If You Are Totally Relying On Google™ To Bring You Free Website Traffic Then You Really Need To Read This About Google Maps… Today!
What you are going to find out in this article is how Google™ is changing the way it is indexing websites especially with its new personalized search function “Web History”.
And the geographical targeting and location-based searches Google Maps™ to understand this more have a look at the image below…
Before we go any further lets look at this…
As you can see when you type in anything that is related to a business and in this case we used “Mackay Fishing Charters” as a generic term so that we could find a business related listing that would bring up the Google Maps.
You Will Notice Who Is Above The Fold
You will also notice that the size is quite large and is actually pushing the free organic listings further down the page which could potentially make it hard to be seen for your product or service, for the simple reason that the Map is squarely in the prime position on the page which is called “Above The Fold”.
We have tested this out on a few other keywords and found that the Google™ Map is mainly very prominent in specific location searches such as “San Francisco Affiliate” you will see a map come into view above the fold pushing the organic listing down the page.
However if you use “San Francisco Affiliate Marketing” then there are only organic listings and no map to be found with-in the first 100 listings for this keyword phrase. We have also done searches for fishing where we find that there are some websites out performing the Google Maps™ with those maps located in the 4th position in the organic listing so they are just below the fold.
Should You Add Your Online Business To Google Maps™?
Most Definitely! This is the easiest way that I can see to get a NUMBER One Listing in the Google Search™ Index…Especially if no other business is currently listed.
For the simple reason that if you are a legitimate business owner whether you are an affiliate or merchant there is nothing wrong with getting more exposure for your website. Many of you are online everyday trying to find ways to quickly improve your search engine listings so why not use the tools that have been provided.
After all this is undoubtedly here to stay as I know for a fact that Google™ has been toying with this idea for more than three years so I can’t see it being removed to soon, if ever.
And if you are strictly and affiliate marketer with no product to sell this is not a problem either as I have submitted a site that only markets affiliate products and had it accepted easily and I did this back in 2007. See the screen shot below…
So What Can You Do To Be Listed
If you are into marketing online then it is without a doubt that you have a Google Account™ so you simply need to add the maps feature to your account and then enter all the relevant information such as address and contact details. Once you have completed this step you will be sent a verification code by Google™ to your mobile phone which you will need to type into your newly created maps account.
However be very careful if you are trying to automate this or use any form of software which is also something that is starting to appear online right now… Any of these programs could potentially get your Google Account™ terminated.
Why You Really Don’t Want To Be Using The Google™ Web History Feature
Another feature that has also been introduced into the Google™ features is what is called web history and if you as an affiliate or even business owner want to get a true picture of the listed websites then you will want to turn this off. The reason for this is simply, Google™ will only show you results that you have visited in the past which for anyone involved in any form of SEO marketing is not a good thing.
If you are involved in the SEO business it might be a very good idea to ask your customers to do the same thing so that you can both see the same results when searching for keywords online.
You can turn this feature off by simply clicking on the web history link, which will bring you to the options page see below…
It’s not hard to do an as an affiliate or online business owner that is looking at any aspects of SEO to market your website it is much more advantageous to have this feature disabled.
Over the next few weeks we will be posting more information on the things that we have noticed when it comes to Google™ and the way it is now indexing pages covering such things as content including duplicate content issues, link building and even the social networking sites in much more detail.
There are other resources online that you might want to visit when it comes to Local Search Marketing that will help you better understand what benefits Local Search SEO can have for your online business.
Fantastic content! Its amazing that local businesses don’t know about Google Maps. Its one of the first listings that your business can get for local search.
For those of us in SEO the Google History can be your worse enemy. You can think you are getting the best rankings simply from your History and not realize you have dropped, which is never a good thing. The History feature is very important.
Thanks for this information, I am sure you have helped many of us online.
Looking forward to more great content.
If you are involved in the SEO business it might be a very good idea to ask your customers to do the same thing so that you can both see the same results when searching for keywords online. Thank You;).
Yes Aaron..
You should definitely do that… As it can be very frustrating when showing clients where they are positioned in the search engines only to find that they are looking at something completely different. So to fix this make sure they have their web history disabled.
Well my question is how to optimize the listing to get on the top ?
We had a look at this in detail and from what we can see is that the location you are placed on the map will be relevent to where you are doing the search so we believe that it is geo-targeted by Google and there is no real way to optimize for it.
You can however when creating your map listing place in categories of your online business…
This is so very important – EVERY business that offers good service and products should make a point of claiming their Google Maps listing so their happy customers can start leaving positive reviews for them. Do be sure to CLAIM your Google listing even though that is something of a hassle. I have seen listings hijacked for their reviews by competitors who put their phone number and address into YOUR listing!
Thank you for the link in the article. I have another post that explains Local Search Directory listings and that method for submitting listings to all the major sites and dozens more (I’ve identified 76 so far). It takes the drudgery out of doing it manually and gets you listed in important databases like infoUSA much faster.
Hi Growmap…
Every business that I work with now, this is one of the first things I ask them to do… Especially as there is no cost involved and depending on your business can give you some very good listings in Google™.
Another reason to claim your business listing on google maps is to keep other people from entering erroneous information about your company. Also if somebody leaves you a review you can respond to it.
Yes it is a very good idea to get listed into Google Maps also called Google Places so that firstly you can get a good listing for your online business and secondly as you have saisd so that none of your competitors can take advantage.
Exactly! However the tools need to be used wisely and in some format of a planned campaign. It appears too often that some businesses are running blindly, using every available tool without maintenance or specific goal setting. An example of this is using Google Maps, and then you click the website and it is a flat file with very little information or dynamic interactive data. Then you search for the website and it is so far down the Google PR that is difficult to find.
Hi Matt
Yes you are right, and what many of these people don’t realize when using Google Maps, is if they do not verify the listing and just leave it sit there someone else may be able to change the information they have listed about their business. This could be very damaging to there online success.
Many businesses just do not understand what it takes to have a real online business, just as shop owners need to spend money so do those that have websites, unfortunately through bad advice of others all they believe they need is what a web designer has created for them.
What is really annoying is that the Web History seems to be enabled by deafult…..especially because the usual end user would never even think about this and expect that he always gets the optimal search results (and not results biased by his own search behavior).
Hi Jorgen
Yes you are right unless you are aware of what is happening it is only natural to believe you are getting the same results as everyone one else is seeing, but as you have said this function is all about your search behavior so they are the results you will see…
Some people of course will like this but for me personally it is a very annoying feature which I have disabled in my browser preferences.
Since the 26th of October 2010, Google Places even have a more prominent position than before. The 7-pack of places is now fully integrated into the 1st page of the search results and the map scrolls over the Adwords ads.
For local businesses it is indeed the best (easiest?) thing to consider in order to generate more enquiries to their business.
I think that this change is here to stay as Google figures out a way to monetize these local searches (Google Boost / Tags will be one way to do it).
Hi Leo
Thanks for the heads up about Google Places, and yes more and more local business needs to embrace this to help them get more leads to their sites.
There are a number of ways to get traffic from google and they all involve a lot of work and requires some skills. Forget all about traditional SEO to get free traffic from google maps.
It is also a great way to show your selves or the product you are promoting to list it properly with google maps. Google have three kind of maps on the first page.
Hi Rob
Looking at you domain name I would be greatly interseted in hearing more from you about Google maps. We have uses this tactic with our clients for more than two years with some very pleasing results however now that every one is aware of the listings you can get with Google maps the effectiveness has dropped… Mainly due to the websites not maintaining or entering sufficient details in the the map listings.