What Ranks A Google Places Listing Above The Others?

[mjtaylor]

Don't get me wrong. I don't actually dislike David. Just seemed to me that you put more stock in him than some actual pioneers.

Not to defend David, but the quoted article was not really Mihm speaking, but his compilation of a panel of Local/Places SEO weighing in on the relative strength of factors somewhat in the same vein of the SEOmoz ranking factors piece of 2008: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors.

I found that article helpful, and fairly succinct.

But having read your points (all of you) with little sleep, I find myself confused about what citations are and are not, and how they relate or don't to reviews.

[iandoc]

So, yes filling in the forms for Google Places in a clever way that uses keywords (without violating limits) is the first place to start. Adding all the stuff; images, videos, etc. is important as well. In fact, how you complete a Google Places listing is important. Mess it up and it will hurt your ranking in Maps, but doing a good job in Google Places does not necessarily assure top ranking. Everyone can complete a form - there are only 10 listings on the first page. Google uses other factors that the property cannot control as simply just like SEO for traditional search they effect ranking.

Google Maps use sources that are considered authorities to corroborate location. Unlike traditional SEO - they do not need to have a hyper-link to effect ranking. It is important to build listings in websites that weigh into how Google knows your business is real and that it is where you say it is. It is important that these listings use consistent business names, addresses and phone numbers. Because these listings have to have hyper-links, it would be wrong to call this link building. Hence, some people call them 'citations' so they are not confused with link building terms - a common SEO technique.

Citations are not reviews or ratings.

Reviews or ratings are also a factor, but don't confuse them with citations. In the past, reviews did not weigh all that heavily in ranking, but with the introduction of HotPot, Google says ratings will effect results. It was interesting to see a recent post about how many bad reviews could push a business higher than one with a few great reviews; a subject for another post.

I think these are the issues that confuse a lot of 'traditional' seo consultants. I agree with you Web Res. Historically, the mention of a business/website on another site was considered of no value unless there was an actual link. With ranking for Google Local this mention can now be of immense value.

[rickanderson]

it is true that you can't guarantee top placements in Places or the regular SERPS.

thats not exactly true. if someone wanted top spot for "rip off seo guy for hire" i could guarantee them top marquee for that search..due entirerly to no one wanting that niche.

lets say a crazy thing happened (crazy because im not a se optimizer) and i finangled a deal with an seo guy whereby *I* was paid to optimize HIM!?

my guarantee to my hypothetical client would be that i can guarantee him top placement in places for a number of key terms, one of which included the "rip off guy for hire" search term. as a term of the contract i would stipulate that seller collects when one or more terms start to 'pop' in places.... the "rip off guy" term rises to the top therefore fullfilling contractual obligations and i collect $1600+ for 42 minutes work.

he could then....because he's an optimizer, get me top billing for "pre contractual fraudulent misrepresentation seo guy" because that niche isnt saturated....yet



ra