##### **Sales & Support** **| Mon – Fri 8:00am – 6:00pm (ET)**
 **(616) 965-6972  | **
* About
  + 
  + Websites
    - 
  + Design
  + Content Creation
* Resources
* Contact
##### ****(616) 965-6972** | Mon – Fri 8:00am – 6:00pm (ET)**
# Google My Business: Improved GMB App Features
by  | Dec 31, 2018 | , , ,  | 
!
Google My Business (GMB) is extending its capabilities from a local directory tool into becoming a customer relationship management and “engagement” platform.
The  offers improved customer visibility and additional capabilities down the road for further enhancements.
## New Features:
* Improved editor for the business profile
* New navigation bar that provides ease of access to business profile and customer information
* Upload photos, create Google Posts from a new post button
* Customer information and interaction such as reviews, messages, and followers; all in a Customers tab.
* Show who’s following if opting to expose profiles in the Follow tab
* Customer messages from Maps and Search in the Messages tab. Local businesses can respond directly from the app.
* Real-time notifications in the app allows users to receive notifications about reviews, messages and followers. Additionally, providing simplified GMB analytics which can be expanded for more detail.
## Where GMB is going
Google is headed toward GMB becoming an “engagement platform” for local consumers and businesses. The new version of the GMB app helps strengthen that initiative with its new capabilities.
Currently, posts are public; however, Google could have a feature in the future to enable selected groups of customers or followers for special communication such as special offers or rewards like a loyalty platform. Other possible features in the future could be Q&A notifications or other features that would be deemed valuable to offer in consumer and local business interactions.
## Increase Local SEO & Conversions with GMB
An important first step of a local SEO strategy is to claim, verify, and optimize your local business’ Google My Business listing. This increases the likelihood of your business showing up in Google’s Local Pack, Local Finder, Google Maps, and organic Google Search rankings. A free listing can be claimed and company information such as address, phone number, business hours, and other information such as parking details and type of payment accepted can be added.
Google recently has added many additional features that help your listing stand out from the competition and grab your audiences attention – resulting in helping your search ranking as well!
Most local businesses simply claim their GMB listing and forget it. There are many ways to optimize your listing beyond the basic standard business profile information.
### Here are a few tips:
* Be sure to periodically check and update your business information for accuracy
* Add and update company photos (interior, exterior, interaction with customers, staff, products/services)
* Use the new posting feature to post relevant content to your customers and followers
* Encourage Reviews – be authentic and ethical about encouraging reviews, also be sure to respond to them
* A bad review is an opportunity – respond and use this as an opportunity to correct the situation, or at least show off how you’re able to handle negative reviews. This shows that you’re willing to work with your customers (most issues arise from a miss communication). People just want to be heard when they feel they’ve been wronged.
* Review your analytics and insights regularly – data always tells a story. Are customers and your audience engaging with your brand online? How are they engaging? Are they only visiting your website, or are they making calls, clicking Directions to visit your location, etc.?
If you need help implementing an optimized GMB listing for your business by taking advantage of these and many other ways to optimize your visibility, engagement, and conversions online, be sure to !
### Submit a Comment 
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked \*
Comment \*
Name \*
Email \*
Website
 Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Search for:
###### Quick Links
About 616
Portfolio
Blogs
Help Desk Portal
###### Services
Web Design
Advertising & PPC
Local SEO
Video Production
Web Hosting
###### Contact Info
6743 Courtland Dr NE #200, Rockford, MI 49341
(616) 965-6972
Create a Support Ticket
© 2024 616 Marketing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.
 |  |  | 
 |  | 
© 2023 All rights reserved.
 | 
  |  | 
©2024 616 Marketing Group, LLC.
All rights Reserved
# What’s New in WordPress 5.0
by  | Dec 7, 2018 | ,  | 
December 6, 2018 – WordPress 5.0 “Bebo” has been released with a new major feature.
## **Introducing a new editor**
WordPress 5.0 introduces a new way of how your content is displayed with a . This allows for increased flexibility in how content is displayed. Overall, WordPress 5.0 is a step forward in helping to streamline the editing experience on a WordPress website.
## **How the WordPress Block Editor Works**
Most importantly, the new block-based editor won’t change how your content looks to your website visitors; rather, it will change your process in how you created each piece of content – which is now its own block. This is helpful in adding types of multimedia content quickly, rearranging the order of content, and more.
Additionally, WordPress 5.0 improves upon a more consistent handling of both design and content. One feature is reusable blocks which allows you to add new content anytime while better maintaining design consistency.
New blocks can be created for all various types of content while also ensuring that content structure is not easily disturbed by accidental code edits. Semantic markup is preserved through edits and not easily broken, allowing for a more comfortable way for users to directly edit content.
<
##
## **New default Twenty Nineteen theme**
The new WordPress Twenty Nineteen theme is designed with the new WordPress 5.0 update in mind. It takes advantage of the block-editor and helps show off its capabilities of this new editing style. What you create in your content editor is what you see on the front of your website. This partly comes from custom styles available for blocks and widespread use of editor styles throughout the content blocks.
### **Not ready for the new editor? Keep it Classic.**
If you are updating but prefer to stick with the familiar Classic editor, no worries! This feature is achieved by installing the Classic Editor plugin which will be supported through 2021.
## **Should I update to WordPress 5.0?**
Alternatively, you can stay updated and secure on WordPress 4.9 as security updates will still be released for this version. At this time, for larger production websites and even small business websites, we highly recommend staying on WordPress 4.9 until 5.0 has several updates to help maintain its reliability and security over time. Newest and the shiniest isn’t always tried and true to fully rely on.
For our clients, as WordPress 5.0 becomes more mature, we’ll create an upgrade plan for their websites. Our end goal is to keep client websites online, functioning, secure, and optimized.
If you have questions about your website or WordPress 5.0, be sure to connect with us. We’re here to help!
# Google’s 20th Birthday
by  | Sep 27, 2018 |  | 
September 27th, 2018 – Google celebrates its 20th birthday! Initially, in 1995, two Stanford PH.D. students struck a partnership together with a vision to better organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible. They launched a new search engine on Stanford’s website google.stanford.edu while running their efforts out of their dorm room. Initially getting popularity with the academic community, they grew to grab the attention of Silicon Valley investors and landed a $100,000 check – Google Inc. was born. Officially incorporating on September 4, 1998 (yet Google celebrates on the 27th since after 2005 when the time coincided with the announcement of the record number of pages Google Search was indexing).
****
Throughout the years Google has certainly changed. Now, Google offers Search in over 150 languages in over 190 countries serving over a billion users and is one of the most major players in the search engine, advertising, video service, email, browser, cloud computing, mobile operating system market, and more.
Recently Google faces challenges as far as antitrust fines in the European Union, upcoming challenges with monetizing voice search dominance (as they did with ), and ongoing importance of balancing privacy, user-experience, and overall continued advances in how people live and work.
When we discuss Search Engine Optimization (SEO), we usually think of Google (as Google’s search market share is over 80%). Google is so powerful helping users search for what they need to find, such as a local business or answering questions about products and services. Google has a huge part in the after effects of their search product creating a whole new industry called SEO and how an  helps businesses with greater online exposure to user’s search inquiries (keywords). SEO helps ensure your website is technically optimized for Google’s search index as well as checking for appropriate relevant content combined with keyword optimization and trust signals in their search algorithm which can help or hurt a companies website visibility in search. This is a huge part of our business and we thank Google for helping create the industry as it is today.