competitor research. 

Link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/serpstat-website-seo-chec/fcgbopaomlpldhbinhgebmkcnkfconmn?hl=en-US 

SEO Minion

SEO Minion is a free Chrome SEO extension which helps local business owners to perform seven local search tasks directly from their browser window. 

Use it to perform on-page analysis for any web page quickly and easily (this could be your own or that of another local business for competitive insight). 

Broken links can easily derail your local search visibility and frustrate website visitors. SEO Minion’s backlink checker will flag up broken links and allow you to sort by status so you can prioritize remedial action.  

There’s also a multi-location ranking checker, allowing you to recreate search listings from any location to get a better overall picture of your local visibility. 

SEO Minion: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

No.

What makes it useful?

The collection of seven different tools makes light work of everyday SEO tasks for time-poor local business owners.

Link: 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/seo-minion/giihipjfimkajhlcilipnjeohabimjhi 

MozBar

The MozBar Chrome extension is especially useful for conducting competitor research. The free version of the tool offers six functions.

One of the most useful is the on-page highlighter which enables you to highlight keywords and link types on the page. If you’re more of a visual learner, the ability to color code the page while studying a competitor URL can make analysis much easier.

You can also click to bring up a page overlay. This allows you to see HTTP status, page elements, and markup.

Many SEOs and digital PRs also use the MozBar to look at a site’s Domain Authority (DA), which is Moz’s way of ranking the overall authority of a site.

A Moz subscription unlocks further features such as at-a-glance keyword difficulty ratings for any keyword in the search results page and on-page optimization suggestions. 

MozBar: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

Yes. $99-$599/mo. 

What makes it useful?

It’s a fast way to uncover lots of useful SEO information, and you can export your findings to CSV for further study later.

Link: 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mozbar/eakacpaijcpapndcfffdgphdiccmpknp 

Chrome Extensions for Google Business Profile 

GMB Everywhere

GMB Everywhere (yes, the name hasn’t changed since the update from Google, we know) is one of the top Google Business Profile extensions in the Chrome Store. It helps you to conduct competitor research by making it easier to snoop on other local business listings.

Once installed, navigate to a local search results page. From there, you can use GMB Everywhere to see which primary and secondary categories other local business listings have chosen.

You can also use it to analyze review profiles and benchmark performance against your own reviews.

If you’re new to Google Posts, the Post Auditing feature enables you to dive into your rivals’ Post strategy and understand their approach. Use this information to finetune your own Post content. 

GMB Everywhere: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

Yes. $25/mo. 

What makes it useful?

GMB Everywhere makes it quick and easy to delve into your competitors’ Google Business Profile strategies. The Teleport feature is also helpful for conducting searches as if you were in another location.

Link: 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gmb-everywhere-gbp-audit/oibcaeeplepnjfjhokfcabnaafodppik

PlePer Local SEO Tools

The PlePer GMB extension can perform four different local search listing analysis types from Maps results. Pull it up to understand what categories other listings are using to obtain their rankings. 

You can also use PlePer to dive into the review profiles of your local competitors. The extension will give you data such as number of reviews, average star ratings, the number of listings without reviews, and the maximum and minimum number of reviews obtained. 

As reviews are a core component of local search visibility, this insight can help you understand how your own review profile holds up against your closest competitors. PlePer will also show you business hours and business attributes directly from Maps listings.

PlePer Local SEO Tools: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

No.

What makes it useful?

PlePer’s level of detail from Map results is incredibly helpful for understanding how others are approaching their local listing optimization. 

Link: 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pleper-local-seo-tools/cpdkchkkmcpnfgbpjjgfhcbcaceeandd 

Chrome Extensions for Rankings

GMB Crush

GMB Crush (another that fell foul of the GBP name change) could easily function as a Google Business Profile Chrome extension but it’s also incredibly helpful for exploring your local rankings in more detail.

You can search from your physical location or, if you want to see search results for other zip codes, change your geo-location directly in GMB Crush. From there, you can see which of your competitors are ranking well in other areas and where your own business is appearing.

If your listing isn’t doing as well as you’d like in zip codes that matter to your business, use one of the GMB extensions to understand why. 

GMB Crush: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

No.

What makes it useful?

The ability to perform zip code-specific searches gives you an accurate understanding of where your listing is ranked away from your immediate physical location.

Link: 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gmb-crush-gmb-audit-tool/aakkhbloifflgelkkikmbakldbhllbfj 

Semalt SEO Extension

The Semalt SEO extension for Chrome shows you which keywords your site is ranking for in Google search. If you’re time-poor, the ability to see rankings at a glance directly from your browser window can be extremely beneficial.

