So last week sometime, I forgot what day it was, I came across a Tweet mentioning the new features of Google Maps. Have you seen them? They are ridiculous. Check out my old office when I worked in Seattle at Marchex…
Any ways, if you haven’t noticed, you’re now able to click on various parts of the street view map to zoom in or travel to the specific location of which you clicked. Gone are the days of clicking through streets to find the restaurant you want to go to. Gone are the days of thinking.. ‘Wow, somehow, I’m here when I need to be all the way down there.. it’s too much work to go to map view again just to go to the right location. I’m going to just keep clicking until I get there.’ – Okay so that might just be me, but you get my point. Take a minute to go to maps.google.com and play around in street view. It’s kinda fun!
But whats the point? Why make a good thing better?
So Google Maps isn’t Social Media. It isn’t SEO, or even PPC, but it is content… and you better believe you’ll be finding all three of those things embedded into it sooner or later if not already. Take for example. Google Business Listings. Google was smart enough to tell people.. ‘Hey… we’ve got this application out there that is way better then other maps on the internet, that we’d like to populate with GOOD information.. such as your business! Do you want to be on GOOGLE MAPS?’
‘Sure?’ says Barry Wells of Barry Wells Chevrolet. (Disclaimer: I don’t think there is a Barry Wells Chevrolet.. if there is, you should rejoice in my free publicity!)
Why wouldn’t local businesses want to show up on the map most Googlers, let alone people, use today. – Add features such as kick ass zoom, position warping, and simulated earthquake damage.. this is not available yet, and you’ve got a content factory that people are just going to want to keep pouring their heart and soul into. It’s the Google business model. (If you don’t know the Google business model…. Create Content Theme Parks (Search Engines) -> Slowly Incorporate Advertising -> Make Gazillions… its sort of similar to this video:
Alright so those mind trick videos are kinda dumb; your attention is not on the moving bear, but nonetheless, the bear was there… you can never go back and tell me otherwise. Although the bear is irrelevant to the basketball players, it does ad value to the video. Essentially.. Google has perfected this illusion, so much that it’s not really an illusion anymore. PEOPLE LOVE BEARS!
As Google Maps continues to pull more and more people, businesses, and cool tools/applications that make map navigation easier, why not optimize for this local audience. Make the effort to create the Local Business Listing, or submit some photos for a particular address, or just write a review or two. You know SEO, you know that content is key. Join the local conversation, and you might be surprised at who sees you. But although you might not be a local business owner, you can at at least wave to people when they drive by.
Peace
