Google Local Results Grow on You

Alright, this is no breaking news unless you don’t use Google Local on a daily basis, but Google Local Results now gives you TEN results rather than the usual three. For example, if you were to search for “dry cleaning san diego, ca”, you’d get the results on the screenshot below.

So yeah, wow Google, you really want to give more and more on page Real Estate to your awesome Local Database. No problem, I get it… I’m not complaning… yet!

When questioned about the “OneBox”, Google said “… the reason it’s showing more links is because usability testing revealed that many people didn’t realize there was additional local content available beyond the three listings, despite the ‘more results . . .’ prompt.”  Google said that with the 10 links people will hopefully realize that there are many other local results to be explored.

Noble answer, the only problem is that Google Local takes sooooo long to update its submissions. I’ve had to wait several months before to see a local listing go live. So, now we have a large area that responds very slowly to any optimization one might put in place while submitting a local listing.

I’ll follow up on this entry with more on Google Local listings optimization soon.