The New Google Maps – What Local Businesses Should Consider

These days, the new Google Maps is being rolled out worldwide for desktop users. The new version was first introduced last May and was subsequently tested by users. Now, the new features and layout are becoming standard. What is supposed to be more user-friendly for users has some consequences for local businesses. You can find out what you need to consider in our overview.

Rankings in Google Maps

In the new Google Maps, the order of entries is less obvious than in the old version.

The first three entries are displayed initially (businesses shown here have a significant advantage).

Only after clicking "show all entries" will more listings become visible. However, these do not correspond with the Maps results from search results.

When the search query resembles a proper name, sometimes it will be displayed as the sole entry.

Particularly high-searched locations are already displayed as suggestions during the search.

The larger the selected map section, the fewer individual entries are displayed. Entries are accumulated; sometimes the markers are still shown, but not the associated names. What determines who is displayed? It's not just the quantity or quality of reviews, as a sample shows; instead, it depends on several factors like mentions, links, and reviews.

Keywords

The related search queries displayed during the search are insightful. For businesses, it can be beneficial to add relevant terms provided here to their Google+ Local description.

Particularly interesting are the keywords that Google automatically adds to entries.

A larger number of terms can also be found in the Google+ profile.

Google extracts these keywords from reviews. To influence these terms, it is advisable to specifically promote certain services or products to encourage reviews that contain these keywords.

Summary and Further Remarks

• Reviews have long been one of the most important factors for local search engine optimization. With the new version of Google Maps, their significance increases further.

• Google+ is mandatory for local businesses, ever since Google Places became Google+ Local. It is not enough to just create a profile; keywords, active profile management, and especially reviews are important.

• In the new Google Maps, the social aspect also plays a big role. Google encourages users to log in and create individual maps with favorite places. Maps for logged-in users are supposed to be influenced by their own marked places and recommendations from contacts in their Circles. The latter function can be manually activated by selecting the option "Places from... my circles". Here too, reviews play a major role. According to Google, user data and the search history of the logged-in user also influence Maps results.

• Since the new Google Maps is explicitly designed for mobile use, the topic of Responsive Design is becoming increasingly important for local businesses.

• And ultimately, advertising is also an interesting topic: The prominent ad placement directly below the search results should be an attractive advertising space for local businesses.

If you want to be found locally and take advantage of the new Google Maps, it's high time to optimize your Google+ and Google+ Local profiles and encourage reviews of your business. We are happy to support you in this!