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Google has a history of pushing vital updates for its search engine regularly. These updates on the search algorithms help Google provide more accurate search results to its audience. The developers of the search engine constantly modify its search algorithms by adding new features to it over 500 to 600 times every year. The latest algorithm of the search engine now focuses on noticing the ranking volatility.

Understanding this vital update is extremely important for website owners. By understanding the surface-level technical nuances of the algorithm updates, the website owners can modify their marketing strategies for a better reach and conversion. Here we shall discuss the basics of the latest algorithm update that allows the search engine to notice the volatility of the rankings.

Where Have the Changes Occurred?

According to various sources, the changes have occurred both on the desktop as well as mobile device fronts. The same sources suggest that there is no specific group of factors that is affecting the update.

What is the Impact of Such a Sudden Update?

This particular update by Google has no name. We know that the previous update in the algorithm was called the Panda update and that the next update will be called Penguin. We also know that this is not the final Penguin update. In fact, this is a minor step up on the Panda update itself.

This update is focussing on the quality of the content, frequency of posting the content, level of details in the content, as well as the availability of relevant images/videos in the content. With the right kind web and content development practices you can easily leverage this opportunity and make the most of this update.

How Do You Leverage this Opportunity?

Just like most algorithmic updates, this one focuses on the quality of the content that you post on the website. Higher quality content will produce better SEO results. Therefore, the content that has the most useful data for the people browsing the internet will shine in the search results. To make the content more relevant to this update and increase its quality, you can focus on the following factors:

• Readability of the Content: The content which is highly readable will fair better against the content that is not readable at all. Therefore, before uploading any content on your website, you should proof-read it correctly. The content that is free of grammatical errors will score better against its counterparts.

You should focus on more simplifying the content for your audience. Use extremely simple words and write shorter sentences. You should keep the language simple even if you need to sacrifice the grammatical aspects of the content a little.

You can also increase the readability further by designing the web pages in a particular manner. Use enough space between the words and design the web page so that the content on it is readable enough. For example, letters in black on a white background are much more readable than letters in red on a maroon background.

• Usefulness of the Content: Keep your content relevant to the needs of your prospects. Ideally, you should not always try and sell your products/services with the content. In fact, you should balance the informative and promotional content as much as possible. Too much focus on the promotional aspects of the content will not create a useful impression in the minds of your customers.

Ideally, you should have a dedicated blog page for your business that highlights the informational aspects of your services/products. Statistics show that over 53% of marketers believe that blogging is their top content marketing priority.

The Number of Keywords: Both the quantity as well as the quality of keywords in the content matter a lot for SEO. However, most people make the mistake of stuffing the content with too many keywords to raise their SEO-friendliness. Such practices are extremely harmful to the readability of the content. Therefore, you should use keywords only when they fit into the content naturally.

If you want to get your web pages indexed well with Google search algorithms, you need to focus on the quality as well as the quantity of the content. The top bloggers generate at least 3 to 5 blogs every week. The websites that have a blog have 434% more indexed pages too!

Conclusion

One thing that stays common amongst all Google’s core algorithm updates is its focus on the quality of the content. Therefore, as long as you are developing high-quality content regularly, Google will support your page with a higher ranking. Today, you can hire a certified content developer from a freelance website or on a contract basis to develop high-quality content for you regularly. Such content developers help you produce an excellent return on investment with blogs.

Have you ever come across any message from Google alert stating that your website has been penalized? Do you know what ramifications this alert could lead to? There are chances that your website can face huge loss as far as Google search ranking is concerned, it may also be removed completely from the Google search engine. It doesn’t end here! This could even lead to close of business.

The question that arises, is why does this happen?  There are various factors which could attract penalized by Google

Factors Responsible as to why a Website may be penalized by Google

There are multiple factors which could lead to such a scenario. Here are some of them.

• When manipulative tactics and methods are being used in order to improve the ranking of a site. As far as manipulative methods are concerned, there are two more categories, which are
• Using on-site methods within the technical set up of a website
• Using off-site methods to manipulate the factors which are being used by Google to check the trust and authority of a site
• The visiting traffic reports poor website experience.

