Google Places may just give the smaller guys a chance

It has been made abundantly clear in 2010 that Google really wants to get serious with their Maps technology. Recently, we saw a bit of brand invigoration the search giant, changing the name of its local business database from ‘Local Business Center’ to ‘Places’. Google is also relentless on updating its local search algorithm, moving forward aggressively with no sign of looking back. In fact, they’re even hinting at introducing sponsored positions for the ‘Google 7 Pack’, giving the little guys a chance to appear towards the top of a location-based search. Currently under testing in hand-selected areas of the U.S, for a nominal monthly fee businesses will be allowed to pay their way to inclusion at the top of search.

So what’s in store for Australia? Well, there’s a lot of new features to Maps coming our way, a lot of them have already been rolled out:

• The introduction of service areas – If you’re a local business with a diverse service area, say for example a plumber that visits clients at their place of residents, Google Places now takes this into consideration. When you claim your business listing, you can now opt to nominate suburbs or post-codes for your core service areas. This means that your business will be pulling in highly targeted users, because your listing will only be appearing in relevant search results. There was a lot of issues in the past with a lot of local businesses being pushed out of the Google 7-Pack by dominant franchises. Times certainly are a-changin’.
• Buy your way into the Google 7-Pack – The chosen few! They’re now testing this in the U.S as we speak, and the outcome can only be one thing – amazing. This now means that for a nominal fee, the smaller guys can have a fighting chance against some of the biggest players on the web. Check out this search result for “supermarket Sydney”. It’s a Coles/Woolworths oligopoly. Maybe Seven-Eleven might stand a chance?
  
• Business photo shoots – You can now upload up to ten images to your business listing to give users an insight into your products and services.
• Coupons – This is a nifty little feature that has been in existence for quite some time now. Google Places lets you create coupons on your Place page, giving users an incentive to mention their referral to your business through Google Maps. Setting up a coupons incentive would be great for any local business selling a tangible product or service – it’s a good insight to see just how many people are interacting with your Google Maps listing, and how it is performing for your business.
• Additional links – Google never used to do this, but for the first time ever, they’re actually letting businesses add additional links to their Google Place listing so long as they’re relevant. These links can be placed in the ‘additional information’ category on your Google Places page, and can link to social media account etc.