Different zoom levels of spots in Google Maps
-
Most roadmap imagery is available from zoom levels 0 to 18, for example. With zoom level 0 the whole world can be visible.
As we all know, the more we zoom in on Google Maps, the more spots (e.g. name of restaurants, hotels etc.) are visible. Some spots are visible "sooner" - with a lower zoom level, which is of course better for the company. Some companies are only visible with a very high zoom level.
If I have a highly branded company is the zoom level lower? Is this the answer for the different display?
-
Obvious great source and good info from Mike.
Thanks Petra, -
Just wanted to add the answer I got from Mike Blumenthal:
The Place label is determined via algo based on popularity of a given feature. One way to increase the popularity is to increase the rank so that more actions are taken in relationship to the feature. The things that likely increase the popularity of a feature are the impressions actions (as seen in Maps) compared to others in the same market like how many times a listing is viewed in Maps, the Place page is viewed etc
At some point in the past it was possible to increase popularity of a feature by changing the popularity setting in MapMaker and having the change approved by an editor. That feature has been removed (at least for most editors).
-
Hi Petra,
As I suspected, the feedback I received amounted to a guess that it is an algo-driven thing. This just hasn't been documented, as far as I know. Place Labels are seen by many, understood by a few, but documented by a very few people. Sorry not to be able to quote you anything solid on this. If you're researching the issue and reach any strong theories or conclusions, I'm sure people would be interested in reading it.
Miriam
-
Petra,
I agree on your last statement. On the restaurant I mentioned, I zoomed in and out later in the day just trying different ways of looking at it and found that if I started at zero, and continued to zoom out, on the third level, the restaurant was there, but on the fourth it disappeared. (the pin stayed, the places label disappeared). Then, on the fifth it miraculously reappeared only to disappear on the sixth. So, something appears to be at play regarding the buildings around a given location and how they are possibly labeled or geographically identified along with use of polygon for shape, etc.
The link that Miriam provided is a great one and I went back to it on her reminder (second thank you to you Miriam for that link). I remembered the mention of the more you edit (approve other's edits) the faster your listing would get places labels. It does seem to work based on our experience anecdotally, but we have not measured it in any way. Again, even that could be a factor in what we are seeing with where labels appear or disappear depending on the distance zoomed in or out.
Thanks for the very cool question...
Robert
-
Hi Robert,
thank you for your detailed answer.
Google Map Maker is already on my to-do list :-).Your assumption regarding verified listing in combination with Place Labels shown further zoomed in or out is not 100% conform - as far as I could see it.
Greetings
Petra
-
Hi Miriam,
thank you for your help and your links.
Yes, I meant Place Labels.
In the Google Support Link they wrote: "The place labels shown on Google Maps are determined algorithmically based on a large number of factors".
So I guess the zoom level as well has to deal with those algorithmically determinations.But it would be great if you could give further feedback from you local specialists.
Have a nice day.
Petra
-
Hi Petra,
I agree with Robert. This is one of the most interesting questions I've seen this week, and one for which I don't have an answer because I've not seen it documented. I've put a question out to a couple of Local SEOs, but I'm not sure if I'll get feedback - again, because I've not seen this issue documented.
One thing I wanted to ask...are you referring simply to the teardrop pins or do you mean Place Labels (the little grey icons of forks/spoons, etc.)? If the latter, an interesting study was done of this in 2 parts awhile back:
http://www.iexposure.com/2011/06/16/how-to-get-a-google-places-label
http://www.iexposure.com/2011/07/26/how-to-get-a-google-places-label-part-2-update
The official Google page for Place Labels is here, and mentions zooming into a 'certain', but unspecified, level:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=174115
However, if we're just talking about pins here, I'm sorry that I don't have a trusted resource to send you to. There could be a number of factors at play, including distance to centroid, authority of the listing, etc. I will come back if I get any feedback from my pals in Local. It really is a good question.