Types of Google Penalty – Manual or Algorithmic

Here is a detailed discussion on the 2 different types of penalties that can be imposed by Google

• A manual penalty is imposed when a visitor from Google has reviewed a site manually and found one or more Google guidelines have been violated.
• An algorithmic penalty may be imposed when a particular website has stumbled a filter or safeguard which is built into Google algorithm.
• As far as Algorithmic penalties are concerned, they fall under Penguin or Panda categories. When it comes to Panda penalties, they are related low content quality of a site along with its usability. Talking of Penguin penalties, they can be associated with over-optimization and usually supports the content of very high quality.
• The major and minor updates for Penguin and Panda can implement different changes. These changes at times may go unnoticed and can completely destroy the SEO of a particular website.

Keeping all these factors in mind, it is absolutely necessary to remain up to date with the most vital algorithm updates

How a Google Penalty can be recognized?

Here are some of the signs that would signify that you are being penalized by Google

• Your website would stop suddenly showing selected phrases or keywords in the SERP
• You might end up losing lots of traffic and may not recover them ever again.
• The ranking of your website would unexpectedly drop to zero
• At times, the website may be shut down completely. At times, it can be recovered easily by Google penalty, while most of the times it becomes very difficult to recover.

In order to fix and resolve all these issues, you need to deploy an SEO expert, who would follow a checklist for identifying the probable causes which could lead to website penalty and would come up with various recommendations to avoid it.

How can you Avoid Google Penalty

There are a couple of important aspects that need to be taken care of in order to avoid Google penalty. Here are some of them

• Spam back-links, Link Building, and Guest Post Link: If you use guest posting with an excessive amount of links as a strategy for link building, then it can prove to be absolutely fatal. In order to avoid Google penalties, especially Penguin, the key is to have a profile which looks natural. There is also a high risk of devaluing links by Google which are being generated by guest posts. These days, there are lots of people who are into guest posting on a huge scale for Google to ignore. Google can quite easily detect all the links for guest posts and then devalue them.
  

The newly implemented Google algorithms do not allow websites for selling or purchasing back-links. Therefore, as a host, you need to be cautious and refrain yourself from adding too many back-links in a relatively short span of time. Google might assume that you are doing this with the help of dedicated software. Therefore, it is recommended to use backlinks which are relevant to the content of the website.

• Duplicate or Plagiarized Content: As per policies set by Google, any duplicate of plagiarized content can attract penalty. It needs to be ensured that whatever content you are uploading, it is being written properly and it unique. There are a couple of tools and applications which can be used to avoid plagiarism. You should also check everything else which can be duplicated along with Meta tags, link anchors.

• Hidden Text or Links: All of the website text and links should be visible clearly to the visitors and has to be beneficial to them. Any hidden text or links will be considered to be suspicious. It is recommended not to color any link or text which is similar to the background of a page or a button.

Although the visitors of the website may not be able to notice the hidden text or links; however, it can be easily detected by the Search engine bots.

• Keywords Stuffing: It is highly recommended to avoid excessive use of the targeted keywords. A high keyword density is considered to be a sign of a poorly written content. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to check for the densities of the keywords. If you have excessive numbers of keywords stuffed in a page, in that case, it would attract the attention of Google you might get penalized heavily for it.
• Overuse of H1 Tags: By using an H1 tag, Google can clearly understand the title of the page. Google will be able to easily figure out that H1 tags have been used excessively in order to pump the listing using keywords.
• Advertising and Affiliations: Google doesn’t like those websites which have too many advertisements and affiliate marketing. Google will also reject any website which has high bounce rates.  Therefore, this is an important aspect which needs to be taken into consideration.
• Control Hacking: In case you site is hacked, it would be immediately removed from SERPs by Google. Therefore, make sure that you are always prepared for the worst case scenario. You must be able to act quickly in order to control any hacking attempts and make sure that a backup of your website is taken so that it can be restored at any point in. 

Recovering from Google Penalty

If a penalty has been imposed on you by Google, in that case, there is no need to panic. You need to have patience. Remember, websites which are even popular and bigger than you can be penalized for any numbers of reasons. What you need to do is to figure out the causes of the penalty and then take corrective measures. Different solutions would be applicable for different problems.

