Local Online Marketing » local listings

Google Place Search Ups the Importance of Local Listings

Kipp — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:23:45 +0000

Hot off the press! Today Google announced a fundamental change in the way they display local listings. Called Google Place Search, it’s set to dramatically increase the importance of small businesses having a well-optimized Google Places listing.

Here’s how the new service works:

When you type in a general search like ‘IT support’, Google will continue to display listings in the same way it always has. But if you type in a locally-focused search like “IT support Chicago,” Google will automatically change its display to a Google Place Search page. Here’s what it looks like:

As you can see, it shares a lot of similarities with the Google Places “onebox” that currently appears: local business listings appear next to a map, with a corresponding red pin indicating where they’re located in that geographic area. The big difference is, the new Google Place Search page eliminates all the non-local listings from the page and includes a lot more information for the local listings that are displayed.

What this means for you: since Google is displaying a lot more local listing content on its Place Search pages, it stands to reason that they’ll give strong preference to displaying Places pages that already have lots of content first. It also stands to reason that if your small business’s website appears at #1 in the organic search results for a local query, but has no Google Places listing (or a poorly-optimized local listing), you’re about to lose a lot of market reach.

We’ve recommended that small businesses optimize their local search listings for a long time on Small Business Tech Tips – the new Google Place Search results are a perfect illustration of the benefits of having a well-optimized local listing. If you haven’t claimed and optimized your business, do it! And keep in mind, it’s not just about optimizing the Google Local Business listing itself – the more directories across the web that include your listing, and the more reviews your business has garnered at various different sites, the more content Google will pull in.

The read the full announcement from Google, click here.

Local Search Ranking Factors 2010

Kipp — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:57:48 +0000

We’ve mentioned David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors article before – it’s a crucial guide to the ins and outs of how Google (in particular) determines where in the Google Places results a local listing will show up.

Each year David Mihm surveys a number of top SEO practitioners regarding the local listing results they’ve seen, and compiles all the data into a list. The result is a comprehensive explanation of almost all the factors that contribute to a local business’s Google Places position.

Today, Mr. Mihm released the 2010 Local Search Ranking Factors. Anyone in the business of local internet marketing should stop what you’re doing right now and give it a read. You’ll learn a lot.

The impact of reviews on local search results

Mike Cooch — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:25:40 +0000

We’ve been telling every small business we talk to in the last six months that they should be claiming and optimizing their local listings in the major search engines; this strategy includes getting reviews of your business.

The impact of reviews on local search marketing results – I think people intuitively understand that having reviews of your business is better than not having reviews, but how does it impact your local search results, and what specific strategies should you use?

The following post does a fantastic job of looking into the impact of reviews on your local search results; it’s the best explanation I’ve seen so far:

An Extremely Nifty Guide to Reviews and Local Search

Once you’ve read that one and your convinced that you need a strategy for getting more reviews, check out this great post on Online Reputation Management Strategies – The “Rate Us” Page and Local Reviews.

Mike