The Near Memo

Send us a textGBP Chat is Dead, Long Live WhatsApp:  Google nuked both Google Business Profile Chat AND Google Business Messaging last week in a typical show of disregard for the product and the businesses supporting it. This decision comes amid concerns over increasing spam within the GBP chat service, which initially launched in 2017 with high hopes. Despite a significant initial investment, Google's inconsistent product strategy led to its downfall.Interestingly, Google is now introducing WhatsApp and SMS messaging integration to GBP profiles, suggesting an attempt to fill the void left by the discontinued services. This move highlights Google's long-standing struggle with a coherent messaging strategy, characterized by the launch and subsequent abandonment of numerous messaging apps over the years.The discussion underscores the broader issue of Google's top-down management style, which often leaves innovative projects without sustained support. Smaller SAAS businesses that invested heavily in integrating with Google's messaging API, like Switchbird and Leadferno, faced significant difficulties in adopting the Business Messaging API and expended considerable resources in doing so. Google's structural inefficiencies hinder its ability to dominate key markets but also damage the greater ecosystem that attempts to integrate with their products.Scorpion Survey Highlights Growing Frustrations with Google Search: In a recent survey by marketing firm Scorpion, consumers have voiced increasing frustrations with Google search results. The survey revealed that users are spending more time sifting through results than five years ago. Top complaints include the need to refine queries repeatedly, excessive scrolling, and visiting multiple websites to find desired information. This aligns with ongoing industry discussions about the declining quality of Google's search experience.The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands. 3 Local Takeaways from the Google API Leak: A recently leaked GitHub repository revealed extensive insights into Google's algorithm, highlighting 14,000 attributes and numerous modules that influence search results. This leak, analyzed by Rand Fishkin and Mike King, suggests that Google tracks a wide array of data points from websites, Google Maps features, and YouTube videos to entities.The significance of 'nav boost' and the 'CRaPS' click-through algorithm, which impact page rankings based on user interactions. Additionally, Google tracks location relevance at a page level, encouraging businesses to create localized content silos for better search performance.The leak underscores the importance of linking high-traffic pages to target pages and creating localized versions of national content to improve site architecture. It also suggests that local mentions in reputable publications can boost a business's online presence.Listen in for actionable insights for businesses aiming to optimize their local SEO efforts.A Tribute to John Heaston. R.I.P. to a great human being:John Heaston, founder, publisher, and visionary leader of The Reader and El Perico, died on May 31, 2024. He was a prince among humans and an early advocate for inclusive watchdog journalism and ethical digital marketing.  John, you will be missed. The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.Ep 160Subscribe to ouSubscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/

Send us a textRand helps us explore the implications of the Google Web Search leak and how it impacts our understanding of how the search ranking aglo actually worksThis week we interviewed Rand Fishkin of SparkToro on the details and importance of the Google Search API leak. In discussing the “biggest leak of the last 25 years” we look at how it provides SEO practitioners with menu of possible experiments to explorethe role of Chrome as a source for click through data and what it means for link buildersHow this click through data seems to be one of the most important ranking factorsWhy links on low performing pages have absolutely no value and thus why many citations no longer do eitherwhether Ad clicks might in fact influence rankHow should we think about “web references” aka mentions vs Links The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.Ep 159Subscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/

Send us a textNew SAB Local Ranking Factor:  Service area businesses have long been a problem on Google Maps. Spam, privacy, suspension AND ranking issues have plagued them since the beginning. Now it appears that there may be hope on the ranking issue. Historically they were ranked around the location from which they were claimed regardless of the service area. Darren Shaw of Whitespark has uncovered some indications that this is starting to change and the ranking signals are more around the service area chosen. Stay tuned. Interpreting Google AI Tea leaves & What it Says About Google’s Product Development: Lots of questions swirled around Google’s AI Overviews: Would their effect be apocalyptic on publishers? What did Pichai mean when he talked about an increase in web visits? Was Google going to surface the data in Search Console?The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.Ep 158Subscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/

