Many of us has spent a ton of time and energy and money to get a top ranking in Google for our desired keyword.
But it’s possible that you’re losing traffic because of Google maps.
I did a quick search on Google for chicago injury lawyer and here’s what came up:
Between the ads and the maps you may be losing a fair amount of traffic even though you have the top spot on Google.
So when you’re doing keyword research be sure to take this into consideration.
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Yeah whenever I see one of those, you can bet that if you rank in the 4th and below positions your chance of getting your listing clicked is very rare. That box takes up sooo much space and cuts all vision. As a webmaster I wish it would go away… but as a user I know it's a good thing
Till then,
Jean
Very true. So just make this part of your keyword research routine.
I agree with Jean. The map does take up too much space and s o pushes down the other results.
Not all search results show maps but those that do crowd out the others.
Maybe the secret is to rank for the map as well. What kind of SEO tactics can help you rank there?
In the example you show, the #1 search result is from a site not listed on the map. It also appears that it is a brand new blog — the default post ranks #1 on the page?
Not all local sites would have a physical address though (like directories).
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I am looking into ranking for maps. So far I haven't found ground breaking but I will keep looking.
Google Maps (known as "Google Places" now) are sorta evil… there is no good way to manage them (trust me I try frequently for a franchise company)… and there is nobody at "Google" to talk to about them. But you gotta play, so make sure you get a Google Map listing for the keyword you are going after if you can. I also suggest adding video and pictures to your Google Places listing… that helps.
Good points. I haven't found a good way around Google maps.
Does anyone know how to get one site into the map for many different cities?
One of the sites I run is a directory which covers many big cities in my country and I have top organic rankings for the city pages. I would like to get into the maps as well, but as I don't offer a physical product or a service that is for one place only, I see a problem there with getting in.
Any ideas on how to do that? I don't want to reveal my personal address but would like to use something generic for the city (like "city hall plaza, mycity")
Any idea is much appreciated.
That's a tough one. I'm not sure how well you're going to get ranked with Google maps without a precise physical address.
Google Places now lets you get a listing without a physical locations (kind of like a "service area")… I don't know if you can do that for multiple cities, but I do know it is possible. They do this for businesses that "work out of the house" or mainly do work at client's locations, so they would be considered a "Service Business".
Here is Google's link about "Service Areas": http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.p…
Awesome. Thank you for letting us know.
Thanks for this wonderful finding. Will investigate further.
Thanks for all the helpful tips Nick!