The extension covers search positions one to 100. And in addition to quickly checking up on your own progress, you can use this same extension to keep tabs on your competitors. Semalt will record whether you’re ranking for more or fewer keywords over the last day or months. You can also view the keywords any website ranks for, helping you to identify new phrases that competitors are targeting but you haven’t yet considered. 

Semalt SEO Extension: Additional Information

Is it free? 

Yes.

Does it have a premium option?

No.

What makes it useful?

Semlat provides an abundance of ranking intel. A particularly helpful feature is the ability to generate a top 100 competitor list for any keyword you’re interested in ranking for. 

Link: 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/website-ranking-and-seo-c/npapojppkmfhefbokolngnomlgkkpcnc 

“The (local search) world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.”

At least, that’s what Apple wants you to think. They’ve announced the launch of Apple Business Connect (or ‘ABC’, if you love an easy-to-remember initialism). It’s worth noting that while they appear to be spinning it as a completely new product, it’s actually a bit of a re-launch of the older ‘Apple Maps Connect’ released nearly a decade ago.

That sounds great on paper, but what does that actually mean for your business and clients, and is it something you’re going to need to spend time tinkering with?

Source: Apple

Right off the back of the news, we’re going to run you through everything you need to know about Apple Business Connect today.

What is Apple Business Connect?

In Apple’s own words, Apple Business Connect lets you “put your business on the map”. If that sounds a bit too vague, they go on to say that this “free tool allows businesses of all sizes to customize the way their information appears across Apple apps.”

Essentially, it’s Google Business Profile (GBP) but for Apple Maps, something that many businesses will welcome.

When Apple Maps Connect was initially released, it wasn’t quite as feature-rich or useful to businesses as its direct competitor, now known as Google Business Profile. It offered a much more basic product that essentially just let you list your business and appear on Apple Maps.

As you can see from Apple’s screenshot below, though, there’s a lot more to this new iteration:

Source: Apple

What does Apple Business Connect include?

This new Apple Business Connect includes features such as:

Fully customizable Place Cards

These include:

• The ability to add photos, header images, logos, and more
• Easily manageable opening hours, with a simple and user-friendly interface

Apple even designed an hours interface that should be copied by every local directory on the planet. pic.twitter.com/iGyJGALhGg

— David Mihm (@davidmihm) January 11, 2023

Showcases

This new feature is a way to help businesses promote timely offers and announcements, much like Google Posts. Showcases can all be managed through Business Connect, and for those in the US, you’ll start seeing these from today, before the feature rolls out globally in the coming months. 

Customer call-to-action buttons

These show on each Place Card, where applicable, and where set up by the business. These include:

• Appointment booking
• Call or chat with the business
• Ordering food or groceries through Instacart
• Making a reservation through OpenTable
• Booking a hotel through Booking.com 
• Buying tickets, and more!

​​

Source: Apple

Insights

Apple Business Connect also offers insights within the app, which means a better understanding of your customer, so you can improve your offering on the platform. You’ll be able to see what people searched before tapping into your location, as well as insights about your Place Card.

This could be particularly valuable to businesses and agencies managing listings, especially as Google seems to be removing (and moving) its own Insights functionality, rather than developing it further.

Source: Apple

What does it mean for local business owners and marketers?

At the very least, it means you need to spend a few minutes updating your Apple Business Connect, if you already had one. And if not, then you should go get one! It’s free real estate on an app that’s used by more people than you may realise.

“Apple Maps is becoming more and more popular, and it makes sense for you to register and maintain your business properly and accurately on the Apple Maps ecosystem.” explains Barry Schwartz.

At the very most, however, this is an exciting opportunity for agencies and local SEOs to add another string of expertise to their bow. Apple Maps is no longer a second-rate platform, so it’s worth spending time with it learning to understand how Apple prioritizes businesses in Maps, and how you might be able to impact its visibility via the features that Apple Business Connect now provides.

For anyone working on a multi-location business, there is now API functionality to manage multiple listings on Apple Maps. 

This update could provide some serious competition for Google Business Profile, with an offering almost on par with theirs. It could also have a major impact on consumers searching for local businesses on Apple devices, without the need to switch to Google.

For local marketers, gaining more insights about customers on Apple could prove that that’s where the audience is, so it’ll be interesting to see whether any shift their focus based on the stats they’re seeing. 

