Do the Major changes in the Google Local Search results make having a website necessary?
If you are small business owner and frequent the Google Local search results, you probably noticed that the infamous Google 7 Pack has disappeared.
It has been replaced with what Google is now calling “Place Search”. I have spent the last 48 hours doing extensive research on this new local search platform and have read countless blogs from other Local Internet Marketing experts around the blog sphere.
Although this is so new it is difficult to make any hard predictions, one thing has become very clear to me as well as many other experts around the web.
First of all, if you have been fortunate to show up in the Google 7 pack without having a website, you may find yourself out of luck moving forward. In fact, when I promote my Local Search Domination system one of my selling points has been, “You don’t even need a website to get top rankings!”. I am currently working with my website designers to take that out of my promotional material. Why?
It seems that one of the major changes Google made, was integrating local business websites with their Google Local Business listings. I have noticed that fewer and fewer of the non website businesses are coming up in the new Google Place Search results. In fact, many of the small businesses that had strong locally focused websites and weak business listings are now ranking higher in the results page.
Why is Google placing a higher emphasis on you having a website and a business listing?
This may be because in Google’s attempt to eliminate Map Spammers, they have started to discount business listings that do not have a website. For years Google has been fighting these spammers that register multiple business listings with no website. For the time being these spammers should disappear. Unfortunately, all the small businesses that relied on traffic from the Google 7 pack without a website may be hurt also.
I think what Google is saying to small business owners is, you need to have a website attached to your business listing if you want to rank high in their local search results. It will probably make the title tags in your website more important than the title in your local business listing. Google hates when businesses stuff their business listing name with keywords and this may eliminate that problem. (This is just my theory based on 2 days of intense digging)
The new Google Place Search results show a much more detailed listing than the old 7 pack listings. Not only do they link to your website, they are including your website title tags as well as your meta description. There are also links to reviews, your place page. They have also grabbed an image and your address from your place page.
The New Google Place Search may have serious implications for small business owners that for whatever reason still do not have a website.
If you are one of those small businesses that does not have a website and were relying on the Google 7 pack for traffic and new customers, you may want to rethink your internet marketing strategy.
If everything remains as it is right now, it will be important to have a locally focused and well optimized website, as well as a optimized local business listing. It looks like many business owners that have a website are starting to show up in the Google Place Search results in much higher positions. The business listings that have been getting good traffic without a website may soon see their local business listing drop out of the Google results.
What should you the small business do next?
If you do not have a website, get one! Not just a website, a locally focused and search engine optimized one that targets your local market.
If you already have a website, take a good hard look at it. Is it designed for your local market? Is your address and phone number on every page? Are you targeting all of the cities in your local area? Is it optimized properly with the right title tags and keywords? If not, it is time for a redesign!
Claim your Google Business listing! Do not just do it on a whim, do it right! Go to http://www.findmyphoenixbusiness.com/localsearchfreereport.htm and download my Free Local Search Report. There is a lot more involved than just claiming your listing and my free report goes into great detail about doing it right.
Pay very close attention to reviews. Reviews of your business are becoming more prominent and you better be paying close attention. You need to encourage your customers to leave positive ones and you need to handle the negative ones professionally. If you are showing up in the Place Search results and have a slew of bad reviews, it could destroy your business!
I will stay on top of this major change in local search as things begin to become more clear, but you need to take action right now if you want to be ahead of the curve and claim your top position in the New Google Place Search results.
If you would like to discuss your options please contact Jeffrey Taylor – Director of Search Engine Marketing at LocalGoldmine.com
Jeffrey Taylor is a Phoenix Arizona resident and 15 year Search Engine Marketing expert specializing in Local Search Marketing for Small Business.
