How to Optimize Your Listing on Google Places

Google Places vs Yelp - How The Battle Effects Your Small Business

2012-02-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

I would not have predicted this. It seemed that Google Places had all the ammo, the money, the power. But possibly it was the fear of the Feds and a potential claim of anti competitive advantage that caused Google to pull way, way back. The big winner in all this has been Yelp. Combined with the seeming glee that the Yelp reviewers get from admiring their favorite shopping haunts and destroying those who don't treat them right, many of my clients are now more concerned about Yelp than Google Places.

Yelp now has higher placement on many "Everything Page" searches than the Google Place listings. Moreover, Google Places isn't always showing on obvious searches for what would be local businesses. Therefore Yelp owns those pages along with other YP's and directories.

To make matters a lot worse, Siri is favoring Yelp over Google Places on iPhone search. No clue at this time what Google can do about that. As a iPhone user, I don't want Yelp results as they are not nearly as accurate as Google Places. But my concern probably won't change anything.

And last, Yelp has more reviews that Google Places and they don't seem to be losing the race at this time to maintain that lead. Their reviews tend to be much more detailed and interesting. Possibly do to the fact that the environment is more fun and interesting.

Google probably has an answer to all of this, and there is no doubt that your website and your Google Places ranking are still more important than Yelp. But keeping your Yelp site up and making sure your reputation is excellent at both Yelp and Google Places is critical.

Google Places Listings Double - What Impact Will That Have on Ranking

2012-01-31T22:33:00.000-08:00

The total number of claimed Google Places Listings by small local businesses has doubled in 2011, according to QuickRegister.net. You might correctly guess that this makes it twice as hard to get an above the fold ranking or even a page 1 ranking on Google Places. Just math, nothing more sophisticated than that.

My expectation is that this trend will only continue in 2012. Google seems to be upping their game on every platform, and many pundits are expecting more crossovers between various media owned by Google. In particular, Google + is getting a huge amount of attention from top Google staff. Google Places has been the most complex product on the web. All of this is only going to add complexity. That may be good for consultants like me, but not so great for the average business trying to stay in business.

I get calls almost every day from companies who can point specifically to Google Places as the reason for their success or lack of it. What we are seeing right now is that righteousness is paying off. Black hat, scammers, and spammers are losing rank and being suspended. This is helping a lot, but for every bad guy they kick out, two legit guys figure out they need to be listed. That's better for the consumer, but not so great for you.

What is the answer? As best I can, you've got the answers I know about contained here on the blog. But my business is double what it was last year and it is getting harder and harder to keep this blog current. Please leave your questions in the comment section of this post and I'll do my best to deal specifically with the issues you raise.

Page One for Google Places Gets Harder and Harder

2012-01-29T12:06:00.000-08:00

ONLY THREE SPOTS FOR GOOGLE PLACES ON EVERYTHING SEARCH?!

Mike Blumenthal and 145 other commenters on his blog have noted that there are now far fewer Google Places listings showing up on the blended "Everything" search. Where there has commonly been seven, the most common number is now three. Some searches have four or five, but seven has become rare.

My goal on this blog is to make it possible for small business owners to Do It Themselves when it comes to Google Places strategy. If the three pack becomes the standard, and with the addition of Google+ effecting search results, and and and, it may be time for me to change my recommendation to: Don't try this at home.

SEO, SEM, SMBs Be Very Afraid of 2012

2012-01-28T18:07:00.000-08:00

I'm not afraid of Global Warming. I'm not afraid of Barack Obama or Newt or even Ron Paul. I don't fear Bird Flu or Aztec Calendars or even trans fats. But as a internet marketing consultant who helps small business owners to get their phones to ring and their doors to swing through the use of internet SEO and SEM, 2012 is likely to change almost everything. Those who are not getting professional help this year are likely to fall way, way behind.

