@Jim

I appreciate your feedback and love your saying!!

I commented earlier and know that this comment is late.

I rub elbows with a number of local businesses. Since I read your article, I have taken to doing a branded search for those business owners I’ve interacted with.

So far, not ONE has claimed nor created a GMB profile! About 15 instances.

I have cajoled so many into “Get on the map and in the game” that I now have an email template for it. I link the MOZ ‘how’ and this article for the ‘why’.

I’m amazed. Some of these folks spend a fair bit on local advertising.

I bottom line my message with: “Low hanging (free) fruit fills the basket quickly.”

@Mark
There are several types of Knowledge Panels and this article specifically refers to the one for Local.

The geography for which a local Knowlege Panel can show up depends to a large extent on the prominence of the business on their branded searches. Some businesses might only show up for very localized queries but if you have enough “brand moxie” (brand mentions, link brand anchor text, inbound links, etc) than it can show up world wide even on partial match searches.

For example no matter where you are in the US a search fro Barbara Oliver Jewelry (with no local modifer) will show the Knowledge Panel and even partial searches, like just Barbara Oliver might show the panel nationally.

Most exact match branded searches even without the local modifier would show a Local panel even if searched from across the country. For example the search for Bao Minh Jewelry, an exact match search, shows the Panel. But a search for Bao Minh would not. But if you searched for Bao Minh Houston

Hopefully that answers your question.

Thanks for clarifying,
Mark
Card Carrying Member of the Get 5 Stars Team

@Chris
While I titled this Google as the New Home Page, I don’t think that it replaces your original home page at all. Rather it compliments it. In fact you really can’t have one without the other. While your Google results will drive lots of direct action, your actual home page will continue to be critical to inform and rank your local result

@David
GMB will be hosted by Google in the Cloud HOWEVER the way that the Knowledge Graph works is that it absolutely NEEDs a business website to understand what you do, where you do it, who you are and how to rank you.