Here are a couple of tips which you might find handy when it comes to avoiding Google penalties

• If penalties are being imposed due to troublesome links, then you can go ahead and ask Google to ignore them and request them not to count those links
• You need to clean up your website and then a new site-map needs to be submitted to Google mentioning about new and fresh content.
• Google Webmaster Tool can be used in order to download and find all the back-links
• Try and remove some of the links and also make sure that some of the links are being taken down
• You may put forward a request for reconsideration in case of a manual penalty
• At times, Google takes a considerable amount of time in order to act on your requests and changes. So, all you need to do is to wait till your website starts crawling once again.

It needs to be remembered that it is possible to fix most of the penalties by using an ethical approach, some hard work and a little effort for rebuilding a website.

However, if Google refuses to remove the penalty from your website, in that case, you won’t have any other option but to purchase a fresh domain, restart everything from scratch, including promotion.

If you are complying by all the policies set by Google, then you have nothing to worry about; however, given that there are so many websites operating these days, even slightest of non-compliance can attract penalties. Therefore, it is very important for you to make sure that you stick to the guidelines laid down by Google. If you ever get penalized, then things can turn out to be a bit nasty for you. There are ways to get out of it; however, it is advisable not to get into it in the first place.

Conclusion

The key to removing Google penalty is to understand the causes and reasons of such penalties. Therefore, as a host, it is absolutely essential for you to go through the Webmaster Guidelines of Google. If you wish your website to stick right at the top of the first page of Google, then you can consult an experienced SEO expert for guidance.

Computer technology has been developing at a phenomenal rate. What once was only limited to use in research institutes and government offices, made its way in the homes of commoners over time. After the emergence of the personal computers, internet facilities made a massive impact on people. And the rest, as they say, is history. The virtual realm opened innumerable opportunities for people as well as companies. It is safe to say that the very foundation of e-commerce rests on the internet facilities.

Apart from this, it also paved the way for the inception and development of social networking platforms. Without this, tech-savvy people would not have has access to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, YouTube, and several others. These platforms changed online communication completely. These social networking platforms assist not only in easy communication, but help in promotional activities. These multi-pronged advantages increased the importance of social networking sites.

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram earn millions on a daily basis with only viewership and advertisements. Thus, it was only obvious that all tech giants will try to cash in on this opportunity. One such company that enjoys a respectable place in the online market is Google.

What Is Google Plus?

If you have not been living under a rock, then you will know about Google’s own social networking sites, Google+ or Google Plus. It was launched by the company in 2011. By April 2012, Google Plus made its mark in the social networking platform. If you think that it is another platform that will allow you to attain online links with your near and dear ones, then you are wrong. Google Plus offers a host of other tools and facilities to the users. Google Plus provides the user the opportunity to post articles and blogs. It also provides clients with a way to promote themselves.

How To Be A Part Of Google Plus?

Here are some steps, which will enable any Google user to become a part of the Google Plus family.

• Any person, who is interested in being a part of this new social networking site, has to log on to the official Google Plus link. For this, one has to click on the link https://plus.google.com/.
• It is mandatory for the client to have a Google representation, like a Gmail account. Without this, it is not possible to open a Google Plus account.
• Once the main page opens, the clients need to sign in with their user IDs and passwords.
• Being a social site, it allows the clients to connect with their relatives and friends, in short, all such people, who belong in their contact list.
• One can follow easy steps to add more contacts in their account.
• Just like other social networking sites, Google Plus also allows the clients to categorize the contacts. One can create circles, and add contacts accordingly. So, all family members will come under one circle, while friends will have their own separate circle.
• Creating circles makes it possible for the account holder to send messages to one or many people.
• Like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms, Google Plus also allows one to send any message or link to one person or many individuals.
• There is also a notification button that offers updates when anything new happens in the account.
• As Hangouts is another application, maintained by Google, Google Plus has links with this too. One can use the app to video chat with one or many people. All you need is a good internet connection.
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• Google Plus is not restricted for personal use. Business organizations can use the platform to keep their clients and probable customers updated. This not only improves their SEO ranking but also offers the organizations increased representation in the virtual realm.
• Apart from this, clients will also attain instant updates from YouTube. As both platforms are managed by Google, one offers access to another. Google Plus integrates YouTube as well.

Google Plus Limitations

Apart from so many benefits, Google Plus came with its own set of limitations. Here is a quick look the list:

SEO restrictions – The links of Google Plus stories or messages will only be highlighted in the search results if the account is active. In case the account holder is not online, the links will not show up in the search list. This feature immediately lowers the effectiveness of SEO creation.