-
Petra,
You get the internationally recognized ?Hmmmmmm? award this morning.
That means when many people see your question they will say to themselves, "Hmmmmmm?"!!
I wish I had a perfect answer for this, but I believe there are actually multiple variables at play here. For those who enjoy learning and/or improving the web, Google MapMaker is a great place to start. This link goes to MapMaker's add a Place page. (those "spots" are called...Places and the icon that is an upside down teardrop - often with a letter in it - is a Marker).
Anyone can edit Google Maps via MapMaker. (All edits are reviewed by others and you cannot review your own edits). One thing you can do is change the shape of something on a map like an area (e.g. a park, stream, etc) or a building. If an editor has used the line drawing feature to change the shape of a feature, that could potentially affect what shows at a given level of zoom. IMO, another thing that could affect what does or does not show at given levels of zoom would be how often that place is searched for, linked to, and/or clicked on. Also, has it been edited by outside editors and then approved? If it has, I would think that site would show more at broader zoom levels than a similar business which had not been edited, especially if there are a lot of places in that given area.
One I tested that proved out: With similar businesses, where one has verified the listing and one has not, the verified listing will stay longer as you zoom further out. (Even with restaurants where the non verified had over 500 reviews and the verified had less than 100 reviews, the verified stayed while the other disappeared).
You also provided me a new mechanism for determining who is or is not an owner verified listing. Thanks!!!
I hope this helped and I urge all to explore Google Map Maker as it really is a COOL TOOL!!
All the Best,
Robert
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Ecommerce specialized portals subdomains or different domains
Hi, I am trying to decide between two different options that can affect branding and seo, I would like to hear opinions about the different options I have. Suppose that I want to open an ecommerce site for sports goods, but I want to have an specialized store for running goods. My example company name is MAZ and the country I am targetting is UK, for my general sports store I will use mazsports.co.uk, the question I have is what should I do for my "running" specialized store, every store will have a diffferent design, its own blog, its own items and its own link build campaigns. These are really different sites, but the ecommerce platform will be the same, the shopping cart could be shared and the same people working on the same warehouse will send the shipments. With this example data I see two options: Use different domains, for example for the running one, mazrunning.co.uk, using maz like the shared brand part on the domain and use a site like maz.co.uk listing the different specializations. Use subdomains for the different specializations, running.mazsports.co.uk. We will work hard to position every site, we will manage every store in its own google webmaster and analytics site, after the two initial sites (one general and one specialization) we will create a few more, maybe 5 or 6 specialized sites. In my sector people search for the specific specializations more than in general so I would not like that Google sees the running.mazsports.co.uk of the example like part of the ecommerce store mazsports.co.uk, I would like that if someone is searching for running material the site that will be shown to them is the specialized one. What should i do in this case? Thanks!
Branding | | tcruces0 -
Image shown in Google SERPs
Hi, I was just wondering if anyone can help. Is there any way to change the image displayed for a brand image in Google SERPs? See screenshot below. The image of the BBQs and iPod links to an old blog post. We'd like this changed ideally. Thanks! iGjZzl8
Branding | | oneserve0 -
How can I claim authorship for a doctor using their title "MD" on Google Plus?
Hi Everyone, I am wondering how to claim authorship for doctors while still using their title "MD." Adding MD to Google Plus profiles goes against Google name policy, but in order to comply with the FTC we need to include "MD" to our doctor's name in our article by-lines. I have sent in many appeals with evidence that they have a degree. I also considered creating a "Google Page," but had the impression that you cannot claim authorship with rel=author tags with a "Google Page," only rel=publish. Can anyone help me figure out how to claim authorship for a doctor using (first name last name), MD ?