Google+ (Plus). I was early to this phenomenon, but having been burned by Google's forays into social media a few times, I backed off my effort to keep abreast of this category. But with 90,000,000 folks on board and more coming all the time, I took a second look this week. OMG! Twitter better get an answer fast and Linked In has maybe two years to respond. Facebook will undoubtedly have the smarts and the cash to keep up. The functionality and the integration with the rest of Google's vast tool kit are not to be lightly brushed aside. Google Plus be a major game changer in 2012.

Siri. 38,000,000 iPhones in one quarter. 24,000,000 iPads in the same period. Apple TV certainly coming. Siri in your car, your boat, Siri everywhere. Have you noticed that Siri and your iPhone don't necessarily use Google for search? Hmmmm. My non-restaurant clients are getting around 15% of their traffic from mobile, almost all IOS. My restaurant clients are up around 25%. Any guesses as to what those numbers will look like with 100,000,000 new iPhones and 75,000,000 new iPads added in 2012.....At least! Oh sure, Android will be there and be competitive and have a talking assistant. But for the first time in a long time, the small business owner can't be sure your client is looking for you on Google!!!! Siri and Apple have already changed internet search.

Reviews. Add to the above, the ever increasing use of reviews by those searching the web, and you have a perfect storm. You have to have great customer service EVERY DAY. And if you blow it, you need to KISS A.. ! Just get over it. Put your ego, your righteous indignation, and your anger management problem in a box somewhere and seal it with super glue. Or Don't do business. Get a job where you have no public contact. You must manage your small business reputation in 2012.

Steps to success in 2012. Get on Google +. Learn how to optimize your status there. Start using it.
Get a professional to help you with Google + and with Siri (Apple Mobile), and Android. You will need a mobile website and maybe an App. Don't Do it Yourself. Talk about customer service every day. Put up signs. Ask for reviews. Deal with bad reviews in a professional manner. If you have a rating of 3 stars or less, call a professional reputation manager or SEM company.

Google Places 2012 News - Best Practices Working Again

2012-01-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

I have been fighting and fussing with Google Places since it was called Google Maps or Google Business Center. Over those 4 years, there have been times when Google Places was predictable and someone with basic SEO understanding could generally get a high rank for their clients. Then there were days when things seemed pretty upside down. Other times it appeared the spammers would rule.

New Grey Pin on Google Places

The Google Places of 2012 is thus far doing better. I might even give them a B+. While there are still tons of rediculous results with tiny companies with no online presence who haven't even claimed their listing on Google Places that are ranked highly, the ranking seems more reasonable today than at almost anytime in 2011.

While there are still spammers winning a battle here and there, a locksmith told me the other day that he thought Google Places had done a good job of cleaning up the worst category on the web.

So, what does it take in 2012 to get a top ranking on Google Places. Hard work at backlinks for the website and citations for the Google Places listing. What is the number one thing to be aware of in trying to get your phone to ring based on Google search in 2012. Make sure you are highly ranked on the Everything page. Sometimes your Google Places listing will be showing on the Everything search, sometimes not. Most consumers are not going to change the default and go look on Places.

So, until the next major change, we are back to basics. Your website must be well optimized for your keywords. You must have solid backlinks to create cred for the website. Then you must fill out the Google Places listing using the rules seen on this blog as completely as possible. Then find the best possible citations starting with supplier dealer locators, local search engine listings, YP listings, and directory listings in your industry and your local area. Do that right, avoid black hat tricks, and you can probably do this yourself, and save yourself the cost of calling me. 310-910-1848 for those who would rather trust a pro.

Google Places Secrets - Mistakes People Make - Ignoring Citations

2012-01-07T12:41:00.000-08:00

Most of the serious pundits of the craft of Google Places Optimization have insisted that Google uses over 100 "cues" to determine your placement. I agree with this. Each year there is a survey prepared by David Nihm that checks with a number of these pundits to see what they think is happening at Goog in terms of algorithm changes regarding Places that might effect rankings. The combined scores of these pundits is then published to provide some idea of where to concentrate your SEM firepower.

