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PODCAST

The Near Memo

Greg Sterling, Mike Blumenthal & David Mihm

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.

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All Episodes

35:24

GBP Bugs & AI-Driven Layoff Concern, Sale of CNET &...

The Near Memo ·

2024/08/08

Send us a Text Message.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 persisted for months and in several cases years, including image misassignments and overzealous suspension algorithms that remove legitimate reviews. Google's support and engineering teams have struggled to resolve these issues, partly due to ...

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27:45

MindTrip brings AI travel search, Search Shenanigans,...

The Near Memo ·

2024/08/02

Send us a Text Message.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-column format, it aims to ease the search process and challenge traditional search engines like Google. The prototype has the potential to streamline user experience while emphasizing publisher control and cooperation.In related news, a new...

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44:39

Reframing how search ranking works, Google Doubles...

The Near Memo ·

2024/07/27

Send us a Text Message.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 on click data to grasp new trends swiftly as well as to “understand” page quality. Traditional SEO elements like title tags, meta descriptions, scheme, great photos and content provide enduring value but with a new twist. These elements ...

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46:44

How Local SEOs are using Gen AI & ChatGPT: Tips,...

The Near Memo ·

2024/07/20

Send us a Text Message.In this extended episode of the Near Memo, Greg Sterling , Joy Hawkins, Darren Shaw & Mike Blumenthal explore the role of generative AI and how it has evolved one year after CHat GPT was released. We cover:Experiences and opinions on the use of AI tools like ChatGPT in SEO and content creation.The effectiveness of AI in different aspects of agency work, including creative tasks and data analysis.The influence of AI on the quality of content and the evolving na...

en-us

30:16

Seattle surgeon pays $5 mil review fraud fine; Local...

The Near Memo ·

2024/07/12

Send us a Text Message.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 agreements preventing them from leaving honest reviews and engaged in additional deceptive practices like paying for the removal of negative reviews and posting fake ones.Despite a $5 million fine, Allure Esthetics still shows high ratings on...

en-us

37:09

What and why of review fraud on Google how to deal...

The Near Memo ·

2024/07/04

Send us a Text Message.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 widespread is it, is it growing, which categories are most likely to participate in it and why. How to deal with fake review attacks and competitors who use fake reviews: If you are an honest business can you compete in a world rife w...

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46:50

New Research: SMB web lead generation failures & how...

The Near Memo ·

2024/06/27

Send us a Text Message.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 to facilitate human conversations, which studies show is the preferred communication channel for most people. It’s floating CTAs (Call-to-Actions) on websites encourage visitors to start conversations via text messaging. This approach helps...

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34:43

Google Expanding Local Results in the SERPS to the...

The Near Memo ·

2024/06/20

Send us a Text Message.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 any impact in Local but Google, over the past several years has dramatically increased their control & domination of the Local SERPS with Local Entity data and in doing so seem to be in the process of banishing organic results…. this is pa...

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46:58

Rand Fishkin Interview #2: Zero Click, Regulating...

The Near Memo ·

2024/06/14

Send us a Text Message.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 regions. Rand argued for more stringent antitrust measures, drawing parallels between Google's practices and historical monopolies that unfairly leveraged their market power to move into new markets. His call for breaking up Googl...

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38:11

GBP Chat is Dead, Consumers Frustrated with Search...

The Near Memo ·

2024/06/09

Send us a Text Message.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 concerns over increasing spam within the GBP chat service, which initially launched in 2017 with high hopes. Despite a significant initial investment, Google's inconsistent product strategy led to its downfall.Interestingly, Google is no...

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32:45

Rand Fishkin interview on the importance and...

The Near Memo ·

2024/06/01

Send us a Text Message.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 Rand Fishkin of SparkToro on the details and importance of the Google Search API leak. In discussing the “biggest leak of the last 25 years” we look at how it provides SEO practitioners with menu of possible experiments to explorethe role of Chrome as a source for click through data and what ...

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36:36

New SAB Local Ranking Factor & Interpreting Google AI...

The Near Memo ·

2024/05/25

Send us a Text Message.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 ranking issue. Historically they were ranked around the location from which they were claimed regardless of the service area. Darren Shaw of Whitespark has uncovered some indications that this is starting to change and the ranking signals are m...

en-us

45:03

ChatGPT 4o Makes an Impression, Chaos that was Google...

The Near Memo ·

2024/05/16

Send us a Text Message.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 and creative functionalities, such as summarizing audio streams shows and organizing the resultant notes into coherent outlines. Despite some features demoed on Monday being API-exclusive, the potential for ChatGPT to rival Google's search, ...

en-us

25:41

Google finally fixing LSA reviews, Why Google fails,...

The Near Memo ·

2024/05/10

Send us a Text Message. 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 review URLs will expire and be replaced with URLs from Google Business Profiles (GBP), centralizing review management under GBP. This shift mandates businesses to have an affiliated GBP to run LSAs, integrating reviews on both platforms. Wh...

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25:18

From the Vault: Do searchers use Local Finder?, How...

The Near Memo ·

2024/05/02

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33:13

An interview with Dana DiTomaso: To Google GA4...

The Near Memo ·

2024/04/26

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33:08

Ad Sales Up, Dr. Guilty of Violating Fed. Review Law,...

The Near Memo ·

2024/04/19

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28:31

Standardizing Review Processes to Avoid Fear, Google...

The Near Memo ·

2024/04/11

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34:59

How your agency can increase retention and...

The Near Memo ·

2024/03/30

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38:54

Google Goes to Brussels & attempts to defend their...

The Near Memo ·

2024/03/29

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