Local Results on Google

I was hoping someone could shed some light on something for me.

If I go to G, and type in something like 'data entry toronto', either at the top or right below the sponsored listings you will see an area that says...

Local results for data entry near Toronto, ON, Canada

A J D Data Entry Services - 14 km N - 10 Allstate Pkwy, Markham - (905) 475-0200
Reliable Data Entry - 16 km NE - 720 Tapscott Road, Scarborough - (416) 292-6101

My question is this. How does G determine the 2 companies that go there. Then -- when you click on the "local results" tab, how does a company get on the entire list that G shows?

Any help on this question is appreciated!

 

Take a look at: http://local.google.com/help/faq_local.html

 

The original entries are from published phone books. (The information can be somewhat dated). You can get listed in this.

Dave

 

providing zip codes and phone numbers on your pages can get you listed in there as well

 

Very helpful FAQ - tlainevool

My questions is... do any of you think this is going to become huge or what? I can see a great deal of value to this being launched. Is it just me? Im not really seeing much discussion about this.

 

it already drives considerable traffic if you have sites that organize data by geographic region. Yahoo does this as well

 

You can sign up for G Local: https://www.google.com/local/add/login

If you don't already have a G account, create one first. It takes about 6 weeks to get listed.

My business is international, but I wanted to be in local so that if all that someone knows is our city & state, they find us for sure.

 

TRUE - unfortunately they havent gotten to us Canadians yet! GRRRRR... dont they know that the world revolves around us?

 

Looks like phone book listings from to me too. Doesn't seem very effective for my area.

JAWz

 

True, there doesn't seem to be any way to enter your Canadian local listing yet, or not one that I can find...

But if you do a search on google.com or google.ca, you will see local listings that seem to be drawn from the phonebook. The logic of which ones are drawn, however, escapes me -- they are not the first three alphabetical listings, nor are they linked to top websites.

Look at this search on either google.com or google.ca (same results):

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ff&c2coff=1&q=psychologist+ottawa&btnG=Search

The local listings are:

None of these individuals have websites. They are not the most prominent or best known psychologists in the area. They are not those with the most general practices. They are certainly not the first three alphabetical listings in the Yellow Pages. They are not even those with the largest ads or premium listings in the Yellow Pages.

I cannot find any factor(s) at all that would lead Google to choose these out of the dozens of possible local selections.

Bizarre

 

Actually, I've been puzzling over this anomaly for weeks and reading it there I've just this minute realized something:

The addresses of those offices are all within a couple of blocks in the same area of the city.

But that raises another puzzle: This is not central Ottawa, or downtown Ottawa, or the busiest part of Ottawa... this is Ottawa west. Why that little section of the city?

 

Pondering Google ......that's sure to leave you lying on the couch, not sitting on the chair

 

Good points Minstrel... no wonder why my brother Homer thinks so highly of you

I am a little surprised myself that no one is making a bigger deal of this as it could take some very valuable real estate on the G page!

I plan on learning alot more about how this works and I think it will grow into somethin very big soon.

 

Is Homer really your brother?

Either way, I agree... those local listing sit there right at the top of the page in premium SE real estate. I do think it would be nice to know more about how they get there...

 

It is true Minstrel...I taught him (almost) everything I know. He likes beer too .

 

Right! You're in!

 

Hey Deej. You may want to visit this thread. It's a poll for your favorite DP member. I am management for T34M M1|\|5TR3L So go there now and do the right thing .

Sorry for getting a little off topic but if I post anything in the thread above I keep getting red reps. Without a good reputation I cannot be an effective manager.

 

In the Washington DC area, they used to say that there were more shrinks per the population than anywhere else in the US. (no comments necessary). There have got to be hundreds or thousands of them.

If G listed all or many of them, it would look sort of silly...or overwhelming.

I wonder if the local listings, as currently shown, will ultimately be for sale?

Dave

 

That is what Im getting at... i think this is going to be a premium thing in the next few years.

Basically offering access to the top of the page isnt going to be free. Until recently I always liked how Google (for the most part) maintained a clean top portiono of their page for natural listings. I just hope they arent going the Yahoo! route.

Homer... Im on it.