Google Local business map listings

[JohneeMac]

Since being introduced, i have noticed a big decrease in traffic for local searches.

I have submitted to the local business centre to get listed but nothing as yet. The sites that show in my area seem to be pretty poor sites that dont list at all high for organic listings.

How are the sites ranked? Location of business ? Links? Page content?

What is the future of this local business search? Paid positions coming? Better sites rank higher?

Thanks.

[CreditFN]

They are pulling some of the feeds from Local phone directory companies, it depends where you are optimizing for, eg: UK vs. USA. Check out the local directory and see who the information is being provided by. Yahoo and MSN have similar deals with the phone directory companies.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by JohneeMac

How are the sites ranked? Location of business ? Links? Page content?

Sure all of the above matter and the better fine tuned they are for queries dealing with localities the better you'll rank for the local queries.

Originally Posted by JohneeMac

What is the future of this local business search? Paid positions coming? Better sites rank higher?

I think with personalization being pushed hard it will matter a lot more. Right or wrong Google seems to want to serve results more and more customized to your desktop/laptops location.

[swirt]

As with the regular search there are many factors that go into the algo to deliver the local results (links, onpage factors ...). It also seems to depend on the topic of the search. For travel related topics Google is pulling reviews from multiple sources (tripadvisor, bookings.com, yahoo, bedandbreakfast.com ...) and the more positive reviews seems to play a role in it. Maybe it is also true for topics like mechanics or tires but the number of review sites and reviews plays less of a role. It also depends on whether the buisinesses local listing has been verified (both in google local tools and by other sites).

Since being introduced, i have noticed a big decrease in traffic for local searches.

Also keep in mind that since the first three results now being returned by google local results (if a location is part of the search phrase) it means that people have less reason to go specifically to local/map search. So the decrease in local search referrals should balance out with an increase in regular search referrals iff you are fortunate enough to be in the top 3 local results.

[jrb@w3f.com]

I have a (dumb?) question...

If I have an internet business, what the hell does my personal physical location have to do with anything?
I could be on Mars, and as long as I have an internet connection no one cares what my locations is....

Does google have its brains where the sun don't shine, or what?

I am serious. Can anyone enlighten me?

The reason I ask is because friends with a UK domain name, that provide internet programming services
don't come up here, but they do in Google.uk

Again, it makes no difference to the customer.... So why?
And is there anything we can do to stop this?

Thanks,
-John

[swirt]

Good question jrb. Google local is not related to where you are, but is related more toward where you want to be. The local results usually only get returned if there is a location as part of your search. For instance "Washington DC Bed and Breakfast" usually implies correctly that you are looking for a place to stay in washington dc.

The situation you are describing is not related to Google local, but is more related to google results in general. The answer for your question is not always clear, but to use your example: If I am in the US and looking internet programming services, the liklihood that I really want to contract with someone in the UK is pretty small. In this particular case it is because I don't want to deal with the differences in contract law between two countries, different currencies, language variations on end user interfaces, time zone issues... So given that google returns about 233 million results for "internet programming services" I am fairly happy that businesses on a whole different continent are not among the first results returned. However if your friend was in some highly specialized field that only only 20 other companies offered, I am fairly certain they would compete more favorably for a top spot in Google US.

[Fredwat]

You may want to consider using Registerlocal.com. Through a master profile they submit your local business to over 20 popular local search engines and directories. For a couple of my clients I ended up getting some good ranking from just my registerlocal.com page.

Of course, submitting your site to various local resources won't work alone. You need to optimize your web pages for your location. Use not only obvious regional terms, but also zip codes and nicknames, ex. wrigleyville chicago.

Proximity is one of the overriding factors, but not the only one. I also read that positive reviews from other sources can affect Google results, but I can't varify that.