If you thought that getting your business listed on Google Maps (now Google Places) and displaying in the search results was difficult, think again, it’s now become even more of a science. Whereas until recently Google Places results linked were separated from the organic and paid results, not anymore. Now if you want to appear in the local results you need to optimise both your Places listing AND your organic listings.
The biggest effects are –
If you previously didn’t have a website and just used Google Places, your days are numbered – you are going to need your own optimised website.
If you were receiving traffic from directory sites which were already optimised locally, then check carefully their rankings. These sites have been hit hard by these changes and moved down the rankings.
As always with these sorts of changes there are winners as well as losers, those businesses with well optimised sites for local search, along with a carefully created Google Places account have seen their ranking increase. They are also experiencing increased clicks from them due to the greater prominence their listings have in the new style layout.
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