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Home Blog Rio Release Notes (November 2020): Local Manager Filtering and User Experience Improvements

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The holidays look a little different this year, gatherings are shifting to virtual get-togethers and a toast to a new year will likely take place in the comfort of our homes. Yet, as we all cheer to a new year full of possibility, hope, and health, Rio SEO couldn’t end the year without announcing some big improvements to our Local Manager solution that we can’t wait to share with you, including Local Manager filtering and user experience improvements. 

In this post, we will discuss the top highlights of our November 2020 release, how they impact enterprise brands and the benefits of these new features.

Advanced Filtering Functionality

It takes both time and effort to filter for a desired result. Additionally, you may want to easily share these results with others in your organization without the need for them to recreate the filtering process. Now, filters can be shared as links amongst Local Manager users. Once the recipient receives the URL, they will automatically have the filter applied. Please note, the recipient must have access to the entities/locations encompassed in the filter for the filter to work.

In addition to filtering functionality improvements, filtering design enhancements were also made. Local Manager users will notice a change to the overall appearance of the new filtering system, which features a much larger entity search bar for improved visibility.

Listings Health GMB Images Improvement

Need a transparent view of the images you have in your GMB listing? We are now surfacing all client-supplied images linked to the GMB location. Within this view, you can clearly see your Logo and Cover Photo, which will reside in the first two positions. If an image is not selected for the first two positions, a “No image” placeholder will be displayed to prompt the end-user to add an image here to further optimize their listing. 

Your other images will display in the order in which they appear on Google, as well as the date the image was added. With appropriate permissions, end-users have the ability to delete images individually or in bulk.

New Schedule Fields Capability

Need to update your business description for the holidays? Now, Local Manager users have the ability to schedule this out in advance, to go live on the exact date and time desired. Just a few fields that can go live on a user-determined schedule include:

  • Dynamic fields
  • Images
  • URLs

Please note this functionality is valid for all fields that are not time-based (e.g., business hours).

New Bing Attributes Syndication

It’s now more critical than ever to clearly display the services you offer and as many descriptors as possible to make people feel comfortable engaging with your business. Many large search platforms, such as Google, Yelp, and Bing, have prioritized developing technology to coincide with this growing need. Brands can enable attributes to showcase these services/descriptors on their local listings.

In an effort to stay current with the new attributes Bing is offering, we too have added a number of new Bing attributes to better help brands syndicate these attributes across their locations. 

Some of these attributes that can better showcase services you offer, especially as COVID-19 continues to impact business globally, include, but are certainly not limited to:

  • Has delivery same day
  • Has in-store pickup
  • Has seating outdoors
  • Closed types such as permanently closed or temporarily closed
  • Closed until with corresponding reopening date

We can provide a full list of available Bing attributes upon request.

Additional Release Notes

In addition, we’ve also made several key updates to Local Manager as follows:

  • Change history visualization changes: We’ve made a visualization change to our location history tab. Having this view updated will bring more consistency and simplicity to the user experience.
  • Introducing the Parent LID Feature: Parent LID is a powerful feature that better aligns people entities to their physical locations, a need that arises for those with many hands-on users within Local Manager.
  • Listings Health update: The Google Post section of Listings Health has undergone a minor UI change and now have a default 3×3 layout. 

Have questions about these updates or want to learn more about how to leverage them? Reach out to your Account Director today! If you’re not already a Rio SEO customer, request a platform demo to learn more about Rio SEO’s suite of local marketing solutions.