You might have noticed over the last few months that Google Places is now taking a more prominent role in your search results. Check out my search for “car insurance md”. There are 7 “places” listed instead of the normal search results. Personally, I’m loving it.
When people are looking for businesses, services, volunteer opportunities, organizations, activities, or entertainment, they want to find more than information. They want to find a place, a place that they can go to or call, that can meet an immediate need. The folks who come up in the top 7 places listings are going to get more clicks, more traffic and more feet through the door. Better yet, this gives us all another reason to move the phone book from the front step, directly into the recycling bin.
The places listings are localized. Localization basically means that Google returns Places results based on your physical location using the GPS on your mobile device, the preset you set on your Google account, or by your internet providers’ local hub. So if I type in a general search term like “movie theater”, Google returns Places listings near my physical location. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Well, I don’t have definitive statistics, but my guess is that most people under 40 wouldn’t really think of grabbing a phone book to find something. They head right to an online search engine (a vast majority of which will use Google). So, can you cancel your Yellow Pages or Super Pages listing? Maybe. If you serve folks over 40 I’d suggest keeping your phone book listings, particularly if your organization serves and does business locally. Before you breathe a sigh of relief, realize that tomorrow’s customer or member is going to be looking for you online. Are they going to find you there?
