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Google will introduce “verified reviews”<\/h2>\n
Google tinkered with its reviews a great deal in 2019, including using keywords from reviews to determine how to populate the local 3-pack. It also stopped factoring in reviews more than three months old, as well as positive reviews from patrons who subsequently stopped visiting the business. Why? To encourage reviews that are detailed, frequent, and verified, and subsequently filter out reviews that are created simply to gain an undeserved ranking boost.<\/p>\n
So, we expect to see some form of “verified reviews” to appear in 2020. It won’t be a huge leap from Google’s current practice\u2014promoting their “Local Guides”\u2014but it will be a smart sidestep around limiting who can review a business, which wouldn’t be a good look. Instead, they will promote reviews from the users they consider to be the most authentic and reliable. Don’t be surprised if Google continues to publish a huge number of reviews from all users (which is in itself valuable) but gives prominence to the reviews and reviewers it is able to verify.<\/li>\n
Search will become an end-to-end experience<\/h2>\n
The better Google gets at displaying information on results pages, the less a user needs to click through. After all, if you instantly find the phone number, street address, or opening hours you were looking for, why bother proceeding to that business’s website?<\/p>\n
In its formative years, Google’s pitch was that it did not insulate users, who could easily find any website they wanted. As of 2019, the tables have turned: Google itself is rendering website visits unnecessary by aggregating data from multiple sources\u2014Wikipedia, news agencies, Google My Business (GMB)<\/a>\u2014to keep users within its platform, observe their behaviour, and generate ad revenue.<\/p>\n Source: Search Engine Journal<\/a><\/p>\n In 2020, Google will likely further expand its third-party data-gathering tactics to create the digital equivalent of a walled garden. Step one will be pressuring businesses and other data sources to better accommodate its data-hoovering efforts. Users will increasingly be able to achieve their objectives entirely within SERPs, but businesses will have to completely rethink their KPIs. Google will still be the starting point of local business discovery, but the traditional end point\u2014traffic volume to your website\u2014will need to be replaced with a more meaningful metric.<\/li>\n Only a few years ago, having citations for your business on every directory under the sun was the best way to increase your visibility on Google. Now, though, Google is far better at verifying its data autonomously. In fact, Google’s algorithm may notice a business opening before the business itself has had a chance to manually update its own store locator or GMB account (think Google Pay transactions at a new coffee chain location).<\/p>\n This is great for end users and would be great for businesses too, but there’s one rather significant proviso. We can easily envision Google’s Duplex AI calling businesses<\/a> to validate phone numbers, confirm holiday hours, and even verify product\/service availability. It will source data directly from business owners quicker than those business owners are able to update their own information online. We may reach a point where business owners won’t even bother updating anything, leaving Google in sole control\u2014inadvertently handing over a huge amount of bargaining power the search giant could easily exploit.<\/li>\n![\"Ordering](\"\/wpe-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/order-online-serp.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGoogle will solicit business data directly<\/h2>\n
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