Por qué ESTÁN DESAPARECIENDO TUS RESEÑAS en GOOGLE MAPS 🌠 Noticias SEO local — Transcript

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1. 0:00Welcome to the local SEO news update,
2. 0:02where in just over 10 minutes we'll
3. 0:05review everything that happened this
4. 0:07month in SEO, AI, and marketing for
5. 0:09local businesses. And pay attention,
6. 0:12because it might not seem like it, but
7. 0:14July is packed with news. Google, as
8. 0:16usual, is causing trouble and has
9. 0:18started hiding reviews overnight, even
10. 0:20reviews that had been on the profile
11. 0:22for years have suddenly vanished. And
12. 0:26some businesses have even had their
13. 0:28ability to receive new reviews blocked.
14. 0:31And all this without warning, as is
15. 0:33customary. I’m also going to tell you
16. 0:36why the messaging system on profiles is
17. 0:39returning, now with an AI chatbot in
18. 0:42the mix, and an Apple move that leaves
19. 0:44a lot of local services out of their
20. 0:47ads. Remember that you can receive all
21. 0:51this news for free in your inbox by
22. 0:53subscribing to our newsletter, where we
23. 0:56also share resources and exclusive
24. 0:58discounts with our community. I'm
25. 1:01Matías Romero from Ginan Academy.
26. 1:03Let’s get started. We start with the
27. 1:20big news of the month: reviews. And in
28. 1:23case someone new has just arrived at
29. 1:25the channel, the reviews on your Google
30. 1:27profile are not just a badge you put on
31. 1:29your business. It is an entire system
32. 1:32that drives customer trust, increases
33. 1:34the percentage of people who click on
34. 1:37your business, and yes, it also
35. 1:39influences where you appear in the "Map
36. 1:41Pack," that block of three businesses
37. 1:43with the map that appears at the top
38. 1:45when you search for something near you.
39. 1:49Well, you should know that this month
40. 1:52businesses found that overnight their
41. 1:55reviews were missing, and some also had
42. 1:59Google block new reviews on their
43. 2:02profile. After several days of
44. 2:04complaints in the forums, Google
45. 2:06finally confirmed it and said they are
46. 2:08investigating. For these types of
47. 2:11situations, Google tells us that when
48. 2:14their system detects reviews it deems
49. 2:17suspicious, it starts taking measures
50. 2:19ranging from deleting those reviews to
51. 2:22temporarily pausing all reviews for
52. 2:24that profile to curb potential abuse.
53. 2:28And according to them, they promise to
54. 2:30restore all those that were removed by
55. 2:32mistake, although we will have to see
56. 2:33if that actually happens in practice.
57. 2:36But that’s not all, because there is
58. 2:38a detail that complicates it even
59. 2:39further. According to Amy Toman, who is
60. 2:43an official Google Product Expert, the
61. 2:46trigger often fires right after a
62. 2:48business has reported fake or spam
63. 2:51reviews on its profile. In other words,
64. 2:54these businesses were doing what they
65. 2:57are supposed to do: reporting
66. 2:59fraudulent reviews. And the system,
67. 3:01instead of cleaning up just those
68. 3:04reviews, sometimes freezes them all.
69. 3:07There have been listings where they
70. 3:09even blocked all their reviews,
71. 3:11including those from their oldest
72. 3:13history, and in at least one case, the
73. 3:15business's rating dropped to zero stars
74. 3:17. And to top it off, around June 10th,
75. 3:21another problem was added, a glitch
76. 3:23that showed the following message on
77. 3:25their admin panel: "You don't have any
78. 3:27reviews for your business yet." On
79. 3:29listings that clearly did have them.
