Google Adds Local Results to Main Stream Search Options

[rustybrick]

I thought this would have been posted here already, but I guess I can add my share to this forum.

Google has now added local results (yup thats right, Yellow Pages) to its main stream search. Do a search on city + service and you should see it.

If not, then take a look at Google Serving Up Local Results, I took a snap shot.

[Jean_Manco]

Google Local is in beta at http://local.google.com/ . It looks good - you can see the results on a map - but covers the US only.

[rustybrick]

Yea, I know its in beta. "GoogleGuy" at WMW said "Remember that this is still a beta, but local search is something that I'm really excited about. Our infrastructure is flexible enough to integrate geographical information into our index. And geo info is a lot of fun to play with. "

But the important thing is that they are showing it in the main SERPs.

[bwelford]

That's really neat.

Does anyone know how they get their geographical location figured out from a website?

[rustybrick]

How does it work? Is it like Yellow Pages sites I've seen elsewhere?


Google Local takes a new approach to helping users find geographic information online. We analyze the content in our index of more than 4 billion web pages and combine that information with Yellow Pages data to provide the most comprehensive local search experience available.

http://local.google.com/help/faq_local.html#how

seems that is it primarily yellow pages but when you click on a listing it shows results for that company.

[bwelford]

That must be a pretty clever algorithm to figure out what company name should be associated with a website and from that find the yellow pages entry.

Here in Canada using the Yellow Pages to find a restaurant can be quite a challenge, given different ways of setting out the restaurant's name. I would be amazed if their method is more than say 95% correct. It could be quite a penalty if your company name is somewhat buried in your website. :roll:

[rustybrick]

That must be a pretty clever algorithm to figure out what company name should be associated with a website and from that find the yellow pages entry.

Not fully understanding this statement.

When you click on a listing, the company's Web site might not come up. Google basically does a search on "Company name" plus city, state, zip, phone etc. And it brings up the matchings.

I have seen examples where company sites are not SE Friendly and do not come up in the yellow page results.

[bwelford]

Looking up Company Name with City, State, is the easy one. I did a search for Web Design in AnyTown, AnyState, and it gave me a list of companies where web design came up in the website. Not all of them were web designers. However I'm still trying to guess how they attach a geographical location to a website.

[Chatmaster]

OK fine, how does this affect sites that are not city, state or zip specific but are able to deliver to any city, state? So where can we get a list of city, state, zip to optimize for it. That is why I would agree with bwelford about it being a very clever algo. Besides that, if Google starts using stuff like identifying the city or state of the actual hosting service or domain owner it can change the situation BIG time for local hosting services, or am I making to much out of it?

[Black_Knight]

OK fine, how does this affect sites that are not city, state or zip specific but are able to deliver to any city, state?

The same way as it treats all other sites - by whether or not the company is local.

The site for the local office of a global company would be local, and thus included.

The vast majority of sites that could ship to a place but are not local would not. The main search engine already does those. This is for those trying to find and use local companies.

[send2paul]

Funky, I know, replying to a thread nearly two years old, but I thought it was relevant after reading the other archived threads on Google Local......

I used Google Local to get local info on companies for a directory website I've been adding to over the last year. Now I find that my directory website is coming up in the Google Local searches as a reference website for the companies I've included, (which I researched intitially from Google Local), in my directory website.

Now, I suppose, this is an ideal situation, as now I have "the market" on local searches for this subject of this directory website - for those people who use the Google Local search. (Remembering that the same search in Goolge's main search engine doesn't get the same local results).

The thing that surprises me the most about all of this is that it's only just recently - I mean over the last week or so - that I've noticed this happening.

Has something happened with Google Local to now include my directory website in it's database for search results, when it didn't used to before?

[dgeary9]

Funky, I know, replying to a thread nearly two years old, but I thought it was relevant after reading the other archived threads on Google Local......

Too funny. Until I read this post I didn't realize it was an old thread. I have a web analytics client whose main keywords are variations on "calgary spa", which pulls up the local YP, so I'm thinking to myself "huh, canada was finally first, google.ca has had that for ages" . Nope, I'm just slow, LOL!

[send2paul]

LOL - it's better to be slow - and post - then not post at all