According to reports that have been sent directly to me, contractors in California are being penalized by the State of California. They’re being penalized for not displaying their license numbers on their Google My Business websites. Apparently the State of California considers a Business.Site website to be advertising (just like a website hosted on a unique domain name). Therefore, if a contractor does not display their California license number on the Google My Business site, as defined in the CSLB Rules and Regulations. [Read more…]

Bing Places for business has added some new features that help local businesses update their Bing Places listings if they were impacted by COVID-19. Bing Places has added Bing Announcements, GoFundMe Campaigns, Special Hours, and Temporarily Closed features. [Read more…]

Local businesses are getting unsolicited sales calls from a company saying they’re from Amazon Alexa. The local business apparently can purchase a listing on Amazon Alexa for a one-time fee of $69 plus a monthly maintenance fee of only $19 per month. I’ve spoken with at least four separate businesses across the United States, from South Florida to Texas to Indiana to South Carolina. They all say they’ve been called by someone saying they’re from Amazon Alexa, selling a similar listing service. [Read more…]

I manage several Google My Business accounts for my clients. Google My Business provides data about how many visits the business has received, as well as how many people have seen the local business listing. This data is available for verified businesses when they log into their Google My Business account. The Insights data is delayed by a few days, but is available in a weekly, monthly, and quarterly view, both on the Google My Business app and through a web browser. Recently, however, Google has begun sending businesses an email with some data about the number of clicks that they’ve been receiving on their listing, especially on the posts they’ve been making. [Read more…]

There is a bug in Google My Business website URLs that causes a 404 error on most websites. Users who use the Google Maps app to click through to a local business’ website address with certain tracking parameters will encounter a 404 error. Depending on how the 404 error is configured on the local business website, it may cause the user to simply search for another business. For a local business, 404 errors can be a nightmare and cause them to lose valuable leads and sales. [Read more…]

Recently, I made the decision to completely remove my company’s Google My Business listing. There are several reasons why I chose to not have my company’s website listed in Google Maps any longer. But what’s more interesting to me is the fact that the website has seen no ill effects by doing it. In fact, I’m seeing a lift in traffic to the site, as well as better search engine rankings overall (for the keywords I’ve been tracking). [Read more…]