We have seen that city centroid, NAP placement and consistency, number of reviews, keywords in description, keywords in title, and so much more were part of the equation. But we also knew that Google was checking out our story all over the web. Were we who we said we are? Did anyone agree that we were "all that?" How many folks were visiting our website or providing back links?

Last year, there started to be a few pundit suggesting that the "back links" of Places, namely citations, were moving up in importance. Then, like magic, Google Places stopped listing the citations the were using to "judge" a listing. This move made it harder for SEO consultants to check out what the competition was being cited on (harder, not impossible).

Google then stated some things that mattered. BBB and local Chambers were specifically noted as good citations. I can tell you that the very best citations are dealer locators from major suppliers. (Also these are the best possible back links.)

So if backlinks matter to Goog, then surely citations do and will matter to Places. And sometimes it is possible to get a citation and backlink in one (dealer locators.) Being listed on every possible directory, YP, local search engine, micro local search engine, industry specific search engine, and review cite is a great place to start.

Google Places Secrets - Mistakes People Make - No Website SEO

2012-01-04T11:21:00.000-08:00

No matter how closely you watch the changing world of how to rank on Google Places, it is a major mistake to take your eye off the main prize, and that is being highly ranked on the Everything search for keywords you care about. And in the months since Google has blended Places results into the Everything page for key words they believe are associated with local businesses, the value of your website SEO has become the new again road to ranking success.

In other words, if you've stopped paying attention to the SEO recommendations coming from Google themselves, the tools they are providing, or the updates of pundits filling in the blanks where Google is still unwilling to share, you could have fallen behind. Get Google webmaster tools and use them. Get Google analytics and review them. Add your sitemap to your Google webmaster tools, and resubmit it after any substantive change.

Make sure you are doing all the basics well. Title Tags, keyworded H1 and H2, excellent keywording in your text, footer keywords, NAP on page 1, Google location map on page 1, excellent backlinks, and so on. And since Panda, relevant, original, and new content on your website. The more the better.

Google Places Secrets - Mistakes People Make - Location Setting

2012-01-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

I've been saying for three years that Google Places is the most complicated tool on the internet. No one has ever sent me a comment on any such post saying: "You are all wet, Randy. Here is a more complex or difficult aspect of the internet." If you think you have something that qualifies, please add your comment below.

I'm going to be posting a list of little known or used or understood Google Places Secrets that confuse most who only dabble in the Google Places world, and even some who are claiming to be experts. The first is the issue of location - where your computer is vs where your business location is, and where your customer base is. You see, Google knows or thinks it knows where you are. And when you do a search, it tells you where it thinks you are. Look at the left hand column and you will see that my computer correctly surmises that I am in Kihei HI. I'm on vacation, and the computer has communicated with Google that my trusty laptop is now with me on the trip.

Also note that under the City and State, there is a spot where you can "Enter Location." It is as simple as it appears, you merely enter the zip code or city state you wish to "be in" for purposes of search, and Google will oblige you.

Why would you want to change your location. Well my vacation example is a good one. My business is not in Kihei, so if I want to review my ranking under Google Places or the Everything search, I am going to need to change my location to the city or zip code where my store is located. I can, of course, use a search term such as "marketing consultant los angeles" which will give me geotargeted results. However, as you undoubtedly know or expect, this will not be the same result as changing your location and using "marketing consultant" as the search term.

You can also use this tool to check the search results for suburbs or zip codes in your service area. In Los Angeles, a 20 mile radius can include 5 cities or 10 zip codes. If you are expecting to reach clients beyond your primary city or zip code, you need to know what you are competing with. Using the location tool will help you get more accurate readings.

Certify Google Places Experts - 2012 Suggestions for Google

2011-12-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

Everybody is a Google Places Expert. Nobody is a Google Places Expert. Or so it would seem. I get phone calls, emails, texts, and I'm sure you do to, from folks who are guaranteeing my Google Places listing will be NUMBER 1 for up to X number of keywords. Unlike you, I get phone calls from folks who have been suspended, removed, smacked, or otherwise made to pay the price of the so-called expert handling of their listing.

