Google PlaceLinks – A SEOpportunity? Probably Not

Dave Rodecker of Local Splash uncovers the latest tweak to Google Place Pages, the ability for business owners to add custom links such as Twitter and Facebook Profiles:

Dave looks into the Matrix and sees SEO:

The hyperlink is natural, meaning it is does not indicate no-follow, and opens into a new browser window; though we aren’t really expecting to see a PageRank benefit. More likely, we may hope to find a fast tract to getting the URL to appear as an additional web reference citation, a local seo benefit.

Then again one of our sharp readers, Arjan, notes the fact that Google blocks Place Pages in their robots.txt file, so sorry Dave, but looks like no SEO here.

Mike Blumenthal is also on the case

As is Barry Schwartz

Apparently these links are called “Discreet Links”. Here’s Google Map Guide Briana’s mention of them.