Google Places New Look?

Mine too. The same.

I posted the screenshot above.

Maybe they are only launching it in certain areas first? Since im close to Googles HQ?

Sir Thomas,

That is what I mean, when i mention the "pay to play" model. I mean, the companies that pay/bid on a exclusive ad spaces within the search results. I agree, they can't really FORCE all businesses to pay to show up top, but compare it to the way their PPC model has evolved as well.

Realistically, with adwords, in a competitive market, the more money you have to spend, the more exposure you are getting.

I'm just worried if they go this hybrid-type route, even optimizing for google places (and going for locality / social relevance) will become less of a factor soon, as they will just open a "tagged exclusive area" for the high paying advertisers. and further push the map "organics" and the regular "organics" farther down. Google is not dumb and sees all of these vertical directories/ad companies/local seo's banking off their own "common local algorythm traits", why not cut these people outta the picture and just collect the money directly from the biz owners that want to swipe their credit card in Places right then and there? "For only $500 a month you will get a space in our BIG 3 LOCAL RESULTS ABOVE THE REGULAR LISTINGS,..." etc.

I hope I'm wrong.

- Jim

note: The reason it might be isolated to FF is because Google and Mozilla are connected for testing purposes, even though Google has since moved on to their own project, Chrome.

Yea it was last night I noticed it. I actually started this thread right after I noticed the change. This morning I check with my daughter PC using IE and it was the old 7 box style and just now I checked firefox using my mac and its back to the old style again. So they must be testing some stuff out or something?

Looks like from the screenshot, this might actually make it easier to outrank the Local listings with some good SEO. Before with the 7 box, it was pretty difficult to outrank. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Hi
What changed? My accounts look the same. Tell me what changes in google places.

Thanks

You can still make bank. As Internet Marketers we can adapt fairly easily to change

Haven't seen this setup yet in the uk. I'm assuming Google is only testing in a few select US cities.

From the screenshots i hate the new setup.

1) As consultants we will have to figure out the new ways to rank. It looks like businesses have to have a well optimised web site to go hand in hand with a well optimised places listing or they may lose their rank.

2) From Googles perspective they will lose ad revenue. With the map scrolling down the sponsored links will get less and less clicks.

3) From a users perspective - visually not very appealing but can give more information on a business immediately.

4) From a businesses perspective - it can be good or bad. Good if you rank well and have good reviews. Bad if you don't have all good reviews and the review being shown on page 1 is a bad one. What are the chances of being called by a perspective customer if the review directly under the business map listing is a poor one?

Riz

Perhaps a cookie

Ugh, Im wondering the same thing. I see the client I ranked in maps for #3 is now #2 which is good but I have a feeling as a whole this isnt going to be good for us. Seems like its based on a algorithm thats some combination of the old google maps and organic seo on the businesses website.

Not sure if its still because of glitches being worked out or whatever but some local searches are being displayed differently than others. For example...."restaurants city" shows an almost "7 pack" like display with the top 7 results being at the very top of the page while "hair salons city" results are all spread out and you have to scroll all the way down the page to view all the top 7 results.

Thanks Danny

Looks like theres still technically a "7 Pack" for now. So whats everyones game plan for ranking in Google Places now...Carry on as usual by claiming the listing, relevant citations and building it out as much as possible? Hope for the best?

Hmm, not sure what you mean "lead headline above the maps. I cant find anything above the map in my search? The map is on the right hand side now for local searches and its a permanent change according to google. No going back to the old look Im afraid.

Linda, fabulous blog! I was kinda freaking out last night about the changes and what it meant for local seo and your blog was such a great help. You had a bunch of resources plus your own thoughts.
Thanks for keeping a girl sane

I think this means Im going to have to change some things on my website. I definitely think having a well optimized website will be a factor in getting onto the first page as a local listing. What does this mean for business owners without websites though? Do they have no chance now? So many questions...

I'm not sure how exactly it will work.

For example I have one client who has no Google Places listing, but they are #1 in the organic search (with two other indented listings) - their site appears above the new Google Places listings.

Dave

Lukas: My bad, I meant good for Local SEO Consultants with local businesses when I said "us all". If you have national companies that depend on local business, than yea, this might suck.

Hi Danny

We had the changes occur here in Oz (at least in our area) overnight.

What we are finding is that "ALL" of our existing clients Google Places positions have "STUCK".

Plus by having the map for the 3 and 7 boxes over on the right all we are seeing is the A, B, C etc. on the left with our clients still on page #1.

Rang a few clients this morning to let them know about the "minor" difference in look and feel.

The overwhelming response is that they now believe that they are "better placed" to kick the "local search butt".

Plus they love the way that the map follows them down the page - it adds the importance of the Placement.

Why did they feel that way???

Because we "tempered" the conversation with "how cool is that", and hey this "might even get more customers".

They love it.

Our advice to all offlines doing Google Places - use it or lose it.

Regards

Bronwyn and Keith

I am in NSW Australia and have just noticed the new look.

Google must be utterly bonkers! I absolutely hate this new look! Utterly destroys local seo.

