Google phasing out the organic search results for local queries

This could drastically affect regional SEO campaigns. Companies would have to ensure their google places account is spot on. Possibly even optimise the page on their site where google maps is?

Hope this isnt link bait!

Seems to me that the number/quality of reviews might be getting more important too.

Wrongly worded title – ‘organic’ results are not being ‘phased out’. G never had ‘separate’ algorithms for organic search and local search and they are not being ‘consolidated’ now. Nowhere has it been said in the G blog post that ‘local’ search results were not ‘organic’ before and they are now becoming ‘organic’.

Wow, google is really going to take a slice out of the yellow pages industry with this one, most of which have google advertising on them!

This makes me upset….Google finding new ways to earn money, and making it harder for us SEO’s and website owners.
Like they need more cash….and like we need it harder.

There are actually several ways in which business listings now appear.

I have seen 2 and 3 organic results at the top and then local listings followed by more organic results.

Looks like it’s still possible to get an organic result at the top if you optimise for the phrase and location.

I wonder if they will tighten up their verification process first.

The local results are flooded with spam for some industries due to the fact you can still verify your business using a mobile phone.

A lot of SERPS will be flooded with non-related highly manipulated results if the verification process isn’t improved before this new algo goes live.

We’ve spent all morning trying to work out why certain sites are ranked higher on the local search – it’s not as if the sites which are closer to the town centre are necessarily near the top. It’s certainly going to give those involved in search a number of new problems to fathom out. From the feedback I’ve seen so far, this isn’t proving to be popular.

Is it a case that eventually comapanies will be asked to pay for their placings in Google places?

It doesn’t appear to have changed for all local queries “florists in leeds” for example

It’s an epic fail IMO. Google Places is easy to spam and spoof. All you need is a couple of hours and you can claim your business is a hotel, shop, anything you like and position it anywhere. The Google verification system takes seconds to verify via SMS and any idiot can put themselves into a map faster than above organics.

Why build a world-class indexing system only to have it replaced with a system whereby the owner of the site cna put it anywhere they like?

Getting local results now even though the search is not local. http://www.nicholassims.com/shoes.jpg

G accumulate the Yellow page sites visits.

it doesnt work for every search term so thats actually not that bad well not for our company. but can see what nicholas means with his image quite interesting

From what I see this currently only affects the ‘[trade] + [location]‘ searches with pretty much all longer tail left unaffected, it’s also not rolled out across all trades – perhaps they’ve only collected enough data for the most competative verticals where businesses have been forced to adopt Places to maintain first page visibility?

Do SEOs shift our focus to the lower volume longer tail? Surely traffic via traditional SEO will drop and in turn, so will the perceived benefits of SEO. From an in house point of view this isn’t good.

Should we go for the high volume, high competition generic phrases (but Google could start serving Places results based on your IP…)?

Are the non-location specific verticals becoming the last bastions of SEO as we know it?
Is the future of SEO Social/E-commerce or is this all a storm in a tea cup?

I sincerely hope it’s the latter..

This is great post with insight on the major changes of local search. I believe that when people get used to local search, it will drop out any website without physical location. Making it harder for lower players on the web and leaving it only to people who know what they are doing.

Oh really? if that’s the case more hard work should put into. I’m pretty sure this going to affect everyone and nowadays I seem don’t understand some numbers of result whenever I tried to check how many are already indexed. Hope Google can give us more information regarding this so we all can understand every detail.

I am not a professional SEO but I am a business person and I have worked hard to have my site rank in the maps section along with organically. Today I can safely say I was forced to go back to Adwords since all of my rankings are essentially gone. While setting up a new AdWords account I realized this new system makes those top 3 spots a gold mine I have to bid $15 to get my keywords to rank their and even then they aren’t all showing. I think I now know exactly why google has done this! They brag about giving the ability to everyone to advertise and be successful but truth is if you are a small business without a huge amount of cash flow you are now screwed!!

I think this a step back from what I used to get. Whenever I want to find local businesses locations I just use google maps. When I google for something I want relevant and good websites. I do not like this at all. Maybe I’ll just use bing or even yahoo now. :(

Another Google Revamp!!! I dont think this will be good for small business!!

I agree with jfmonfette – this will phase out the directory listings – something I have been “vocal” about for the last couple of years. I see this side as a great thing as they did “pollute” the listings and I am guessing had poor click through rates (I actually expected Google to make a “directories” tab at some point and remove them from the natural serps this was) – but this makes much more sense.

Also – I think that it will be great to remove the companies who are “based” in one area but have SEO for other parts of the country – usually if people are looking for “local search” then they are looking for a “local” business – not one from halfway across the country??

Finally it will make business’ actively seek more feedback from clients (and raise their own game if the feedback isn’t good) – which surely benefits the consumer??

Great news! :)

SEO Liam, I have to disagree.

Google is not a directory! It is a search engine.

The current way the the “Google Places” listings are mixed in with the organic results is confusing the map covers up the Google Adwords listings.

Also I feel that Google have taken the very easy way out here. The listings previous where sometimes full of directories and stupid sites but this should be fixed! Directories shouldn’t be ranking as highly and normal business sites should but by using Google Places to do this is a big mistake if you ask me.

The issue I have is that what if a company isn’t local to one town/area. What if that company covers the whole of Lancashire or London, Kent & Essex!

Google Places limits you to selecting a small region based upon your address. This means that the system will have to be gamed in order for these larger “local” companies to benefit from Google. Having a system that people are instantly thinking how to game it isn’t a good start! In my opinion more options should be given to companies who cover large areas!

The other side this is companies who operate door knocking, imagine having teams of people out advertising your products and services on the street. Those companies want an active SEO campaign for the surrounding areas and thus would use SEO. Now its all going to be focussing on Google Places and again this will mean many technical wizards will be gaming the system which means we are back at square one, the only difference this time is that the companies with money will succeed and the local companies will not be showing on Google Places or organically.

This is fantastic news for the small business owner. Some of the comments left here clearly show a lack of understanding of the whole situation.

I can now easily rank my individual branches for “product” + “location” without losing any long tail searches that do not include a place name, and best of all its easy and free to do.

I bet Yell/Thompson et al are shitting themselves!

Go Google.

I agree with SEO Liam and Curly, this is good for local business’s. Local people will now find real local companies, and not just National companies with massive SEO budgets.

I will also be glad to see the back of directories when searching locally.

Since the latter end of last year, one of our sites that is a local business has dominated the local search results. People even come in the shop and say, “I was Googling and I cant get away from you guys in the results”

Whatever Google did with local sites has helped us out.

I wouldn’t worry too much about any Google changes. Google always tries to ensure they deliver the best search results for their users in terms of quality and relevancy. So if you have a good quality site then you have nothing to worry about. Google will get better and better at directing relevant users to you.