So, as I did last year, I'm calling on Google to create an online class to train Google Experts. Once completing the class, passing a test, and paying a fee, those experts would receive certification. Those certified would have access to real Google customer service people so that Google's errors (Oh yeah. Google Places has errors) could be dealt with quickly.

In the meantime, what is a poor business owner to do? How do they know what they are getting when the pay good money for some company claiming to be able to do the miraculous? First choice for those reading this blog post...Hire us. If you read the blog, view the videos, and check out the resume, you should come away believing we know what we are talking about, and have the references to back it up.

If you are already planning to hire someone else, check out our blog post for a basic How To Select a Google Places Expert To Optimize Your Google Places Listing approach.

How To Select a Google Places Consultant To Optimize Your Google Places Listing

2011-12-24T09:17:00.000-08:00

Need to be sure about who you are hiring to optimize your Google Places Listing. Hire a teenager? LOL. That is probably as good an answer as any. You would undoubtedly do better with a 14 year-old than with some of the services out there.

Seriously. Don't figure that it's only $29.95 a month (for the rest of your life), and you can quit anytime, so what the heck. The wrong service can mess up your Google Places listing so bad that you could pay me $100's or even $1000's to fix their errors. They may be using black hat methods that will result in you being suspended or even removed. They may be using year old approaches that Google has since SPECIFICALLY stated are no longer ok. I've had two calls this week from folks who really thought they knew what they were doing, but were putting geographic information in the categories. A definite no-no.

I tend to stay away from companies with BIG RED headlines or overblown rhetoric. If you know what you're doing, you can make a very good living helping folks with internet SEO. There is no need to blow your horn in bold or make claims you can't support later. Yes, we in business all need to advertise, and we sometimes need to create monster headlines to get attention. But I personally tend to look beyond the headline to the content of their writing. You can't do this job unless you can write well, and explain your core competency in a way that anyone can understand.

I like to see some referrals, testimonials, and such. However, as a marketer, I know that I can get three or four good reviews for almost anyone. So we offer folks over 100 of our current and former clients as a resource. We suggest they randomly call as many as they wish. If a company offers you three phone numbers, ask for five.

How does the company rank on its key words? If you look up Google Places Expert, you're going to see my name at the top of the page for the entire world. If you search for Google Places Optimization, you'll find me ranked #6 for the entire world. If your service can't get ranked for their own business, it's a pretty good hint about their ability to do it for you.

What are they actually going to do to get you ranked. Check out the posts here. You'll see what they should be doing. You'll also see what they shouldn't be doing. NO BLACK HAT!

Forget about the guarantees. Nobody can guarantee anything about Google. What you should expect from your doctor and your Google Places Expert is that they will use best practices known at this time for getting the results you are after.

Optimize Google Places 2012 - A List of Suggestions for Google - Part 4 - Transfer of Ownership

2011-12-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

Current official instructions from Google Places state that there is no way to transfer ownership from one Google Account to another. This presents huge issues. Many folks set up their Google Places before they know this, and attach it to their Google Account with their personal email and personal YouTube account. Now they want to sell the store. Whoops!

Sure, the GooglePlacesSphere has spoken loudly about this. So how could the poor sap who owns the local pizza shop have not known. Here's my question. Why is it such a big deal to allow transfer of the Google Places from one Google Account to another?

Now, just for fun or something. Let me tell you that the other day an account decided to try an experiment. They removed their Google Places account from their Google Account. Then they immediately claimed it on another account. It worked and the kept all the reviews.

Any one else try this and have it work or not work?????

Optimize Google Places 2012 - A List of Suggestions for Google - Part 3 - Social Media??

2011-12-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

Am I confused. Some certainly think my politics are? But can we all agree on this. Google wants us to talk to each other online. Google+, Google Voice, YouTube, Blogger, GMail and more are part of the supposed Google effort to connect us all.

