As an update, the coupon with a worthwhile discount has been running for a month.

Activity in terms of contacts has been strong as have sales.

We’ve had over 3700 visits through google and over 5300 total search visits. Additionally there is a significant amount of direct and link traffic to the site.

As I’ve noted, there is a marked increase in visits to the site wherein an authoritative onemap shows. There are a variety of terms that generate the onemap. In fact it picked up a onemap for a nearby local jurisdiction. That surprised me.

There have been over 250 total web contacts. There are a like number of contacts by phone. Most of our business is driven by the web.

I did a quick review. The site generates geo oriented phrases on a regional basis, as opposed to a local basis. By that I mean that many of the geo phrases reference a state name rather than a city name. The visits via a state name and the business terms don’t generate a map.

The major city name does generate a map….and as I referenced earlier there is more traffic for specific phrases wherein the authoritative onemap shows then for comparable geo phrases with state names.

We aren’t losing traffic, or I should say seeing a reduction in relative monthly traffic for searches with state names. That remains consistent over time with similar periods before maps were inserted into organic results.

But, surprisingly, and happily the onemap is generating even more visits for specific phrases.

REGARDLESS…..over the last month…..not a single person has generated that google coupon that sits within the detail of the local business center generated information.

hah…..its a shame for the customers.

So what I’m seeing is an effective increase in activity and visits due to the onemap.

What I’m not detecting at all is visitor activity to the detail available in the data from Google Maps. No usage of the coupon.

What I’m seeing is the effectiveness of a map inserted into a google search page. It has increased traffic.

I am not seeing any movement by visitors toward visiting the alternative data available through google maps…and certainly not the coupon.

I love that authoritative onemap…..but to date I’m totally indifferent to any kind of specific information inputted into the google local business center. It doesn’t seem like visitors are accessing it.

Dave

On an individual basis one would hope one’s search efforts got smarter or more sophistictated.

On the aggregate though I see as many searches for a very local/regional service via non localized searches. i.e. searching for a dentist via the search term dentist when what you really want is a Cupertino, California dentist . Its the same volume that I’ve always seen and the same volume that Greg Sterling reported in 2007.

I see those types of searches for both organic searches and the results of ppc run on a localized basis with ads that specify the service and geo area.

That’s a good question. If it were static then searches would never evolve but they do. I assume but have no evidence that it is a fluid system of searcher desire, search engine feedback, searcher modification, search engine modification etc etc….would be a great to hear from someone who knows how these things change. why and how much.

Mike

That’s amazing, Dave. Very cool data.

In regards to people getting ‘trained’ to search in a certain way for certain types of serps, I can see that happening. I know that in my on-going hunt for a house, I’ve now memorized which cities bring up Google’s real estate search and which ones don’t. So, I think it’s a worthy question Mike is asking.

Nice post!
Miriam

Logically that is the reverse of your suggestion in comment #6. One might think that searchers might want more information and a search with a map might respond to that need. On the other hand the number of searchers using terms with the shortest possibel combination of search terms has certainly not abated in any sense that I can see over several years of followng the data.

I just don’t see that.

Dave

And I would agree with you on the Authoritative Onebox value.

On a related coupon note, I put a coupon in my local record when coupons first came out and I have had one response in all of that time.

Mike

In past years the volume of traffic for state name/business terms versus city name/business terms were relatively close. In this past year or so, though there is a marked increase in visits which are accompanied by the authoritative one map.

It is not only a powerful and highly visual representation on the search page, it not only dominates the important top portion of the search page real estate, but the evidence is that it dramatically increased traffic over search phrases…wherein in all examples my business was organically ranked #1 for all three phrases.

I go back to the example of the denver florists. Last December through several months Lehrer’s Florists in Denver obtained that authoritative onebox. It probably benefitted dramatically from that maps representation on the search page. Currently, for the organic search phrase…denver flowers it now is ranked 1st among the 10 pack.

That #1 ranking in the 10 pack is good. But somehow I can’t think that it is as effective as the authoritative one map it generated months ago.

I suspect Google prefers generating information for general viewership in a 10 pack format. On the other hand, if a business is successful in optimizing for maps as it shows in organic searches in an authoritative one map….that business can really benefit.

Finally, as it regards the coupons, Greg Sterling is similarly surprised that Google hasn’t tried to improve this availability and visability. One would think that coupons have far more credibility and importance in this economy.

I suppose if google were monetizing the visability of coupons they would find a way to make them dramatically more visable.

Dave

My pet theory is that it was one of the 20% projects and thus has low priority, doesn’t yet have enough inventory or competitive value to bring forth to be visible on the main search pages. Internal competition/canibalization has not really slowed them down before.

This all very interesting to me too as the last time I checked the inventory was growing at an annualized rate of 54%.

Mike