Have you seen the little blue icon?

[Barb Davids]

I just noticed a little blue icon next to a business in maps. When I click the business up pops their GMB, with an excerpt of a GMB post from over a month ago. This one in particular didn't have an image attached.

Does Google "see" GMB posts for keywords? I thought they didn't.

Attachment for reference.

Cheers!
Barb

 

[KristiHines]

I thought it was in testing earlier this year. I notice that symbol on occasion and was able to replicate it on your search. According to Whitespark, it's not available in the dashboard.

 

[Tim Colling]

I ran your query and I see the result that you showed in your screenshot.

It sort of looks like the underlying google review was written by the owner of that business. If you are working with a client who is a competitor of that business, you might be able to get it removed by flagging it as a conflict of interest. Maybe. It might be worth a try, at least.

 

[freerunr]

@Barb Davids, yeah, I think I've seen that happening, or maybe I've just heard some others in the industry talk about it (maybe in some webinars).

@Margaret Ornsby also mentioned some studies about it in this thread: GMB posts - Local Search Forum. Not sure which ones she was referencing, but this post by Joel Headley touches on it: How to Boost Bookings & Conversions with Google Posts: An Interview with Joel Headley

 

[Barb Davids]

I ran your query and I see the result that you showed in your screenshot.

It sort of looks like the underlying google review was written by the owner of that business. If you are working with a client who is a competitor of that business, you might be able to get it removed by flagging it as a conflict of interest. Maybe. It might be worth a try, at least.

The blue quote is actually a post that was done in October. Not a review. It's the first I've seen that google takes from old posts. I thought they only stayed fresh for like 5 days or something.

 

[freerunr]

I thought they only stayed fresh for like 5 days or something.

What you'll notice if you scroll to the end of the currently-visible posts from the Business Profile (aka Knowledge Panel) is that there is a "View all" option that let you see older posts (not sure if it goes back "forever," but it seems like it might for this one).

And regardless of what we as users see, of course Google likes to retain data basically forever

 

[PaulSteinbrueck]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing this info!