Local Business Search and Adwords

It is also becoming tightly integrated with other Google applications, such as Adwords, so that by linking up with Adwords to Local Business Search, you can have the business address shown with the ad, and in the top 3 positions it also allows you to expand to see a map with the name and address of the business highlighted.  Again this is a valuable way of gaining both column inches and local credibility with searchers.

Google Local Search results for Islington solicitors

But there are some definite quirks and even potentially serious issues with it too.  Under the quirky and distinctly annoying category is that the “Local” is not necessarily that local.  For instance, for a Google search for “Islington solicitors” shows a list of solicitors, only 2 of which are actually in Islington (and these on the border of the borough, indicated by the red line on the map below), the other 8 being in the City of London.  The reason for this is presumably firstly because these 8 solicitors are mainly large London or even International law firms which have high rankings in Google, and secondly because the City of London is only a few miles from Islington.  

But this highlights two problems, one being that proximity is not necessarily a matter of mileage, being two miles apart in London is much more significant in crowded cities than it would be in the wilds of Scotland.  The other is that if someone had typed in “Islington solicitors” then presumably they are indicating that they want a firm in that locality, and would not be interested in the large London and International firms being shown by Google.  For a start most people wouldn’t be able to afford their fees!  It is also worrying that Google are promoting larger even multinational firms at the expense of smaller local businesses in their Local Business Search, presumably unwittingly going against the whole point of the product.

Another potentially more serious issue is their recent introduction of reviews.  Although reviews can be manually entered into Local Business Centre, Google appears to be searching other sources, and in particular sites where users review companies, products and services.  And it also seems that Google is doing this not just by examining links, but by text search and matching.  So if it finds the name and/or address of a business in a review it will associate this review with the business and show it on Local Search results. 

Having had a look at the reviews Google picks up in this way this has again shown up quirks and more potentially serious issues.  A quirk we have noticed is that in the reviews of one law firm, many of the articles being picked up were actually about a rival firm.  We could not actually find a reason why this was so, as their offices were not close and the business names had no similarities.  We are still investigating why Google should have connected these reviews to the wrong firm. 

Lovely sushi with your divorce proceedings

But other more serious and even damaging issues can arise.  In one case there is a law firm called Pennington Solicitors.  For some reason Google has deemed to attach reviews to this firm from a Japanese restaurant called Matsuri.  Initially we thought this must be because they shared the same address, but this is not the case, so we find it a mystery as to why this should be.  It certainly has its funny side.  On Google maps the first thing you see is a quote “The food here is simply divine” - from squaremeal.co.uk, which is not what you usually expect from a law firm.  (No wonder the fees are so high!).

But other quotes are not so amusing and potentially damaging.  For instance another quote which is highlighted under Value is “Value for money: None whatsoever.” - allinlondon.co.uk.  Here there is nothing to indicate that this might relate to the price of a meal at a totally unconnected restaurant, and therefore could be highly damaging to the business.  One wonders whether Google may at some point receive a stern letter threatening legal action about this matter!

....but is it good value for money?