Is Google Local Search For Sale?

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I’ve always assumed that Google Maps (and other local search directories) would build up the free local directory, drive other for pay players out, get us hooked on their service, and then start charging to be listed in the prime spot. In this case the prime spot for local search is the Google Seven box shown below for a search for “Attorney Houston, Tx”

Click to enlarge

Something else you might notice is that while optimizing your web site to appear in the lucky seven box is a great idea, the majority of these results are sponsored. That’s right, Google is playing with selling enhanced listings in several cities and looks to be headed towards paid listings in local search.

At first this may not seem like such a bad thing to those on the outside looking in, but it may price some folks out of yet another organic search option.

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Posted by: John Jantsch on Mar 09, 10 | 9:09 am
Category: Lead Generation, Web Marketing | Tags: , google maps, Local Search

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didi

Thanks for the tip its always great to see tips that are actually useful and described in context. You can see some health resources tanning beds which will help you improve your view.
Bird

I just add google map on my site: http://www.sparepartmall.com just wait to see the result
language exchange

This a good blog where some valuable post available. How the idea about language exchange? Many of the people are on blog for commercial need. Different language have different need. Some are link exchange. This are not welcoming. Welcome to you!
Trailers for Sale

welcome and congratulation to you from Trailers for Sale will be nicer
kathleen staley

they did it in san diego as a test , the organic listings landed so far down the fold it was like ...why bother .The phone stopped ringing
Maxiosearch

I think this is not a good approach from Google as it is not following the traditional system of clearly split what is paid and what is organic on the search results.
Frank

Mike's correct that this is $25, no matter your industry, and it doesn't affect your organic search rankings in the local or generic results. Google is trying to get a foothold with small businesses by making it as simple and low-hurdle as possible for them to start advertising with Google.

I agree it's a very tricky line to walk putting sponsored results interspersed with organic results, and I think it's clear just from the comments here that Google's going to have to be more clear in the distinction to preserve the integrity of their organic results.

-Frank

www.RootOrange.com
Mike Ramsey

its $25 to get a sponsered listing payable through the LBC center, you can point the listing to either a video, photos, website, or a couple other options. The listing doesn't effect rankings AT ALL and it is being tested in Houston and San Fransisco.
Gregg Brown

I believe this boils down to how competitive the industry is. Lawyers, Doctors, Insurance agents, ect… are all going to have to pay to get to the top. If you do a Google search for “Mexican food near Barstow,” half the businesses here don’t even have websites.
Yaro

That's actually not true - the result list rank order is NOT sponsored. Even though you have to pay to get the little yellow icon to appear next to your business, your inclusion in the 7 pack is still based on merit, not pay.
Walt Goshert

John, My concern with Google's approach on this is exactly your observation: It could very well price out legitimate companies in a local market place, especially competitive markets such as attorneys, kitchen and bath contractors, laser eye surgery etc in major metro ares.

Also the screen real estate devoted to the 7-pak pretty much eliminates any organic results.

Finally, at least with the PPC model, their was a bid process tied into keyword relevancy and traffic. If people tried to game PPC, they paid a price in the Google sandbox and bids. Not sure how Google is going to handle this with flat rates per month?
Darren Scott Monroe

Great post John and VERY observant.

@Walt There are ways to get organic search still on maps Walt but if this goes 100% out of test mode that small opportunity would be shot.
Jason Shindler

This seems unlikely. If it was true, the FTC would be all over them because they would be disguising paid search results as unpaid results.
ducttape

Jason there's no disguise it says sponsored - they've been doing this elsewhere for years - it's not even a question of if, it's just how much.
Randy James

Where will your SEO efforts for organic search results go if this is how the system works? Is there anyway to get on search results? Thanks for the valuable information!
Lux

John, I think it's $25 a month. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/business/14ping.html

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