Is Google My Business Moving To Monthly Subscriptions?
Google surveyed local businesses to gauge if they would be willing to pay a monthly fee for the Google My Business services.
The survey included added features such as:
- Google customer support
- Remove ads from your business profile
- Get and promote your “book” button
- Promoted map pin
- Automated message responses
- Automated response for reviews
The survey then presented different subscription packages, ranging from $25-$50/month.
As of right now, this is just a survey, so it’s yet to be seen if Google will take action with this.
There is a lot of backlash from the online community. People are criticizing Google for turning a once-free tool that small business has become dependent on into a monetized service. However, others acknowledge that this could possibly cut out spam business. Stay tuned for how this plays out.
Google Search Console’s 16 Day Data Outage
What started with a GSC bug related to indexing issues has resulted in lost data for a 16-day period. From April 9th-25th, Google Search Console experienced a data outage that affected all reports, except for the performance report.
To account for those 16 days, all missing data was replaced with the data from April 26.
Why does this matter?
When analyzing April data from Google Search Console, take your findings with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, the data really isn’t good data. Utilize other platforms and metrics to measure results for April.
Trending Towards Mobile-Only
eMarketer’s study deep dives into the trends associated with mobile use, and how marketers are responding.
“We forecast that 51.7% of US social network users will be mobile-only in 2019.”
Social users have been largely mobile-focused for years.
- Facebook’s vast majority of users and ad revenue have been from mobile since 2014.
- Instagram and Snapchat users are also almost exclusively mobile.
This study goes on to highlight that beyond social platforms, even the number of users who access the internet exclusively on a mobile device will grow, reaching 55.1 million users, an increase of 10.6% in 2019.
Users are turning to their mobile devices more frequently, and the big players are constantly trying to “mobilize.” Specifically, Facebook is continually crafting their platform to be more mobile-friendly.
“Perhaps most telling is that Facebook has begun internally testing a prototype that would shift its marquee News Feed to a more mobile-friendly swipe interface …”
eMarketer also noted that 57% of companies surveyed have updated their marketing plans to focus on mobile-first content for their social media channels.
Why is this important?
A mobile strategy is vital. Fewer Americans are using desktops and increasingly turning to their phones instead. As a result, companies are adapting their marketing strategies accordingly. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. Instagram Stories have proven successful and companies worldwide continue to adopt this strategy.
Google Showing Headline Search Ads For “How To” Queries
In searching for certain “how to” queries, we’ve noticed that Google Guaranteed ads are showing up at the top of SERPs.
This demonstrates the increasing importance of having a Google Guaranteed listing, as they are now taking priority in more than just local search queries.
