Google Places is Not Just About Geography Anymore. Google Places Now Includes Local Business Center

May 13, 2010 - PRLog -- Why Should You Care About Google Places

By most accounts, YellowPages.com is still the leading point of entry for citizens looking for a neighborhood bakery, bike shop, or nail salon.  Working hard to attract attention are the biggest online companies, with Yahoo.local, Bing.local, Apple Apps, and of course Google all offering unique solutions.  As the really big fish fight for position, the smaller fries still have a shot for dominance.  Yelp, CitySearch, MerchantCircle, HotFrog, and SuperPages are niching themselves smartly and hoping for a shot at the next tier.  Meanwhile Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and others are being touted as the next best way we will begin our shopping day.

A new blog has been set up that is dedicated to the theory that Google Places has the most juice, the clearest path, and the best basics to end up as top gun.  And after 4 months of changes to the product on an almost weekly basis, Places seems poised to make a move to become the killer app.  You can see the blog at http://www.GooglePlacesHelp.blogspot.com.

First, there's the real estate.  If I were a government lawyer, I think I could make a case for unfair competition when it comes to the search engine with 80% of search putting its own local search engine (LSE) in color at the top of the page for searches that include local businesses.  But with no such effort coming from justice, the other players have no answer to the location, location, location issue.  If Superpages or Yelp can sometimes manage to find themselves first in the organic, this doesn't come close to the power of the single out or seven-pack Places presentation.

If this isn't patently obvious, just ask a plumber, locksmith, or carpet cleaner what they want for Christmas.  The answer is clearly a #1 position on Places.  When emergency services companies get that coveted location, their phone rings.  #1 in the organic is lovely, but not even close.

Second, there is the relevancy of the results.  Sorry to all the rest of the LSE's.  Your relevancy is third rate in comparison to Places.  Do the lookups yourself.  Try Italian Restaurant Miami or any other local search on YellowPages or Yelp.  You are as likely to find a chiropractor who mentions italian cooking in his description showing up in the top ten as your are to get Luigi's.  Are there odd results in Google Places.  Most assuredly yes, but the results are far superior to any of the others.

Third is the quality of the reviews.  Google is 100% hands off, and the result is much more like Amazon.  You, the consumer, get to figure out who is spamming, gaming the system, or giving real reviews.  Yelp is the worst in this part of the business, with their bizarre conclusions regarding who is a reviewer worthy of posting reviews, and who isn't.  Now that Google is pulling reviews from other LSE's, the potential for tons of good info is growing rapidly.

The recent changes instituted by Google Places are generally going to improve the listings for the businesses and improve the experience of the searcher.  All this bodes well for the future of Places.  If you own a small business, you need to be on the MAP called Google Places.  To find out just how to do that the right way, go to http://www.GooglePlacesHelp.blogspot.com

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Page1Listings.com has established a new blog to tell the world of business exactly what they need to know to get a great location on the MAP known as Google Places. The blog can be seen at http://www.GooglePlacesHelp.blogspot.com. Of all the things you may ever try to do on the internet, maximizing and optimizing your Google Places Listing so that you can own one of those 7 spots on the MAP may be the most complex. Randy Kirk has been putting clients in that spot almost since the MAPS started hitting the internet. Previously known as Google Maps Local Business Center, Kirk has been writing and blogging about the methods to optimize this local search engine for two years.

For those who want to DIY, the info is on the blog. For those who need or want a professional to do the work, the phone number is on the web page and the blog.