Local SEO & Google My Business Product Expert

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Customer Review Links – Finally! No CID or PlaceID needed

Up until now, Google has made it ridiculously hard for businesses to give customers a link to write reviews for their Google listing. You needed an easy way to invite customers to leave reviews.

Google’s Answer for years has been to manually create a link for customers to write reviews1

Google’s own documentation suggests two ways:

  1. Copying the link from search. The resulting link is too long to put on a business card or letter, and scary looking if you put it in an email. OR
  2. Go to one of their tools, do a search for your business, grab the number out of the tool and paste it on the end of another URL. If you’ve ever tried copy & pasting on a mobile phone, you’ll know just why this option is horrid. Add to that, if the business is a service area business (someone that only comes to your home or business to provide a service) Google’s tool won’t return the PlaceID number.

Based on the number of times we would get questions from people asking for their CID or PlaceID in the forums, it was clear Google’s tool method was not a good option. My guess is most folks used to take the long link from search and use Google’s now defunct URL shortener to come up with something to give to clients.

Business owners who wanted to give a short and sweet web address had to devise their own work-arounds to make it easy for customers.

Fortunately, Google has heard the feedback and have just released a new feature on Google My Business listings called “short name”.

Short Name = g.page/

GMB's new vanity URLThis new web address (URL) enables each business to create a unique Local Vanity URL for each listing. Bear in mind, this is intended for smaller businesses with fewer locations rather than franchises or businesses with lots of locations.

Short names are only available for verified listings.

The short name does not replace either the CID approach or the PlaceID approach. Both of those methods still work, and will continue to work along side the g.page link.

At time of writing, this feature is rolling out to both Android & Desktop.

Short name endpoints

An endpoint is the destination target element of the GMB listing. Thinking of your listing, you might have a reason to direct people to your reviews, reservation feature, photos, appointments, and so on.

  • g.page/shortname/review – open up to a “write a review” box.
  • g.page/shortname/reserve – only available if you’re using a 3rd party “reserve with Google” partner, and your industry is restaurants, health or  beauty.

As this feature rolls out, the range of options is expected to grow.

Choosing your Google short name

Keep your short name simple so you can easily promote it, and customers can remember it.

Google allows you to choose your own custom name for your business. It is not dependent on your GMB listing name, however Google will recommend your biz name.

To pick a unique short name, try to use words that represent your business name, brand, location, or other description. For example, you can use your business name with your location, like your city or neighbourhood.

There is no specific ‘right’ to names, unless there is a legal matter. Remember these short names are global, so just because you may have legal rights to the name in your country, it’s unlikely you’ll have rights everywhere on the planet.

Names can be 5-32 characters in length. There are no rules for acronyms, and each location gets just one unique name. If you do have multiple locations, it makes sense to use a combination of your chain name + location.  Google is working on the right experience for medium to large chains. For now, listings have to claim names individually. Bulk editing may come later.

Because these are not officially being indexed, keyword stuffing your short name doesn’t make a lot of sense. (I say officially because I can find thousands of URLs that are indexed.) Keyword stuffing is also against the guidelines, so you could end up with your listing suspended.

The short name gets quickly turned into a maps link when your customers use it.

Google also says the links are not case-sensitive, but if you want to make the URL easier to read, you can use caps to help separate words for humans. For example: g.page/ShortName/ is the same as g.page/shortname/.

For the technically minded, be aware the URL has a 302 redirect, meaning no link juice or ranking benefit.

Changing your short name

You can change your local vanity URL up to 3 times in 12 months. You can’t update an existing one, only create a new variation on that name.

Don’t take this lightly, there are repercussions. If you change your custom name, the short name turns into a Google search. Eg: https://www.google.com/search?q=shortname.

