Local SEO - Why Google is Not Getting it Right (and why Bing is)

Google has made some pretty heavy updates to their search algorithms in the past 18 months, and one of their main focal points was giving local businesses the opportunity to rank better organically. In recent years, local businesses had a tough time ranking well for local search terms because more nationally recognized competition could easily outrank them in organic Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). They had the bigger budget, the branding strength, and could simply dominate for terms that local companies could only dream about.

To combat this, Google released updates, in the form of “Panda”, “Venice,” and “Penguin” to level the playing field and cater to local businesses by giving them the opportunity to rank higher than their national competitors. But did Google really level the playing field? Or did they have an ulterior motive behind the changes?

I think that the latter question might be more of a possibility, and here is why.

Google Local pages integration with Google+ Business Pages

If Google really wanted to help local businesses, then why would they force businesses to integrate with Google+? Personally, I sense Google creating an opportunity for their own gain here. Google wants in on the social data goldmine that Facebook has always dominated. They made a move to invest in Facebook in 2007, which failed, and Google+ was conceived based on their inability to access Facebook’s social data. I think Google is well aware that eventually their robots and algorithms will not be as accurate as social indicators when it comes to SERP's. What better way to promote their own social community than by forcing local business places owners to migrate over to Google+? I personally have a hard time with this, because it contradicts the overall goal of Google: providing the best user experience possible. Google knows that they dominate the search engine market, and if local businesses want to capitalize on this, then Google is forcing them to participate in their own social platform. Bad form, Google, bad form.

Why Bing Local gets it right

Bing understands that they are light years behind Google in search engine market share, so they took another approach for local business listings. While Google appears to exploit their dominance in search, Bing’s focus on the business listing owner seems to make much more sense for sustained loyalty. For example, Bing has invested in newer technology, thus giving local business listing owners an opportunity to utilize more tools to promote their listings with their community, and more importantly, giving Bing users opportunities to engage with Bing local business listings than Google. Bing has a Business Portal that give business listing owners similar data points Google Places does, but Bing caters to their listing owners far better than Google. Bing allows you to create mobile-friendly websites, helping you integrate QR coding into the site and increasing a business's visibility with mobile searches. The ever increasing number of mobile users and mobile searches makes this a strategically smart move. You can also create print materials for your business through the Bing Business Portal, allowing you to incentivise to your customer base, thus increasing interaction with your Bing Business listing. In short, Bing appears to see the value in enabling a more social friendly environment and better user experience, as opposed to Google forcing you to their Social network and conforming to their agenda. It’s hard not to notice how Bing is trying to work with you as opposed to Google forcing you to conform.

What are your thoughts? Do you think that Google is in it for themselves in regards to Local SEO? Is Bing a better option in local business listings? We would love to hear what you have to say! Leave us a comment and let us know!