Comments on: Onebox vs. Natural Results

By: David Westbrook

David Westbrook — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:24:09 +0000

I’ve always held that the best SEO practice is to get as much page one real estate as you can get for a client. The best practice for a local business is to have onebox results, natural results, and paid results.

The fact of the matter is, that different searchers treat all three of these areas differently so be in each.

By: The Downfall of Geo Modifiers | Local Search News

The Downfall of Geo Modifiers | Local Search News — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:14:05 +0000

[...] can only wonder based on our previous research of Onebox vs. Natural traffic that is the entire result set was changed, how much would this effect truely local traffic to [...]

By: Earlpearl

Earlpearl — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:24:03 +0000

Steve: That is great information. Was that the result of studying a lot of those fifty sites, all of them, or just one. Was there any qualitative difference in the types of businesses that got more traffic from the map than the organic ranking or vice versa. Mike B and I have discussed this for a long time. I’ve salivated for a long time for this type of information. Great data. I think Will Scott would love to know this as well, if he hasn’t already seen it, as would so many others.

Of interest, I have a site with lots of high organic rankings, strong maps visibility (lots of #1’s in both for all sorts of local searches) and some authoritative map appearances on top of #1 organic and usually #1 adwords for the local term. Of interest, after years of study and comparing of terms the phrase with the authoritative map showed roughly 50% more traffic than a couple of other phrases that had long been comparable in volume (pre maps days).

Makes sense. Still the 50% increase in traffic is a lot, more than I would have imagined. Maybe the combo of #1 organic and authoritative map combined to dramatically improve click through for that particular search.

By: Stever

Stever — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:32:21 +0000

I’m not surprised by this, I always suspected it, but never had the means to truly test it.

I think that a certain proportion of users may feel a tad weary of the quality of the local one box results. With many businesses simply having a small listing (sometimes unclaimed) with just an address and phone number, overall the local results can’t provide the quality and trust value that a full blown website about a particular local business can provide. Granted some one-pack links go direct to the businesses website, but in general, after users see lots of local listings just being a name and number pulled from a YP database, they will see it as slightly less valuable than the organic results.

@Martin BeiJk - I would imagine we are talking about using the same keyword phrase here, “city name business type” so it should represent that exact same searcher intent. That leads me to think conversions might again be higher on the organic listing (for that particular keyword) due to the increased trust factors.

In fact, if the user happens to see the business listed twice and in #1 for both one-box and organic, that should build a very significant trust factor in users eyes. Heck, for the right kind of business you could also throw in a PPC listing over on the right hand side too. Cover more real estate on the SERP, more brand exposure, and build even more trust.

By: Martijn Beijk

Martijn Beijk — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:24:36 +0000

well it would be interesting to see which click converts better. The ‘local’ click could be better targeted, funneling right into a lead or action, while the organic search result click might be more generic.

got any data on this?

By: Steve Espinosa

Steve Espinosa — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:17:26 +0000

Hey Brent,

Sorry about that. By 1.6x I mean clicks. Hope that clears things up for you.

Steve

By: Brent

Brent — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:00:18 +0000

I am a little condused on the this statement “The organic result actually got 1.6x more results than the Onebox did.” What is your definition of “results”… clicks, leads, calls???

Found your site through the “Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search” blog.

By: Martin Canchola

Martin Canchola — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:26:53 +0000

To answer your question, “Does this mean that the Onebox is not as good as a natural position?” I would say the onebox is great for local business’s to be on. Since there are only ten spots, it is a fight to the top. Take for example Hair Salons in New York. How many hair salons are actually there? ALOT!!!! So, if your hair salon is in the onebox you have a better chance of someone calling in to set up an appointment. It would be a major bonus to also be in the natural search results too, for the simple fact that it helps gives your business more visibility and online branding. When I ask people who know nothing about local search and ask them if they click or call. They mostly call for the info that they are looking for before they even think of clicking, others say they look at the website to see if they like it, and others have said that they saw the video of the business, so they picked them!

By: Mal

Mal — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:29:48 +0000

Steve - your subscriptions by email is not enabled for your feedburner. What I tell clients is that it’s on top, it gets SOME clicks, and currently it’s FREE. Can’t beat that. Cheers -