Today Google formally rolls out its new presentation of local results, called “Place Search.” It offers a dramatic change to the look and feel of SERPs on Google.com. The first and most obvious change is that the “7 Pack” is gone. And there appear to be some fairly major SEO implications, which should provide many hours of enjoyment for the SEO community as it tries to reverse engineer the algorithm.
The changes won’t come as a surprise to close Google watchers. A number of people previously spotted Google testing these pages in the wild and have written about them in some detail, including Chris Silver Smith, Mike Blumenthal, David Mihm and Andrew Shotland. Google sees the changes as an extension or evolution of universal search in the local context.
Google said that the algorithm has been improved and refined for Place Search. We also shouldn’t see any more of the “mapspam” that has plagued the 7-Pack in the past. Previously the local and general search algorithms were distinct. I asked whether they had now been consolidated or merged in this new release and was told “yes.”
On to the physical SERP changes. The best way to make this concrete is to show the “before” and “after” pages.
Place Search
Immediately below are two screenshots for the results to the query “San Francisco Dentist.” The first page below is an “old” SERP with my annotations. Below AdWords comes the “7 Pack,” which is followed by mostly local web results. This was the “old” arena for third party local SEO.
Here’s the new page for the same local dentist query:
October 27th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
I expect directory SRP links (eg yelp/seattle/sushi) to get squeezed out completely pretty soon. It’s not a good user experience for Google’s SRP to link to a directory SRP. And anyway I’m sure Google would rather display its own SRP instead by listing a few of the top-rated businesses for the Google search and then linking to a More… page which would be a full-on Google SRP (eg maps.google.com/seattle/sushi).
Directory providers will now have to focus more on getting their profile pages to rank. And shifting traffic from SRPs to profile pages is not good for revenues because SRPs typically monetize better than profile pages (users are less likely to click on ads if all they want is contact info or directions to a biz they have already selected).
Even there, directory providers have a problem because a Google profile page aggregates content, inc ratings and reviews, from multiple directory sites. So for a user it usually makes more sense to use the Google profile page (and even the business’ web site) than a directory provider’s profile page.
At this point, Google is almost completely disintermediating the directory publishers, at least from the search process. Or put another way, Google IS the directory publisher now
The only hope for publishers in the longer term is to build direct traffic and rely less on SEO.
Fun times. I don’t know why Google didn’t do this years ago. I was always afraid they would when I was competing for the SEO traffic.
Slightly off-topic, I’ve always found Google’s selective blurring of the lines between search and publishing as an abuse of monopoly. But what I know about law would fit on the back of a very small stamp.
October 27th, 2010 at 8:37 pm
In essence Google has switched from searching the web for relevant listings to searching Google Places for relevant listings. Google Places is directly competing with Yelp.com, YellowPages.com and a dozen or so other business directories. The local search results are now mostly from either Google Places or Google Sponsors and Google is basically cutting off other business directories. There are still links to Yelp and others but they are buried at the bottom of the Places results and most consumers won’t notice them. Consumers deserve a clear choice between what Google Places thinks are relevant local business results and what other businesses directories think are relevant. In theory people could go directly to sites like Yelp but consumers are creatures of habit and usually start at Google and then navigate to their favorite websites.
In the past the 7 pack did a decent job of showing what Google thought was best while leaving room for other directories which gave consumers options. Even though with the 7 pack Google took over all local search results above the fold the 7 pack didn’t revolutionize the industry because most people would skip over the 7 pack and click on other results because, well, most consumers prefer other directories user experience over Google Places when looking for the best local businesses. Just like people prefer other comparison shopping engines to Google’s Froogle. But now Google is basically forcing people to use their Places directory.
Is this potentially another antitrust lawsuit? Will the directories fight back or accept it and just refer to Google as officially evil?
October 27th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Why do you think Google is taking over local search results with Places but not product search results with Froogle?
I wonder if all the comparison shopping engines banned together and threatened to stop advertising if Google took over the organic results?
October 27th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Website Old-School SEO is a HUUUUUUGE ranking factor in the new layout!!!
My cutomers who showed up #1 organic but under the 7 pack (nowhere in the 7 pack) now show up with a place marker at the top of the *everything* (excluding the top ads)…comparing the preview link to the current layout. Another shows up #1 now above the place listings even without a place marker associated where before it showed up #just 1 under the place listings…and even on a specifically “Place Search”, they show the Web Results on the bottom so they’re still on the 1st page of even that type of search.
I have lots of other data points too, but local, on-page SEO is a HUGE factor — like all of my customers who I had focused on that for now rank as good or better than before. This map merge actually I think has made local SEO (links, title tags, anchor text) even more relevant for individual small businesses because it is such a big (deservedly imo) ranking factor. Sadly I do some light-gray hat SEO (legit to the best of my knowledge but some might argue) so I don’t publicize my screencaps for now.
My startup launching also should thus dodge this bullet….ah so relieved….ah so eager to tell you about it in a year or few. Maybe see you on the speaking circuit then.