Send us a textChatGPT 4o Makes an Impression:  OpenAI, not so subtly, introduced improvements to ChatGPT 4.0 just before I/O Google's event. The presentation was crisp and focused highlighting OpenAI's ChatGPT 4o enhanced speech capabilities and creative functionalities, such as summarizing audio streams shows and organizing the resultant notes into coherent outlines. Despite some features demoed on Monday being API-exclusive, the potential for ChatGPT to rival Google's search, at least on informational queries, is becoming more clear. Speculation about a potential integration with Apple's iOS adds to this potential, as this could significantly boost ChatGPT's reach, access to training data and even possibly local search capabilities.The Chaos that was Google I/O, is Google: The recent Google I/O event,  from the DJ to the presentations, felt chaotic much like the increasing complexity and seemingly disjointed nature of Google's product strategies. The showcase included a range of multimodal search results and demonstrations, such as trip planning and dining recommendations, which, while technically impressive, seemed to add to the cognitive load rather than streamline the user experience.The event highlighted Google's shift from its original, simpler search interface to a more cluttered and multifaceted array of services and features, spreading functionality across various platforms without clear integration. In contrast, competitors like OpenAI are offering more straightforward, user-friendly interfaces, claiming a position Google once held. Discussions also touched on Google's potential in workspace solutions, which could transform into valuable tools for small businesses, though the realization of these potentials remains uncertain amid concerns about which products were real and which were vaporware.  How Will Users & SEOs Adapt to the New Google AI Features:  At Google I/O's announced the launch of AI overviews (SGE) in the U.S., theoretically aiming to improve user engagement by highlighting lesser-known sites. Users are already searching for ways to disable this feature, with over 2,000 downloads for a Chrome extension designed to do just that. Google's introduction of dynamically organized search result pages for categories like restaurants and recipes is another significant change. These pages adapt based on user queries, a move seen as both innovative and potentially disruptive for SEO.Meanwhile, Google's strategic vision appears unclear. As users habituate to the many new AI tools, with users gravitating towards simpler, more effective interfaces like ChatGPT, Google's position as the go-to search engine could be at risk.Note: During the show David exponentially misstated the number of downloads of the chrome extension which hides AI overviews, conflating a completely different post on the number of SGE results in previous AI overview studies. The number of opt-out downloads is currently in the thousands, not 2 million as stated on the show. He regrets the error.The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.Ep 157Subscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/

Send us a text Is Google Finally fixing LSA reviews?In a significant update for advertisers and businesses in the UK, Google has announced changes to its Local Services Ads (LSA) review system. Effective July 7, the existing LSA customer review URLs will expire and be replaced with URLs from Google Business Profiles (GBP), centralizing review management under GBP. This shift mandates businesses to have an affiliated GBP to run LSAs, integrating reviews on both platforms. While it is unclear when or if this change will come to the US, it is likely given Google’s penchant for scale, to be rolled out worldwide. While the GBP review moderation and appeal process are significantly better than the current, totally lame LSA one, it still leaves a bit to be desired. These changes hint at Google's broader organizational challenges, including siloed product development and a lack of sustained oversight, which often result in suboptimal product evolutions. How Google has Failed to Reward the Best Content:  HouseFresh, a small product review site known for its focus on air purifiers and home environment hygiene, has faced challenges due to recent Google algorithm updates, which have adversely impacted its visibility. Having lost 93% of their site traffic, they have detailed the many effects of recent Google updates on smaller niche sites that Google claimed they were trying to highlight. HouseFresh clearly documents how large publishing houses leverage their strong domain presence and SEO strategies to dominate Google search results in profitable niches. This situation underscores the broader trend of niche sites being overshadowed by major brands, which have learned to effectively utilize SEO to their advantage and the problems present in the Google SERPS. DOJ Slidedeck Detailing Google’s Abusive Monopoly Practices Kills it: In a dramatic culmination to a three-year antitrust case, the Department of Justice (DOJ) presented a robust argument against Google, focusing on its dominant market practices with its advertising strategies. The DOJ accused Google of manipulating auction prices in paid search advertising to artificially boost revenue, a practice that arguably harms both competitors and consumers by stifling fair competition and transparency.The government's presentation, encapsulated in a detailed 143-slide deck, highlighted how Google's practices are designed to meet its quarterly financial targets and cater to Wall Street expectations, often at the expense of genuine market competition. The DOJ argued that Google has a unique hold over the search advertising market, distinguishing it from other forms of digital advertising like social media or display ads, which do not serve as direct substitutes. This market control, according to the DOJ, compels advertisers to maintain their spending with Google, lacking viable alternatives.The deck painted a picture of a company that, while not illegal in holding a monopoly, is allegedly crossing the line into abusing that power through strategies like price manipulation—one of the classic signs of monopolistic abuse. The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.Ep 156Subscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/

