Google Places Search – 8, 9 or More Local Results to a Page

It appears that Google is willing to fill the results page with local Places Search results if they are in fact the most relevant results on a given.

Mobile search makes your Google Places listing more important

You’ve seen the commercials, or perhaps even done it yourself. You’re out and about, suddenly remember you need to pickup flowers for your Mother’s birthday.

Google Places Cracking Down on Spam

Many local businesses, and those involved in local search marketing, have criticized Google for the amount of spam in Google Places (formerly Local Business Listings). Google has addressed these concerns by introducing new Google Places …

Now available with Google Apps: Google Places – Google Small Business

Google Places offers business owners a free and easy way to make sure that potential customers can find their business when searching online at Google.com and in Google Maps, both from desktops and mobile devices…

Google Places Now Verifying “Edits” With Owners

Google is now verifying, when they can, edits made to the Google Maps Places database.

Make sure that your listing is playing by the rules. Learn more about Goolge Places Quality Guidelines for more details on managing your listing.

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Google Places, Spam, Edits and More

The participants were asked to rate the importance of 69 criteria with respect to their influence on rankings in the Google, Bing and Yahoo Local “Universal” search algorithms.

Top positive ranking factors

1. General Importance of Claiming Place Page / Local
2. Business Address in City of Search
3. Associating Place Page with Proper Categories
4. Volume of Citations from Major Data Providers + IYP Portals
5. General Importance of Off-Page / Off-Listing Criteria

Things that work better than in 2009

1. Associating Photos with Your Place Page
2. General Importance of Claiming Place Page / Local Listing
3. Volume of MyMaps on which Your Business Is Included
4. Age of Place Page
5. Associating Local Area Code as Primary Place Page Phone Number

The results of this survey are truly invaluable and is well worth the time to read for any business that wants to do well in local search.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Enthusiast

Top Local Search Ranking Factors For 2010

Cathy Rhulloda created this using the Google Search Stories video creator on YouTube.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Enthusiast

Local Search Stories

The whole point of GLBC is to create indexes that yield pertinent, real and helpful information for communities that improve the quality of  life for local community.

For lots of business owners seeking better local exposure claiming their business at the Google Local Business Center is their first step into the realm of search marketing. With all of the fancy new features the GLBC has rolled out, now is a great time to get started.

Google Local Business Center Categories – The Complete List

Picking the right category with the Local Business Center is one of the keys to success in Google Maps. Categories are critical to being considered relevant on.

Get Your Business Ranked At Google Without A Website

The search engine Local Business Listing is how you can use the Internet to generate sales. This is a service that is a part of Google Local Business Listing via Google Maps, Yahoo Local Listing and Bing Local Listing. …

Use Google Local Business Center to Attract Clients

Create an account on Google’s Local Business Center to ensure clients can find and contact you with the click of a button.

Google Local Business Business Center Introduction

Google Local Business Center Introduction … Google Friend Connect, Denver Colorado community blog. Demonstrating the social features on blogger you can use to create your own communities like IM in Denver CO. …

Local Search Ranking Factors

David Rodecker from Local Splash is up next. He wants you to go take care of your Google Local Business listing. Aha! His last name is Rodecker. [Look at that! Why do I bother? --Virginia] …

Google Local Listing

Google Local Business Centre (GLBC) listings are becoming a serious element in the SEO mix. Discover how to optimize your local listing search engine rankings. … Try to include up to five industry types to categories your business. For example if you own a restaurant, you might choose categories like restaurant, takeaway, cafe, business catering, Italian and so forth to describe your business. It is essential that your primary category is the most accurate description …

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Enthusiast

Google Local Business Center Tips

Search using the city modifier:

In my opinion the 10-pack took up to much space. it hogged the top of the page making it impossible for a local website to get the #1 position. It still impossible for a local website to get the number one spot on the page organically but at least cutting down the 10-pack to 7-pack moves a few organic listing above the fold.

Search w/out the modifier:

I’d still like to see 3 or 4 local websites listed first in the results like in universal search and then the Lucky 7-pack. I think having organic results for sites that deserve it would only be fair.

The site owners have worked hard to gain the #1 position and should be prominently displayed towards the top in either search results.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Enthusiast

Local Search Results – The Lucky 7 Pack

Here are a few highlights of the new policy that directly address manipulation;

• Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords into the title field, and do not include phone numbers or URLs in the title along with your proper business name.
• Provide the one URL that belongs to your business both in terms of the landing page and the displayed URL.
• Pages that redirect to another domain, or act as “click through” sites may lead to penalization. Use the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business’s title, address or category fields.

For more on the general guidelines for creating business listings visit the business listing quality guidelines.

With Internet marketing gurus now teaching people how to game  local business listings this change in the guidelines is right on time.

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Google Maps Fights Back Against Spam

A lot of the business owners don’t seem to know how to use a computer or don’t want to learn… Whatever the reason, they should start.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Enthusiast

Google’s Local Business Center