Branding | | dirigodev0 -
Google+ how to optimize [best practice tips]
I would like to learn more about Google+ optimization to help the brand and rankings, etc of the company I work for but I do not know where to begin. Anyone with advice? Or links to this type of information? The website is www.stillfrisky.com Thank you, Gina
Branding | | gina_m0 -
Google plus reviews and multiple company profiles
We have a Google plus profile for our brand/ organisation which has become quite powerful. We are conscious that we don't want to miss out on local search queries so want a local page but we don't want to get rid of the company page that we have built. We are a nationwide website with one physical shop. Will having a local business Google plus page and a company Google plus page be seen as duplicate or in any way negative- especially if you are posting similar/ the same links and content on both pages. We also want to encourage reviews- is it possible to leave reviews on company pages or is it only though local G+ pages? There is a reviews tab but it does not seem possible to leave reviews. On the main Nike G+ page is it possible to leave reviews or would those companies have to set up local pages for people to review?
Branding | | VUK-SEO0 -
Branding Association for SEO, and Google's understanding of a "brand Name"
Hey guys. so I currently run my own business here in Queens NY, for Web Design and online marketing, specifically SEO, SMM, SEM, and some inbound marketing that ties to SMM and SEO. When starting I was in a different business, and had kept my old business name. I plan on re-branding myself January 1st with a brand new name, the name i'm seriously considering is "Media Marketing USA". I was able to purchase MediaMarketingUSA.com. I feel this name is good and bad at the same time, and here are some of the reasons. The pro: Easy to remember, sounds big, and describes my business well. The con: Sounds generic, and I worry it will be hard to brand. I used the mentioning tool provided by Moz and see that nearly everyday 500-1,000 people are naturally mentioning Media Marketing USA, one of my biggest questions is will this give me a competitive advantage in SEO, or will it hurt me in SEO as Google may not see this or understand its a brand name? Do you personally think this is a good name to re-brand myself and use as my main website? The Website itself will be used as a corporate website, a method of inbound and outbound marketing through content creation, Social Media, and of course SEO, targeting specific locations, and specialty services and industries in the NYC area. Please share your thoughts with me, THANKS!!!
Branding | | tonyr71 -
How to Force Merge 2 Place Listings (Both Incorrect & Different) for Same Business
Hi,
Branding | | emerald
I'm not sure what action to follow as nothing online seems to describe my Google Place situation - trying to merge 2 completely incorrect business listings for our company, that are also not identical. We have 2 listings on Google Places for our 1 company but a recent address number change has added further complication to already incorrect and different listings. our first/oldest listing was created by google but with incomplete business name, wrong map pin, completely wrong address, but shows our trip advisor reviews. created by us a year ago (we didn't realize the dupe issues) with full business name, correct address at the time (now incorrect since address number change), correct map pin, full description photos and info. This does not link to our trip advisor reviews. How to merge these when they aren't curently identical or correct? All online help seems to explain identical dupes but not this situation. What updates I tried recently: After some research, I changed all citations on the web to no.2 business name (except trip advisor who would not change), our new address number and then updated our no.2 address listing. But has stayed pending for months. It seems to be live, but still with the old incorrect address that does not match citations or our website. When I tried claiming both places with same account it showed the same pending new info I updated for no.2 in dashboard (so I can't edit no.1), but this data is not is not live on either. Last week I decided to do something radical, so logged in with a different account to reclaim no.1 and copied all information pending in no.2 to no.1 so that they should be exact same and hopefully force to merge. Both are pending and 2 different accounts now. What else can I do? We can rank locally while the 2 listings are like this. Should I call Google helpline and explain?0 -
Splitting our main website in Two... What is the fastest way for the new sites to become a brand in Googles eyes.
In a couple weeks our main website (which generates all of the revenue) will be split into two because of a long term branding / identity crisis. So my question is, how can i make sure (besides obvious 301 redirects) that these 2 new fresh urls become a brand as quick as possible in googles eyes? So far i am thinking of things like: press releases, blog posts with brand mentions. I am not ignorant and expect this to happen overnight, but we need a strong foundation to build on, which is why i am asking Anyone got a list / case study / advise so I can really blow it up on launch week? Thanks 🙂
Branding | | Hyrule0