And, while we aren’t picking a side, Apple has certainly made this refresh look pretty great. It looks and feels a little slicker than Google’s business profiles.

How is the industry reacting?

While it may not feel seismic (after all, it’s technically an update of a nearly-decade-old service rather than a new product), it’s certainly garnered a bit of a buzz across the local search industry.

The new UI is getting some particularly positive reviews, especially as it’s easier to use than what we’re used to seeing with Google Business Profile.

David Mihm, Local SEO Consultant, and Co-founder of Near Media says:

Extremely impressed with the new Apple Business Connect. Better UI than the GMB dashboard ever had (unsurprisingly) and basically at feature parity. You can even add UTM tracking parameters to website URLs

— David Mihm (@davidmihm) January 11, 2023

Additionally, Mark Gurman, reporter for Bloomberg Business, explains that this may be preparation for Search Ads coming to Apple Maps.

Apple’s new business connect feature is clearly preparation for Search Ads coming to Apple Maps. Businesses will want to make sure their pages in Maps are accurate/customized before paying for ad placement. https://t.co/eNByw7E2hd

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) January 11, 2023

While it might in the long run be a way to increase revenue for Apple, the opportunities for local businesses to reach and engage more audiences across Apple devices, without relying solely on Google, are profound 

How can I optimize my Apple Business Connect?

For now, you can follow similar steps to how you optimize your Google Business Profile, especially as a lot of the features are similar to that.

We’ll be coming back to you with a complete guide on optimizing your Apple Business Connect shortly, to help you absolutely smash your Apple Maps marketing in 2023.

In summary: what’s happened and what comes next

TL;DR?

• Apple has updated its old listing functionality for Apple Maps, which was called Apple Maps Connect
• This new product is called Apple Business Connect
• Business Connect will allow you to manage your presence in Apple Maps
• There’s a host of new features like images, insights, and customizable call-to-action buttons
• You should claim your Business Connect and make sure the information is accurate

While this launch is very exciting, it’s also new territory. As such, there’ll be more to come. We’ll be keeping you updated with any further stories on Apple Business Connect and how you can get the most out of it.

That’s where this article is here to help. Unfortunately, we’re not going to offer you tips on creating an amazing Christmas campaign from the ground up or help you come up with heartstring-tugging adverts for Hannukah or New Year. What we are going to do, however, is help you get the basics right for your digital marketing, so you don’t have anything to worry about.

Google performed a study with Ipsos in November 2022, which showed that 86% of consumers say online sources helped them make informed decisions for the holiday season. The same study highlighted that 32% of searchers used maps to find businesses.

With this in mind, we want to make sure you’re ready for whatever comes. Be prepared for potential influxes of reviews, or season-specific questions your customers may have. Get your emails scheduled for the right times, your sales pages optimized and ready, and know exactly what you’re posting on X (formally Twitter).

So, without further ado, here’s our holiday marketing checklist to help local businesses navigate Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, Hannukah, and the New Year.

Social Media Checklist for the Holidays

On social media, the key is to communicate what you are doing for the holiday season effectively. This could be as simple as a special menu or updating your opening hours or as complex as creating a whole campaign, like an advent calendar. Our top tips for social media in the holiday season are:

Communicate your offers

Let customers know if you’re offering gift cards, holiday offers, or discounts. Use social media channels to get the word out about what you’re offering, and how your audience and customers could benefit. 

Share any updates to opening hours

Even if you’ve updated your GBP for the holidays, you should share when you’ll be open on all your channels. You can’t rely on someone googling your business. For many people, your social channels are their first port of call. If you’re going to be closed for a night for a Christmas party, for instance, or open for longer during the holiday period, make sure you let people know.

Share any updates to your menus

If you serve food, there’s a good chance you’ll have some special items on your menu. If you’re updating your whole menu for the next couple of months, make sure you share it on your social media platforms for people to see. This works in a couple of ways, it gives them access to something up-to-date but it can also get people excited about that deep-fried cranberry & blue mac n cheese you’ve spent all year planning.

Here’s Starbucks announcing its holiday menu on Instagram for some inspiration.

Consider adding new photos of any holiday offering, like decorations

If your store is offering holiday products like decorations, gift ideas, holiday menus, Santa appearances, boiler maintenance Christmas deals, seasonal products like Christmas tree delivery or disposal services, let your customers know! Here’s a great example of how Zabar’s & Co. announced an exclusive product and discount for Hanukkah via social:

Share any special events

If you’re running one-off experiences or events, or even just know that you’ll get particularly busy on certain days, let people know in advance to help them plan.