80. 3:32This created massive chaos, but in the
81. 3:34end, these problems all come from the
82. 3:37same litter, let's be honest. Because
83. 3:40here, in the end, it's very easy to get
84. 3:43carried away thinking it's Google's
85. 3:45fault, but it's still not clear if this
86. 3:47is an algorithm that has become too
87. 3:49aggressive or if it's actually
88. 3:51detecting some type of real abuse;
89. 3:53because yes, in the end, this could be
90. 3:55a one-off glitch or it could be a new
91. 3:58way of operating. We don't know yet, so
92. 4:01we're going to have to be very
93. 4:03attentive over the coming months to see
94. 4:05how it evolves. And in practice, if it
95. 4:08has happened to you, document when the
96. 4:10reviews disappeared and if you still
97. 4:13have the influx of new reviews blocked
98. 4:15as of today. And what I wouldn't do
99. 4:18under any circumstances is ask your
100. 4:20customers to leave you the review that
101. 4:23isn't coming through again, nor would I
102. 4:25use third-party services to recover
103. 4:27them, because in the end, that will
104. 4:30only raise even more red flags about
105. 4:32your business. And since Google is
106. 4:35acting trigger-happy with everything
107. 4:37related to reviews, let's see how it's
108. 4:39treating listings when things go
109. 4:41completely sideways. And yes, I am
110. 4:44referring to the dreaded business
111. 4:46listing suspensions. Here this month we
112. 4:49have a bit of a mixed bag. Let's start
113. 4:51with the not-so-good news. Google has
114. 4:53made it clear that restrictions now
115. 4:56accumulate. In other words, if your
116. 4:59listing commits the same infraction
117. 5:01more than once, the initial penalty,
118. 5:04let's say 30 days, can even double, so
119. 5:06now repeat offenses will cost even more
120. 5:09than before. And now the other one,
121. 5:12which is honestly appreciated: they
122. 5:14have improved the appeal process to
123. 5:16recover a suspended listing. Until now,
124. 5:19submitting evidence was truly a bit of
125. 5:21an ordeal, especially for those
126. 5:23businesses that don't have much
127. 5:24knowledge of marketing or how Google
128. 5:26Maps works, because they had a 60-
129. 5:28minute window to send all the
130. 5:30documentation and, of course, they
131. 5:31often didn't even know what
132. 5:33documentation it was. Well, since the
133. 5:36beginning of July, evidence is attached
134. 5:38directly within the appeal form itself
135. 5:41with a button that accepts multiple
136. 5:43files at once, unlike before when you
137. 5:45had to upload them one by one. Although
138. 5:49, watch out for one thing so you don't
139. 5:51get the wrong idea about all this,
140. 5:53because this doesn't change what
141. 5:55evidence Google accepts as valid to
142. 5:57re-verify your profile, nor how they
143. 5:59judge it. It's just that the process of
144. 6:03sending everything is a little less
145. 6:05cumbersome, and the review process
146. 6:07still takes up to 5 business days. In
147. 6:10other words, even if it's easier to
148. 6:12execute, it's not any faster on their
149. 6:14end, at least in terms of analysis. So
150. 6:17have a little patience. And now we
151. 6:19switch gears from punishments to new
152. 6:22features. Google has brought back
153. 6:24messaging within business profiles.
154. 6:28That feature that allowed a customer to
155. 6:30write to you directly from your Google
156. 6:33profile, which they disabled sometime
157. 6:35during 2024. Well, now it seems it's
158. 6:39coming back, but with a companion—
159. 6:42none other than an artificial
160. 6:44intelligence chatbot. And basically,
161. 6:47the idea behind all this is for this
162. 6:49chatbot to answer typical questions
163. 6:51your customer might ask based on the
164. 6:53information in your profile, and to
165. 6:55hand the conversation over to you when
166. 6:57a real person is needed to answer
167. 6:59something a bit more complex. The truth
168. 7:02is that this could be very good because
169. 7:04you regain a direct acquisition channel
170. 7:06right from your profile without
171. 7:07depending on the customer calling you
172. 7:09or looking for you elsewhere. But like
173. 7:12almost everything, it's not that simple
174. 7:14. And here we have to keep in mind that
175. 7:17there will be a layer of artificial
176. 7:18intelligence in front of the first
177. 7:20contact with a potential customer for
178. 7:21your business. And that same AI will
179. 7:24respond with what you have published
180. 7:26within your business profile and what
181. 7:29it detects from user reviews. If your
182. 7:31profile is incomplete or outdated, it
183. 7:34won't reflect well on you; it will
184. 7:36provide weak or even flat-out wrong
185. 7:38answers in the name of your business.
186. 7:41So if this ends up arriving here in
187. 7:43Spain, the first thing to do is ensure
188. 7:45that your profile information is
189. 7:47absolutely impeccable, because it will
190. 7:49be the one ending up speaking for you.
