I've noticed this change for a while but until now I didn't payed much attention to the way local SERP merges with Google Places results. I can't post pics yet but you can copy / paste this into your browser and see what am I talking about: Code: i42.tinypic.com/dbpq9d.jpg What actually happens is that GP listings are placed right next to the original website and it's clipping the page TITLE to about 39 characters. This is something very bad since page title is almost the most important factor in SERP CTR. Did anyone found a fix or a workaround for this? Thank you!
Hm... why it's bad? You can put more keywords in your title, and unless in G Places, where you sometimes get flagged for keyword stuffing. But I see that they want to merge GPlaces with regular SERPs.
Thanks for the quick reply, but please take a look at the image in the OP. I can't post pics yet but you can copy / paste this into your browser and see what am I talking about: Code: i42.tinypic.com/dbpq9d.jpg I'll give you a random example: The old SERP: SEO Company | Professional Search Engine Optimization Services snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet The new Local SERP: SEO Company | Professional Search Engin ... | Google Places snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snipe | Listings here snippet snippet snippet snippet snippet snipp | (342) 324 234 So, you see, the page title actually gets trimmed to about 39 characters thus not displaying the full intended message. I hope you understand my dilemma now and also that someone has a workaround for this (beside delisting from GP). Thank you!
ahaaa now I see it's only 39 characters. hm.. so I guess we have to improve link building, nothing else we can do. Google is the monopoly.
I don't see how is there a workaround unless you delist or you reformat your title to place the keywords in the first 40 letters. Its google's choice so how can anyone change it?
The game is always changing. You either keep up, or get left in the dust. There is nothing you can do about the listings, especially with Google Places. If Google Places is ruining local SEO, then it is opening up another large market for Google Places Marketing
Google is constantly tweaking Google Places. Don't expect any changes to be permanent either. You can either fight it, learn to live with it or go do something else. For example, it's recently launched a paid service like Google Adwords, except for local business only. Could be an opportunity!
Until they change it, perhaps moving the bloody phone number under the link instead of jamming it fixed next to the title, I figure the only thing to do is try to use google places since it's painfully obvious this is a "oh hi, did you know about google places?" marketing scheme. Perhaps google's annoying persistence will lead to unforeseen benefits........
