It’s been a good week for local businesses at Google This Week now with ratings showing in Maps, more insights in the Google My Business Performance reports and there are more options to edit your business profile directly in Search and Maps. Google is also now rolling out the Page Experience update and Video Action Campaigns are taking over from TrueView for Action.
ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.
- Ratings for Restaurants Now Showing in Maps
- Google Banning Certain Verticals from Advertising via YouTube Masthead
- Video Action Campaigns to Take Over TrueView for Action
- Google Introduces Search Console Insights
- Page Experience Update Now Rolling Out
- Article Carousel for Journalists Launched
- More Insights in the Google My Business Performance Report
- Edit Your Business Profile Directly in Search
Ratings for Restaurants Now Showing in Maps
Google is currently now showing the average review ratings for restaurant listings when overlaying restaurant results in Google Maps. Previously Google was not showing much additional information in the overlay outside of the pin and name of restaurant.
Review Average showing for restaurant search in Maps pic.twitter.com/ylIeu4YJKY
— Tim Capper (@GuideTwit) June 11, 2021
Google Banning Certain Verticals from Advertising via YouTube Masthead
There are reports that Google is banning certain verticals from advertising via the YouTube Masthead. These restrictions are on top of existing restrictions on the same verticals. So far we know that alcohol sales, gambling, prescription drugs and election and political ads have been banned from advertising on the Masthead.
Video Action Campaigns to Take Over TrueView for Action
Google is evolving TrueView for action and scaling its most popular features to more places on and off YouTube with Video action campaigns.
“We’ve seen Video action campaigns drive 20% more conversions per dollar compared to TrueView for action.”
With Video action campaigns you can use longer headlines plus you’ll have access across YouTube and Google video partners all within one campaign. You will not be able to opt-out of any available inventory.
Starting early next year all TrueView for action campaigns will automatically upgrade to Video action campaigns. After September 30 you will no longer be able to create TrueView for action ads.
We suggest switching to Video action campaigns now by using the responsive ad group type during your campaign setup.
Google Introduces Search Console Insights
Google is introducing Search Console Insights, which joins data from Search Console and Google Analytics so you can better understand how your content is performing. Search Console Insights will be gradually rolled out over the upcoming days and will help you answer questions, such as:
- How do people discover my content?
- What are people searching for on Google before they visit my content?
Page Experience Update Now Rolling Out
Google is slowly rolling out the page experience update now which will take place through to the end of August. Starting June 17, Google will start using the page experience signals for eligibility into the top stories carousel and section, AMP will no longer be used as an eligibility factor.
Article Carousel for Journalists Launched
Currently, when you search for a journalist or author, you’ll often see a knowledge panel at the top of your search results, now for a small subset of journalists, you may see a carousel of their published work. This feature is only available to a limited number of US English-language journalists as a start and can be accessed on mobile. Google will expand the feature over time to more journalists, devices and languages.
More Insights in the Google My Business Performance Report
Google is adding more metrics in the Google My Business Performance reports. The new metrics include driving direction requests and website visits. While these metrics are currently in the old insights report, they had not moved over yet to the new Performance reports.
The driving directions metric in the new report may show fewer requests due to Google’s efforts to combat things like “multi-tapping, direction request cancellation, and spam.”
Edit Your Business Profile Directly in Search
Google has added new ways to edit your business profiles directly in Search and Maps. This is an expansion of the capabilities Google started rolling out last year, businesses can now add or edit more details including contact information, opening hours and create Posts to share updates right in Google Search.
Thank You for Reading
Have you noticed any changes from Google this week?
Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
