Every Place has a Page on Google Maps
Place Pages are a new feature of Google Maps that will have a great impact in local business SEO.
Every place in the world could have a web page linked on its corresponding Google Maps result page that aggregates all the relevant information about it: photos, videos, driving directions, reviews, related websites and of course contextual ads.
Content extracted from recommendation directories will make Place Pages relevant for local businesses. User generated content in fact is the key to a fast growth of Place Pages but also new reputation management concerns. Small business owners will be able to update business details through the Local Business Center, or create a page using Google Map Maker if there isn’t one yet, without the need of designing a website from scratch.
Place Pages potential for SEM and SEO
Place Pages are designed to be relevant, and being linked on Google Maps they have a very high potential for ranking well in Google SERPs. However, Google does not intend to show these pages on organic results by default, unless Place Pages get referred to by other websites.
What makes Place Pages especially interesting for local businesses, apart from the fact that they are free, is their nature of being automatically generated and designed to be effective landing pages.
As Eric Fredine points out on predictabuy.com, conversion rates would benefit from a design that makes automated A/B testing possible, because of the way the content is organized in blocks that can be easily moved around, changed in size or not displayed at all depending on the traffic source and search intent.
Once conversion events, like booking hotel rooms or Google Voice table reservations for restaurants, are implemented in Place Pages, the SEM potential for local merchants and small businesses will be fully exploited.
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