Following the lead of Matt Cutts and the Google Webmaster Central team, the folks at Google Maps have started publishing videos that aim to help and educate local businesses. But, unlike the Cutts/GWC videos, the Google Maps videos are a bit on the … shall we say, low-budget/low-production side of things. And, the Google Maps videos may be a short-lived project.

In this video below, for example, a Google Maps product manager offers a good, simple explanation of how businesses are ranked in Google Maps — Location, Relevance, and Prominence. But, as you can see, the video is a bit homespun compared to what you’ve seen before from the Webmaster Central videos.

A Google spokesperson tells us that the team isn’t certain if the videos will become a permanent feature of its local business outreach. (It’s a great idea and I, for one, hope they do continue. But step it up on the production side.) The Maps team has been taking questions via Google Moderator and using those as ideas to seed the videos. The full set of videos can be seen in the Google Places YouTube Channel.

(via Search Engine Roundtable)

Related Topics: Google: Maps & Local

About The Author: Matt McGee is Search Engine Land's Executive News Editor, responsible for overseeing our daily news coverage. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. See more articles by Matt McGee

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