Google Local Search Changes

Google Places and Local SEO

This morning there was something new in Google Local search, as I was searching for something locally I realized that Google is making some changes. As always this will be done gradually and I am sure that not everyone will see the possible changes in right away. Well that is why I took some screenshots to show you what is going on. 

For those of you that do pay attention to local SEO you already know that when it comes to local search i.e. “Chicago Auto Insurance”  (used as an example for this post only) Google will display local business first and after that the organic SEO will come right? Well not really. From what I see newest changes or at least some Google new experiments will change the way of local SEO as well as natural search for local business. 

Here is what this looked like before: 

(Chicago Auto Insurance) 

1. Local Business, 2. Natural Search (Google Map is as always on the left)

And this is what I got from this morning 

(Chicago Car Insurance) 

1. Natural Search, 2. Local Business and Google Map is now moved out of the way

I am not 100% sure if this is indeed something Google is going to make permanent, however it is nice to catch the changes and share them with you. 

Is this good for local SEO, yes I think so. Google Places will appear more natural and they are under the organic search however only 4 organic sites are listed. Another thing with this is that Google is trying to clean out the spam in local business by offering business owners a chance to promote the basic listing to Google Sponsored Listing via Tag advertisement http://google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?answer=183288 and that is only $25/ month flat fee. 

That is all for now, let me know what you folks think about this.

Posted in Google | 1 Comment »