Send us a textWe're taking the week off, but here's an episode (#126) from the "vault" that we think you'll enjoy!Do Google searchers enter the Local Finder?Local SEOs wonder whether searchers actually enter the Local Finder from the Pack results. We often think no but our research indicates that not only do searchers enter the Local Finder on a regular basis, they also scroll deep and often pick a business not in the top three.The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.How many links does a local website need to compete in Local Search?Local link building is hard but NearMedia research indicates that even in competitive markets in competitive categories it only takes several great local links to compete.Google's BS around creating great content:  Google has created a world where focusing on search optimizations has rewarded businesses who have invested in SEO. Yet they consistently lecture users about the need for user centric content. The reality is that there is a great deal of hypocrisy on the part of Google in these matters. How should they deal with this reality?The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.Ep 156 From the archives EP 126 Near Memo_BuzzsproutSubscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/

Send us a text Dana DiTomaso brings her practical insights to the often murky waters of Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Dana, who wears multiple hats as the president and co-founder of KickPoint, shares candid thoughts on the challenges of demystifying GA4. She discusses the shortcomings of GA4, emphasizing its strong data collection capabilities but criticizing its reporting features. Dana emphasizes the necessity of understanding what GA4 and other analytics tools can and cannot do. She advocates for a realistic approach to data, encouraging marketers to focus on trends rather than absolute numbers. She discusses the integration of various data sources and the strategic use of analytics tools to provide actionable insightsIf you sign for Dana’s courses with the coupon code: nearmemo you will get 20% off. The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.near memo ep 155Subscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/

Send us a text Ad market dominated by a few players:  The Internet Advertising Bureau released their annual report for 2024. Digital advertising reached a record-high of $225 billion, with the biggest share going to search ($88.8 billion) & display ($66.1 billion). The bulk of this income is distributed across the top 10 advertising platforms and with the end of cookies, their dominance is likely to be reinforced. While paid search's (ie Google’s) share of total revenue declined, real dollars grew 5.2%. With a flattening of search demand, Google's new opt-in Ad Intents contextual format is an example of the "creative" monetization that we will increasingly see more of.Seattle Physician Found Guilty of Violating Federal Review Law: A federal judge found Allure Esthetic of Seattle wrongly prevented patients from posting negative reviews with illegal NDAs and issued a summary judgment in the case. Not only did this surgeon buy fake reviews and have staff create fake reviews, he forced over 10,000 patients to sign NDAs preventing them from post reviews of less than 4 stars without first consulting with the surgeon. If they did post lower reviews they also had to agree to their private health information being divulged in the response. The case, first filed in late 2022, will go to trial in September and the main purpose of the trial will be to determine the monetary damages. Given the large number of patients affected and the high costs in this vertical, the fine should be substantial. If you content is only as good as ChatGPT you will fail: Ten websites dominate search results for nearly all medical symptoms. This dominance is attributed to their substantial content libraries and extensive inbound links. Major names like Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins lead this group, often making it nearly impossible for other healthcare brands to gain visibility. Additionally, platforms like Quora and Reddit also appear frequently in search results, sometimes promoting questionable medical advice through user comments. This trend reflects a broader challenge within SEO practices where established brands with robust content and linking strategies overwhelmingly outperform newer entrants, reinforcing the need for strategic content investment and diversification beyond mere SEO tactics.The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.near memo ep 154Subscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/

