Google this week announced Place Search – a much-improved update to their Local Search engine that highlights local businesses in Google search results.   Google has focused lots of attention this year on improving Local Search and better serving people who look for places in a particular city or geographic region.  This means that if you’re a local business – e.g. your business address is close to a searcher’s physical location – the way you appear in Google search results just got better.

There seem to be multiple variations of the new Place Search taking shape, impacted in some mysterious way by different variables in the Google search algorithm.  See Andrew Shotland’s blog for a list of different ways the new search results can appear.  Results also seem to display differently in different browsers, so it’s difficult to make accurate generalizations.  Another Local Search expert, Mike Blumenthal, also writes on implications of the new changes.

Here are the highlights of the changes Google is making – and what they mean to your local business:

Pictures display in search results. If you have a nice picture you’ve added to your Place Page (contributed by the business owner) Google will display it in the search results – offering a visually attractive enticement to searchers.

Note to businesses:   Make sure to claim your Google Place Page and load it with attractive pictures of your business.

More visible reviews.  Customer reviews will show visibly in the search results – which could be a good thing or bad thing, depending on what your customers are saying about you.  You’ll see, to the right of a listing, the number of reviews and the average star rating, along with a link to the Place Page where all reviews are displayed.  You’ll also see, in the main search listing, actual comments from customer reviews.

Note to businesses:   Do whatever you can to please your customers and encourage them to write reviews about your business, in a variety of directories and locations.   Also, since more visitors will be clicking through to Reviews, make sure the listing for your business in popular local directories is complete and well optimized.

Floating local map. The Google Local Map, with red balloons showing locations of top seven business listings, will now “float down the page” as you scroll, giving searchers a constant reminder to think local.

Note to businesses:  If you want to be found, it’s more important than ever to rank well in the Local 7-Pack.

Easier location identifiers. Google has always made inferences about a searcher’s physical location by reading the IP address of the webserver that a search query is coming from – that’s how they know what local search results to display even when you don’t enter your city.  But now they make your location more explicit and allow you to specify it with a clearly visible location option on the left side of the screen.  This makes it easier to change the location and search for places in another city (travelling? Look for best restaurants in your destination city).

Note to businesses:  This will give you a better opportunity to be found by people visiting your city or traveling from out-of-town.

Blending of Local and Organic search results. It used to be that Google sectioned-off the Local Search results, displaying only the top 7 alongside a small map.   Now they’ve detached the map (it floats with you as you scroll), and the top Local Search results don’t look much different from the rest of the Organic search results.

Note to businesses:  This appears to elevate Local Search results on a par with other listings (though they do still appear below general news sites).  This is good news for small, local businesses.