Why I Use Google Display Opt-Out ~ Should You?

Recently, I’ve been working with Google My Business photos and and external website content.  When you fail to feed Google the images it wants, Google will scour the web.  Images can come from a variety of websites, including your own.

As I was researching workarounds, I came across this holdover from the Google Local days:

“Opt-Out of display on Google Local and other Google properties”

If you choose the opt-out option, content from your site that has been crawled by Googlebot will not be displayed on any of the properties listed above. Content currently being displayed on any of these properties will be removed within 30 days of opting out.

This sounded like a great option for a local business that wanted Google to use the Google My Business photos and information rather than scraping the website.

Nope.  Not a good idea if you depend on local search.  Why?

This setting had one immediate effect when used on a local business website.  It removed the website link from the local search knowledge box.  There was no notice in the Google My Business management console, and suggesting the link via mapping tools failed as well.

Since Localnology doesn’t have a local business presence, but I do list local business data, turning this setting on doesn’t do any harm.  But trying to keep Google from attaching local business photos to your GMB profile using the Search Console definitely backfires.