No online contests – Google Plus online policies, also played a part in boosting its unpopularity. It prevented business organizations from organizing portal based contents. It was a major downside; as such contests allow agencies to attract the attention of their clients.

The uncanny similarity with Facebook – Critics were quick to point out that most of the features, offered by Google Plus were copied from Facebook. The similarities between the two social networking platforms are rather stark. People were already getting the same facilities as Facebook.

Low market share – A report highlighted the fantastic market possibilities of Google Plus. The survey opined that around 540 million clients were active on Google Plus on a monthly basis. Even after having such a high number, there was a more extensive section that preferred not to use the platform. Google Plus was unable to match the success of other Google products like YouTube and Gmail.

Google Plus Announces Its Deactivation

Though the limitations marred the popularity of the platform, these were not causing any major damage. But recently massive news shook the online community and Google Plus users. The company has decided to deactivate the common Google Plus version. The tech giant came out with this news on March 2018.

Reports suggest that Google took this decision, only after it was unable to offer confidentiality of users’ data. But it was not the only reason why the company decided to pull the plugs. The profits from Google Plus were dwindling fast as 90% of the clients were not staying on the page for more than 5 seconds. But the API error was a massive blow to the company’s overall reputation.

Google tried to brush the matter under the carpet but had to come out with the truth eventually. An API error allowed was causing a severe breach in the privacy policies. The report pointed out that several third-party application developers were using user data by tapping into the Google Plus database. Some of these applications had loopholes, which paved the path for the unregistered user to gain access to these details.

Google authority tried to take necessary steps to mend ways. But it was already too late. The word was out in the market, and Google Plus came under massive fire. The already low client base went down many notches. Breaches like these make it easy for cybercriminals to conduct data theft.

The report further highlighted that 500,000 Google Plus accounts were affected due to AIP issue. The total number of third-party apps, which were collecting user data illegally, was as high as 438. Google has not been able to identify the specific bug that put everything in motion.

What Google Proposes To Do?

After this shocking revelation, the company officials came forth with the announcement that all privacy policies will be made watertight. Necessary changes will be made in the AIP programs to ensure that only people with authority get access to users’ details. It will take some time to make necessary alterations. Until then, user access to Google Plus accounts will remain closed.

There is no government law that obliges Google to unveil information spills, yet there are laws at a state level. In California, the location of Google’s headquarter, organizations are just required to reveal data spills if it incorporates both a person’s name and their social security code, ID card or driver’s permit number, tag, medicinal data or medical coverage data.

Though the company said that it would take necessary steps to prevent such events in the future, it is not likely that Google Plus will be able to make a strong comeback soon. The organization needs to do much more than install strong privacy policies. It must research, and try to figure out the shortcomings of the platform. Failure to do so will not be conducive for the profit and reputation of the company. Impressive features, additional facilities and watertight protecting for users will help Google Plus to regain lost ground.

You can get more details from on the official website of Google. The company authorities are posting regular updates about their progress. A comprehensive alteration in both policies and company philosophy will prove to be beneficial in the long run. The success of any online company depends on the rate of security it offers for the clients. No person wants to compromise with their data.

Google needs to amp-up its online game if it wants to carve its niche in the social networking arena. It is the only way to ensure high-profit percentage. The overall earnings of any organization are directly promotional to the level of customer satisfaction.

In every few months, Google releases an update targeted at websites that are not providing value to the users, or are manipulating the search results with spamming techniques. For obvious reasons, Google remains quiet about the changes that they make to the algorithm. The Google Maccabees penalty, or the Fred update as it is better known as, was rolled out in the first week of March and was one such update that made the SEO firms and websites sit up and take note.

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For SEO services, they started noticing a slump in the web traffic and some websites mentioned a loss of 20-30 percent of traffic. The marketers, who were busy with the search results, are now spending time in the identification of issues and building of plans to recover from the said update.

What Was The Google Maccabees Update?

The Google Maccabees update is a new update that works almost like the previous algorithm updates, but puts more of its focus on improving user experience. Updates to the core algorithm of Google do not have a formal name and they are all informally named Fred. Barry Schwartz of SERoundtable called it Maccabees in honor of Hanukkah and then the rest of world followed cue.