Consider a holiday-specific campaign

This doesn’t have to be something complex that you’ve spent 6 months planning, either. Social can help you put something simple together, like an advent calendar, with 25 days of offers, or 25 days to share services, menu items, or gift ideas. Unveil a new product over 25 days, or something completely new.

@connie.mp4 Toronto local small business gift guide part ii #toronto #wishlist #christmasgiftideas #holiday #shoplocal ♬ original sound – Connie ❀

It’s just as easy to create videos for Reels as it is TikTok too, doubling your efforts across social platforms with minimal stress. Plus, the holiday season means you can add timely and relevant sounds to your videos. Think Mariah, Brenda Lee, and Michael Buble—the perfect soundtrack to your holiday marketing.  

Run a competition on social media

Want to get people excited about your new offering? Consider a “like and share to win” for a holiday meal, experience, or gift.

Consider adding holiday designs to any of your social graphics

This could be as simple as a dusting of snow on your cover photo, or you could go for something more advanced in any of your promotional images. It’s up to you (or your brand guidelines!).

Offer a gift list/gifting suggestions

This is particularly important if you’re a retail store. Getting on TikTok to show off your holiday products and services could be a great way to kickstart your holiday campaign in an authentic way that doesn’t require much huge investment in time and money. From the 2023 Local Consumer Review Survey, we know that 20% of consumers find out information about a business on TikTok, making it an obvious choice to spread the word about your holiday offering.
This example from a local gas station works well:

@maryledbetter9 Check out Reeder’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma! #tulsaoklahoma #shoptulsa #localbusiness #christmasshopping #familybusiness ♬ Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee

The creator shares each holiday-themed product that can be found in her business, makes use of a popular Christmas hit as the video sound, and uses local keywords throughout her video and through hashtags in the caption.

Partner with other local businesses to offer something unique, or share content with

If you’re offering locally sourced food, consider partnering with a local brewery to create a food and drink gift basket people can buy. If you’re a landscape gardener, consider partnering with Christmas tree wholesalers to deliver Christmas trees around the local area.

Remember to wish people a happy holiday season

If your audience is from a range of backgrounds, it’s a good idea to share the love this holiday season. Don’t just limit yourself to the holiday you’re celebrating yourself.

How to Get Your Google Business Profile Holiday-ready

learn more

Get Your Website Ready for the Holidays

While many local businesses still forgo a website, they’re a key aspect of your digital presence. At this time of year, there are a number of things you can do to help you prep for potential heavy traffic moments, like end-of-season sales, or increase your online visibility.

Prepare for heavy traffic

Do you need to check your server, or consider a queue system? Basically, if you’re expecting an influx of additional traffic, can your current site hack it? This won’t affect everyone, but for those who know it could happen there are a few things you can do. Make sure your server can cope with the potential additional traffic, or even consider investing in queue software if you’re expecting particularly high demand.

Pin seasonal posts in your blog

If you create seasonal content that’s relevant every year, then make sure your customers can find it! A simple way to do this is by pinning holiday posts to the top of your blog page for the duration of the season. This means you may not have to write whole new posts every year just so people can find them again.

Showcase seasonal reviews

If you regularly offer different services or have seasonal products there’s a good chance you may have reviews for these. This is the time of year to put these front and center. Showcasing reviews is something you should do all year round, as it’s excellent social proof, but at this time of year, it could be worth reviewing the ones you’re using.

Update posts for freshness

That being said, if you are pinning old posts to the top of your blog, you need to make sure they’re up-to-date. This applies to any of your seasonal posts. There’s a chance that most of the information in your holiday posts could be absolutely fine, but it’s worth checking to make sure data, dates, or other information is still accurate and relevant. Avoid simply re-publishing with a new date, though. Google watches out for this kind of activity with its Helpful Content Updates. If you’re going to do that, make sure you’ve genuinely added new content.

Prepare your sales & promotional pages

You should already have pages created for these that you use every year. If you don’t, this is your cue to do that. You should have an evergreen page for your holiday promotions and sales. This page should remain live all year, just not linked prominently from your homepage. This way your main promotional pages for key events will gain authority from links and age over time, and you won’t be trying to rank a brand new page every time. Now that you’ve got your evergreen pages, make sure they are completely up-to-date with this year’s information.



Bed, Bath & Beyond has had its ‘Holiday’ category live with the same URL structure since 2015, with other subfolders coming off it. This has allowed it to gain links and rank for related keywords.

