Welcome to another episode of the Canonical Chronicle!
In this episode we review the GMB app improvements; Google is testing new features in the SERPs; the GMB bug has now been fixed. And a new SEO event is coming to Birmingham bringing to the city most of the prolific SEO speakers!
Ross: 00:00 I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.
Ross: 00:03 Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 6,000,900 of the Canonical Chronicle.
Arnout H.: 00:08 Hey, Ross!
Ross: 00:10 Mate, why are you dressed like that?
Arnout H.: 00:12 Well, I swam here. That’s what we Dutch people do.
Ross: 00:16 You swam from the Netherlands?
Arnout H.: 00:18 Yes. That’s what we do.
Ross: 00:19 Well, in London, we don’t. Do you want to go get dressed and then we can start?
Arnout H.: 00:23 Why?
Ross: 00:24 I mean, I know it’s warm, but …
Arnout H.: 00:26 Okay, okay. Maybe I should, maybe I should. I’m gone.
Ross: 00:37 A new study by BrightLocal shows that 5%
Ross: 00:40 of GMB listings actually trigger a meaningful action.
Ross: 00:44 To get the data, they looked at 45,000 businesses across four different countries
Ross: 00:48 and through 36 industries.
Ross: 00:50 Some of the really cool stats to come out include that there’s 33 touch points
Ross: 00:54 a customer has every month with GMB. 84% of those come from the discovery.
Ross: 01:00 Interestingly, 84% of those searches were actually in a category instead of the business itself.
Arnout H.: 01:07 Okay, Google. Stroopwafels near me.
Ross: 01:12 Like that. So most interactions are actually converting into something like a phone call or a booking,
Ross: 01:16 so if you’re a local business, now would be a very good time to download the GMB app
Ross: 01:21 and start uploading pictures onto your GMB profile on a daily basis.
Ross: 01:27 In a story that’s been broken by Search Engine Land,
Ross: 01:29 it looks like Google is testing new search features, this time sharing buttons and…
Arnout H.: 01:36 Sharing? You mean sharing like-
Ross: 01:37 Sharing, yeah, yeah.
Ross: 01:37 The interesting things about this is if Google rolls this out,
Ross: 01:41 it might actually start to be a ranking factor, because,
Ross: 01:45 if you think about it, a shared URL means a more relevant URL,
Ross: 01:48 which surely would be ranked a bit higher. As always, social should be a part of a broad marketing strategy,
Ross: 01:54 but, as far as we can see, it has not got any correlation to direct ranking factors.
Ross: 01:59 Here’s another one. Under the subject of Google My Business,
Ross: 02:01 you’re now free to claim your shortnames because the Google bug has now been resolved.
Ross: 02:06 However, if you’re experiencing the views still being missing from your profile,
Ross: 02:11 they’ve said that they’re still working on that fix, so just bear that in mind.
Ross: 02:14 In a recent blog post, Google dropped some interesting information
Ross: 02:17 about how many algorithmic updates last year had been pushed live.
Ross: 02:21 The number is a whopping 3,200 changes.
Ross: 02:26 The only thing in the world that changes its mind to that degree
Ross: 02:29 is my girlfriend when we’re ordering takeout.
Ryan Gosling: 02:32 What do you want?
Rachel McAdams: 02:36 It’s not that simple.
Ryan Gosling: 02:40 What do you want? God dammit. What do you want?
Ross: 02:41 Just kidding. I don’t actually have a girlfriend.
Ross: 02:45 Most people already think the Google algorithm is double Dutch,
Ross: 02:48 so to help you understand it a bit better, here is Arnout Hellemans,
Ross: 02:52 who’s going to explain it in single Dutch.
Arnout H.: 03:07 [Speaks Dutch]
Ross: 03:07 Lastly, something for all you UK-based SEOs.
Ross: 03:10 A brand new event has popped up called Search Birmingham,
Ross: 03:13 which sees some of the most prolific SEOs take the stage to share their secrets.
Ross: 03:17 Confirmed speakers include Charles Floate, [Jack] Vivian, James Gregory,
Ross: 03:21 and our very own, from last week’s Canonical Chronicle, Mr Craig Campbell.
Ross: 03:25 I’ve got my ticket, and I hope to see you all there.
Ross: 03:28 That’s everything for this week’s Canonical Chronicle.
Ross: 03:30 If you liked it, please do share it on social, but until next time,
Ross: 03:34 we will see you later.