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A couple of years ago, SEO technicians and marketers started realizing the value of long-tailed keywords and answering questions of the customers. As soon as the new tactics was found, the professionals also got a way of taking advantage and manipulating the tactics. Many of the companies have since then started creating low quality webpages for long-tailed keywords, called ‘keyword permutations.’ This strategy of the professionals ultimately ends up affecting the user experience and that is something Google has always taken a stand against.

The main aim of the update is to support and promote websites that have good quality and readability, and also to punish the websites that do not meet the standards of high quality user experience.

The Symptoms of the Maccabees Effect

The previous Fred update from Google penalized sites that provide thin and unclear content that did not have any purpose. The new update also has this feature and it targets black hat strategies related to aggressive monetization on the sites. Google wants to prevent the businesses from overloading the sites with adverts and offering low-value content with few or no user benefits. The websites that Google targeted had one or more of the following features:

• An annoyingly large presence of ads
• Unnecessarily long content on all topics made for getting high ranks
• Content has affiliate links or ads spread all over, and the quality of content is way below the industry-specific mark
• Deceptive advertisements that look like a play or download button to get people to click
• Aggressive monetization
• Thin content
• UX barriers
• Mobile site loading problems
• Aggressive affiliate setups

The Kind of Websites Affected Under the Update

If you are affected by the Maccabees update, you will see a sizeable drop in the organic search traffic, especially from Google. To solve the penalty, you need to take action and fix all the webpages as soon as you can, or you can rethink the ad display on the site. The following are some of the additional patterns and warning signs that you need to stay aware of:

• The Maccabees update affected different kinds of websites. The sites that were affected the most include ecommerce, blogs, affiliate sites, travel, and more.
• The update specifically targeted websites that have excessive keyword permutations, affiliate links, and high number of ads. These are the sites that noticed the biggest hit in their traffic.

Here’s a look at each of the issues separately:

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Keyword Permutations

Keyword permutations mean using the long-tail keywords or multiple phrases that basically refer to the same thing. For instance, keywords like how to apply makeup fast, how to apply makeup, how to use makeup, and how to apply fast makeup all essentially mean the same thing. The marketing managers and SEOs have started making multiple pages for almost similar keyword permutations.

Thin Content

If the websites rankings are highly dependent on the exact match long-tailed keywords or has a high volume of outdated and invaluable content, your website will see a drop in rankings and thereby, in traffic.

Low-quality of Backlinks

It has already been nearly a decade that Google has warned and started taking actions for the sites that buy or build low-quality backlinks. If you have paid for generic backlinks, like comment spam, blog networks, .edu profile, or used certain websites for building links for SEO, then Maccabees has most likely penalized your website.

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The Steps to Recover From the Traffic Slump

The Google Maccabees update might have affected your traffic flow but that is not the end of the world. You can still gain your position back in three steps.

1. Diagnose the Drop in Traffic

The first step of the traffic recovery plan is to ensure that you were really affected by the update and there is no other reason that caused your site to lose out.

• Did you notice a drop in traffic or the number of keywords that you site ranks for? Start with a keyword gap analysis and compare each URL ranking for the number of keywords before the update and the present numbers. A page that lost a sizeable number of keywords was certainly held as providing low value to the viewers. If a lot of these pages are found, then you have been affected.
• Does your site have more of low-quality generic contents than the high quality stuff that the users can love and share?
• Is there a high number of affiliated links or ads in your content?
• Is there an overuse of call to action overlays?
• Is the content made to gain revenues rather than offering value for solving what the user was looking for?

If the answer to all these questions is a ‘yes’, then you probably have been impacted through the recent Maccabees update.

2. Fix the Website

Recovery is a lengthy procedure and though it is not too difficult, it is very time consuming and quite expensive. There are two things you need to address for the Google Fred update.

1. a) Improve the Content Quality

This is not the first update that Google has come up with for ensuring high quality content and it is not going to be the last. The best way of avoiding any drop in traffic from future updates or a recovery from the Maccabees update is to make sure that you are focusing on in-depth, high quality, and authoritative contents on the website.

Ask yourself the following questions to know if you are creating a high-value content for your website.

