Google Places introduces new tools for localised search engine marketing
27th April 2010 by William Hobson
Google has rebranded its Local Business Center service and relaunched it as Google Places, boasting new features as well as a new name.
Search engine marketing may have its biggest application on the ‘World’ wide web but for many businesses, the local market is the major focus. Aside from targeting geographic locations and keywords as part of the overall SEO strategy or focusing PPC ad campaigns by geotargeting data, all kinds of businesses – from retail shops to service providers – who rely upon the local market are able to make use of Google’s ability to deliver relevant results to users based on more than just the keywords in their query.
Last Autumn, Google expanded its Maps service – an important part of localised search engine marketing – with the Place Pages feature. By aggregating information about businesses listed on Google, automatic content generation algorithms create pages contained a variety of data from across the web. As well as reviews and images, once a business claimed their “place page” they were able to add extra information to entice customers to their location and their services.
These Place Pages are the crux of Google’s new rebranding move. With the name change, Google has introduced several extra features to the Pages that the company says is “just the beginning of whats to come from our efforts to make Google more local.”
The Service Areas feature allows businesses to show what geographic areas they cover on Google maps; this is particularly useful for those without a storefront as it allows their service to be listed on maps without their address being made public. A new form of paid marketing is also on offer: “Advertising with tags”. For a monthly fee, businesses in certain areas can use tags to highlight their listings on Google.com and Google Maps with tags like “coupons” or other features relevant to the business. They don’t have any effect on SEO but they could feasibly help with driving conversion.
Google is also aiming at the smartphone market. Customised QR Codes can be printed off from the Google places dashboard, which when scanned with a smartphone’s camera will take the user to the business place page. This could be used on business cards and marketing material, linking physical marketing to search.
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