Thanks!
October 27th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Great article Greg,
We already had a customer asking about what happened. His Homestars reviews were appearing embedded in his google places, and today they are gone. All reviews, except bad, unmonitored Google reviews are showing up. (and almost no content in there)
My take is that Google is just becoming Yellow Pages. In those Google Places listings google is less looking for what’s relevant to the homeowner but whether you’ve either juiced your places listing, or juiced your site. Yes, SEO is important, but google loses credibility this way. They shoot themselves in the foot, because it becomes less trustworthy.
A search for plumbing in Toronto shows a bunch of listings with no reviews, no social content, and little apart from (no surprise) being google advertisers. http://tinyurl.com/2827qqu
Yes, HomeStars is just below there, so we appreciate that, but they are losing any sense of being more than yellow pages where you pay to get to the top. We have about 30-40% of our traffic in our main markets where we have presence which is direct, which is great, and an indication that maybe people will move to local more direct portals.
I had a chat with a YPG rep who was pitching her blackberry app the other day, and asked if I look for a sushi restaurant, would I get a paid one at the top. She said, of course, that’s how they make money. At least it’s honest. With google, people will sort out that sly way quickly. Or we hope they will.
October 27th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Does anyone else find the scrolling map annoying? Especially if you are running an adwords campaign. The new layout gives more advantage to those businesses paying $25 for a google tag v. spending with adwords.
October 27th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Everyone not named “Google” probably suffers under this new regime. Agree with many of the comments above. Still as was pointed out above there will be SEO opportunities and we’ll quickly see just what those are.
October 27th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
I also don’t like the scrolling map
October 27th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
And still if I have set my location as for instance Atlanta and do a local search “auto repair atlanta” results are fine. Then if I do a search for “auto repair duluth” Duluth is a city right beside Atlanta…the local results are for Minnesota..organic for Georgia and ppc a mix of the two. Confusing. Thought maybe the rollout meant that had been addressed.
October 28th, 2010 at 12:04 am
“In essence Google has switched from searching the web for relevant listings to searching Google Places for relevant listings.”
No, actually, this new SERP display relies more heavily on searching the web than the old 7-pack of Google Places listings did.
“Consumers deserve a clear choice between what Google Places thinks are relevant local business results and what other businesses directories think are relevant.”
Why should Google be required to show listings/results from Yelp? Does Yelp show Google listings, too? Of course not. Search properties show their own results. Choice exists in the browser address bar. Google isn’t and shouldn’t be required to show any other site’s listings, just as those other sites shouldn’t be expected to show Google results.
“His Homestars reviews were appearing embedded in his google places, and today they are gone. All reviews, except bad, unmonitored Google reviews are showing up.”
There have been many reports recently of reviews disappearing. It’s quite possible this is a separate issue from today’s announcement. You might research the lost reviews in the Google Places help forum.
October 28th, 2010 at 12:44 am
Yeah guys — Matt is right on this one — lots of people are thinking this makes traditional SEO for local less effective but the whole local ranking algo has been HUGELY changed where local website SEO is like 75% – 95% of the weight in weight in what I am seeing.
They associate the pin to a URL and a site that wasn’t in the 7-pack before but was #1 organic is now #1 in the 7-pack without much else going for it in terms of its place page….same for results 2 and 3/4 and 4/5….perhaps even further on down. This is a HUGE shakeup that is good for local SEO’s. Centroid is like totally irrelevant now. Having an associated Google Places listing also appears to have no effect on the ranking — it’s like just the Organic rankings now with a map marker attached if the URL has a maps listing.
Pls LOOK here at the old organic results and how they map over almost exactly to the new places listing!
Old:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=plumber+chicago&aq=f&aqi=g2g-m6&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
New:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&esrch=LocalMergeImpl::Experiment&q=plumber+chicago&aq=f&aqi=g2g-m6&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
I can do more analysis but it looks like each review is worth 0-1 link or less. If you want me to articlize it more I can do some more backlink analysis to see if / how much reviews matter now.
Also they are apparently showing more pages per local site in the SERP’s than they used to — like I see 3 non-indented results for 1 site as # 1, 2, and 3. That particular site has like a directory structure of cities they serve — perhaps a new way to take up even more SERP space for SMB’s as well as directories.
I can put together some more analysis on it if you guys want for an article. I think Danny forwarded the idea email over to you guys if you’re interested.
So I think this is great news for local SEO experts and SMB’s who want to optimize their rankings — especially as I think many of us fretted that perhaps local SEO was going to go entirely to the old 7-pack ranking system when we saw those screenshots before. On the whole — I think both directories and SMB’s who do local SEO as well got a huge boost…it’s the old low-effort just-place-page-claimers that got a HUGE DROP compared to what they used to get.
October 28th, 2010 at 1:12 am
Also — it’s a lot easier to understand what is going on now while we can compare the new to the old…so I think that folks interested better start checking out the SERP’s in the new and old versions while they can.
