Apple relaunches Apple Business Connect

[keyserholiday]

Looks like Apple is adding a lot of new features to compete with GBP. Story compliments of Barry "Rustybrick" Schwarts.

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Thanks for sharing this @keyserholiday!

So....it looks like Apple will be pushing Yelp reviews as their review platform of choice on the Apple "Place Card". As most SEOs know, Yelp flat out doesn't want businesses soliciting reviews: https://www.yelp-support.com/article/Don-t-Ask-for-Reviews?l=en_US

However, since reviews have a huge impact on user engagement, Yelp reviews will obviously have a significant role to play going forward on Apple's Maps/Search.

Would be interested to hear feedback on what other's strategy has been previously to get Yelp reviews that aren't filtered. Here's a good article from Sprout: How to get Yelp reviews & improve your online standing

 

[keyserholiday]

Thanks for sharing this @keyserholiday!

So....it looks like Apple will be pushing Yelp reviews as their review platform of choice on the Apple "Place Card". As most SEOs know, Yelp flat out doesn't want businesses soliciting reviews: https://www.yelp-support.com/article/Don-t-Ask-for-Reviews?l=en_US

However, since reviews have a huge impact on user engagement, Yelp reviews will obviously have a significant role to play going forward on Apple's Maps/Search.

Would be interested to hear feedback on what other's strategy has been previously to get Yelp reviews that aren't filtered. Here's a good article from Sprout: How to get Yelp reviews & improve your online standing

Apple always displayed reviews from Yelp. Yelp feeds Apple data. If your business or client can ask for Yelp photos, do that. I spoke with a Yelp rep and they confirmed that it doesn't violate the TOS. You can also encourage people to check in or ask them to view your Yelp reviews.

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

I've already started using it. We'll see how it works and what statistics it will bring.

Has anyone found a way to move one location between companies?

 

[Annika Neudecker]

I've started using it. One thing I've found a bit confusing is how they seem to be making you have the same cover photos, logos, categories, names, etc for all locations in one Business group. Is there no way to A/B test cover photos or categories without splitting your locations into multiple business groups?

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

I have a problem with that too. In addition, Apple put all my profiles under one company, so I'm looking for a way to separate and transfer them.
If you find such a way, please let me know

 

[mattstephenskc]

The Yelp situation is problematic for local service area businesses, like law firms. 75% of our legitimate reviews end up hidden for reasons unknown, but presumably on suspicion that they're dubious or solicited. Yelp is flat-out awful for law firms.

 

[GeoP]

I have a problem with that too. In addition, Apple put all my profiles under one company, so I'm looking for a way to separate and transfer them.
If you find such a way, please let me know

Hi Marcin,

I had the same problem happen to me. Having a ton of business profiles under one business. I didn't even do that and it just appeared that way. I reached out to support and waiting to hear back to see if there is a way to separate each one so I am able to add a logo to each of them.

 

[mattstephenskc]

I have a problem with that too. In addition, Apple put all my profiles under one company, so I'm looking for a way to separate and transfer them.
If you find such a way, please let me know

Are they different locations/branches of the same company, or different businesses altogether?

 

[Marcin Karwowski]

Are they different locations/branches of the same company, or different businesses altogether?

Different companies, so I have to separate them, if only to put a logo there.

 

[mattstephenskc]

Different companies, so I have to separate them, if only to put a logo there.

I'm surprised they would conflate businesses with different names, contact info, service/product categories, etc. Very weird.

 

[j_holtslander]

I too have found a bunch of clients now lumped together as "Locations" of a single company (that company being our agency)

Things definitely need rejigging.

Think we're going to have to start creating Apple IDs for clients now in addition to Google accounts so they can retain ownership of their properties and delegate access to them to other parties like ourselves.

 

[JamesGreenaway]

We are having issues with the new dashboard.
Our agency has Over 200 locations across 11 clients , none of them have transferred over from Apple Register to Apple Business Connect, despite all being verified.

Raised a support ticket 9 days ago….no response. Sent a follow up yesterday, hoping to hear back this week.

We are in the UK….anyone else experiencing the same issue?

 

[sarmcl]

I've started using it. One thing I've found a bit confusing is how they seem to be making you have the same cover photos, logos, categories, names, etc for all locations in one Business group. Is there no way to A/B test cover photos or categories without splitting your locations into multiple business groups?

Same here. Theres no way to put different cover photos it looks like

 

[sarmcl]

We are having issues with the new dashboard.
Our agency has Over 200 locations across 11 clients , none of them have transferred over from Apple Register to Apple Business Connect, despite all being verified.

Raised a support ticket 9 days ago….no response. Sent a follow up yesterday, hoping to hear back this week.

We are in the UK….anyone else experiencing the same issue?

Same thing. And when I emailed them the response was confusing. To me it sounds like as an agency WE cant claim them on their behalf. Only the client can. Problem is we already did and they arent in there.

 

[Annika Neudecker]

Has anyone had luck with getting tracking parameters into URLs on any part of their listing? Action links, posts, main site links? I've tried adding them to the action links but haven't seen any hits yet and I'm not sure if it's because Apple isn't displaying the action links yet or because they're scraping them out.

 

[sarmcl]

Has anyone had luck with getting tracking parameters into URLs on any part of their listing? Action links, posts, main site links? I've tried adding them to the action links but haven't seen any hits yet and I'm not sure if it's because Apple isn't displaying the action links yet or because they're scraping them out.

I have but I have one that it wont add it. What is weird is some of them display within the Apple Maps profile where you can see the tracking paramters and some dont show them. I had to manually check each link on my phone.

 

[Annika Neudecker]

I have but I have one that it wont add it. What is weird is some of them display within the Apple Maps profile where you can see the tracking paramters and some dont show them. I had to manually check each link on my phone.

Which field in particular were you able to get them added to? On our listings it only shows the base of the URL in the listing itself, e.g. xxyyzz.com, not the extended location-specific URL which comes up when you click the link.

 

[sarmcl]

Which field in particular were you able to get them added to? On our listings it only shows the base of the URL in the listing itself, e.g. xxyyzz.com, not the extended location-specific URL which comes up when you click the link.

Just under the Website field in the dashboard. When you see the link in Apple Maps almost all of them dont show the tracking URL(We only had one where you could actually visually see the tracking parameters). You have to click on it then in search bar you can see the parameters

 

[NexstarNickR]

I know this is a little bit of a left-turn for the conversation, but how do people feel about the platform as a place for discovery?

I work with companies in the Trades / Home Services industry (residential plumbers, electricians, HVAC). A Google Business Profile is important because some people do use the maps for discovery/search, but the bigger value is that these map listings show up in Google's main Search Engine results, giving discoverability of the maps and GBP listing through standard Google search.

Apple Maps is not integrated into search engines (we are all still waiting for Apple to launch their search engine). Do we have any insights as to how many people are using Apple Maps for discoverability? Anecdotal evidence tells me most people use it only as a GPS device once they know what they need/where they want to go.