191. 7:52And continuing with what Google knows
192. 7:54about your business, there is another
193. 7:56update along those same lines. It turns
194. 7:58out Google has been collecting data
195. 8:00about your business on its own for some
196. 8:02time, and as usual, they haven't warned
197. 8:04you about this either. They usually do
198. 8:08this through automated calls and chat
199. 8:10conversations that confirm certain
200. 8:11details. They do it with forms, through
201. 8:16your customers 'reviews, such as
202. 8:18whether you have curbside pickup, if
203. 8:20there is parking for customers, if you
204. 8:22accept walk-ins, all those things that
205. 8:25might be useful to other customers. The
206. 8:29new thing about all this is that since
207. 8:31mid-July, although for now only in the
208. 8:33United States, you will be able to see
209. 8:35all that information that Google has
210. 8:37collected about you. And to do this,
211. 8:40they have enabled a tab inside your
212. 8:42business profile's editing panel called
213. 8:44"collected info." Surely in Spanish it
214. 8:46will end up being called something like
215. 8:48"information about your business" or "
216. 8:50collected information." Well, there you
217. 8:52will see exactly everything that Google
218. 8:55has noted about your business from this
219. 8:57external information source. And most
220. 9:00importantly, you will be able to edit
221. 9:02any of this data that is incorrect. The
222. 9:05benefit here is twofold because it will
223. 9:07allow you not only to know what Google
224. 9:09knows about you, but also to update or
225. 9:12correct it. So, honestly, when this
226. 9:14finally arrives, it will be greatly
227. 9:16appreciated because now your profile
228. 9:18was changing on its own and most
229. 9:20businesses hadn't even noticed, and now
230. 9:23at least they will have a tab to review
231. 9:25and correct it. My advice for when this
232. 9:28eventually reaches other countries is
233. 9:30to take a look at that tab because more
234. 9:33than one person will find data that
235. 9:34truly makes no sense at all. And now
236. 9:38let's change the subject from profiles
237. 9:40to money, because local business
238. 9:42advertising has moved this month on two
239. 9:44fronts and in completely opposite
240. 9:45directions. On one hand, we have Apple.
241. 9:49Apple Maps has updated its policies and
242. 9:52banned ads for home services like
243. 9:54plumbing. Electricity, locksmithing,
244. 9:58HVAC, pest control—all these types of
245. 10:01businesses are excluded from the types
246. 10:04of ads they accept. On the other hand,
247. 10:07Google is going in the opposite
248. 10:09direction: they want full integration,
249. 10:12and to do so, they are going to
250. 10:14integrate Local Service Ads, those ads
251. 10:16with the "Google Guaranteed" seal that
252. 10:19appear at the very top with a little
253. 10:21green checkmark, where you pay per lead
254. 10:24and not per click within the platform.
255. 10:27Well, now they want to integrate this
256. 10:29into Google Ads. The migration will
257. 10:32begin in August for U.S. services, and
258. 10:34they are going to keep the model of
259. 10:36paying only for valid leads, at least
260. 10:38in principle. So, what would change in
261. 10:41all of this is that instead of managing
262. 10:42it from an independent dashboard, it
263. 10:44will all be integrated into the Google
264. 10:46Ads platform. Although, to be honest
265. 10:49about all this—because I don't want
266. 10:51to sell you smoke or have you rush to
267. 10:53the Google Ads platform—the truth is
268. 10:56that both Apple Maps ads and Local
269. 10:57Service Ads are currently mostly things
270. 11:00for the United States. In Spain, at
271. 11:03least, they don't have such a relevant
272. 11:05role yet. So, what I'm telling you is
273. 11:07not so you start taking action tomorrow
274. 11:09or head straight to the Google Ads
275. 11:11platform now, but rather so you
276. 11:12understand where all these changes are
277. 11:14heading. And so that if they become
278. 11:17relevant here one day, you’ll know
279. 11:18which platform you can use to work on
280. 11:20these types of ads. And to close, one
281. 11:23of those little things Google tests
282. 11:25quietly, where we never quite know if
283. 11:27they’ll end up staying or not,
284. 11:28because some users have seen Google
285. 11:30testing a redesign of the famous local
286. 11:33pack. In this version, the map goes to
287. 11:36the very top instead of the right side,
288. 11:38as we are used to in the current design
289. 11:40, and the action buttons for calling or
290. 11:42getting directions—all of these—
291. 11:44move locations and also change their
292. 11:46appearance. For now, it’s just a test
293. 11:49seen by a handful of people before it
294. 11:51disappears again, and it’s not at all
295. 11:52clear if it will actually stay that way
296. 11:54or not. They love making these kinds of
297. 11:58changes, but if the map ends up taking
298. 12:00center stage at the top, your listing's
299. 12:02photo and the first lines, like the
300. 12:05business title and short descriptions,
301. 12:07will lose prominence, which will change
302. 12:09what you need to prioritize; although,
303. 12:12personally, I wouldn't worry too much,
304. 12:14because these changes might never even
305. 12:16be implemented. And that’s it for
306. 12:19this month’s review. I’ll leave all
307. 12:21the links to the sources for each news
308. 12:23item in the description in case you
309. 12:25want to dig deeper into any specific
310. 12:27one. And if you want this same content
311. 12:29in writing, but every two weeks instead
312. 12:31of once a month, you can read it at
313. 12:33your own pace by receiving it directly
314. 12:35in your email when you subscribe to our
315. 12:37newsletter. So, I’ve left the link
316. 12:40for that right down here as well. And
317. 12:42now tell me in the comments, out of
318. 12:44everything that happened this month,
319. 12:47which piece of news took you the most
320. 12:49by surprise? Come on, I'm reading your
321. 12:50comments. Now, I'll see you in the next
322. 12:53video. Sending a hug. Aloja. M.