Check for consistency

Make sure your promotional messaging is consistent across your entire website. If you have a banner saying one thing and your landing page says another, you’re in trouble.

Check metadata is correct for this year

If you’re using your evergreen pages, there’s a good chance you optimized your meta titles and meta description for the previous year. Make sure each one is accurate for this year. Consider optimizing them to include what the deal actually includes, too. Are you offering cut prices, a special service, or free shipping? Your meta title or description could be your customer’s first impression of your deals or events.

Communicate key information where applicable

If you’re running special menus or deals, make sure you communicate these where you can. Similarly, if you have restricted opening hours or a final postal date, make sure you clearly communicate this.

How To Smash Your Email Marketing This Holiday Season

In an ideal world, your holiday email marketing communications would be all-singing, all-dancing campaigns with seasonally appropriate designs and GIFs galore, right? But in reality, when it comes to communications as a local business, the most crucial elements of your holiday emails will be the need-to-know items.

Opening hours reminders

Don’t give your customers a chance to tell you they didn’t see your holiday opening hours! As well as on your website, GBP, and social channels (plus any in-store signage you may have), come at your clients from all angles and reinforce any changes to opening hours or contact details in your email marketing. Much more active on IG stories or your Facebook Page? Direct email subscribers to the most relevant channels for regular updates.

Communicate service or product ordering and delivery deadlines

Likewise, for any significant holiday deadlines, ensure your customers have plenty of notice—whether it’s the last order and delivery dates for gift giving, seasonal food ordering ahead of any big days, or your availability for particular services.

Prepare the ‘signing off’ email

If your business is closed during any of the holiday periods, it’s always a good idea to send a ‘signing off’-style communication. This is a nice opportunity to wish your subscribers happy holidays, whilst communicating key reminders about how and when customers can expect to receive support throughout this time. You can also use this as an opportunity to recirculate helpful resources such as FAQs or any guides you might have created.

Sharing the joy of shopping local

The winter holidays in particular can be a great opportunity to reinforce how much the support of your community makes a difference to your business, as it catches consumers at a time when they’re feeling generous and bighearted. Create content to remind them of all the reasons to shop local, such as highlighting the uniqueness of independent gifts and personalized services, or sharing a personal story behind your business.

Automate key messages and prepare ahead of time

Even if you’re going to be out of the office for certain periods, the importance of timeliness never diminishes. For example, the period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve is prime for discounts and sales promotions, so in the run-up to key holiday periods, ensure these key emails are planned, created, and scheduled.

Make Sure Your Promotions Are Optimized

Need-to-know information aside, these busy promotion periods do call for some creativity. As commercial dates like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas approach, the need to stand out from the hundreds of notifications pinging your customers’ inboxes or sponsored ads filling up Instagram feeds comes into play. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

Be descriptive with your offers

Absolutely everyone is going to be bombarding users with ‘BLACK FRIDAY SALE’ messaging, and it’s more than enough to just turn people who aren’t actively looking for something off. In emails, use your subject line or pre-heading text to be descriptive about what you’re offering and therefore why it’s such good value. 

Creating a sense of urgency

We can’t all be like Glossier, which so rarely holds sales that it causes the internet to go into meltdown, but we can learn a thing or two about how it creates urgency. If you aren’t the kind of business that usually discounts products or services, you can utilize messaging to create excitement or a sense of urgency (AKA incite a sense of FOMO). Some brands make good use of ‘flash’ offer messaging, which can be made all the more effective via app push notifications, while others utilize a live countdown in emails or on-site to drive urgency.
Can you handle demand?

This applies to both the what and the how of any promotions you’d like to run, so not just the product or service that your customers are buying, but the logistics of fulfilling them and your business being able to keep up with any issues. Consider the following:

• Do you physically have enough products in stock?
• Is there a limit on purchasing?
• Do you have adequate customer support in place?
• Is your site set up to receive discount codes?
• Can it handle significant traffic and amounts of transactions?
  

Rewarding loyalty / high-value customers

Some consumers see pre or post-holiday promotional periods as a free-for-all and, while it can be a great opportunity for you to grow brand awareness and gain some new customers, it’s worth considering what value they will place against your brand as a one-time promotional purchaser. Why not consider how this could be an opportunity to reward your existing, loyal customers? You could create an exclusive customer discount, an early-access event, or a live interaction via social channels that seek to reward your most engaged users.