Whats worse the results show some terrible looking sites or just listings with no sites.
Way to go Google! Just destroy tens of thousands of local businesses incomes overnight!

Hey every one this is what im getting at the minute not quite as extreme.
The map has moved and scrolls but the 7 box is still small

I'm still not convinced; from what I can tell so far, with the little research I have done, is if you have an organic listing and a local listing they are been merged only for keywords you are targeting and which you we're ranking on the first page for before. Does that make sense?

So, if you do a search for a keyword you are optimising your photography website for do you get a merged listing? And if so is this merged listing in or close to the same position it was in prior to it being merged?

I'm clutching at straws here but this is how it looks to me so far, all my top targeted keywords are showing merged listings in the same or very similar positions to where they we're in organic results before. For keywords I haven't been targeting yet I am seeing just the organic result on its own.

On top of all this our merged listings for our top keywords are coming out at number one and outranking our competitor who was previously destroying us in the 7 box.

So tell me, how am I outranking someone who was #1 in local listings for my top keyword with one of my websites that was #1 in organic listings and didn't even show in the seven box?

Hey Carl

We just love this new layout. Googles actually done us offliners ahuge favour with this.

Just keep thinking about all of the possibilities.

Regards

Bronwyn and Keith

Steve..you hit the nail on the head. You can't ride the coatails of someone else's business model and expect things to run smoothly. You're at their mercy whenever they want to make changes. If you want to stay in this game, you'll have to be someone that can embrace change and be prepared to adapt quickly to all mighty Google.

Yesterday was a nightmare as I had just ranked a lawyer client in the 7 box for a ton of keywords, and now most of them are dropped because his site doesn't rank well organically. Having said that, I would hate to be the big directory guys...they just got blown out of the water for local search.

I personally hate the new look. Not because I'm a bitter Local SEO guy, which I am right now, but because it feels clunky and confusing. Having the map on the right side is distracting. I know Google had to do something, because they were losing revenue to the map section, but the new layout is terrible.

BradleyC: To answer your first question, yes. My client was and still is on the first page of Google for organic listings and in the top 3 of the new 7 pack. I see others saying the same thing about their clients.

2) Probably, but may depend. Not sure what you mean by landing pages being used in conjunction with websites? Do you mean like a squeeze page or a smaller version of their website, like a link wheel type thing?

I'm just starting out in offline marketing; haven't made a dime yet. In fact, I just made my first money online the other day when I made $1.54 from Adsense on a blog I put up about trying to lose weight. I've been reading WF and all about IM for several years now, and I"ve spent thousands on courses, but I finally decided it's time to quit "planning", quit buying and reading, and start doing. So I picked a city at random. It's in the top 20 biggest cities in the US. I bought a URL for a popular home service business, and got to work seeing if I could get it in the top 10 organic searches.

That was on July 2nd. I put up a basic (actually ugly) WP theme, wrote a 500 word KW optimized post for the main page, did the About Us, Privacy, Contact, etc. Submitted an article to EZA with a link. For three weeks I still wasn't showing up. Then I showed up at around #33. A couple weeks later I got to #23, where I stalled out for several weeks. Did some more involved linkbuilding campaigns, and got up to #11. Frustrated, but I kept at it, until I got to #9, then #7, then #3.

I've been at #3 organic for about 2 weeks now. And you know what? I was getting pretty much zero traffic. According to Market Samurai, my KW phrase gets searched like 50 times a day. And being #3 organic, I was getting like 3 visitors a week. I can only assume that's because with the huge places map, #3 was actually like #12, and that most people were clicking on a Places link.

Now that the new layout is here, which just started showing up here yesterday, I think this will be good for me, and other people with high organic listings. At least I hope so.

But right now everything is in flux, as sometimes I'm #4, sometimes #2, and sometimes #8, and every now and then the old Places layout still shows up. But I've got my fingers crossed.

Hey Zoro

We didn't give PPC any thought - but wow that's a huge change for you.

Hopefully you can create a workaround.

Regards

Bronwyn and Keith

Quite frankly, adwords look very weak right now. I wouldn't be surprised if the clicks dropped by 60-70%! I don't believe this is the final layout though...


Thomas

Are you seeing them re-appearing in the top 3 positions. I've had some of mine return now that they are rolling it out. Will have to see how this pans out. Adwords is the money machine for Google so I'm sure they will find a balance. I am glad though that it seems that sites can rank organically better than when the G7 box was at the top.

For my first client ever, I optimised his site for a neighboring town because his location is a small town of only 16k and I was concerned that he wouldn't get enough traffic. I got him ranking on the first page for 3 phrases but even though I haven't seen a change yet, I'm really concerned since his physical address is in another town and he can't get a maps listing in the town he's ranking for. Am I thinking straight?

Worst case scenario I guess I'll have to try and sell/lease the site to a business that's actually located in the town its optimised for.

Thanks.

I am in UK and both FF and IE have the new layout. The map now in the new position on the right may induce more people to subliminally click on the adwords below it. And yet Google tells us not to have images next to adword ads!!! LOL