Google Maps In Search Results Not Smart

[GAustralia]

Hello Search Watch,

I find Google Maps In Search Results Not Smart for the following reasons:

1) I find lots of irrelevant listings among the returned results. The first few pages are relevant then the listings seem to change purpose to be a general directory of all services for a city (examples: Sydney airport parking, water taxis, Australian Securities Exchange, Royal Sydney Golf club, etc.), then after these pages of irrelevant listings I may find my business among others. Keywords: Serviced Offices Sydney.

2) Some of the listings in the A-J that show on the first page of search results do not rank well at all in the organic search listings.

3)The same listings tend to stay there. A more equitable way would be by organic listing rank or by rotation. While my business is to the north of Sydney (but near Sydney)my business is clearly in the map area shown on page one of the results - so it should be given greater attention. Also, we are near the top of the organic listings on page 2. A number of the A-J listings are also not in the city of Sydney itself, equally or more far away.

4)Google seems silly to give Google maps listings such a diversionary promenence in the search results - diversionary from their money earning sponsored ads. I may make such a comment as I have not figured out how to get the best out of the Google Maps search listing - while it appears to advantage competitors.

5)The listing would be smarter if the user may indicate an area of the map that they are more interested in - to the North, for instance. Then the listings A-J could change based on the desired area and possible zoom.

6)Any tips on getting up there in the Google Map rankings? It seems arbitrary to me.

GAustralia

[AussieWebmaster]

Get listed in local information sites... yellow pages, city directories for stores etc., make sure you have address listed on site in accessible area

[GAustralia]

One more:

7)For the map that comes up in the result: You may click on the map and then zoom in and zoom out. When I click on the map on the first page of results and I zoom over to the location of my business a place marker does not show up. This is counter intuitive. My business is on page 6 of the results- only when you are on page 6 will you see a place marker for my business on the map. Now how do you explain this to users? If you zoom onto an area, all the businesses in that area should show.

[GAustralia]

Hello Search Watch,

I am surprised there is not much more comment in this area of Google maps showing up in the search results. The map and position of it is highly distractive to the organic and sponsored listings.

Since I first started this thread, my site went from page 6 to page 5 of the Google map results vs. a page 2 location on the organic results. The difference is that the clearly irrelevant listings have moved from between me and page 1 to after my listing. This is progress. Yet we all know that page 1 is where you need to be. And one of my positions is that Google maps is deceptive and ususeful in its: (1) showing a map including where my business is and not showing a marker for my business - especially clear if you click on the map and zoom in to the location of my business, (2) static nature of google maps display - if you zoom in on an area or move within the Google maps the placemarkers should change and the listings underneath the map should change as well.

More insight please.

GAustralia

[jimbeetle]

G local results can certainly be frustrating for the user. The other day I did a web search for [widget island restaurants]. From the maps onebox at the top of the SERPs I could see a map pin for the one whose name I had forgotten. It was hidden behind another pin so I clicked on the map expecting to be able to zoom in.

No such luck. When G passed the [widget island restaurants] search to maps it reparsed it as "What: [restaurants] Near: [Widget+Island,+New+York]" and returned different results -- that did not include the location of the joint I was interested in. I did find the place on page 3, two extra clicks for the user. A very bad user experience as I did not see what I expected to when I clicked the map. Overall, the initial web search results were much easier to use.

[AussieWebmaster]

Yeah I think Google maps needs some tweaking... but overall a good source of additional traffic... both online and walk in

[GAustralia]

Aussie -

Maps are a good source of traffic for those with the luck to appear on page 1. For those who appear further back in the pages of map results (vs their rankings on the organic results) the maps results attract business away from organic and sponsored results.

GAustralia