What’s this about Google My Business Posts?

I’m really pleased that Google has finally added Posts to the Google My Business API. It makes them useful at last.

It’s partly due to a Minimum Viable Product way of rolling out projects, and partly due to Google being a bit silly at times.

Either way, I think these Google Posts have a real opportunity to help webmasters gain more SERP real estate, and increase click-throughs and action.

Read more in this extract from TWIS SEO News & Updates 20th October 2017.

#SEO #SEONews #GooglePosts #GoogleMyBusiness #SERP

Google Posts Finally Added To Google My Business API

Key Issues Summary:

  • Google Posts which where launched at the end of June  (Google Posts Goes Live in Google My Business) have been added to the Google My Business API.
  • This means you can add, update or remove Google My Business post via automation.
  • You can now get your developers busy and actually make use of this nifty little feature.

Google Posts Added to Google My Business API

How to Implement Google My Business Posts API:

  1. You should be using Google My Business Posts. They are a good way to take up increased search real estate, especially for brand searches.
  2. With clickable CTAs, they are also a good way to send extra sales your way.
  3. Review the things you can do with Google My Business Posts on Google’s help center.
  4. Review how to engage with the Google My Business API.
  5. Review the Google Developer Center instructions. The are quite detailed.
  6. Click here to contact me to discuss how to test and implement Google Posts in your Google My Business account.

Google Posts API Insights & Discussion:

This is good news and goes some way to changing the Google Posts Not Quite Ready view I took shortly after launch. They were half-baked then, and whilst they are still not the best thing since sliced bread, automation makes them much, much better.

Now, with API access, you can automate addition and removal, which means you can get round the short expiry date reasonably easily. If you run events, courses, special offers and the like, this should also make it much easier to control the listings.

If you already run events type software which adds / manages listing for events, you should ask your vendor to add support for Google Posts and the API. This is an easy way to drive direct revenue benefit for very little effort.

More Information:

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Mobile First is NOT Mobile Friendly

Google Mobile First Not Mobile Friendly

I recently wrote about how Google’s Mobile First is Not Mobile Friendly. Read it now.

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TL;DR

  • Get your coders ready! Adding this feature to the GMB API makes Google Posts useful.
  • If you haven’t tried them, they look pretty decent and should be useful for increasing brand visibility and encouraging click-throughs, or buys directly from SERP.
  • This change means you can programatically add / remove / manage your Posts. Yay!
  • Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
  • Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
  • Finally, get your content ranking well on Google by starting to understand Find Crawl Index.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.

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