Thursday, November 11, 2010

Google Places Gets a Makeover

Recently, Google launched "Place Search," which is designed to be a type of local search that combines Google's standard search with Google Local. The change has local search results looking something like the regular Google engine search results, but with a map on the right side that scrolls down the page as you do too. This is in part because Google has increased the amount of information that is displayed with each listing.
Now, rather than just listing the business name and phone number, Place Search listings will have the business description, customer reviews, and a picture of the building--as well as links to other review sites.
The plus side of the Google Places makeover is that ideally, you should get more traffic since these results rank in search. People can find you without ever visiting your website. Businesses with acutal physical addresses will fare better, just as they would in Google Places (which requires an address for mapping purposes). The best practice would be to monitor your data and how this change is affecting your search results, and see if anything needs to be changed in your current search/PPC campaign.

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