Google Gets Local
November 2 2010Google announced changes to the way it provides local searches recently that have set the search world alight. It is changing the way it searches for local business, while adding another revenue stream in the form of localized advertising. Both are relatively small changes, but will change the way search works.
Google says over 20 percent of searches are for locations, which prompted the change. When a local search is performed, the new search, called Place Search, will be displayed. It will show local results related to the search term. There will also be relevant links to those results to reviews, local information and other sources.
For example, a search for “Italian restaurants San Francisco” will provide a local search result with the restaurants front and center as per the Place Search. The result will also provide direct links to other sites that have reviewed the restaurant, newspaper sites that have feature pieces on it and other relevant information. This information has always been available, it just needed a few more clicks to access. Now it will be right there in front of the user.
An interesting addition to these results is that each return will be rated according to these other resources. So reputation becomes even more important, as the searcher is going to be able to see what other people think of businesses from the front page of Google.
It’s an interesting development from the search giant as it’s the first time since launch that they have provided results other than the standard search. This “special search mode” in Place Search breaks new ground for the company and is likely to be the first of many reformations of how we use internet search.
The new revenue stream is under the guise of a new type of advertising for small to medium businesses called Boost. It’s similar in many ways to the existing AdWords, where businesses set a budget and their adverts are placed at a given position until it’s all used up. Boost builds on this by providing keywords for the advertiser and then placing them where it thinks best. It’s more evolution that revolution, but is designed to allow smaller businesses, with smaller budgets to compete more with the big boys.
The process has also been simplified, which lowers the cost of entry considerably. While AdWords isn’t difficult for those in the know, it did look a little baffling for the average mom and pop business trying to get their name out there.
Google employee Marissa Mayer has been put in charge of the new venture. Previously of Google Maps, she will bring focus and expertise to local and contextual search.
“The whole is more than the sum of its parts,” Mayer said. “This is really something that makes our results more organized as well as logical. Places mode is the latest chapter, but we’re just getting started.”
So Google intends on changing and evolving the way we use the internet, again. And as such, Google local SEO will also have to change.
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