A Big Change For Local SEO On Google

Pangaea

Guru
1000 Post Club
997
Official Google Blog: Place Search: a faster, easier way to find local information

This is going to create a need to blend traditional, long-tail SEO with Google Places Optimization

Here's the article straight from Google:
-----------------​
I love to discover new places, from sandwich shops in my neighborhood to great museums around the globe. When I start looking for something in a new area, like a barbecue restaurant in Austin, I usually do quite a few searches. I might search for a list of restaurants and then search for details about each place, like which one has the best atmosphere and live music.

Today we're introducing Place Search, a new kind of local search result that organizes the world's information around places. We've clustered search results around specific locations so you can more easily make comparisons and decide where to go. Say you're looking for that great barbecue restaurant with live music. With Place Search here's what you'll get:

bbq.png


The new results are marked with red pins, and each one is a unique restaurant with relevant information and links from across the web. I can see that Stubb's has live music, and I can click citysearch.com, tripadvisor.com and other sites to read reviews. In the past, the same search would return links with information about Stubb's in different parts of the results page (here's a screenshot of what it used to look like). Now information is grouped conveniently to make it easier to digest and compare.

Place Search results will begin appearing automatically on Google when we predict you're looking for local information. In addition, you'll find a new link for "Places" in the left-hand panel of the search results page so you can switch to these results whenever you want. For example, when I'm in New York, I love to go out and play foosball, but a search for [foosball] doesn't automatically show me Place Search results. If I click "Places" I get the new view:

foosball.png


We've made results like this possible by developing technology to better understand places. With Place Search, we're dynamically connecting hundreds of millions of websites with more than 50 million real-world locations. We automatically identify when sites are talking about physical places and cluster links even when they don't provide addresses and use different names ("stubb's bbq" is the same as "stubbs bar-b-que").

One of the great things about our approach is that it makes it easier to find a comprehensive view of each place. In our new layout you'll find many more relevant links on a single results page—often 30 or 40. Instead of doing eight or 10 searches, often you'll get to the sites you're looking for with just one search. In our testing Place Search saves people an average of two seconds on searches for local information.

Place Search is rolling out now and will be available globally in more than 40 languages in the next few days. During the roll-out process you can use this special link to preview the new results. Our goal is to help you feel like a local everywhere you go!

Posted by Jackie Bavaro, Product Manager

I
B
D
M
I
 
Last edited:
This change may help some agents who get good rankings on Places.

But if you were ranked #1 in the past in the organic listings you were listed 4th (below the top 3 paid listings).

Now a #1 ranking means a #11 listing.

You can be #1 (for a geo-targeted keyword) and be below the fold now! That can really hurt!
 
But if you were ranked #1 in the past in the organic listings you were listed 4th (below the top 3 paid listings).

Now a #1 ranking means a #11 listing.

You can be #1 (for a geo-targeted keyword) and be below the fold now! That can really hurt!

Something similar happened with a forum member. His site finally made it to the first page of Google for "Tennessee Health Insurance", but the local listings occupied the entire top of the fold. Google elected to show only those listings close to Nashville, so sites performing far worse than his showed up on top only because they were located closer to Nashville. His office was located too far to the east of Nashville to make the map.

I suggested getting a mail box in Nashville, and listing the location on his site. Sites focusing on state specific keywords need to keep a close eye on how Google will display it's maps.
 
But will a mail box be enough? I assume Google would start recognizing people that buy 10 mail boxes in major areas within their state.

I've heard that Google will only list one business per physical address.

A separate suite number might be enough to make the address unique, but a mail box number probably won't be enough.
 
I have only received one call ever off of a local google search,
and it was a pretty good call.

$500 Golden Rule app, a $1200 call....ha

But sadly I have never had another call.

Question for you SEO Guru's, how much of you're
traffic comes from google local search, and can GA
even break it down like that?
 
I've heard that Google will only list one business per physical address.

A separate suite number might be enough to make the address unique, but a mail box number probably won't be enough.

Alston you may have to test this out for yourself. I Googled "Connecticut Health Insurance" from my computer in NJ. Your site came up as the #3 organic listing, but was found below the fold after three paid searches and seven local listings.

A rectangular map of Connecticut appeared in the right pane. It seems that Google selected a map area that best fit its rectangle, and chose to display locations north of West Haven - entirely omitting the more heavily populated cities of Bridgeport, Stamford, etc.

The seven local listings in the center pane were all found on this map. Your site outranks each of these listings, but is listed after them, below the fold. The only merit these sites seem to have is pure luck of the draw - the are located in the geography Google found convenient to display in it's map.

This was a standard search - not a places search.
 
Back
Top