Local listing scams and review-risk handling

What is a zero-click search in Google? A zero-click search is defined when someone goes on to Google and they get the answers to what they're looking for inside of the Google search results.

They are not clicking on any other external website, and they're staying in Google to ask another question or they're simply just closing the tab. Here are common examples of zero-click searches.

The first one that probably everyone uses most days is just checking the weather. You can see over there that Google will show you the weather without having actually to leave a website.

A second common example is to get sports schedules. Over here, I've seen what is the latest schedule for the FIFA World Cup.

A next example is checking the currency over here as well. Another example, I've just asked an arbitrary question about how tall Tom Cruise is.

Google have given me the results straight away, and I don't have to go look at any other website. Another common example are maps and Google local results.

I've looked over here for a doctor near me. I can see many times that the phone number is there...

k search is a structured snippet. Google will take information from a website and embed it in the Google search results.

This is great and also very useful. Then the two most common examples of zero-click searches which are becoming more prominent is, number one, an AI Overview.

Google are going to give us a whole lot of information over there in the search result, at the bottom over there and on the right-hand side. Then finally, as well, a common example of a zero-click search, which again is becoming more common as Google moves this way, is AI Mode.

Google are giving us a lot of answers straight away over there, and again, there's no need to move from the results. Now, zero-click searches has become more and more important as time goes on.

If you look in the last 10 years, you can see that now zero-click searches make up 68% of all searches on Google. This was research done by SparkToro and Similarweb...

How to get rid of this type of negative review? This is the absolute worst type of negative review you can get because it sticks to the profile for months.

And the thing is, is that it's not even a review. It's an update from customer.

So how do you get rid of it? Well, you could try reporting it and I would choose off topic, but good luck.

Cause Google doesn't often action these. But the best method is to just get someone to post a new update from customer that will replace it on your profile.

Everyone said that AI was going to kill Google search, but take a look below. Everything is flying at Google and their stock price just reached a record high.

Google just reported their quarterly results and everything is doing unbelievably well. Year on year, the revenue increased 22% and revenue from their core business, which is search was up an amazing 19%.

Google reported to their market that the amount of search queries is at a record high, which comes to show, and I was telling people this, that their strategy of embedding the AI overviews into Google search results was a stroke of genius. More and more people are searching for what they want and the way that the AI overviews are showing really just shows that people are loving the way that it comes out and they can get the results quicker than ever before.

Now what this shows us and what we've been telling people, don't believe the hype there. More and more people are still searching on Google every single day.

So it's still the time and even more so to be investing in Google Ads and obviously in SEO...

Watch out for this scam. Hey, it's Ben with the listing verification team.

Our system is currently showing that your Google business listing is not properly verified on Google search results. If we don't fix it, customers searching for your services may not be able to find you.

So a client sent us this and asked, is this legit? And the answer is no, it is not legit.

The voice sounds AI generated. Google calls them business profiles, not listings.

And that phone number sounds super sketchy. We'd like to get this fixed today.

So please give us a call back at 8, 8, 8, 7, 5, 3, 0, 5, 7, 1. It will only take a few minutes.

So yeah, verification does not take only a few minutes. We all know that.

And also an unverified profile will still rank in search results. Stay safe out there.