We touched upon the upcoming changes to local Google results in our article here, and it looks like those changes are finally taking place.  Currently local results are mostly moved over to the new format as you can see in the image to the right, but there are still some areas that haven’t received the new format roll-out yet.  The major changes are the move of the map to the right sidebar, the merging of the Google Places info with the organic result and the preview text of a user review is no longer seen in the result but instead just the number of reviews.

If you would like to check out the new format but it is still showing the old style results in your area, you can check it out by clicking on this link.

Over this last weekend Google engineers rolled out a new “OneBox” search result format.  A OneBox appears any time a Google search includes enough information about a local business for Google to determine that one business in particular is the result that searcher is looking for.  Prior to this last weekend, the OneBox result was listed at the very top of the Google result screen with a map on the left and a link to the businesses’ website on the right.  See the image to the right:

A OneBox result is a prize listing that most SEO experts shoot for as it highlights one specific listing above all others.  This latest change to the OneBox makes that listing stand out even more as the business website listing for the OneBox now appears above the local map.

Now you might be wondering why merely changing the location of the resulting map and link to the businesses’ website would make any impact at all.  Well, there are a couple of reasons.  The first is that prior to the change only Google Places information appeared below the business link including the standard fare of the address, the phone number, hours of operation and links to the Google Places reviews should there be any.  Now inside of the OneBox just below the URL to the company’s website Google is displaying the description meta-tag for the company which is normally stuffed with calls to action to entice users to click through.

The other benefit for listings in the new OneBox format is that Google has now redefined the fold of the page.  When a surfer looks at any website, the top half of the screen is what will catch their eye and entice them into action.  Links above the fold will draw far more attention and clicks than anything below the fold where the surfer is required to scroll down to get to the content below.  It is reported that links above the fold receive 80% of the surfer’s clicks.  So by pushing the company’s website link & meta-description above the map, Google has helped push more links below the visible page and arguably created a new visual fold line at the bottom of the graphical map.  In doing so, Google is inferring that there is only one link on the result page that should matter.

Ok, but that’s only affecting the OneBox results which are very specific searches, correct?  Indeed, but over the July 4^th weekend Google rolled out a test of a re-designed 7-Pack (7 local listings to the left of a map in a general search result) in which the map was moved to the right margin and Google listed the website’s meta description below the URL.  What does this mean?  It means the 7-Pack visually becomes a 3-pack as lower results are forced off of the bottom of the page (image courtesy of: Linda Buquet http://www.catalystemarketing.com/ ).  No one outside of Google knows if this new 7-Pack will become a permanent feature in Google or when it will be put in place.  What we do know is that obtaining high placements in Google’s local search results is becoming more and more critical to a website’s success.