Be smarter around timeliness

UK health and beauty retailer, Boots, has already kicked off the 2023 winter holiday season with discounts and loyalty point boosts for its Advantage Card members with a clever twist: some personalized vouchers can be used twice, some combined with others, and some reward you for ‘getting ahead on gifts’ for purchases during a specific period. However, it’s especially smart as it’s teasing promotions well ahead of time, while also encouraging customers to spend over longer periods, rather than inciting a rush around Black Friday that dwindles ahead of Christmas.

How to prepare your local business for Black Friday

Learn more

Preparation Is Key for a Relaxed Holiday Season

So, are you feeling ready? Our checklist should help every local marketer get the business ready, whether you’re launching a festive menu, closing on different days to everyone else, or simply optimizing your promotional pages

We hope our tips for the holiday season will have you feeling prepared to tackle everything that comes your way over the next couple of months.

Before you get started with your holiday marketing strategy, why not run a Google Business Profile Audit or benchmark your visibility with Local Rank Tracker? Make sure you can measure the impact of everything you’re doing across Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and beyond.

What’s more, the tactics used to leave good or bad feedback for interactions that never really happened can differ from platform to platform. A red flag that helps identify a fake review on Google may not raise suspicions when you’re searching for fake Yelp reviews. 

So, why are fake reviews a problem? The reality is that fake reviews aren’t just a frustration or inconvenience. They have a real bottom-line effect that no local business can afford to ignore. The reputational damage inflicted by unjustified poor reviews can be costly in itself, but it becomes more pronounced if low-star ratings impact on consumer decision-making.

Fake reviews don’t just erode consumer trust in a local business though. Whether it’s via Google, Amazon, Yelp or Facebook, negative reviews could cause your local search ratings to suffer, costing you search visibility and putting you at a disadvantage against competitors. They also undermine your efforts to build a strong review profile – something that could have taken years to achieve. 

Tips for identifying fake reviews

With our review research confirming that 62% of people believe they have seen a fake review in the last 12 months, it pays to know what to look out for so you can take swift action against bogus feedback left for your local business. Here are our tips for spotting a fake review, regardless of the platform.

1. Look for clusters of reviews posted simultaneously 

Multiple reviews appearing at the same time could be a sign that something is amiss. If the timing for several reviews matches, it may be that the business has purchased feedback, paid for five-star listings, or offered incentives such as cash or free products to customers in exchange for their rating.

If you’re a local business that has been subjected to a series of poor reviews in quick succession, checking if the time of the submissions is roughly the same could be an indication that they are fake. If that’s the case, it may be that a competitor is trying to drive down your star ratings. 

2. Be wary of over-the-top descriptions 

Receiving complimentary feedback about your business, your team, and your services is a bonus of being proactive about building your review profile. 

However, comments that seem incredibly over-the-top, enthusiastic, and effusive could be suspicious. If the language seems to be very exaggerated in its praise, it may be that the reviewer isn’t genuine. This type of fake feedback will often be littered with exclamation points, too.

3. Look for specific details 

A lack of detail and specific information also gives food for thought when it comes to deciding if a rating is genuine or not. While most of us will admit to leaving just a star rating and perhaps a word or two when we’re pushed for time, a lack of detail can also indicate the person writing the review doesn’t have first-hand experience with that product or service. 

4. Be alert for words such as refund or discount 

Another warning sign that a competitor could be manipulating their review profile to artificially boost their local business is the use of words suggesting monetary payment or free products. Be alert for words such as gift code, voucher, discount, and refund which may suggest that the reviewer has been paid or coerced into leaving a positive rating. Incentivizing reviews is against most platform guidelines. 

5. Look for very similar reviews

If a local business has several reviews, but many of them are worded in much the same way, it’s likely you’re looking at a series of fakes. Genuine customers sharing their genuine experience of a business will naturally write in different ways, and use different styles of language and varied vocabulary. Fake reviews are often created and posted in bulk so are little more than duplicates. 

What does a fake review look like? 

In 2020 alone, Google removed 55 million fake reviews and terminated more than three million fake Google Business profiles. Its hard stance on inauthentic reviews saw it remove almost one million reviews reported by Google Maps users, too. 

However, buying and selling fake reviews is big business. So much so that Amazon has launched legal action in both Europe and America targeting more than 11,000 websites selling fake reviews.

With bad actors getting ever more inventive when churning out fake reviews to deceive consumers and artificially inflate (or drive down) business profiles, it pays to know what a fake review really looks like. As a small business owner, being able to identify malicious or phony feedback is the first step to taking remedial action – such as flagging it to the review platform and requesting removal. 

