Many small businesses, who have never invested a single dollar in online advertising, may be congratulating themselves when they discover their company has achieved a Google Places spot on Page 1 of the world’s most popular search engine.
NB: this only relates to local not universal search, i.e. when a service/product and a geographic keywords are used, e.g. ‘abrasive blasting wollongong’.
This good fortune usually occurs when a company’s Yellow Pages listing has been helpfully provided to Google by Sensis and the results are added automatically by robot – the tell tale sign being the Google Maps URL usually: maps.google.com.au
Certainly this situation will be a honeymoon period for many smaller ventures in not so popular categories (such as abrasive blasting 5/7 added automatically) – but obviously larger entities and companies in more active online areas such as accommodation, travel, health funds, finance etc will have to move urgently.
If or when Google in Australia decides to charge companies directly for this currently free service is unclear, but I am aware from blogs that price point testing has occurred in Houston, Texas and as I recall the amount involved was $(US)75.00 per month.
But consider, when the three reserved Google AdWords spaces at the top of the SERP are filled (usually with non-local major suppliers operating from other areas) and the standard A-G flags, i.e. 7 spot Google Places listings are displayed (with listings that include images and reviews etc - see restaurants below) there will be no space left for natural/organic listings (read your company website) on Page 1.
However, it is clear that if Google Places is to dominate the space that was previously the province of search engine optimised websites and directories (verticals), the previous battle for Top 10 will now become all about promoting your company/website firstly into the Google Places space and secondly pushing your listing towards the A Spot.
Given that in directories such as SMARTPAGES (YOC’s offering) we usually have nearly 10,000 listings in each community, spread over in excess of 500 categories, which would seem to indicate an average category includes about 20 listings (some much larger).
Another factor to consider is the increasing role that social media (SMO) will likely play in local search and the writer is convinced back-links from locally based authority websites/community portals/directories will in future play an important part in delivering higher quality search results delivered through Google Places - which is afterall what these changes are meant to be about.
Obviously there will be a lot more than seven local businesses wishing to appear on Page 1 so it would seem that the ongoing SEO war continues … but the battlefield has definitely changed.
If you would like to discuss strategies to make sure your business appears in Google Places every time please call one of our inhouse SMO consultants on Ph: 9516 2000 Business Hours or email me direct at andrewc@smartpages.com.au
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