Santa mug in hand, tree strung with lights, all gifts purchased, and several holiday gatherings in, I’m crushing December. Pay no mind to the child who’s been home sick with the flu every day this week or the fact that the aforementioned tree is only strung with lights, it’s decor remains in a box. Instead focus in on my expertly coordinated holiday attire, written neatly on the calendar for the entirety of the month and the fact that we’re planning one heck of a December Homefiniti and Beyond that will exponentially expand on the number of guests who appear in one episode.
Also please note that this may be the final Edit of 2021 given the fact that Christmas and New Year’s Eves fall on a Friday this year and ONeil Interactive is closed on those days. My ability to output both an episode of Homefiniti and Beyond and write an Edit on the same day might not be quite up to crushing-it standards but I’m not calling it a day just yet.
In this week’s Edit, I’m focusing in on Google Business Profiles and Google Ads as well as some App news and rounding it out with advice on reviews.
ALL HAIL GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILES
Formerly known as Google My Business, your business profile on Google should be at the top of your priority list. Two different reports showcase just how important a Google Business Profile listing is to your business. The Local Search Ranking Factors report from Whitespark has some great data on the facets of your profile are most important. Reputation posted its own report about how local search is impacted by the listings.
This are especially important when it comes to local search and maps. Which BTW, is changing up it’s appearance on desktop.
REVIEWS MATTER BUT RESPONSES MATTER MORE
On your Google Business Profiles and on Yelp, reviews are of the utmost importance. They play a role in the importance given to your listing for search results and of course, people read them to get a sense for the type of business you run. However, Yelp released a very interesting report recently that finds that your negative reviews, don’t negatively impact people’s perception of your business as much as you might think, if you respond properly to the reviews. 9 out of 10 Yelp users are willing to overlook a negative review if a business responds appropriately to it.
We all know that unhappy customers are more likely to leave a review than a happy customer. As a business owner that is frustrating, but as a consumer, it helps us rationalize and take reviews with a grain of salt. Posting updated hours and proper contact information is only half the battle of your listings, monitoring your reviews and communicating with your customers is as important and this Yelp study proves it.
GOOGLE ADS IMAGE EXTENSIONS COMING TO DESKTOP
Image extensions have been available on mobile Google Search ads for a bit now. Their arrival on desktop is great news for homebuilders. What better way to showcase your work than with your professionally shot home photos. This will definitely have an impact on your search ad performance on desktop.
APP HAPPENINGS
To close out the news this week I’ll leave you with the exciting announcement that the chronological feed will be returning to the gram in 2022 and news that Apple’s app tracking prevention tech isn’t actually preventing app tracking in all cases. While you scroll your non chronological IG and Facebook feeds, the apps are still, in fact, tracking your activity. Through loose interpretations of the app tracking rules, Facebook and other apps are able to track user behavior even when people think they’ve opted out. Will Facebook ever learn not to be shady? Probably not, and truthfully, I don’t even mind. Facebook marketing is crazy effective and I say that as a consumer of their ads and a purveyor.
With that I bid you adieu. Have a safe and happy Holiday season!