HOWEVER

google website 404

    • If you’re using an endpoint such as “/review/”, a changed vanity URL will turn into 404. That’s not a good user experience.
    • If you change a short-name, the old name stays out in the “register” for a period of time and is not usable by others. Am checking with Google on how long that is supposed to be in quarantine, as testing shows it’s weeks and still counting.
    • If you change a short name, there is no “redirect” option to move people along with your change. The URL simply malfunctions.
    • There may be times when the short name is not removed if not deemed as abusive. Google recommends you choose another name.
    • You can have only have one (1) short name, and it cannot be transferred.

Who can change the name? 

Listing owner, managers & site managers. Communication between the parties will be key to keeping any naming conventions intact.

Tracking the vanity URL

Google are not including visit use information in GMB Insights, unfortunately.

Close examination of the final URL reveals Google has inserted tracking codes on the base URL. The source is defined as coming from g.page. It doesn’t, however, have a source if the URL has an endpoint.

Still, it would be useful if they did extend the tracking to all URL’s. As the feature expands, I can see value in knowing if people are using the link for reviews, maybe photos, appointments, or any other element.

Play Nice

Use this where it makes sense, and how it makes sense. Remember this system belongs to Google and they can suspend the link, the listing, or the whole account, depending on the circumstances.

1 – source: https://support.google.com/business/answer/7035772

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Google testing a new layout for “People also search for”

Is Google helping drive customers AWAY from your business?

Why the layout matters

The old layout shows the People also search for section at the bottom. That gives viewers a chance to see the score on other review sites as well as extracts from your reviews. If you’re truly doing a terrible job, chances are the Reviews snippets and the Reviews from the web will be relatively consistent.

However, if you’re being targeted for some reason, those other sections of the knowledge panel really matter. Being targeted is a terrible thing. Some targeting is by trolls, some will be negative review campaigns by competitors, and others are by extortionists.

And it’s when they’re not consistent that Google is doing customers and your own business a huge disservice.

Looking at this Tony & Guy listing, if it were to show with the new display, I’d completely miss the bigger picture. Most folks would be inclined to click away to the next salon, simply because People also searched for shows above the Reviews from the web as well as the Reviews snippets.

The test display would not readily show the vast imbalance of 12 Google reviews vs the 421 on Salon Spy.

Google’s new People also search for can work against you and customers.

And now Google is testing a new People also search for layout which seemingly encourages people to check out your competition. While aiming to improve the customer experience, I fear all too often they’re helping send perfectly good businesses to the wall.

Every day businesses are losing thousands of dollars in potential revenue due to negative reviews.  Many lose so much they simply don’t survive -> Review Scam That Targets Photographers

So much for wisdom of the crowd.

More reading:

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Why I’m Not Yet Recommending Google’s Messaging Service

Messaging in Google My Business = #Fail

GMB Messages Display

Google is throwing a lot of effort at the GMB product, adding new features and making the knowledge panel the source of info customers need. In November of 2016, Google piloted a feature called Google Messaging. Then in June rolled this out further but not world wide.

On the surface, it looks good and has some endearing aspects:
1) Free messaging service
2) Integrates with Google My Business
3) Gives you one more Google-based point to help Google understand the nature of your business.
4 ) One more way you can to make it easy for people to contact you.

The reasons to use Google Messaging are strong.

I know I’m going against the grain here. Most articles I read about this feature are positive and recommend businesses use it. I have found it buggy as h*ck. My maths say the product is well over a year old and in my testing, the product is still behaving like it’s in beta.

To be clear, the primary problems are not the delivery of the messages between the customer and business. The problem is in the indication of the messaging.

Following are a handful of scenarios & results. The test base was small – just three Android phones with differing versions of operating systems. Two were Samsung Galaxy S5’s, one a cheap unknown brand (the kind you buy for your kids to take to school.) We used a mix of logged-in and not logged-in users, and accounts that had no prior contact with the listing before.

We didn’t try any other devices. I felt I had enough information with just these tests to form my recommendation.

