When Google+ launched many moons ago, the implied deal (regardless of Google’s protestations to the contrary) was that if you were active and added a ton of content to the service, you were going to show up better in Google’s main search results. Things didn’t really play out that way, particularly for local businesses, most of which didn’t have a clue as to what Google+ was or why their SEO guy was always asking them for stuff to post on it.
Now we have Local Business Cards, powered by Google Posts (the same platform that brought us Candidate Cards). This new, experimental SERP feature is explicit about allowing businesses to post content directly into Google’s search results as scrollable cards. Google is presenting this as “an experimental new podium on Google,” but if this one sticks around, it is really going to kill local SEO for some businesses — and kill at local SEO for others.
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