The Evolution of Google Places

In our last Google Local blog post Will Google Places Search Integration Effect Organic SEO? we looked at the possible impact that the new style Google result listings for local search would have on organic rankings. Lets take a look into how things have developed and what you can do to boost your Places page.

What’s changed?

As predicted in that article, a position in the Google Places map listing is now open to the Paid Search market. These come in the form of a blue map marker, which clearly stands out over the several natural listings- not great news for SEO’s but nethertheless a change worth noting. The introduction of Google Hotpot has help boost the amount of direct citations Google receives, allowing users to directly review a business from within their Google Account.

How to improve your listing…

The number of searches that includes the Google Places map marker is now around 20% of total search volume. Not only that, this figure is constantly increasing highlighting a growing importance for SME’s to optimise their listing for local search. Here are a number of pointers to consider when completing your listing.

• 100% Complete: This may sound a bit obvious, but ensuring your listing is fully complete means you’ve given Google as much info as you can, and they can’t ask for more than that.
• Clever keywords: If you’ve come across traditional SEO then you’ll realise the importance of including keywords on a page, the same applies here, but be extra careful. Definitely avoid adding keywords to your business name, instead be more strategic and insert them wisely in the description and custom categories, whilst bearing this in mind- what do you do and where do you do it?
• Consistency is king: Well maybe not king but it’s certainly critical in the world of Google Places. Because Google scours the web, it wants to find as much information about your brand as possible. To make it clear that they’ve actually come across content relating to you (i.e. reviews, descriptions and handy bits of information etc) indicators such as name, address, telephone and email address must be consistent across the board.
• Local Directories: These are well indexed by the Search Engines and are given a high association with a particular city or region. Try finding them by performing a search such as “(your city/region) directory” to help filter the results effectively.

Get Listed UK Beta

Previously only tailored to the US, there is now an UK beta version. (http://uk.getlisted.org/) Although currently fairly limited, it does give you a clear overview of what’s required to gain full listings on some of the top sources for local citations.

How to get those reviews

There’s no doubt that reviews are one of the best ways to boost your local search rankings, but getting genuine reviews naturally is not something that happens all that easy. Offering incentives is deemed inappropriate by Google, and if found out may result in your page being deleted. Here are a few things you can do to help build them up legitimately.

• Send messages via your Social Networking streams politely asking customers for feedback in the form of reviews, with a link to a source you would like to build up (i.e. Qype).
• Leave a note by the till or have business cards printed that you can attach to their receipt, informing customers about your presence on these review sites.
• If you send out email confirmations when a customer makes an order, it’s easy enough to incorporate a call to action regarding reviewing the service they have received.

The Future – Google Offers

Google has made no secret that it wants to tap into the discount voucher market, it was only a few months ago that it tried to take control (http://www.businessinsider.com/why-groupon-said-no-to-google-2010-12) of group buying giant Groupon for $6 billion. You can imagine the motivation it now has for superseding them with their own voucher selling system – Google Offers. Although very much in development, Google has pushed this big time in America to get as many companies to register their interest as possible. Our guess is that this will take off massively and could influence the search results yet again. I mean if Google has a vested interest in your company selling vouchers through them, it wouldn’t be unreal to think they’ll push you up the listings to help you achieve this would it?

Thanks for reading, Team Breaktheseal