I think that folks who wait a few weeks might end up very disoriented and very confused as to how fairly simple the algo change actually is, and to the advantage of organically optimized sites.
October 28th, 2010 at 1:25 am
Wow, that is a huge change! There you go Yellow Pages, there you go 411. You’re now dead.
Does that mean that keywords with a regional intent like Plumbing Toronto will see a lower click rate in organic results? What about AdWords CTR?
Can’t wait to start cracking the code on this one! Please keep us informed, I feel this one is a biggie.
October 28th, 2010 at 2:16 am
It will be interesting to learn whether Place Search materially impacts the average SMB’s referrals or not…
October 28th, 2010 at 9:31 am
One would think that this is going to increase the demand for virtual offices! From what I’ve seen on this, Google Places is almost more important than Adwords which is somewhat surprising. Will it be a case of people having to bid on Google places eventually?
October 28th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I don’t think we’ll ever see bidding on Google Places.
October 28th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
bah! nothing at all up here in google.ca land as yet…had to use proxies just to see what you all see…
But that said…this looks very interesting….and I think as others here have noted that this will bring new opportunities for us SEO practitioners, eh!
Jim
PS @hiding…great responses, lad!
October 28th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
[...] Local Social Summit last year was a great event. And most of you probably recognize that Local-Social is Local 2.0 (mobile is in there too). At SearchMeet I’ll be talking about the state of local product inventory (including in mobile shopping) and, in a separate session, moderating a panel on content strategy for publishers. This panel in particular should be really interesting given yesterday’s announcement of Google Place Search. [...]
October 28th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Jim:
Try this: http://bit.ly/b1CJWo
October 28th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Jim,
Very definitely changed here in .ca land. A large base of our users at HomeStars are Canadian, and they definitely noticed the change yesterday. My example above was from Toronto.
October 28th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Ah..yes, I too can use the links to G carrying the “LocalMergeImpl::Experiment” URL tag….
But I meant the plain-jane google.ca search field…
that does NOT show same here in Hamilton, Ont…nor, when I use canuck proxies either for BC, Man, Que or NS…
but yup, I know…it’s coming, eh!
Jim
October 28th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
The new presentation definitely means new winners and losers. From my observations there is a healthy mix of sites with high organic rankings mixing in with the sites that occupy the 7 pac. Currently it looks like a great variety of directories are losers.
IMV: the biggest winners right now are the smbs/sites that have Both strong organic and google places optimization. Also even while the sites with strong organic rankings can roll to the top of the presentation they compete with sites with strong Google Places (7pac) rankings–which have a more vivid presentation with a tear drop identification, a possible picture, possible reviews, a link to the places page, etc.
This all could change.
I’m only sporadically seeing 1-3 ppc listings on the top of the middle of the page w/ others below the map on the right. If Google migrates ppc to a position wherein only 3 ppc spots are in a dominant position it will heighten price bidding wars. Oh boy; That will be interesting.
Overall my perspective is that bigger, wealthier businesses and/or the ones that react more quickly can win more often,
1. They can pay to get more and better overall SEO optimization for both organic and Google Places.
2. They can compete better on PPC.
Overall it looks bad for directories….OTOH very powerful directories with existing strong organic strength might find an interesting way to capitalize on these changes. I wouldn’t rule that out at all. Frankly, I believe Best of the Web makes a ton of money doing what it does…..and I never see them in an organic search anywhere.
October 28th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
Together a top Places listing and an AdWords extension look like the optimum positioning.
http://searchmarketingcommunications.com/2010/10/28/place-optimization-sample-place-seo/
October 28th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
In regards to the PPC bidding wars…. if so much of Google’s income depends on a healthy PPC burn…does this new setup negate the listings under the map? Are they expecting that an increase in the CPC for the top three spots will counter this decrease in spend of those ads seen on the right? Will the partnerships with IYPs that Google has be put in jeopardy due to the decreased SEO rankings of some mid-level optimized sites? Call me a skeptic but what are the chances that this experiment does not prevail and that Google reverts back to the older format?
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Whilst this may be good news on one hand, one the other hand it is terrible for those of us who spent days,hours and months getting those rankings in the 7pack now the whole system changes.
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:54 pm
The 7-Pack doesn’t seem to be actually gone at this point.
January 29th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Call it want you want, it’s still I still see the 7 Pack formula. To say the say is needed less is far from the truth. Don’t ever think SEO has taken a backseat.
Laser
February 15th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
[...] What’s new is the beta testing of Google Boost — keywordless ad buys for local businesses to appear above the so-called “7 pack” of local results (and, I would presume, above Place Search). [...]
February 15th, 2011 at 10:28 pm
[...] What’s new is the beta testing of Google Boost — keywordless ad buys for local businesses to appear above the so-called “7 pack” of local results (and, I would presume, above Place Search). [...]
February 22nd, 2011 at 6:42 pm
[...] What’s new is the beta testing of Google Boost — keywordless ad buys for local businesses to appear above the so-called “7 pack” of local results (and, I would presume, above Place Search). [...]
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