Are Local Maps Reliable?
Posted on 30. Nov, 2009 by LocalSearchPilot in Google Local, Local Search, SEO, Search Engine Marketing
I am still waiting for the Local Map to be 100% relevant (in my opinion). Let me give you an example of a query I did today. A search for “kitchen cabinet stores st louis” on Yahoo gave me this:
I am 100% that CK Concrete does not offer kitchen cabinets.
On Google, I got this:
I know Kohls offers things for the kitchen but not kitchen cabinets. I was in pottery barn kids over the weekened, I guess maybe I missed the new kitchen cabinet section?
I am also going to put the query I did right here ”
kitchen cabinet stores st louis
” and see if either google or yahoo indexes it into the top 10 results. I am also making that the link name for this url.
I know the search engines are “trying” but there are hundreds of sites with relevant content and local addresses that they have indexed that should be a better option on the Local Listings.
Just my thoughts, but usually when speaking with clients they are always confused as to why the choices in the ‘map section” (as they call it) are so bad.
* * an update, this post is now the #2 organic result on Google (#4 on BING) for that term an for some reason on Google.ca it is the #9 organic result for “cabinet stores” !* *
2 Responses to “Are Local Maps Reliable?”
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Chris: I like you're point at the beginning - have also s...
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Stuart Gilbert: I agree totally, Google are putting a lot of emph...
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LocalSearchPilot: One more query. For "...
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Mike Mueller: That's fascinating. I haven't seen a Twitter accou...
Mike Stewart
30. Nov, 2009
As Chris Smith suggested… Microformats and tags might fix this problem to some degree. They really need to do a better job of using other sites to determine authority on Google Maps. Google apparently has something in the mix that gives credit to box brands.
localsearchguide
30. Nov, 2009
100% of the time my clients want to know why they are not in the map. Without getting into all the reasons why someone does or does not show up, I simply cant explain why Google has picked Kohl’s 2x and Pottery Barn Kids as relevant choices