Google My Business and Maps News

By: Team WTI | Date: December 13, 2018

Categories: Local SEO, Search Engine Optimization,

Tags: Google Maps, Google My Business,

Updated Google My Business API for Developers

Per Google: ” The Google My Business API lets developers build applications that interact directly with their business location information on the Google My Business server.”

Google My Business has new API features with an update that came in November. Here is a list of some the important changes:

• Q & A APIs allow you to take questions and provide answers as well as provide FAQs about your business and it’s locations.
• Read a bunch of reviews at one time. You can retrieve reviews for all of your locations in one call.
• Multiple locations? You can see unclaimed locations that Google thinks you may own based on their recommendation.
• Issues with your locations? You can easily report issues with RecommendedGoogleLocations or GoogleLocations results.
• You can easily add a description to media when you upload it.
• Chain locations can gain new insights as to how many times they are shown in search results.

Why do I even bring this up when we work in the world of websites? Because I think it is important to point out the extent to which the world depends on Google My Business. If you aren’t on Google My Business you are missing the boat. It’s free, and it allows you to control how others see your business online. Have a consistent listing to other online listings as well as your website can help in a big way with local SEO. Claim your listing or let us help you claim your listing and you will get found more often, especially in the Google 3-Pack. CLICK HERE to see how it works.

Google Maps Now Allows You to Report SPAM calls to Google

Google has this handy form for when third parties violate their Google My Business Policies with SPAM or repeated calls. If you have a third party as described by Google that is causing you issues that you can’t resolve with them directly you can go to Google with this information. Read all about it here: https://searchengineland.com/did-you-know-you-can-report-google-maps-related-spam-calls-and-other-violations-to-google-308728

A great way to learn about what is new with Google is to visit the Developers page. They have a blog that can help keep you up to date. Recent topics range from topics on virtual reality to machine learning. While topics are geared towards developers, it’s a great place to find out what is up and coming and then Google topics to learn more in “laymen’s terms”.

Need to show up on Google Maps or Google My Business? We do this as part of our search engine optimization services here at WTI. We can also do it as an a la carte sevice, but recommend doing SEO on an ongoing basis to really get good results. Any questions? Give me a call at 309-489-0026

Cindy Whiteman
Digital Marketing Manager at WTI