Send us a textReviews are Like Death & Taxes & Should be Treated that Way:  Miriam Ellis wrote a great article at Moz providing small business owners tips on how to overcome their fear of reviews. But they really need to go further. Given that reviews, like death and taxes, are not going anywhere businesses need to not only remove their fear but create stringent business processes around getting AND contesting reviews that removes their emotions from the process.Google Cries ‘Wolf” When it Comes to DMA Compliance: Google's approach to DMA compliance seems to prioritize its interests, presenting a false dichotomy between new compliance changes and the previous state, which was more favorable to all parties. Google needs to innovate rather than blame DMA for negative outcomes, and to really increase opportunity within the search results there needs to be stringent regulation on self-preferencing, especially with first-party data, particularly entity data. The Future of SGE:  Google’s SGE experiment is still just that; an experiment. There is speculation that it will be formally introduced during Google I/O in May. When it is, will it move behind a paywal, will it become just another universal result or will Google take some third path. Equally importantis whether Google generative AI will continue to receive legal protection under Sec 230. The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.near memo ep 153Subscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/

Send us a textThe need to move SMBs from Tactics to Strategy & how fractional CMO’s can do that:  John Jantsch is a seasoned consultant, speaker, and bestselling author, notably recognized for his Duct Tape Marketing brand. He shares his journey of owning an agency for 30 years, highlighting his affinity for small to midsize businesses and the challenges they face, especially regarding budget and focus. Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing was his solution to the market's need for effective and straightforward marketing services. Over time, his approach evolved into licensing his methodology to other agencies and consultants.In the last five years, Jantsch has pivoted towards offering fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) services, capitalizing on the growing acceptance and need for part-time executive roles. He explains that the fractional CMO concept is cost-effective, providing senior marketing leadership at a fraction of the cost of a full-time CMO, particularly beneficial for companies with revenues under $30 million.Jantsch observes an increasing demand for strategic marketing services, partly due to the market's rapid changes and the desire for differentiation among agencies. He notes that while there is a prevalent focus on lead generation and short-term goals in the industry, there's a growing recognition of the value of strategic planning, especially for businesses crossing the million-dollar revenue threshold.Helping agencies to increase profits by developing their own fractional CMO capacity:  In the second part of the interview, John Jantsch delves into the challenges and nuances of adopting a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) role within agencies. He acknowledges the difficulty agencies face when shifting from execution-focused services to strategic consulting, especially with existing clients who may not perceive them in this new light. Jantsch suggests that offering strategic services as an add-on and targeting a more ideal client base can facilitate this transition.He critiques the common misunderstanding of having a marketing "plan" when businesses merely execute isolated tactics without a cohesive strategy. Jantsch emphasizes the importance of a targeted approach, focusing on the top 20% of customers and aligning marketing efforts with the entire customer journey, which he represents through the "marketing hourglass" concept. This approach entails understanding the customer's needs, refining messaging, and integrating strategic content creation.Jantsch also discusses the foundational phase of client engagement, where he insists on starting with a strategy phase, lasting about 45 days, to build trust and set the groundwork for further marketing efforts. This phase allows for the identification of a client's true challenges and needs, fostering a relationship where the agency transitions from a vendor to a trusted advisor.He highlights the importance of the CMO as the advocate for the customer within the company, ensuring that the entire customer experience, from initial contact through sales and service, aligns with the strategic marketing plan. Jantsch's approach underscores the need for a comprehensive understanding of the client's business processes, which is crucial for delivering effective marketing solutions and establishing a long-term partnership.How to begin implementing a fractional CMO relationship with your client:  In the final part of the interview, John Jantsch discusses building trust and managing dynamics within client organizations as a fractional CMO. He notes the common presence of internal politics and resistance, but emphSubscribe to our newsletters and other content at https://www.nearmedia.co/subscribe/