Then please explain to me why Google Places has no place to put your social media links. Not even the ones owned by Google. You can add the links to the detail section at the bottom, but Google isn't showing anyone those details anymore. Not sure why they are there or why we go to so much trouble to fill them out.

So, can I get an Amen to the idea that we need Google Places to add an easy way to link Google+, YouTube Channel, Blogger, FaceBook, Linkedin, and Twitter? And can these be in an attractive iconic form like they appear on the most rudimentary website?

AGREE? Or tell me to get a life.

Optimize Google Places 2012 - A List of Suggestions for Google - Part 2 - Ranking???

2011-12-19T17:59:00.000-08:00

I spend a huge amount of my time trying to understand Google Places. I have been doing this for 4 years, basically at the start of the internet switch to local. I read everything I can. I have Google alerts set for Google Places. I experiment and help folks to get better ranking. If you apply everything I say in this blog, you will almost certainly be highly ranked.

HOWEVER, I can show you hundreds of examples of companies that are ranked #1 and they have not even claimed their site. They are outranking listings that are claimed, 100% filled out, have no inappropriate content, tons of reviews, and citations from 100's of sources. This is hard to understand, Google! Surely you can change your algo back to more like 2010 when ranking seemed to correlate to claiming, getting reviews, etc.

Here is an unclaimed place with no reviews. Note below how he ranks above the claimed listing with great reviews.

Do you agree? Or am I overreacting?

Optimize Google Places 2012 - A List of Suggestions for Google - Part 1 - Content???

2011-12-17T17:40:00.000-08:00

Here is the first of my Suggestions for Google Places for 2012. These guys have all the money and some of the smartest folks on the planet working for them. I totally appreciate that the undertaking of becoming a world wide Yellow Pages for every business in the world is daunting. I also want to give Google Places credit for having made some excellent changes in 2011. But it just seems like some of the following would be obvious. If you want to follow the list over the next few days or weeks, be sure to subscribe.

Number One: I thought that the key to everything about Google was "content is king." If content is the key to search, why is Google Places paying less and less attention to the supplied content of the business owners? How hard would it be to add this to the interface? Why do business owners and consultants even both to add all the great stuff in the detail section if it isn't going to have any visibility?

In a similar vein, why is the description limited to 200 characters? Between Title Tags, Twitter, and the description on Google Places, I feel like I'm back in high school doing Haiku.

And shouldn't the content supplied by the owner be a major influencer on where the listing can be found? In fact, it would seem that descriptions and details would be a stronger signal than the categories which require another convoluted and consternating method for assigning relevant information about a "place."

So Google Places. Any chance of making content a driver of this tool?

If you have idea for how Google could change, improve, evolve, share them here. If you think I'm write or wrong or redic, don't hesitate to share you comments.

Secrets to Optimizing Your Google Places Listing in 2012 - No Errors

2011-12-14T07:11:00.000-08:00

You read all my advice on Optimizing your Google Places Listing on this blog. You've read other commentator on the proper way to set up your Google Places Listing. You've watched my videos and other folks videos, but you're still not on page 1. Or you're not as high on page 1 as you want to be. It is very likely not something you are failing to do, but something you have done wrong.

We have been offering the $100 look under the hood for about a year now. This is where we take a quick look at your listing and your position and your website and make sure you aren't doing something wrong. I can tell you for sure: You are doing something wrong. It might be minor. It might be major. But it is hurting your ranking now, and it may hurt you more in the future.

Most of the mistakes have to do with consistent NAP (name address phone number) over all your web presence, but it could be something as simple as the way you describe yourself in the listing document.

How you will know you are doing something wrong. Make changes one at a time. See if there is any change in status. Look at everything with fresh eyes. Or hire us for $100. : )

Secrets to Optimizing Your Google Places Listing in 2012 - Everything Matters

2011-12-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

The competition for Google Places Ranking is getting fierce. The rules of optimizing your Google Places Listing are getting more and more obtuse. What in the world is a poor local business owner to do?

