Google Paid Local Listings – Coming Soon to a SERP Near You!

We all knew it was bound to happen.

Google has begun to roll out a new service where you can now pay to have a Google local listing. How soon it will come to your area is tough to say but right now it’s being tested in San Fransisco and San Diego and truth be told, it’s really too soon to see if it pays off or not.

Probably one of the most disturbing things that I’ve noticed thus far is that if you do a search in one of these markets, say “Salon San Diego” nearly everything above the fold is an advertisement leaving the organic search results pushed to the bottom of the pile.

(Note that in the image below, the local salon’s in San Diego that are using this service are highlighted at the top of the page with the blue balloons next to them.)

Now this is not to say that every single time you do a search in Google will you see and entire half-page full of ads. It only (at this point in time) appears to be those more competitive local markets.

So how is this supposed to work?

1. You need a verified Google local listing within the Google Local Business Center.

   “…Local Listing Ads is available for business owners who have verified their free listings in Google Local Business Center in a limited set of categories based on advertising policy, and other considerations.”

2. When you purchase a local listing ad, your ad will show up whenever a local user searches for your kind of business.
   1. The ads will show up on Google.com and on Google Maps.
   2. You get your first 30 days free.
   3. You’ll get reports on how many people called you, how many people clicked, and how many people wanted directions to your business.
3. Unlike AdWords where you bid a price on specific keywords, the only thing that Google Local Listing Ads require is that you select a category (A category; meaning ONE) for your business and then pay a flat monthly fee for that ad.
   1. The flat fee is set by Google themselves and is based on how many people are looking for your kind of business in your area.  (So in other words, Google tells you how much you’ll have to pay based on their estimation and you either pay that or you don’t get a paid local listing).
   2. Second, Google is offering a “free call tracking” service.  How they’re doing this I don’t yet know (the local paid listing is not yet available in my area), but what Google will do is give you an announcement prior to that call that says “This caller brought to you by Google”.  As of today this is NOT optional.

Now, something that I want you to notice in the screenshot above, is that there is a 7-box (a map with 7 listings next to it) that are not listed in the Google Local Paid listings above.  That said, I can only surmise that the added benefit to having a Google local paid listing is to show up at the very top of the page where you might see typical AdWords ads like so:

My largest concern was that the typical search results we’re all used to seeing would be heading out and only the sponsored results would remain.  This however, does not seem to be the case (at least not yet).

In summary, it’s really too soon to say how this will affect local businesses (if at all), and how much Google is going to charge for these listings in your market because obviously it will differ greatly depending upon your location.

This will definitely make for an interesting test as soon as they bring it to all markets.

Related posts:

1. Google Local Business – 9 Steps to Adding Your Google Local Listing
2. Local Businesses Getting a Leg Up on Google
3. Give Your Business Credibility with Google Knol
4. Advertising on Facebook

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