A new feature on Google Maps now shows local business listings in the Street View on the map, with advertising appearing on the street-level photograph.

For example, if youre looking for a Thai restaurant near Mountain View and click on the Street View link in the search bubble, then the restaurant will be marked directly with a 3D marker in Street View. If you click on this marker then the ad for the restaurant appears in the bottom corner. Here is an example below:

As always, Google have created a video to explain this new feature which you can view here.

Local listings are a very important advertising medium for small businesses, especially if they dont have a website but still need to reach online searchers.

Matt McGee from Search Engine Land explains why this new Street View feature makes local listings even more attractive:

Combining Street View with local business listings makes it even more important for local businesses to claim their listing in Google Maps and make sure the map marker is in the right spot. It also puts more of a burden on Google to prevent business listing hijackings, which sometimes involve moving a businesss map marker to a different location.

If you havent yet claimed your Google Maps listing, then now is the perfect time to do so. If you dont want to do the work yourself, then check out our Guaranteed Top 10 Google Listing. Our Google qualified experts will create your listing and guarantee to get your business on the first page of Google.

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