I’ve had a rant about Google Maps before, especially the Google Local Business Centre element.
I’ve said a few times that Google has to improve the service and that they’ll need to make it make some money to put the investment they need to in, in order to improve the software.
Guess what? As from the 2oth April Google Local Business Listing is no more, Google Local Business Centre is now Google Places, and guess what else – there will be a paid element, it hurts me to say finally but finally.
The way maps is displayed at the top of Google SERPs is too important for many businesses to be left in the hands of a dodgy hacked piece of software, if we need to pay for the privilege of being there then so be it.
When will this make a difference to my search marketing budget?
As with everything Google they are rolling it out in the US first, so if you’re not in the US you don’t need to worry about it for the time being, that doesn’t mean be complacent soon enough we too will be paying to tag our listings in Google Maps results in order to get them to stand out.