• Use of all caps: This review title is all in caps, which instantly raises a red flag. All of the other reviews on this product page have a lowercase, descriptive but not over-the-top title:

• Poor grammar: While it’s entirely possible this person is a non-native speaker, the poor grammar and unnatural use of language both indicate this is a fake review. 
• Excessive multimedia: The consumer group Which? says that many sellers who use incentives to gather reviews require pictures and videos to be included. This review stands out because it includes both a video and two images, which could be considered excessive for earphones in a box. 
• Overly favorable: The use of “the best” in the title in caps raises a red flag.
• Keyword stuffed: The word ‘the best’ is repeated twice in the short review. The text also notes the price is “only” £3.99 and ends with “highly recommend”. The overall impression is that the text has been written for an algorithm, not a genuine consumer. 
• Lack of profile information: This user has no profile information at all. Few details could signal this is a fake account created for review spam. 
• All positive reviews: This reviewer has posted a very small number of reviews, but they all follow a similar format with poor grammar, spelling mistakes, over-the-top praise, and a call to action for the reader to buy the relevant product.

Spotting fake reviews on Google

Your Google review profile is one of your most valuable online assets as a local business, and we’ve gone into detail about the benefits of reviews before. Not only is it known to be a local SEO ranking factor, it also directly impacts consumer decision-making. That means it can influence whether you make a sale, receive a booking, make a reservation, or lose out to a competitor. 

Knowing how to spot a fake Google review can therefore help your business to weed out unscrupulous feedback and protect your lucrative online reputation. 

Check the reviewer’s Google profile 

Most inauthentic ratings come from accounts that are set up specifically for that purpose. That means they won’t have posted many other reviews. Whether excessively good or incredibly poor, if you suspect a bad actor, it’s easy to see how active that profile is on Google. You’ll see the number of Google reviews they have posted displayed as a numerical figure under the account holder’s username. A very small number of reviews could be evidence of fakery at work. 

Check the reviewer’s activity 

In addition to seeing the number of reviews a user has posted, you can also see the reviews themselves. This is a great tip for local business owners who are keen to learn how to spot a fake Google review. A glance at previous reviews left by that person can quickly reveal whether they are a genuine user or not. 

Check if the places reviewed are within the same local area. If most places are in entirely different locations, such as different states on the other side of the country, it could well be a bad actor at work.

If images have been uploaded with reviews, browse through those to get a sense of whether that reviewer has images in places they have reviewed. Fake reviews won’t be accompanied by genuine, related images. 

Look at timings

From the user profile, you can also check the frequency of review postings. Has the reviewer your suspect to be a fake posted clusters of reviews at the same time or are they sporadic? A flurry of reviews posted at the same time suggests that the ratings are not authentic. 

Cross-reference with your sales logs

Google will often display a reviewer’s name above their review. If that’s the case, it’s possible to perform a cross-reference of your own records. Compare your sales logs with the name of the person leaving the review to determine if they are a genuine customer. 

Does the reviewer have a profile picture?

Fake reviewers often won’t share too much personal information on the profiles they create. Along with other red flags, the lack of a profile picture raises suspicions. Likewise, very generic or cartoon images can also indicate that the reviewer is attempting to hide who they are. 

Does the comment reference specific aspects of your business? 

Genuine reviews will often provide specific details about the user’s experience so, part of knowing how to spot a fake Google review is being able to check for those factual inclusions. Are specific team members mentioned for example? Are the names right if so? Are service details factual or, does the review refer to services or products that you don’t offer? Inaccuracies are a tell-tale sign that the review has been created by someone without first-hand experience of your local business.

How to spot fake Facebook reviews

With 75% of users said to visit a local business Page at least once per week, it’s essential that local business owners know how to spot a fake review on Facebook. 

Is the text vague? 

A very vague piece of text may suggest that the person writing the Recommendation hasn’t truly interacted with that local business. 

Genuine reviewers will often pick out specific aspects of their experience, whether good or bad, to explain why they Recommend (or not) that business. Very brief, vague comments can be one clue that the Recommendation is fake. 

Is the Recommendation too complimentary? 

Using language that’s way over the top is another clue that the Recommendation has been created to artificially boost ratings. Descriptions that sound too good to be true, with lots of superlatives that really oversell things are a tell-tale sign that you’re looking at a fake review. 

Does the user have a profile image? 

