I looking for help on how to optimize a Google place position, there appears to be a few simple rules which I have tried to follow but nothing yet.
Only listed the company Monday this week though - any help would be welcomed.
Yo chap, Kip did a good post about this a while back: “Get your clients to leave testimonials (You want at least 5), use all the pictures on it, answer the testimonials with a thankyou, ensure it is fully used (not just a quick link etc) and use a local number on it. Google is all about the user, so make it for the user and stop thinking about your own needs. When things have been used or written with the viewer in mind, Google scores them higher. Could it be more informative? Do you explain opening hours? Have you listed extra services? Does it show relevant pictures/video? When a customer is looking for you, will that show EVERYTHING they need? Testimonials, Info, LOCAL contact info? Payments accepted? Hours open? etc etc” Google Places Thread And for my 5 pence worth, citations (reviews from other sources) is the other big thing with Places listings, primarily local biased directories, such as Hotfrog, Qype, Freeindex etc. We've rewritten our review engine for exactly this reason, so Google will now pull our reviews and display them on Places Listings. If you will very often see Hotfrog or Qype reviews on peoples Places listings, as they are using the hReview markup language, so we decided it was time to follow suit! Good blog about it below with a lot more citation suggestions, its from 2010 but still relevant (other than us not being on the list  )Local SEO: 20 Authority Citation Places If we get any more suggestions, then will probably make this into an article for the information store!
Thanks Steve for the info - (link above not working though) So this company has ratings from checkatrade.com any ideas if Google links the automatically or do I need to do something on the companies behalf? tomsk
Dunno if you can or not show us a link to your Google places listing? Then can give you some pointers 
“Thanks Steve for the info - (link above not working though) So this company has ratings from checkatrade.com any ideas if Google links the automatically or do I need to do something on the companies behalf?” Fixed the link! Dohhh.... If the review has been written by a site which has used the hreview markup language, then google will pull it automatically. You can test this by going to the page with your clients reviews on and putting the URL into the Google Rich Snippets testing tool. To see an example, look at our White Horse listing in the checker tool. (the red warning in the displayed info is because we also use hcard info which isn't currently recognised by Google... but will be...)
“Dunno if you can or not show us a link to your Google places listing? Then can give you some pointers ”Yes please So the company shows for "loft conversion company sutton" but only company name - cherrywood lofts - put in loft conversion sutton and nothing - worse than that there is someone there who will give you cash for a car instead of a loft! Any help welcome. tomsk
Im facing the same problem at the moment. Can anybody give a useful piece of advice?
“Yo chap, Kip did a good post about this a while back: Google Places Thread And for my 5 pence worth, citations (reviews from other sources) is the other big thing with Places listings, primarily local biased directories, such as Hotfrog, Qype, Freeindex etc. We've rewritten our review engine for exactly this reason, so Google will now pull our reviews and display them on Places Listings. If you will very often see Hotfrog or Qype reviews on peoples Places listings, as they are using the hReview markup language, so we decided it was time to follow suit! Good blog about it below with a lot more citation suggestions, its from 2010 but still relevant (other than us not being on the list )Local SEO: 20 Authority Citation Places If we get any more suggestions, then will probably make this into an article for the information store!” This is one of the best posts I have seen explaining SEO and Google Places Thanks, Kevin.Wiles
It seems to me that Google takes a while to review and rank place pages. We were ranking on page two for Solicitors Great Yarmouth for a really long time even though we had optimised both our website and our Place Page really well, then one day it jumped up to high on page 1. So my advice, be patient. And as everyone else has said, the more you keep the user in mind, the more Google will reward you for it.
Tips to Optimize Google Places 1. In order to get your Google Places listing on Google SERPs you need to verify your listing. Verification can be done through Phone SMS, Phone Call or through mail. 2. Before you start listing your business on Google Places, I recommend to first build citations. When you put your business address and phone number in your listings Google searches for that address on other websites and if you have build a strong citations on web then Google will put your website on top. 3. Do not use your primary keyword in the business name 4. Use local phone number 5. Use the same address and phone number in your website 6. You must ask your clients to review your business on Google. Ask them to write a detailed review. 7. Images : Google places gives you options to add up to 10 images. 8. Get star ratings on Google SERPs 9. Categories : Always choose the best category that suits your business and never use keywords. 10. Get links from related places |
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