What Google Plus Local will mean for your website

If you signed up to have a Google Place listing for your website, meaning that you appear on the first page of your designated search engine listings next to a map that highlights your location, you may have noticed that it looks quite different.

That is because Google have replaced Google Places with Google Plus Local. This will now display public reviews and views alongside the normal search results.

The change took place at the beginning of June and could eventually see users having to sign in to their accounts to access any services.

It will remain to be seen quite how this affects any companies that had Google Place listings but one thing is for certain; there will be less space on the first page for any websites that do not utilise this service.