14 ways the new Google changes will help (or hurt) your business

Google launches new Place Search.

When over 70% of all people search online to find businesses, a number which climbs to 89% for those aged 18-24, showing up in local search results is critical.

Google delivers local listings when you type in a geographic location with your search (e.g. “plumber Lancaster”) or when it thinks that it can deliver a relevant local result (e.g “plumber”).

The Google local team recently announced what I consider to be a huge change in the way they deliver these local results. They’ve called it “Place Search” and it affects almost all searches conducted on Google. The change is still rolling out, so some people may not see the new system for a couple of days.

Here’s the old look:

And the new (the coloring is mine):

The new system puts a much larger emphasis on providing information on local organizations, and pushes non-local listings down to the bottom, or even off the page. In delivering these results, Google is now taking into account the optimization of your website and the quality of your local search listing.

The aesthetic difference is obvious, and there’s plenty of information designed for professionals in the local search community, but what does it mean for us as business owners?

The big take away is this: Google is getting better and better at interpreting what people are searching for. If a someone is looking for something that could potentially be found locally, be that a business or a non-profit organization, they’re going to be served up local results in a much more noticeable way. Because of this, users are far more likely to see and visit local organizations after conducting an online search.

Hopefully, this means you.

Key Changes for Local Businesses

The (probably) good:

• Local businesses that are physically within the area you’re searching are a lot more prominent.
• More information is displayed in each individual listing (name, address, reviews, related pages).
• Your local results now get a decent description instead of just a business name and address.
• Directories like the online yellow pages are far less likely to show up. Instead, you’ll get local businesses.
• Multiple listings from the same company appear to be merging together. This leaves more space for other businesses to show up.
• If your website ranked well before in the non-local results, your business is now much more likely to rank well in the new local results.
• Because the reviews are right there in the first results, customer satisfaction is much more obvious.

The (maybe) bad:

• Because the reviews are right there in the first results, customer DIS-satisfaction is much more obvious.
• If you had multiple results displaying on the first page, your listings are probably going to get merged.
• Your competition will be more likely to show up.
• You’re going to need to optimize your website if it isn’t already.

The (potentially) ugly:

• If you don’t have a website, you’re probably in trouble.
• Local results are likely to push “normal” results that don’t have a maps listing off the page.
• Businesses that are not actually located in the city or geographic area their customers come from are less likely to show up. If you’re in Lititz, chances are someone searching in Lancaster isn’t going to find you unless you have an extremely strong listing.

This change shows a level of commitment to local search from Google that we’ve not seen in the past. While the final results remain to be seen, the relevance of what Google delivers can only improve. I think this change is a step in the right direction that will benefit businesses who have already invested in reputation management and search engine optimization.

This change comes at a time when people are more and more often turning to their computer or phone to find local businesses. Being visible in these new results is more critical than it has ever been.

What do you think of the changes? How has it affected your website ranking?