earlpearl - 10:01 pm on Nov 21, 2007 (gmt 0)

I'm fascinated by the conversation here, specifically the comments by dxl who referenced that even while being in maps, albeit not amongst the top 3 for (probably the most common searches for his/her community) the site doesn't get traffic due to the insertion of maps into organic searches.

In my experience the algo's to google maps are simpler by far than google.com. I'm starting a study with several others to try and assess the impact of items we think seem to impact rankings within maps.

From my observations g maps inserts into organic search has an astronomically large impact upon visibility of local businesses and is well worth understanding.

As referenced above obtaining a center city location is one alternative to getting better rankings within google maps. I'm pretty sure there are others.

The traffic value of high rankings can't be overstated. I agree with some of Inbounds comments as to other items that could impact rankings within G maps. I'd just suggest people look hard at the situation.