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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSam Knight goes on to detail his full process<\/a> for this bothersome circumstance in which the \u201cown this place\u201d link simply isn\u2019t there on the listing, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mike Blumenthal\u2019s Twitter\/X thread<\/a> issued a timely warning to download any bulk Insights data after Google sent him an email announcing that it is changing both the reporting time frame and the fields reported on. Barry Schwartz has a good write-up of the details<\/a> and you can read more in Google\u2019s own documentation<\/a> about the fields that will be reported on going forward. Google\u2019s email remarks that they are doing this to provide the most useful GBP data, but then they say that phone call insights are going away – a metric most local business owners and local SEOs would consider quite useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claudia Tomina broke great news on Search Engine Land<\/a> for restaurants that have never been able to easily upload their multi-page menus. If you\u2019re marketing eateries, you\u2019ll be glad to hear that the trouble with Google only accepting single-image menus is now over and you can upload a .pdf file to the menu section of your New Merchant Experience. Your upload will be parsed by Google\u2019s AI, and should be fact-checked for accuracy by you!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve become a Claudia Tomina fan in 2024, and this piece for Reputation Arm on the eleven factors she considers to be essential to GBP rankings<\/a> is a smart read. Get her takes on primary and secondary categories, menu items, attributes, CTR, and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brodie Clark<\/a> has captured a test<\/a> in which the Google carousel labeled \u201cMost Mentioned Places\u201d offers a different path to GBPs. When clicked on, the individual tiles open GBP listings as if you had clicked on a local pack result. I\u2019m quite curious about what constitutes a mention in this context, and whether we will see this SERP feature roll out further in 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tons of review tidbits for your perusal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had the immense honor of conducting a major local business review survey of more than 1,200 US respondents with M\u00e9l Attia of GatherUp. I got to ask questions I\u2019ve never asked before and explore surprising responses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do a careful study of Beyond the Stars: How American Consumers Use Reviews to Choose Local Businesses<\/a> for tons of actionable takeaways about review readers, writers, and owner responses, and pay attention to my favorite gleaning from the report: 92% of consumers now consider owner responses to be part and parcel of customer service. I\u2019ve long suspected this, but it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve gotten to confirm it. Share this stat and the full report with stakeholders, decision-makers, and clients to get more buy-in for reputation management.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Yelp has long had a warning system in place for labeling businesses they suspect of engaging in review spam, Google is finally following suit, at least in the UK. Mike Blumenthal posted the first screenshot I saw of this popup<\/a> advising searchers that posting reviews has been turned off due to a recent increase in high-rated reviews, and that suspicious reviews have been removed and the average star rating updated accordingly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about in North America? Well, the story gets more interesting. As Joy Hawkins and Colan Nielsen detail in this must-watch video, Google is now employing a process the folks at Sterling Sky have dubbed \u201creview jail\u201d in which new reviews simply aren\u2019t publishing on listings falling afoul of review policies. Unlike the badge of shame folks across the pond are seeing, there is no warning label on the listing, but the existence of the review jail is apparent because the spammy business can\u2019t receive new reviews. Tune into this, because not enough people are talking about it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
2. A big change to GBP bulk insights data<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n3. GBP now accepts .pdfs of multi-page menus<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-09-at-15.57.26-1024x575.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n4. 11 proposed GBP ranking factors<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
5. Google testing most-mentioned places carousel<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-09-at-15.57.39-1024x476.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nLocal business review news<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6. Major review study published by GatherUp<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-09-at-15.57.48-1024x508.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n7. Google review badges of shame and review jail<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whitespark.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-09-at-15.58.01.png\")
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