Google now starting to charge for Places Listings

[iziah01]

I have a Google Places Page listing for my offline marketing business and I recently noticed that the "7 box" listings are no longer being triggered by relevant keyword phrases like:

• SEO
• Web Design
• Internet Marketing
• SEO Companies

This is not happening to all business categories, at least not yet anyway, but its definitely affecting local internet marketing related firms.

So I gave Google a call and spoke to one of their reps., and they confirmed that my Places page was no longer being triggered and immediately started pitching me on how I could get back to the first page with their new program.

Apparently due to the popularity of "Google Places", Google is now going to be charging you if you want to appear on the first page of the "general" results. They're calling the program "Google Boost" and you can think of it as a scaled down version of Adwords.

Instead of having that little red pin on the left, next to the business listing, it will now be colored blue. Based on the category of your Places Page Listing, this will determine when your add is shown and you will be charged once someone clicks on your ad. You will have the option of sending the visitor to either your website or your Places Page Listing.

This now poses a bit of an issue for those offering Places Page Listing services because all of the other little tricks that could be done to get a higher placing in the results will no longer have an effect- once Google rolls this out to all of the other categories.

 

[m0nster]

SH*T F*** =[ I just started promoting a businesses GP ranking service....this will kill it. i mean i see those blue listings paid listings in with others....doesn't seem like a google move to completely kill the 7block and only show a map if a company pays for this......hm idk what to think

 

[RickyZwailer]

I have a Google Places Page listing for my offline marketing business and I recently noticed that the "7 box" listings are no longer being triggered by relevant keyword phrases like:

• SEO
• Web Design
• Internet Marketing
• SEO Companies

This is not happening to all business categories, at least not yet anyway, but its definitely affecting local internet marketing related firms.

So I gave Google a call and spoke to one of their reps., and they confirmed that my Places page was no longer being triggered and immediately started pitching me on how I could get back to the first page with their new program.

Apparently due to the popularity of "Google Places", Google is now going to be charging you if you want to appear on the first page of the "general" results. They're calling the program "Google Boost" and you can think of it as a scaled down version of Adwords.

Instead of having that little red pin on the left, next to the business listing, it will now be colored blue. Based on the category of your Places Page Listing, this will determine when your add is shown and you will be charged once someone clicks on your ad. You will have the option of sending the visitor to either your website or your Places Page Listing.

This now poses a bit of an issue for those offering Places Page Listing services because all of the other little tricks that could be done to get a higher placing in the results will no longer have an effect- once Google rolls this out to all of the other categories.

That figures and I'm sure it was their intention.
Thanks for noticing this.

 

[toysonline]

very well said... those greedy bastards....

 

[thegladiator]

fU*K U G00gLe. I WAS SOON GOING TO LAUNCH A gp SERVICE TOO. I hate u G00gLe. May your server get crashed and yAh00 become the best search engine.

HADAKOUMULLAH

 

[NemoWouldNeverMakeIt]

Even if that were true, placing high in 7-pack for a a decent niche keywords is worth $xxx-$x,xxx a month.

So just pay and get over it. Whether that's for you or for your clients.

 

[chocolatemonkey]

Even if that were true, placing high in 7-pack for a a decent niche keywords is worth $xxx-$x,xxx a month.

So just pay and get over it. Whether that's for you or for your clients.

This is near-sighted thinking IMHO.

CPC will be bid UP for Boost just like it was for Adwords.

Hell, check how much it costs per click for some local terms and you'd be shocked. Some search terms cost as much IF NOT MORE than the term they're targeting without the city name attached to it.

 

[krzysiekz]

I don't think they will remove it. As I have seen it done in areas around here, the 7 box still appears but on top of that, there is usually one Blue "A" on the map and above the normal 7 box as well, as that company is paying for it to be above the rest - but they did not actually remove the 7 box.

Imagine really small towns with no internet marketing knowledge... they are not going to call up Google asking what happened to their Google Places listing, so do you think Google is seriously going to take it down and wait for someone to pay them for it? In such a case, they would not get paid and at the same time they would be providing a crap experience for their users because the local map wouldn't be triggered.

