My site just went from pos10 to 8

But google maps just kicked in, and its now off page 1

[nippi]

My company manages the SEO for a number of websites, and are now having to achieve far higher rankings, for lesser results. Google maps, has ruined natural search, and made getting onto the home page of google even harder.
Instead of having to achieve a top 10 position for a page one result, now I need top7. Of the 13 listings that appear, 3 might be google adwords, 3 google maps, with the remaining 7 instead of 10 being natural search.

If I manage to achieve position 1, that may be demoted to as low as position 7, right at the bottom of the page.

On a 1000 pxls wide screen even position 4 is below the fold.
The order of listings shown in google maps, seem to be static and bear no relevance to natural search. Poor quality sites that list nowhere in natural search, all of a sudden are elevated to 1 below paid search. There may well be 500 listings relevant to a google map, yet the same ones show over and over.

In Australia, it appears google maps has partnered with truelocal, and is favouring paid results of true local over other listings in google maps.

I am seeing some real rubbish results as well.

Example:- I am looking at is a 10 year old site, all the local hotels are members. It’s a link whale, its full of unique content and its deservedly got the no1 position for “city name hotels”
Now, not only are there 3 paid links above it, there are 3 Google map listings above it. Two of the listings that appear above it are the SAME business, registered with slightly different spellings so as to be able to register twice. The business is not even a hotel, it’s a language school! Since there is no checking when registering in google maps/true local that a business IS the type of business it claims to be, this is simply not questioned. They say they are a hotel, so they must be. The word hotel, is not even mentioned on their site.

Google, is this a joke? You’ve hijacked natural search, replaced it with another level of directory results, that are poor quality, not checked for accuracy and reduced natural search to such an ancillary that it’s just plain silly. Even where the listings shown in google maps are relevant why are they unfairly shown above sites doing well in natural search.

If a site is in natural search at No.1 for a search, AND is in the google directory and google maps.... why not show IT at number 1 of Google maps? Why this elevation of rubbish sites to the top of listings? Sure, allow the rubbish to SAY they are hotel and when clicking the google maps show them on the next page... but why allow them to show at the very top?

[Bones]

I don't think Google Maps local business listings has ruined natural search at all. As a user, I find some of the results very useful. If I'm looking for a hotel, frequently all the information (except room cost) is there right in front of me.

It's here to stay, so perhaps you should be looking to SEO for Google Maps instead?