The Near Memo
Exploring the big stories for the week at the intersection of local business & marketing across the spectrum of search, social and commerce. With Greg Sterling, Mike Blumenthal & David Mihm.
Episodes
184 episodes
Apple Expands Business Connect, Which Directories Matter?, SEMrush Acquires Search Engine Land
Apple Expands Business Connect Beyond Brick-and-Mortar: It was announced that Apple Business Connect will now include a broader range of businesses, such as e-commerce, work-from-home, and service-area businesses. Businesses will sti...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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26:44
Google Tests AI-Organized Carousels in Local, Facebook Tests New Local Tab, Google Declines in Customer Loyalty
Google Tests AI-organized Carousels in Local Search Results for Restaurants & Bars: Recent test search results for local businesses on Google, particularly restaurants and bars, have been dominated by AI-organized carousels...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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34:38
Places Sites in US? Allure’s Ongoing Google Review Fraud Scandal, FTC Targets AI Tool Rytr for Fake Review Generation
Google's Place Sites: A Compliance Gesture or A True Shift in Search?Google is rolling out a new feature called "Place Sites" in North America, following its initial launch in Europe as part of compliance with the Digital Marke...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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38:39
Search Tactics for EU Hotels, Google’s Updated Spam Guideline, When might Yelp v Google Go to Trial?
How Individual Hotels Can Win in EU Search: Our research on hotel searches in Europe, revealed that Booking.com dominated user clicks, especially through ads, while Google's Hotel Finder and Business Profiles saw significantly fewer...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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36:53
Google tests Review Badge of Shame in UK; Google’s Antitrust Travails; SMB Marketing Disconnects
Google Testing Review Badge of Shame & More in UK for Review Abuses:Google has rolled out a new review “badge of shame” and a new help document titled "Business Profile Restrictions for Policy Violations," introducing...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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38:06
EU Consumer Research in Hotel market, The impact of recent EU fines on Google, Possible remedies to prevent Google self-preferencing
Google and Booking: The Symbiotic Gatekeeper Relationship in European Hotel Search - We dive into our recent user behavior research findings about hotel searches in Europe. We recruited 100 users each from Spain, Fra...
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36:35
The Google Review Fraud Landscape in Maps & LSA and How a Business Should Respond From the Vault (Ep 139)
Google Review Fraud Landscape (10:04):Estimates that 18% of reviews across various platforms are fake.Home service industries, such as locksmiths, moving companies, and HVAC, are heavily affected.<...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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45:02
LSA Gets More GBP Features, Google Maps Gets Cleanup, Yelp Sues Google Over Antitrust
LSA Increasingly relying on GBP Features: We delve into Google's ongoing “fixes” of LSA features, where reviews and booking tools for LSAs are being integrated from GBP. This move is seen as an attempt to streamline operations a...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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43:18
GBP Phone Hacking Problems Persist, New FTC Fake Reviews Rules, SearchGPT & the Future of Search
Google's PR Smoke and Mirrors: Old GBP Phone Hacking Problems Persist Despite Promises:Spammers and scammers have been able to hijack business phone numbers on Google listings with alarming ease, despite Google's assurances th...
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40:37
The Increasing Role of Brand in SEO
The Role of Brand in Seo: We speak with guest, Mordy Oberstein on the role of branding in SEO, particularly how it has re-emerged as a significant factor in conversions and SEO. We explore the interaction between brand and user...
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Season 3
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Episode 119
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47:01
GBP Bugs & AI-Driven Layoff Concern, Sale of CNET & Google, Antitrust Remedy: Impact on Apple & SEO
Google's Local Business Service Woes: Persistent Bugs and AI-Driven Layoffs Spark Concern: There have been ongoing support and technical issues with Google Business Profiles. Major bugs affecting local business profiles have pe...
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Season 3
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Episode 118
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35:24
MindTrip brings AI travel search, Search Shenanigans, Boost Google Local Rankings w/ Engagement?
Segment 1: OpenAI & MindTrip bring AI to search, will it matter?Last Thursday, OpenAI made waves with an announcement about Search GPT, a prototype aimed at revamping the search experience for ChatGPT users. Promising a two-co...
