In an effort to keep franchise owners informed, the Marketing team shares recent Google and Facebook updates.
While Google rolls out numerous updates every year and Facebook makes changes often, the Marketing team wants to make its best effort to keep franchise owners informed and educated about changes concerning brand websites and social media platforms. Here are two recent updates with Google and Facebook that we would like to share with you.
Google Core Search Algorithm Update
Google’s latest “broad core algorithm update” was completed the week of August 6, 2018 in an effort to provide a better user experience in Google searches. The good news is no action is required by you and the corporate Digital team and vendor partners are closely monitoring brands’ website traffic and Google My Business (GMB) activity following this update. We anticipate there could be some fluctuations in rankings over the next few weeks as results “level-out,” but this is not cause for concern.
According to the latest report in Search Engine Land, Google’s current advice on this latest update is that webmasters do not need to make any technical changes to their websites. In fact, they said “no fix” is required and that the update is aimed at promoting sites that were once undervalued. Google has said that you should continue to look at ways of making your overall website better and provide better-quality content and experiences to website visitors. It’s also important to note that this latest update is a “global” roll out for all Google search results and is not limited by language or region.
Facebook Recommendations and Reviews Update
After beta testing a “Recommendations” feature since early 2018, Facebook has announced they will be replacing the Review star rating with the new Recommendations feature. The corporate Digital team is aware of this change and is working with our vendor partners to gain insight into what this means for our business Facebook pages.
According to Facebook, when customers want to write a review, they will have the options to recommend or not recommend your business page. When a customer chooses to publicly recommend a business in a group or to their friends, it will appear on your business Facebook page for everyone to see. The changes were made so “customers can share richer feedback about your business to help you be more visible in your local community and attract more customers.”
As we learn more about this change, we will provide an update. At this time, no action is required on your part.
If you have any questions about these two updates, please feel free to reach out to the marketing team at: marketing@groundsguys.com.