Much like with Google reviews, the lack of a profile picture or the use of a cartoon image instead is another warning sign that the reviewer isn’t genuine. You’ll be able to see the profile picture for the account holder sharing the review to the left of the review itself. 

Does the reviewer have Facebook Friends? 

Another clue that you may be looking at a fake Facebook review comes from the reviewer’s profile. Clicking on their profile picture will take you to the profile page. How many friends are on their friends list? If the profile doesn’t have any Facebook friends, or only very few, you have another indication that the review is fake. 

Spotting fake reviews in specific industries 

While all consumer reviews matter, in some industries, being able to trust the content of a review is even more important. For professions such as lawyers, healthcare workers, real estate brokers, and so on, dishonest reviews could have serious consequences including financial loss. 

How to spot fake hotel reviews 

Hotels rely heavily on reviews to attract new guests, but how can you tell if the ratings are genuine? 

• Be wary of all 5-star reviews: It’s not realistic to expect that a property will have only five-star feedback. While you’d expect to see a good portion of five-star reviews for a great destination, a natural review profile will also have its share of other star ratings too. 
• Look at the most recent reviews: Some review platforms will sort by the top-rated or most useful reviews. Sort by most recent to get a true picture of what guests are actually experiencing right now and then look for comments that stand out as being very different from the general consensus. 
• Compare with other review platforms: Looking at reviews across two or more platforms is a good way to get a sense of the overall feedback about the hotel. You’re then better placed to pick out those reviews that seem wildly different in their experience than the majority of other guests. 

How to spot fake reviews in real estate 

With intense competition and huge commissions at stake, it’s no secret that real estate can be a cutthroat business. If you suspect a competitor may be inflating their profiles with fake reviews, here are a few things to look out for: 

• Look at the language: If the language used in the review is littered with acronyms or uses an abundance of industry jargon, it could be a fake. 
• Does the review talk about the property? A genuine reviewer is likely to make reference to the property they have just bought or rented. If the review contains no references to the property at all, it may be that the person writing the review hasn’t really used that realtor’s services. 
• Does the review mention any challenges or issues? Buying a house is seldom straightforward. If a realtor’s profile is packed with reviews that claim the whole process went smoothly, something could well be amiss. You should expect to see some comments about challenges, issues, or delays encountered in at least some of the reviews. 

How to spot fake reviews for healthcare professionals

Fake reviews are especially concerning in the healthcare industry, where patient health could be put at risk by unscrupulous rivals. 

• Is the description of the service provided realistic? Consider the language of the review and the tone of the reviewer when describing their experiences. Does it align with the service provided? For example, it’s unlikely that anyone will wax lyrical about teeth cleaning at the dentist so a review that is extremely complementary with excessive use of superlatives should raise a red flag. 
• Are other healthcare provider names or brands mentioned? If the reviewer compares one experience with a named local competitor, it may be that the reviewer has been paid to paint the rival in a bad light. Likewise, reviews that mention certain branded products multiple times should be treated with a degree of suspicion. 

Tools to detect fake reviews

Bad actors are increasingly sophisticated and constantly evolving new techniques to avoid detection. This can make manually checking for fake reviews a time-consuming process – the good news is that there are a number of helpful tools available which can do most of the heavy lifting for you. 

Fakespot

Fakespot is a specialist tool for detecting fake reviews. It’s compatible with a range of platforms, including Amazon and eBay. Powered by AI, it sniffs out bots and fake accounts and flags up fake reviews. 

Transparency

Transparency‘s Machine Learning algorithms use metrics such as profile data and review content to detect fake reviews. 

Bazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice uses fraud detection techniques to assess whether the reviews it collects for brands are genuine. It will flag up reviews it suspects are counterfeit. 

ReviewMeta

Designed specifically for those who want to know how to spot fake Amazon reviews, ReviewMeta applies a series of tests to review text to determine if the review is genuine. Reviews that are trying to game the system get removed or are given less weight, so they don’t artificially impact the product rating. 

What to do when you spot fake reviews

So, you know how to spot a fake Yelp review or fake Facebook review, but what steps should you take next to ensure your rivals aren’t gaining an unfair advantage? 

Each platform has its own specific procedure that you’ll need to follow if you suspect a review is fake – whether that’s a review that impacts your own profile or is benefiting a competitor.

Methods for each platform:

• Our guide to Google reviews contains helpful information on how to deal with fake Google reviews.
• Our guide to Yelp reviews has everything you need to know about dealing with fake reviews on that platform.
• Found a fake Facebook review? We’ve covered how to deal with fake Facebook reviews in our guide.