Tackle Google Places like a pro!

With Google claiming that over 20% of all searches are for local businesses or places, they have recently made big changes to their SERPs (search engine results pages), by displaying Google Places results where it feels the query may be locally influenced.

This has led to a lot of natural national or international sites that do not have a physical location, where the search origin is losing out on listings, and therefore traffic. But what if you do have a physical location or locations and you still aren’t listed? Well, here are my sure-fire tips to dominating the Google Places rankings!

1. Your Places page

Claim it!

It goes without saying that if you do not have a Places page set up then you will not find it easy to rank – much like to win the lottery; the first step is invariably to buy the ticket. Google is getting better at recognising bricks and mortar businesses using directories, but you will still need to claim their automatically created places listing.

Use correct business name

If your business is called ‘S Jobs & Sons’ use that as the business name not ‘S Jobs & Sons Computer & Gadget Sales & Support Worldwide’. Use the description to target your keywords, use the business name just for that.

Give correct address

Always use your correct address for your Places page as Google will use other references to confirm the location, and that you reside there. Use the address that is listed on your website in directories as this may appear on other sites.

Your address may also be needed for account verification.

As a side note, always choose to show your address on the Places page.

Choose relevant categories

The key here is to ALWAYS use at least one of Google’s default categories; after that choose other relevant ways to describe what you do. Look at other Places pages for this – and also directory site categorisation.

Use your keywords in the description

Use the keywords that you want to appear for in the Places page description. Do not simply list keywords, or repeat keywords; just write naturally with these in mind and you will improve your rankings.

Use of media

Google asks you to add videos and photos of your business – take this as a hint that this is what they are looking for when ranking the Places pages. The more complete a Places profile is, the more likely it is to rank. Photos and videos (if available) will definitely help.

Places page tips

Don’t:

• Create multiple pages with the same phone number
• Create multiple pages with the same address (be wary of rented postal addresses too)
• Hide your address
• Use keywords in the business name – unless they are your business name
• Use a non-geographic number (0800, 0844, 0845 etc.)

Do:

• Your category research
• Use at least one Google default category
• Use keywords in the description
• Use a local phone number
• Use the correct address

2. Your website

Yes, your website. To rank well on Google Places, some changes will possibly be required on your current web pages.

Use appropriate landing pages

If you are targeting ‘Beds London’ then do not use your homepage as the landing page for Google Places. Instead, create a new page e.g. http://www.example.com/beds-london and focus the content on this page to visitors that will specifically be arriving, expecting to buy beds in London.

Similarly, focus some link building to the location pages, along with location-based anchor text.

Use Rich Snippets

On your landing pages mention the address of the Google Places listing and use Rich Snippets to wrap around it to tell Google where you are. Further information from Google.

3. Reviews & citations

Make sure that you are listed in every online directory that you possibly can be. Sites such as Yell, City Local, Yahoo, DMOZ and others can be free to submit to and take next to no time. Every time you are mentioned in one of these resources, it is another indicator to Google of your relevance and authority.

It is a similar situation with customer reviews, but strangely here, whether the reviews are positive or negative, it does not seem to matter for rankings. There are a number of review sites that Google uses, including Google Maps, Qype, Yelp and others. The key here is to get your happy customers to tell others of their positive experiences; as an unhappy customer will be more inclined to review than a happy customer.

Got all that?

If so, great news! You are well on the way to better rankings in the places results. If not, no need to worry. Here at Just Search we have an excellent team of Google Places experts who are on hand to help. You can either give us a call on 08451211194 or drop us an email via the contact us page.

Dan Taylor
Senior SEO Consultant