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Local Memo: Google Bug Miscounts Local Reviews
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Summary
In this week’s update, learn about a review count error that raised alarms through the local search community, an analysis of web traffic that can reveal changes in traffic that favor LLMs, and an AI-powered update by Instagram aimed at making photo and video editing creativity easier for users.
Are Local Reviews on Google Disappearing or Just Not Being Counted Correctly?
The News
Recently, many business owners have reported a sudden decrease in the number of reviews displayed on their Google Business Profiles. They’ve seen their review counts dropping unexpectedly, leading to widespread concern within the business community. There have been notes for weeks about Google removing spam reviews, but it appeared as though large quantities of reviews were being removed from businesses for no good reason. Discussions in the Google Business Profiles forums have highlighted this issue, with dozens of threads initiated by users experiencing missing reviews.
Industry experts, like Joy Hawkins, founder of the Local Search Forum, as well as SOCi’s own Mike Snow, noticed that the reviews themselves were not actually missing, but rather, Google is just miscounting the review totals, and the reviews themselves appear to be untouched on the listing.
While the exact cause of these miscounted reviews remains unclear, Google has confirmed it’s a bug on their end that is being resolved. Google’s official statement reads:
“We’re aware of an issue affecting some Google Business Profiles, causing some profiles to show lower-than-actual review counts due to a display issue. The reviews themselves have not actually been removed. We’re working hard to resolve this and restore accurate review counts as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and will share updates on this thread as they become available.”
There’s no further action needed, and businesses are being told to wait while Google resolves this issue.
What It Means
Reviews are a crucial part of SEO success. As a leading ranking factor, having a large number of reviews that impact your star rating is important to the success of your business. Star rating can make or break your appearance and rank in search against your competitors, so the health of your reputation management program is critically important. Don’t panic if you are a business that has noticed a discrepancy in your review counts, as this should be resolved soon.
Ahrefs study: 63% of Websites Receive AI Traffic
The News
A recent study by Ahrefs analyzed the traffic of 3,000 websites to assess the impact of AI chatbots on web traffic. The findings revealed that 63% of these sites received at least one visit from an AI source, indicating a significant presence of AI-driven traffic across the web. However, it’s important to note that some AI traffic may be categorized as “direct” in analytics, suggesting that the actual influence of AI could be even more substantial than the data indicates.
The study identified that 98% of AI-generated traffic originated from three primary chatbots: ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. Among these, ChatGPT was the leading referrer, accounting for 50% of the AI traffic, followed by Perplexity at approximately 30.7%, and Gemini at around 17.6%. Other chatbots like Claude, Copilot, Mistral, and Jasper contributed minimally, collectively sending less than 2% of AI traffic.
On average, AI chatbots contributed to 0.17% of a website’s total visitors. Interestingly, smaller websites, those with fewer than a thousand monthly visitors, received a higher portion of their traffic from AI sources, with AI accounting for 0.56% of their total visitors. This suggests that while the absolute numbers are modest, AI-driven traffic could play a more significant role for smaller sites.
What It Means
AI chatbots are quickly becoming a widely accepted form of information gathering. Those in the digital space are working hard to quantify the impact of these channels and what it means for other mediums like traditional search and social media. At this time, one of the best things a business can do to appear in LLM search is to continue with standard search optimization tactics. Focusing on things like schema markup on websites, having informative content with rich copy, as well as fully completing a Google Business Profile with up to date information, photos, and attributes are all ways to ensure LLMs are gathering your information.
Instagram Testing New AI-Powered Features to Its Edits App
Instagram is currently testing new AI-powered features in its Edits app, a separate app under the Instagram umbrella designed for touching up photos and videos. Among the new tools is AI-generated background editing, which allows users to replace or modify the backgrounds of their images. This feature is designed to provide users with more flexibility and creative options when editing their photos.
Additionally, Instagram is exploring AI-driven profile image generation, enabling users to create stylized, artistic versions of their profile pictures directly within the app. This tool simplifies the process of updating profile images, offering a more personalized and creative approach. Such features fit with Instagram’s broader strategy to integrate advanced AI capabilities, enhancing user engagement and personalization. By adding AI features, Instagram is giving users innovative tools that simplify content creation and offer more personalized experiences on the platform.
What It Means
With so many software suites expanding their capabilities by integrating with AI, it comes as so surprise that the Edit app would follow suit. Businesses can benefit from tools like this to enhance their posts in an easy and efficient way. Adopting AI technology will help businesses expand the creativity of their content and participate in the latest attention-grabbing trends.
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