Hope this makes sense. But what I think they did, was two separate things.

1) Remove the map trigger from internet marketing / SEO related businesses
2) Implement Google Boost

And I think you have it confused that they are taking down all businesses and only putting them back up if they pay for it. I don't think that will be the case. From my experience, the 7 box remains, if you choose to pay for Google Boost.. then your listing will appear about the normal 7 Box.

So in a sense, you probably now have to offer your service to your client for cheaper than what Google charges per month, otherwise they can just get Google Boost and end up being guaranteed a rotating spot on the first page. Money still there to be made because not all businesses even know how to do any of that / Google Boost... but the bad part is, Google will at some point call up your client and pitch them directly.

 

[m0nster]

shit.......=.= thanks for your input krzysiekz, you have a guess what any of these companies spend on Boost a month or anything?

 

[ibmethatswhoib]

Google is getting crazy....can we all stop using them as much as possible...I know we can't completely cut them out but the more and more word gets out they have too much power we can slowly change things. At least use bing to search now...

 

[Mugshots]

there is sooo much pofential.. clients u want? then charge then and add additional services

 

[marketingwise]

I knew it was coming eventually. Those 7 spots are worth $$. Why would they not see that and squeeze it for $? That is how they make all their $. Still sucks.

 

[Gendo Ikari]

This has been implemented in areas, mine included, for awhile now, nothing new. Google is just doing this for seo/internet marketing companies, because they understand the value of it and are the most likely to pay.

They wouldn't do it for all industries at this point, it would make Google Places near worthless in smaller markets. If anything, they will continue to increase the amount of industries that trigger Google Places listings to continue to build the brand.

Use Google Boost to your advantage, as you can then pretty much guarantee a client that they will show up on the first page, and you can then use that lead data to justify whatever price you want to charge them, and they'll go for it as long as they are making a good profit off of it and they see the calls coming in.

 

[rippy]

Where are you all based? in US?
What about Australia?

 

[JamesHenry]

Some cities the google places do not show for the web design city. The reason google was quoted as to much manipulation of place by seo- web design companies.

Nail first place in the serp results.

 

[krzysiekz]

I am in Australia and this is already in effect.

http://www.google.com.au/#hl=en&xhr...=&aql=&oq=dentist+me&pbx=1&fp=425927948737432

It does not show the exact example I wanted to let you see, but if you look there, on the map on the right hand side you see there are some 'blue' markers and not just the 'red'. And then on the right hand side column, under the map, you see those adverts. I have seen the adverts also 'above' the normal 7 box with the blue 'A' and 'B' icons before, but perhaps they move them into the right hand side column.

But as has been stated, this is nothing too new and has been implemented already in various areas for some time. If I am correct, I think it has been in effect for around 2 or so months, probably more (at least I found out about it about that long ago I think).

 

[realfadly]

great share.. ok i want changed my trick now..

 

[oOghostriderOo]

Boost has been around for about three months. As far as I know they do not guarantee first page (7-pack) for your desired terms (because you cant pick keywords, they choose when and where you show up). Also you must have been lucky to have web design or seo pull up a 7-pack. In most areas this is not the case(at least no where i have seen). I dont beleive this will be a big threat to offline marketers as long as the 7-pack is still there. Also for most of my searches there are still one or two organic listings above the 7-pack (between the sponsored ads and 7-pack) that are ripe for the picking. Just my 2 cents on the matter.

 

[AspiringIM22]

IMO this is just the progression of internet marketing. Back in the good old days, you could make a killing with adwords, but over time competition grew, google got more restrictive, then facebook ads came along and every serious IM dumped adwords (if they hadn't already) for facebook ads.

Marketing services for Google Places probably has a few more good years to milk out before Google starts charging everyone too much for boost and the competition get to crowded, but never fear there will always be something new that we can all more on to.

IM are the first to jump on new trends, we ride them for all there worth, until they get too main stream and then we dump them for the next big trend.

That's my 2cents at least.

 

[donduck]

nothing stays the same
it being easy to list for a long time