[Mike Halliday]

has how google places changed how it  is displayed on google pages?

as i look today it is shown at the side with the other listing starting at the top, before the google places (the map and red pionters) was at the top and the listing were underneath.

is this just on my search area?

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Yep mine's changed also.

Shaun

[Mike Halliday]

looks brilliant for me!! my listing is at the top

 before I had a map with everyone else and me not even lsted, then i was number one underneath ...... now i'm right at the top of the page

[absolutecleaning]

Not sure whats going on with it - when I searched for "carpet cleaners fleet" the other day our address listed in Farnham appeared before the Fleet one

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Your computer memory may put you top.

Shaun

[wynne jones]

Have you got Google Instant turned on?

[Mike Halliday]

whats that?

it look like the organic listing has been linked to the google map so my listing shows a photograph and a a link to the map

noticed Doug's site has disappeared off the first page

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Mike

Look at the top listing, thats my one!

It appears Google have linked maps in with the search engine results. giving an enhanced prominence to those who are on maps.

How long before Google start charging for the maps/places listings?

Cheers

doug

[ianharper]

guys

google know where you are in real terms and will give you a list thats close to your location. also you must be logged out from gmail etc. also it might depend on the data centre location.

respect

Ian Harper

[ianharper]

Guys

just done some checking and it looks like google has now sorted out all the spam on the maps. and it also looks like one phone number per listing. I think it very much looks like they will start to charge soon. its gone from being spammy to very much to something with value for them now.

This must be hitting some people very hard as I know of one carpet cleaner that any area in london his listing would come up on every search.  still this must be great new for cleaners that live in any one area.

[wynne jones]

Just spoken to someone who knows about this stuff. He says this week Google rolled out a new search feature.

If you type carpet cleaning it's normal, if you then type in a location it then whacks the maps on the right but the listings are expanded view of the maps list.

So basically it's even more important to be good at local search which is somewhat different to seo normally.

[Mike Halliday]

Doug it is now but last night it was nowhere to be seen..... but now my google search page looks the same as last week completely diffrent from last night they must be doing work on it right now.

[davep]

It may be your pc Mike, if you search the same thing over and over it will show different things, delete all history and see what happens

[Linds Russell]

Having paid quite a bit for SEO work and a new improved website, I rank between 1 and 2 in my area and it troubles me to see other guys with no websites getting a much better looking listing than before for free with the changes to Google maps.

I suppose thats the way it goes though.

[ianharper]

google want all that money people spend on seo to be used on PPC

what they forget is that many people will not be able to use ppc as we all know others in that business will click on your ppc advert. I did a run some time ago and the ROI was rubbish. plus all those guys that have had the top 3 slots will find the cost of it go up as many new people will be in the game now.

Time to have a new look at the marketing mix i think -)

Dont understand why they think they can get away with this with facebook now getting more hits than google it must now be the first place everyone is going to look.

I just had a look at my local search on the ppc and a guy from ipswich had the top slot for southend so your not only going to bidding against local guys but guys that cover large areas. why he had his setting set so wide with the search term "carpet cleaners ipswich" i dont know

[cannon]

My search listing changed a couple of weeks ago (map on right)  i was going to post to ask what was going on but then it went back to normal.

Today its changed again (map on right)

I think this harms the ppc advertisers as when im scroling down the sponsored listings just disapear under the map

[garry22]

Mike,

A while ago, I read your post and wondered what on earth you were on about.

A couple of hours later I have tried some local terms here in Brum and the same thing has happened here (I had checked earlier and we were on the old layout).

We have now got the same layout.

This could be brilliant news. It could mean they are finally rolling out universal search (as per USA) over here.

Garry

[garry22]

Just checked again. Everything back to "normal" now. Maybe it is what Ian said about data centres.

[cannon]

Garry

What is universal search?

[garry22]

Universal Search;

In the USA especially, they rank anything.... videos, articles, Images, Web 2.0 pages etc as well as "ordinary" web pages.

It's much harder to get those things ranked over here.

Hope that makes sense.