Google Places Pushing Paid Ads Down

Is Google Places Making More Money For Google? I was researching some keywords today and while checking to see if a client was ranking for a particular keyword it dawned on me that when Google moved the map into the right hand column, it was pushing down their paid ads; where the map used to be in the oraganic results section itself along with the listings beside it.

So it seems that now it’s more important than ever to be in the number one and two spots if you are running a PPC campaign. The Google Places map that used to be on the left is now pushing paid ads down below the fold. Before they moved the Google Places map over to the right you would see around 6 paid ads…now you only see the first and the top half of the second.

This could create a bidding war for the top two spots, because who wants to be at the bottom of the pile…it could also create an unfair advantage for those with the means to keep those top two spots…tough break for the small business that needs to be able to compete.

Check out the image below; I took a screen shot of my entire monitor and as you can see, The Google Places map is taking up some premium real estate.

Is The Google Places Map Pushing Paid Ads Down Below The Fold On Purpose? Pretty Sneaky Google!