Google’s makeover of its local search results page has significantly shaken up page rankings. By incorporating local results within organic results, users have become a bit confused on what this will actually do for website rankings. Whether websites were just given links to their Google Places page or had entirely different results from both local and organic search results, what can Google’s latest renovation actually do to local search engine pages?
First, it is important to know that data from the new local search results page include information that comes both from the website and the business’s Places page. While the title and description comes from the website, certain information is also taken from the Places page as well as a direct link in Google Maps. SEOmoz.org conducted a test to see how sites ranked with this new implementation of local SERP by comparing organic rankings of random websites prior to the changes that occurred after the new local SERP. Search was also done in Google Maps to find out how these websites’ individual rankings were.
Results showed that out of the 50 websites studied, 30 had improved page rankings based on combined results while 6 declined in rankings. The shift was attributed to the performance of local listings. It seems that there is a direct correlation between improved ranking and local ranking in Maps but searches done included local queries such as “business/service, city, street”. With Google’s new local SERP, sites that already perform well in both organic and local search results perform even better. The new consolidated SERP helps push a page’s ranking up a notch or two. A business’s Places page should then be search engine optimized to help increase a website’s performance because it has proven to be a factor in ranking new organic results.
Looking at the 6 websites that dropped significantly in rankings, the study revealed that poorly performing websites decreased in rankings more now with Google’s new local SERP. At the same time, because the local results were buried so deep in Maps, Google wasn’t able to associate any Places’ page with their website so other businesses with Places’ information were ranked higher. Again, SEO has proven significant with Google’s latest baby.
So what can be learned from this? Do SEO marketing strategies for higher ranking results and with Google’s new local SERP, search engine optimized websites along with an SEO Places page will get you the rankings you deserve.