For the past few months we at Adcuda have been promoting the importance of local search visibility. What we mean by that is the importance of being listed in local directories, 411 directories, GPS data bases, etc. Important because it’s becoming more and more natural for people to use a device, whether it be a computer or a mobile phone, to find things they want.
Google responded to this paradigm shift some years ago with Google Maps included in the search results. The most recent change was to divide Google Maps into Google Maps and Google Places. A Google Place is almost a mini website where the owner can modify content to fully represent their business or organization including even pictures and videos and associate it with a geographical place. The ‘Place’ will often come up in a search result when the searcher is naming a particular city or geographical area such as “philly cheese steak in kansas city” or “daycare in kansas city”.
Google Map/Place Example
Most people are familiar with the map and the A, B, C… stickpins that appear in these kinds of results. These maps are said to get 25% of the clicks that will happen on any page they appear on, and that percentage is growing.
As of last month, July 2010, it looks like Google is responding once again to the growing interest level for local search and is currently testing a new layout for geographically targeted search requests. The new format can be seen on a blog from Frank Reed. If this new layout tests well, the significance that the Google Places listing has will grow tremendously. If you haven’t taken the time to claim your listing, NOW is the time to do so!
Looking at the new layout, most people won’t even realize that the traditional organic listings space has now become an extended Google Places space. Organic listings have be where 60% of the clicks come from on pages where maps were also present. Google Places will look a lot like organic listings to a lot of people if this layout becomes standard. If that’s the case, just having a well organized Google Place will get you first page on Google for all the searches that include a ‘geo target’. That’s HUGE!
It will be interesting to see where Google comes down on these tests because a huge revenue generator for Google is Sponsored Listings, aka – Adwords. Currently only 15% of the clicks happen in this space on the page. Will the evolution of Google Places shrink that percentage even further? Will Google Places become a source of revenue to Google in the future? Already you can purchase a nice bright yellow TAG for your Google Place, suggesting that Google just may start charging ‘rent’ for your Place.
For now, Places are FREE at Google, claim’em while you can, for no money down and zero rent!
