How to Improve Your Google Places Ranking

[Linda Buquet]

If you want to boost your Google Places and organic LOCAL ranking, then this series has some good basic information about how to set up your Google Place page. Below is Part 1 and 2 which are for beginners to Google Places. I'm hoping the info gets a little more advanced in the next part of the series.

<strong><a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/3641943">Improve Your Organic Rankings With Google Places, Part 1</a></strong>

Most of us remember that chaotic day last October when map-based results stopped being just an alternative search function at Google and started impacting the organic results directly. For the first time we witnessed in the live results Google Places integration right into the organic listings and the impact of Google Places pages on those SERPs.

We'll begin this series on how to improve your organic rankings with Google Places by discussing the basics of a Places listing, how to set one up properly, and some of the principles behind why this is important.

<strong><a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/3642082">Improve Your Organic Rankings With Google Places, Part 2</a> </strong>

So how do you optimize your Places pages to improve our rankings organically on Google? Filling in all of the information is step one, but let's go through these areas step-by-step to better understand how to enter/edit the information for your page and send the right signals.

Stay tuned for part 3.

When I get time, I'll read through and see if I have any other tips to add.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

This is the TEMPORARY home of the Google Places Forum. Eventually this forum
will move to our <a href="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/">Google Places Optimization Blog</a> at Catalyst eMarketing​

 

[Jayres]

Thank you for the information. I always thought that this was yet another way of google trying to make more money; doesn't google charge you for the maps result? Also, does this mean if a company outside of the specified the locality wants to rank on the maps result even though the company offers service in the area? Are 'Google Places' results different from same search results in 'Google everything' within a same area?

 

[Linda Buquet]

1) Nope Google Places is free.

2) It's designed primarily to rank locally - meaning the city your address is in. Optionally companies that service the customer on-site, such as plumbers, can select a service area.

3) Well kinda sorta. There are numerous different result styles that Google shows now. Some are organic listings MERGED with Places listings right on the 1st page of the everything result IF it's a local search term.

If you see the map on the right, bright orange-red letters next to the listing and/or an image next to the listing, then it's the new merged Google Places listing. The top part of the listing is pulled from the web site just like an organic listing, then underneath and to the right are links to reviews and the Place page. Plus the image is pulled from the Place page.

CLICK TO SEE FULL SIZE EXAMPLE

<a href='http://www.UploadScreenshot.com/image/167411/7254234' target='_blank'><img src='http://img1.UploadScreenshot.com/images/thumb/11/31212374582.png' alt='Click here to view full size' /></a>


See this post for screen shots of a bunch of other layout styles.
<a href="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/new-google-place-search-seo-google-places-ranking.html">New Google Place Search Shaking up Organic SEO Industry and Google Places Ranking</a>