About a month and half a go I spotted a trend that is interesting: The top three local listings on the Google Organic results page and the top three listings in Google Map are often not the same.
This has implications for both optimization strategies for Google Organic AND going forward for the directory assistance service that Google is testing. For the present, getting into the top three on the main results page or achieving a “onebox” result on that page is all that matters. There is little traffic coming from Google Maps and less yet from the yet unclaimed directory assistance.
It appears that the two pages calculate authority of listings using different algorithms.Here are some examples of this discrepancy:
Search Phrase:
Example 1:
Ellicottville NY Vacation Rentals Google Organic results page: Onebox Standing
Ellicottville NY Vacation Rentals Google Maps results page: Number 2 (B) Standing
Example 2:
Bradford Pa restaurant Google Organic results page: Number 1 (of 3) Standing
Bradford Pa restaurant Google Maps results page: Number 19 (I) Standing on Page 2!
Most efforts at optimization for Google Maps (Local) have resulted in roughly similar standings. Out of 6 tested phrases (and that were listed in the top 3 on Google Organic), there were 2 listings that had the same ranking in both locations. Three of the other listings were within one or two places but the example above had a discrepancy of 18 places.
The optimization strategy used on the Bradford Pa restaurant was the same as used in every other listing that I have optimized.
This one has me baffled. Any ideas?
Mike - I believe it’s not just a different algorithm at play here, but also a different index. That is to say, a search on Maps queries a different index of pages than a search on Google.com.
Comment by Matt McGee — October 26, 2006 @ 3:59 am
Matt-
The data set is the same (even if the index is different). I have changed the title’s in listings in unique ways and they show up on the Google Organic Top 3 Local List AND the Google Maps list with the exact same changes.
When you say the index is different, what do you mean?
Comment by Mike Blumenthal — October 26, 2006 @ 8:23 am
[...] One of the interesting results that I covered in previous posts ( here and here ) was the occasional and glaring difference (using the same data set) of the results in the Google Onebox Local Listing and the Maps top results. [...]
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