• Does the expert writing the articles know the topic well? You are on the right track if they do.
• Does the article have factual, stylistic, or factual errors? If the content has errors, you need to make sure that it is edited thoroughly.
• Is the article original in its information, content, research, reporting or analysis? If it is completely original in all regards, then you have successfully created original value for Google to reward.
• Are the contents giving comprehensive or complete depiction of the topic, or is the content too short, lacking in useful specifics, or otherwise unsubstantial? If your website only has short articles of 500 words, then it is probably one of the reasons why the update has affected you.

1. b) Audit the Backlinks

Firstly, make sure that the link profile of your website looks natural. Link data points like follow to no-follow ratios, types of link, anchor text, link location, and so on are all of the factors that Google takes into account when it determines the value of a backlink profile, and the value of an inbound link towards the website’s SEO authority.

You can use a backlink checker like SEMrush tool or check out the links in the Google Search Console to figure out the bad links. Then, you can make a disavow file to help Google know that it needs to avoid these from the calculation.

3. Ensure that None of Google Guidelines are being Violated

Google has mentioned that the Maccabees update was targeted at websites that were not going by the Webmaster guidelines. You need to review the guidelines to make sure you are not engaging in any black hat or outdated SEO techniques like:

• Participation in link schemes
• Automatic generation of content
• Creation of pages with no or little original content
• Doorway pages and cloaking
• Participation in affiliate programs that add no significant value
• Scraped contents
• Uploading pages without relevant keywords

The Maccabees is just one of the many updates that Google has rolled out to penalize the sites using unfair means. You can only expect the guidelines and updates to get stricter by the day. Thus, instead of waiting for another update and then, taking the precautions, you better start preparing ahead of time.

Still facing penalty? Contact us and recover your business ranking & traffic.

Let’s admit, Google is the major source of searches. There has been exponential growth in the “near me: searches seen over the past one year, which is finally declining. Today, comparable searches without “near me” are rising. Why?

That’s because near me now is implied.

With the trend of fewer “near me” searches occurring, you might be thinking what do to in order to contextualize the “My Business” page and stand out from the crowd.

Fortunately, Google truly understands that your business is not just defined by usual NAP data, such as name, address, location, and phone number. It also helps to describe what the business offers and the unique traits making it special and more relevant.

Google attributes help to optimize business for search results. It ensures that customers can find your business easily with the details they are looking for. For instance, with the help of attributes, a business can clearly indicate whether they have an ATM on the premise, outdoor seating, delivery etc.

Note that 70% hotel searches are for specific amenities such as “hotel with indoor swimming pool”, “hotel with gym” or “hotel with spa.” When searchers conduct these types of queries, which are unbranded, attributes help for search performance. It also provides consumers with increasingly relevant search results as they proceed to purchase.

Your business category determines the attributes you can add to your Google listings. For instance, restaurants can include details such as they accept credit card and reservations, they offer gluten-free, vegan options, or they have a keto-friendly kitchen. Likewise, hotels can specify whether they welcome pets or not, have a grocery store or not, highlight organic products etc. Google gives you endless possibilities to maximize relevance.

Having said that, many attributes vary and may be applied to all types of businesses. For instance, businesses can specify things like whether or not they are open on Sundays with timings, LGBTQ friendly or not, and much more. Google’s Knowledge Card lists these attributes, which prominently showcase relevant information, which users are typically searching for, including address, website, business hours, and other important and basic information about the business.

Google Attributes – What are they?

Google My Business attributes are specific characteristics or factors about a business, which exist outside the standard categories. Google uses attributes to describe business elements such as in-store experiences, product offerings, WiFi availability etc. Here’s one example

On October 26, 2016, Google introduced owner verified Google My Business pages with the ability to add custom fields into their listings to promote greater visibility on Google Maps. In the past, Google was merely gathering these attributes from other users who wrote a review about the place.

By customizing these attributes, Google has also filtered the industry. Based on the business vertical, only some attributes are available to you with the help of bulk upload document. Take another example of a restaurant having an attribute of offering wine while a bank could have an attribute offering an ATM. At present, some industries are allotted number of attributes than others by Google.

How to Google My Business Attributes Affect a Business?

