Why do some serps have a + map symbol?

[Nightwing]

Hi from sunny but freezing wetherby UK..

Ive noticed when you enter "York solicitors" some listings have + Show map symbol. Hers is a screen shot to illustrate:

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc53/zymurgy_bucket/plus-map-serps-langleyscopy.jpg

I'd like to know please what i would have to do to emulate this.

Thanks in advance,

David

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Again, David,

I've had a chance to talk this other with a few other Local SEOs, and here is the consensus of opinion on the Plus Box.

1. It's algorithmically generated - so nothing you can do to force a plus box on your listing.

2. That being said, following Google's general recommendations on this page might be useful:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92319&from=52171&rd=1

3. Also, be advised that there appears to be some kind of a new crackdown going on regarding plus boxes and certain businesses who have lost Google's trust seeing their plus boxes disappear. This is a new issue and I don't have any solid data on it. But, it leads me to ask...did you have a plus box before and see it go missing? Curious!

Hope this reply helps some.

Miriam

[MiriamEllis]

Hi David, The Google Plus Box was first rolled out in 2006. Here is a Matt Cutts post on the topic from way back when: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/new-google-ui-feature-plus-box/ Here is an excellent sleuthing post from Mike Blumenthal in 2008 about figuring out the sources for bad data in the plus box: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/06/google-plus-box-where-does-the-wrong-data-come-from/ The trouble with looking for documentation on this right now is that anything you search for related to 'google' and 'plus' is bringing up studies of Google+ and not the old Google plus box. I'm going to dig a little deeper, David. I'll return to this thread when I have some more info to share with you.

[DougRoberts]

At least one other site has  google maps embedded, but that one is using an iframe. The site in question is using javascript and has a google maps API key in the header.

Both have claimed Google places listings with the location indicated.

[DanHill]

Hi David

Had a quick look in the SERP's and my guess is that they 'seem' to be the only page one result that has the map embedded on their site.  http://www.guestwalker.co.uk/find-us/google-map/

It's just a guess from me - but I'd give that a try and hopefully google will add that map link for your clients site.

edit : Have a look at the clients google places page and also look into rich snippets if you've not done so already.  I ran the URL that you mentioned through http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets?view=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guestwalker.co.uk but they are not using rich snippets btw