Comments on: Google Maps: Listings Still Merged; Centroid Losing Prominence? http://seoroi.com/ideas/google-maps-listings-still-merged-centroid-losing-prominence/ SEO Services For Serious ROI. Blog Posts For Serious SEOs. Mon, 21 May 2012 11:17:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Mihmorandum | Has Local Search 2.0 Arrived? | Google http://seoroi.com/ideas/google-maps-listings-still-merged-centroid-losing-prominence/comment-page-1/#comment-1653 Mihmorandum | Has Local Search 2.0 Arrived? | Google Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:16:10 +0000 http://seoroi.com/?p=224#comment-1653 [...] to centroid seems to be dying (though I don’t think it’s completely dead as Carter Maslan implied a couple of months [...] [...] to centroid seems to be dying (though I don’t think it’s completely dead as Carter Maslan implied a couple of months [...]

]]> By: David Mihm http://seoroi.com/ideas/google-maps-listings-still-merged-centroid-losing-prominence/comment-page-1/#comment-1613 David Mihm Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:10:08 +0000 http://seoroi.com/?p=224#comment-1613 Hey Gab, Your point about review order is an interesting one. I actually haven't seen any noticeable rhyme or reason to the sequence of reviews...take a look at this LBL just as one example: http://tinyurl.com/6s6sd5. There are reviews from 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 all on the first page of reviews... I absolutely think that centroid dominance is becoming less important, particularly in industries which have a high number of additional signals such as links, citations, and businesses that have claimed their LBL's. Check the research that I did with Mike Blumenthal and several others on this: <a href="http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/08/04/ranking-factors-in-google-maps-cracking-the-code-smx-local/" rel="" rel="nofollow">ranking-factors-in-google-maps-cracking-the-code-smx-local/</a> Edit: Added dofollow to <a href="http://www.davidmihm.com" rel="" rel="nofollow">David Mihm's Local SEO & web design</a>. Hey Gab,

Your point about review order is an interesting one. I actually haven’t seen any noticeable rhyme or reason to the sequence of reviews…take a look at this LBL just as one example: http://tinyurl.com/6s6sd5. There are reviews from 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 all on the first page of reviews…

I absolutely think that centroid dominance is becoming less important, particularly in industries which have a high number of additional signals such as links, citations, and businesses that have claimed their LBL’s. Check the research that I did with Mike Blumenthal and several others on this: ranking-factors-in-google-maps-cracking-the-code-smx-local/

Edit: Added dofollow to David Mihm’s Local SEO & web design.

]]> By: Mike Blumenthal http://seoroi.com/ideas/google-maps-listings-still-merged-centroid-losing-prominence/comment-page-1/#comment-1611 Mike Blumenthal Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:51:50 +0000 http://seoroi.com/?p=224#comment-1611 <a href="http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/08/04/ranking-factors-in-google-maps-cracking-the-code-smx-local/" rel="" rel="nofollow">Our research indicates</a> that on queries where Google has very few signals to go on (ie few business websites, no reviews, limited number of web references) the distance from the centroid accounts for as much as 80% of the variability in rank. On queries where Google has a large number of signals for ranking (well optimized websites, lots of reviews, a large number of geo web references (citations) then the importance of distance to the centroid drops in importance and predicts (very roughly) 20-30% of the variability. It is not so much that distance to centroid has become less important, its that Google has many more data points to now go on to assign a ranking. I believe that this has been the case for a while. Mike Blumenthal Ed: <a href="http://blumenthals.com" rel="" rel="nofollow">NY Web Hosting</a> Our research indicates that on queries where Google has very few signals to go on (ie few business websites, no reviews, limited number of web references) the distance from the centroid accounts for as much as 80% of the variability in rank.

On queries where Google has a large number of signals for ranking (well optimized websites, lots of reviews, a large number of geo web references (citations) then the importance of distance to the centroid drops in importance and predicts (very roughly) 20-30% of the variability.

It is not so much that distance to centroid has become less important, its that Google has many more data points to now go on to assign a ranking. I believe that this has been the case for a while.

Mike Blumenthal Ed: NY Web Hosting

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