The greatest advantage is that attributes make Google Maps results more customized, relevant and error-free. It also allows businesses to highlight their best qualities compared to their competitors. Google organizes attributes by breaking them into few sections like:

• Offerings
• Crowd
• Highlights
• Popular for
• Atmosphere

Google considers all these attributes and creates a description, which consumers see the first thing when they view Google My Business listing.

What should Businesses do?

Businesses should take optimum advantage of these latest attributes. It is simple! Just log into your Google My Business dashboard and ensure all the listings are up-to-date. You can see a message at the top of the dashboard explaining new attributes. In addition, most of the Google My Business listings show updates for the new feature too.

Family-Led Attribute – What is it?

Google My Business recently added a new attribute called Family-Led Business. It adds on to the Veteran Led and Women-Led category of attributes already available.

Companies adding this attribute to their Google native listings would see the family-led in on all their enterprise listings in Google Maps as well as Google search.

How to add Google Family-led Attribute?

In order to activate the icon, simply log into your Google My Business page, click on the listings and then click on the “info” tab located on the left-hand side. You can scroll down to the “Add Attributes” section and click on the pencil icon. A new dialog box pops up and lets you click on the “Family-led” button to apply it to your my business listings.

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Should you care for Family-Led Google Attribute?

If you have any of the traits for which you are promoting, this includes one of the three attributes that might help, add it. It ensures that your business stands out and has an advantage within the Google outcomes. You would also get a shiny new family-led icon displaying that you are a family-led enterprise, which adds an extra enterprise for you.

Tips to Optimize Google My Business Listing

The first crucial step in a local SEO strategy is to claim your local business and verify it with Google My Business (GMB) listing. Getting your Google My Business page can increase your potential chances of becoming visible in Google’s leading features like Local Pack, Google Maps, Local Finder, and overall organic rankings. A qualifying local business can also claim free listings on Google and add all information related to the company such as address, phone number, business hours and mode of payment.

In addition, over the past couple of months, Google has also introduced some new and interesting features, which companies can apply to the Google My Business page. Companies should take optimum advantage to enhance Google My Business listing and attract viewers’ attention. It automatically increases local search engine ranking and yields relevant results.

Many local businesses claim their Google My Business listing and just forget about it. Most businesses even fail to realize that offering a variety of features gives them a chance to optimize the Google My Business listings. It is, thus, crucial to check your business listings from time to time, update records and listings, and maintain accuracy.

To optimize Google My Business Page, you have to provide complete information that Google asks for. Google wants to know many things in order to help your business grow and reach its target audience. So, you have to fill out the profile completely and accurately. Once done, the listing would have some valuable basic data, which will make it easier for your potential customers to find out more information about the company. If you do not fill out the information by yourself, someone else might do it.

Business owners fail to realize that anyone can edit or suggest a change to the business listing, which includes your competitors.

When users click on GMB listings, they see “Suggest an edit” option:

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By clicking on “suggest edit” tab, anyone can literally edit or add something to your Google My Business listing, which may be irrelevant.

That’s not all! These user-generated changes can go live on the listings without even any notification. This is just another reason why it is very important to log into your Google My Business dashboard regularly and ensure that no one makes any unwanted changes to the listings.

In the classic Google My Business dashboard, you would see “Google Updates” notifications.

As you see the updates, you should note that these are the changes Google made to the business listing because it was either the new algorithm found some information about the business such as citation, location change, Google map change, or a Google user submitted an edit, which is published. Note that when people suggest edits, it is not just a mere suggestion. The changes go live without any prior notification or an opportunity to dispute such a change.

Now, if you click “Google Updates”, you can see a box, which allows you to “Review Updates.” Using a tool, you can remove any incorrect information from the listing that may lead to adverse consequences.

Final Word

Intelligent search is on the rise. As a result, it is more important than ever that you take full control of public information about the company. Information related to your business is now available in many places and locations besides your website. It is now impossible to update all digital information manually. So, find a tool that allows you to manage your company’s digital data and information across intelligent services, which ensures customers get genuine information and find out accurate updates about your business.

Google encourages customer reviews, unlike Yelp. Ethical review is very important for the success of your business. According to 2017 BrightLocal Consumer Review Survey, 97% consumers read online reviews for local business in 2017, and 12% look for local business review online daily. Likewise, 85% consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

With this new update, Google is definitely aiming to personalize user experience.