What Does The Future Of Google Places Look Like?
Hi all,
In the interest of hearing what other "offliners" are probably thinking to themselves at least once a day.....WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE OF GOOGLE PLACES LOOKS LIKE?
I have mentioned my own thoughts on this matter in several Places threads. Basically, I personally see Google adopting at least a PARTIAL "pay to play" format. Meaning, biz owners can swipe their cards directly when setting up their Places page, to be in a "featured" local listing area or something of that sort. I'm picturing highlighted listings, possibly similar to the whole TAGS thing they're experimenting with.
I believe that you'll be able to still optimize the MAPS listings to an extent, but with the overload of VERY POWERFUL Places courses out there, it will only be a period of time before the eventual "1-upping" SEO firms wreak complete havoc on any last sense of Google Places "relevancy". And I'd imagine the smart dudes at Google are already "cooking up" some interesting solutions to this whole thing right as I type this.
I have heard the argument that you could say the same about general organic SEO, etc and how it still "works". The thing is though, all us IM'ers are USED to fluctuating dramatically in rankings. We don't have the option to call up Google and b*tch everytime our Places listing gets kicked out of the 7-pack, one box, etc.....business owners do. So I'd imagine that Google is getting a LOT OF HEAT from frustrated business owners all over the globe, wondering why the people outranking them are using all sorts of "weird" methods (to them, not to us
ex: strategic use of keywords, videos, etc), not to mention the rapidly increasing use of virtual numbers and offices, UPS Stores, etc.....
Where are we headed with this whole thing....
Your thoughts / ideas/ rants?
- Jim
In the interest of hearing what other "offliners" are probably thinking to themselves at least once a day.....WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FUTURE OF GOOGLE PLACES LOOKS LIKE?
I have mentioned my own thoughts on this matter in several Places threads. Basically, I personally see Google adopting at least a PARTIAL "pay to play" format. Meaning, biz owners can swipe their cards directly when setting up their Places page, to be in a "featured" local listing area or something of that sort. I'm picturing highlighted listings, possibly similar to the whole TAGS thing they're experimenting with.
I believe that you'll be able to still optimize the MAPS listings to an extent, but with the overload of VERY POWERFUL Places courses out there, it will only be a period of time before the eventual "1-upping" SEO firms wreak complete havoc on any last sense of Google Places "relevancy". And I'd imagine the smart dudes at Google are already "cooking up" some interesting solutions to this whole thing right as I type this.
I have heard the argument that you could say the same about general organic SEO, etc and how it still "works". The thing is though, all us IM'ers are USED to fluctuating dramatically in rankings. We don't have the option to call up Google and b*tch everytime our Places listing gets kicked out of the 7-pack, one box, etc.....business owners do. So I'd imagine that Google is getting a LOT OF HEAT from frustrated business owners all over the globe, wondering why the people outranking them are using all sorts of "weird" methods (to them, not to us
ex: strategic use of keywords, videos, etc), not to mention the rapidly increasing use of virtual numbers and offices, UPS Stores, etc.....Where are we headed with this whole thing....
Your thoughts / ideas/ rants?
- Jim
Joe
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