UPDATE April 2019 – While I can’t give you specifics due to an NDA, I can say Google are aware of these issues (and more). It may be a while, but at least this is on their radar 🙂

Customer messages you & your Google My Business (GMB) app is not open

  • The phone will display a popup message for a second-ish, then the popup fades and goes away. The only indication you have at a glance then is the tiny icon at the top left of your screen.
    • Arrow A  = GMB notification. This, BTW, is the exact same “not urgent” indicator seen when Google tells me my post is about to expire.
    • Arrow B = The GMB app. No notification indicator here – compare with the messages icon below telling me there are 7 unread messages.
  • If the app is open and not on the customers messages tab, the GMB app gives no obvious indicator you have an unread message. Except, of course, for the quick popover and the little icon in the upper left corner mentioned first.
  • If the app is open and is on the customer messages tab, the GMB app may not display the incoming message until you move to another screen in the app and come back. This only happened once, so this might have been a one-time thing and we simply fluked the timing.
  • The app sometimes displays a message promising the customer they will receive a notification when the vendor replies
  • Depending on the model of phone, some customers will see the message feature button on the standard maps display of the business. Others will have to click through to get the full information panel before they see the button.
  • The messages can be delayed in coming through, by quite a lot compared to SMS. If you’re using this feature, I recommend getting your customer off the chat and onto the phone as quickly as possible.
  • Your welcome message (below) sometimes displays in customer’s chat streams, other times not.
  • Notifications were seemingly randomly sent again days and then weeks later about a particular incoming message. It only happened with one, and I don’t know why.

You message the customer

  • Their phone will display a Google message popup notification for a split second. Then the popup fades and goes away. That assumes the customer doesn’t have notifications turned off. And there are numerous ways those messages can be switched off by accident or design.
  • The only indication they then have is the tiny icon at the top of the screen.  We did see  that icon not turn on in our testing. Argh.
  • There is no indicator (as described above) of an unread message on the Maps app icon. The only place they’ll see an indicator is the “for you” icon at the lower right of the screen once you’re in the Maps app. If customers tap on that, their phone may or may not have an indicator to check their messages via the hamburger menu.
  • All this seems to get worse with anonymous users (people not signed into their google account on their phone). The only way they’ll know you responded is
    • if they stay in or go to the chat stream, or
    • happen to notice the popup, or
    • swipe down to view the notifications.
  • If the customer’s phone goes to the lock screen, I didn’t see any notification at all. This wasn’t just a phone setting or account basis, it was across the board.

Other notes about Google Messaging

The messaging feature can only be used by a business from within the GMB app on a mobile device. You can see messaging is active in the GMB dashboard, but can only read or respond to messages from GMB app.  Turning it on and off also requires the app.

Because this is happening on a mobile, nearly instant response is critical for this channel to work well.

This feature could work well for some businesses. Two types of businesses come to mind – ones that can have someone dedicated to the GMB app (perhaps a social media person who’s also managing the twitter feed / FB chat / live chat) or businesses who do not need to provide fast responses to their customers. Even if you don’t need to give a prompt response,  you’re still taking a risk because you cannot be sure your customer’s message or reply are seen.

If yours is the kind of business that needs a live-chat on your website, I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.

If you don’t need it, then you do need the discipline to check your phone regularly.

Unless and until this app is made to behave consistently, across all devices, and provide better real-time notification of incoming messages, I worry this feature is destined for the dustbin.

It’s a real pity, there is so much potential.

UPDATE: 11 February 2019 –
From Joy Hawkins
Recently I told a client to set up the GMB messaging feature by downloading the GMB app (since I can’t set it up for him). He did but never got the test message I sent him, despite the button being on the listing and not giving me, as the user, any type of error message.

I asked Google about it at LocalU and they told me that this is a known issue with any listing that is in a Google My Business account with location groups.

https://www.localsearchforum.com/threads/google-my-business-messaging-issue.53853/

So yet one more reason not to enable this feature for your business or your clients.