Google Ireland Local Search

D.W

Looks to me like a MAJOR development in past few hours on Google.ie with introduction of Local Business Search Results. Whilst this may be welcomed by many its a potential nightmare for those of us involved in organic seo. The travel industry in particular is very noticeable in the new results but a huge number of "local" niches are effected. I have only noticed the "new" results in the past few hours and wonder will they remain-my gut feeling is yes.

The Local results in most cases now display an A-J listing of 10 businesses/properties at the top of the Organic Serps meaning that even if you have a Position 1 you are now at best 11th-not including Google adwords at the top.

What are peoples thoughts on this- reactions from those involved in SEO. Do people feel these results assist in search or not? For an example type in Hotels in.... Dublin, Cork, Galway or similar. Results are not only travel niche specific however.

One strange example is Dublin Seo-where the top listed site does not even work- so its not based on quality obviously. Sorry if the owner of that site is a boards member-just wanted to cite an example and question Googles method. I personally feel this has far and wide reaching implications for the future of seo/search/organic rankings for a huge volume of sites. Positive of course for 10-negative for many that have devoted time, energy and money to attaining natural organic rankings.

Interested in feedback...

notnem

Looks like it is time to dust off the book dealing with local seo because these results can be worked on the same as any other.

Anecdotally I looked up 1 term I rank for and also have multiple Google Maps listings and my traffic has increased over the last 2 days, but not to any massive degree.

I'm not a master of Local SEO but I am rankign well based on previous work I have done. Ideally every page should have your address and phone number, so if SEO Dublin is your term see if you can use an address in Dublin

Derek B

People want local search results, it's just Google bringing Ireland in line with many of it's other locations - about time too in my opinion.

I wouldn't call it a nightmare as an SEO, more of an opportunity. Stay ahead of the pack.

PS: I don't see any local results when I search on 'hotels in dublin' on google.ie.

Trojan

About time too. Only seeing it on some queries and some data centres seem not to have updated yet, or they're rolling it out in phases.

Similar to inline video, etc, I see it as potentially a great way for Google to extract more AdWords spend rather than strictly being to improve the search experience.

D.W

Derek B wrote: »

People want local search results, it's just Google bringing Ireland in line with many of it's other locations - about time too in my opinion.

I wouldn't call it a nightmare as an SEO, more of an opportunity. Stay ahead of the pack.

PS: I don't see any local results when I search on 'hotels in dublin' on google.ie.

Derek B-people may want local search results (who says they do or don't ?) but they should get unbiased, relevant results. Why has Trip Advisor almost the monopoly on the reviews after all the Local results I see in the hotel sector. Thats not fair competition nor is it balanced. Its also more than a little frustrating to see hotels included that don't have the slightest idea they are there nor have they put in the requisit seo work to justify such a position whilst many others are omitted.

Notnem-check out Car Hire Cork and look how the system is being spammed already... Also why is the company in your sig not listed here whereas a competitor has at least 4 listings...

Personally I think this is a hammer blow for seo-Google simply do not want ANYONE to be able to outsmart them and want your advertising $$$$. Affiliate marketeers will be hit hardest IMO. I have a site sitting in 5th or 6th for Hotels in Dublin in organic serps but it may as well be bottom of page 100 now as realistically there are now at least 10 more entries ahead of it than were 24 hours ago.

Of course it presents opportunities and I agree people need to stay ahead of the game-but I think in many cases this may prove easier said than done... The $100 question is whether Local Search is here to stay or not-me thinks it is....

Trojan

D.W wrote: »

Notnem-check out Car Hire Cork and look how the system is being spammed already... Also why is the company in your sig not listed here whereas a competitor has at least 4 listings...

Nice... and the landing page is /uk.html...

D.W wrote: »

Personally I think this is a hammer blow for seo-Google simply do not want ANYONE to be able to outsmart them and want your advertising $$$$. Affiliate marketeers will be hit hardest IMO. I have a site sitting in 5th or 6th for Hotels in Dublin in organic serps but it may as well be bottom of page 100 now as realistically there are now at least 10 more entries ahead of it than were 24 hours ago.

Thin affiliates are screwed. Thicker affiliates should be able to survive (ie your comment on Tripadvisor). Google are judge, jury & executioner. It sucks, but it's the game we're playing until someone comes along with a Google killer.

D.W wrote: »

Of course it presents opportunities and I agree people need to stay ahead of the game-but I think in many cases this may prove easier said than done... The $100 question is whether Local Search is here to stay or not-me thinks it is....

It's here to stay. See local results from elsewhere that have survived.

MC_G

This has been in the cards for a long time and anyone who hasn't registered their sites in Google Local Business Center should do so immediately by either submitting a new listing or claiming and verifying a user created listing.

I have a couple of US based sites that I work on, and on search results where both a map listing and organic result is there for the site, I'd say 95 times out of 100 the searcher clicks through on the organic result, rather than the maps link, so people who don't have their maps listing yet don't need to panic.

There are still 10 organics below the map 1,3, or 10 box.

I do agree that affiliates/directories have the most to lose on this and that a lot of the spam will be filtered out as more people add real verified listings to maps/local business center.

It's my personal opinion that this helps small local businesses and searchers because in a lot of categories like restaurants a lot of independent companies don't have the time/resources to put into seo to outrank the 100s of spammy poor quality directories that would otherwise outrank them.

CCSL

I have to say that I think it is a bit off putting for searching if the client is not located near the middle of the searched for spot. I provide "Computer training in Limerick" and rank top of the organic search but as I am located on the outskirts of Limerick I am not on the default map which only lists 3 results untill you zoom out.

Perhaps they need to show a wider area by default? or as previously mentioned take the organic results into account.

By the way love the car hire cork results. :P wonder how long that will last at least google have his mobile number now!

D.W

CCSL wrote: »

I have to say that I think it is a bit off putting for searching if the client is not located near the middle of the searched for spot. I provide "Computer training in Limerick" and rank top of the organic search but as I am located on the outskirts of Limerick I am not on the default map which only lists 3 results untill you zoom out.

Perhaps they need to show a wider area by default? or as previously mentioned take the organic results into account.

By the way love the car hire cork results. :P wonder how long that will last at least google have his mobile number now!

If you think Cork is mad-try Dublin car rental! Same crew have 4 spots out of 10-plus it a UK based site....

CCSL

If Google don't figure out a better way to verify companies this is just going to get stupid! If they are ringing you to verify your listing can't they look at the site you are linking to and see that its not even in the same country! Mind you just checked and they do offer car hire in Ireland but thats not really local though? Still spamming the list has to be stopped!:eek:

D.W

CCSL wrote: »

If Google don't figure out a better way to verify companies this is just going to get stupid! If they are ringing you to verify your listing can't they look at the site you are linking to and see that its not even in the same country! Mind you just checked and they do offer car hire in Ireland but thats not really local though? Still spamming the list has to be stopped!:eek:

They don't ring you-SMS. My big gripe is the hotel sector-Google must have a deal with Tripadvisor-just look at any city and hotels-Dublin Hotels as an example and 99.9% of reviews are via Tripadvisor. People looking for hotels simply do not want to search a load of individual hotels-they want a selection of all hotels in a location so in this case Google local search for me is massivly flawed.