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Season 3
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Episode 117
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27:45
Reframing how search ranking works, Google Doubles Down on Income, Voice Search Redux? w/ Cindy Krum
SEOs need to reframe how search ranking works - click thru data being the most important factor: Click data is a cornerstone of Google’s ranking algorithm, as highlighted by recent DOJ findings. Google uses its heavy reliance o...
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Season 3
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Episode 116
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44:39
How Local SEOs are using Gen AI & ChatGPT: Tips, tactics & strategies w/ Darren Shaw & Joy Hawkins
In this extended episode of the Near Memo, Greg Sterling , Joy Hawkins, Darren Shaw &
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Season 3
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Episode 115
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46:44
Seattle surgeon pays $5 mil review fraud fine; Local Search increasingly shows Google GBP results
Seattle surgeon pays $5 mil fine for review fraud; What responsibility does Google have?Allure Esthetics and its owner Dr. Java Sagan, were convicted of violating the Consumer Review Fairness Act. They forced 21,000 clients to sign a...
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Season 3
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Episode 114
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30:16
From the vault: What and why of review fraud on Google how to deal with it
The big picture of review fraud - who does it and why: We explore the full range of review fraud from fake positive reviews, black hat negative reviews and review extortion with Curtis Boyd of the Transparency Company. How widespre...
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Season 3
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Episode 113
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37:09
New Research: SMB web lead generation failures & how to fix
Leadferno: a better tools to capture website leads - Leadferno is a conversion platform designed to transform website visitors into leads through seamless communication tools. Unlike traditional chatbots, Leadferno leverages SMS...
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Season 3
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Episode 112
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46:50
Expanding Local Results in SERPS, Cluttered SERP Reduce Organic Traffic, AI Overviews Worsen Search
Google Expanding Local Results in the SERPS to the Exclusion of Organic: While many SEOs have been focused on AI answers and how they are disrupting search, the story in Local search is different. AI Answers have yet to have an...
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Season 3
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Episode 111
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34:43
Rand Fishkin Interview #2: Zero Click, Regulating Google & Coping with the New SEO Reality
In this week’s podcast we discussed the evolution of zero-click search and Rand’s upcoming study with Spark Toro's clickstream data provider, Datos, to explore the impact of AI overviews and changes in zero-click searches across different re...
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Season 3
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Episode 110
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46:58
GBP Chat is Dead, Consumers Frustrated with Search too, Local Takeaways from the API Leak
GBP Chat is Dead, Long Live WhatsApp: Google nuked both Google Business Profile Chat AND Google Business Messaging last week in a typical show of disregard for the product and the businesses supporting it. This decision comes amid...
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Season 3
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Episode 109
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38:11
Rand Fishkin interview on the importance and learnings from the Google Search Leak
Rand helps us explore the implications of the Google Web Search leak and how it impacts our understanding of how the search ranking aglo actually worksThis week we interviewed Ra...
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Season 3
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Episode 108
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32:45
New SAB Local Ranking Factor & Interpreting Google AI Tea leaves around Search
New SAB Local Ranking Factor: Service area businesses have long been a problem on Google Maps. Spam, privacy, suspension AND ranking issues have plagued them since the beginning. Now it appears that there may be hope on the ran...
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Season 3
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Episode 107
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36:36
ChatGPT 4o Makes an Impression, Chaos that was Google I/O is Google, What Does it All Mean for SEOs?
ChatGPT 4o Makes an Impression: OpenAI, not so subtly, introduced improvements to ChatGPT 4.0 just before I/O Google's event. The presentation was crisp and focused highlighting OpenAI's ChatGPT 4o enhanced speech capabilities ...
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Season 3
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Episode 106
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45:03
Google finally fixing LSA reviews, Why Google fails, DOJ slidedeck details abusive Google practices
Is Google Finally fixing LSA reviews?In a significant update for advertisers and businesses in the UK, Google has announced changes to its Local Services Ads (LSA) review system. Effective July 7, the existing LSA customer revi...
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Season 3
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Episode 105
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25:41
From the Vault: Do searchers use Local Finder?, How many links does a local website need? Google's BS around content
We're taking the week off, but here's an episode (#126) from the "vault" that we think you'll enjoy!Do Google searchers enter the Local Finder?Local SEOs wonder whether searchers actually enter the Local Finder from the Pack results...
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Season 3
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Episode 104
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25:18