IFA Recap: Google Places Changes and What They Mean

Stark Logic attended the International Franchise Association’s 52nd Annual Conference this year in Orlando, and it was a fantastic show. One of the things we learned which will affect all of our local clients has to do with Google Places.

Google has been working with the IFA technology board to integrate new features and get feedback on changes they can make to better serve the franchise industry and small businesses in general. We were lucky to meet with a Google representative and discuss challenges we have had and to get some feedback from them on their plans.
 
The discussion turned to Google Places and the way local listings are displayed. The Google representative told us flat out that the Google Places program needs huge changes. The program was built for brick and mortar stores that have a static address and serve people in a specific city. The listings are driving a lot of business to small businesses, but many businesses cannot get placement in the local listings outside their city. This is a huge roadblock for those businesses that can service people outside their city, like plumbers, painters, dentists, etc.

So what’s going to change?

According to the Google representative, they have brought in a whole new management team to review the Google Places program and make necessary changes. Changes could be a pay per click model like their sponsored ads, or simply changing the listings to allow businesses to market in cities outside their own. These big changes may be coming as soon as later this year – we’ll keep you posted!