Google Maps has been testing with several different sponsored listing models in late 2009 and early 2010. It looks like they have finally settled on “tags” as their way to monetize the maps. Recently, they rolled out this sponsored feature across the USA. If you have a business in the US, you may have noticed something that looks like this:
What is a Google Maps Sponsored Tag?
See the image below. Notice the yellow tags beside some of the listings. This is what a sponsored “tag” looks like:
I personally think it makes listings stand out big time. if you are an early adopter in your local area, you can get a real advantage and get more clicks by having a “tag” before your competitors jump on the bang wagon.
Now I think this “tag” is only worth the money if your business is listed in the 7-Pack. If it’s not there, then your listing is basically invisible anyway, so why spend the extra dough. Instead spend it on a good Google Maps SEO company to get you in the 7-Pack then invest in the “tags” sponsored listing.
Some other Sponsored Benefits:
- You can easily and inexpensively highlight your listing on Google from Google Places.
- Potential customers in your local area will see what you think is most important or unique about your business.
- You can track the effectiveness of your tag with your Google Places dashboard.
- You will be charged a low $25 flat monthly fee, with no bids and no keywords required.
- There is no additional work or ongoing management needed.
What Can You Highlight With a Google Map’s Tag?
You can decide what type of enhancement you’d like to show with your business listing. You can only pick one at a time, but you can change or remove the tag whenever you’d like.
You can select any of the following tags:
- Website for your business
- Photos of your business
- Videos of your business
- Coupons for your listing
- Menu for your restaurant
- Reservations page for your business
- Posts for your business
The tag types you can select depend on what information you already have available in your business listing. If you want to highlight a video, for example, you’ll first need to add a video to your business listing. Once you’ve done that, the option will show up in the menu for your enhancement types.
Note: “tags” don’t affect the local algorithm, but they do stand out (assuming you are listed in the 7-Pack) for your main local keyword phrases. For strong rankings in Google Maps you need to understand Google Maps SEO.
Let us know in the comment section (below) what your thoughts are on Google Maps new sponsored listings?
Awesome stuff as usual Matthew! Thanks for the heads up on this. I’m going to add this to several listings right away.
thanks Allen, love the video on you site!
Thanks for the update. I’ll have to check into this more for my clients. I haven’t noticed this myself, but that might be cause I live in a smaller town/city. But definitely worth the cost to stand out more in the 7 pack!
It’s only offered in the USA right now. If you are in the States then Tags should be available to you.
That’s great.. Hope it comes to other countries as well. Your article really helped me clarify some points regarded to Google map results.
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Great post once again Matt
Sweet strategy…so a smart business owner could get a tag, and from their Google place dashboard create a coupon for a discount or a special promote the coupon with a tag and even rotate them monthy or weekly
The map user will see a yellow tag and when hovering over they would see the promotion. Great tool and fantastic bait to attract new clients
Wow you can get real creative with this one.
I bet we’ll see someone proposing with this. Wouldn’t that be funny =]