Well, not just make things bigger or use highlighting. That's for sure. But over the next month I will post the top things you can do, and while time consuming, frustrating, and not 100% certain, if you consistently do these things, you will gain in the rankings.

#1. Everything means everything. Your Google Places Listing is blended with your website and this combination shows up on the "Everything" pages of your search. In case you haven't noticed, Google has changed the layout of their search page AGAIN! There is no longer a black bar across the top. The Menu of possible searches is under the word SEARCH, and the top search is called the "Everything" search. This is also the default. You would guess correctly if you said that almost everybody searches using the default search unless they don't find what they want. And even then, they are more likely to try other default or "everything" searches than they are to try news or blogs or Places.

Therefore, this everything search is actually the one you care about. For some very strange reason, you have two ways you may show up on this page. First and best is as a blended Places result where your Places listing and your website are showing and look for all the world like a Places listing only. The arrows to the right of your listing when clicked will provide a large thumbnail of your home page of your website. If you are using flash or unreadable stuff on your home page, it may be black or look really ugly.

Even if your Places listing doesn't show up, your website might. Generally this will be below the Places listings. To make matters more interesting, in some categories you will not get Places listings with only the city as a modifier, but you will if you add the state. Go figure!

So, about ranking. Your website ranking is CRITICAL now. Make sure your website (the one you are listing on your Google Places set up page is fully optimized, had tons of back links, etc. In my opinion, your website ranking is now the number one determiner of Google Places and Everything ranking. This actually makes sense, but it also makes it harder and more expensive than in previous years when such things as city center or number of reviews seemed supreme.

Number One Google Places Optimization Video From Randy Kirk

2011-12-03T16:13:00.000-08:00

We have now produce dozens of YouTube videos designed to help you optimize Google Places for your local businesss. You may prefer to have us do your search engine marketing, which would include the best possible listing for Google Places, but if you choose the DIY route, you will not find a more complete or focused website on the internet for that purpose than this blog.

Out of all the videos, one has been hands down the winner in total views. And it is probably fitting that the video about the NAME of your business is number 1. When we are selected to do the marketing for a new client, we almost always have an immediate discussion about the name of the company. The reason to name a company one thing or another is always changing. Calling your company AAA Locksmith is no longer critical when the print Yellow Pages is so inconsequential. Today the issue for locksmiths and bike shops and lawyers is getting found by Google Search. So choosing your name in a way that benefits you in ranking high on search is part of your business decision.

Here is the number 1 video on Google Places Optimization.

Major Google Places Changes on 11.1.11

2011-11-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

Probably only 1000 people on the planet noticed this yesterday, but Google Places made a major changes to the way it shows results on the Everything (default) page in search. However, the changes are so huge that it will effect every single business on the planet and everyone who is doing a search for a local small business.

The biggest take away on these changes for the small business owner is that they need to CLAIM their listings. The disadvantage of having an unclaimed listing will continue to grow.

Next, you need to have a website or at least an excellent blog associated with that listing. You are going to look more and more like a back alley business if you don't.

I will write a longer article on this later. For now I have produced a quick video that tells the story way better than any article can.

The Big Picture Of Google Places

2011-07-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

Click below to get the inside scoop!

The Big Picture: Google Places

Reviews Are Everything on Google Places

2011-07-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

Click below for all the details!

How to Get Important Reviews

How to Choose The Perfect Picture for Your Business Listing

2011-07-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

Click below for the complete tutorial!

Choosing the Right Pictures

Additional Details Are Essential To Your Listing

2011-07-24T12:24:00.000-07:00

Click below for the complete tutorial on how to optimize your details!

Your Business Attributes

200 Word Descriptions Are Essential

2011-07-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

Click below for the complete tutorial!

200 Word Description Tutorial

Google Places Third Party Reviews - Wall Street Journal Agrees with Me

2011-07-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

I had no sooner posted the below regarding the anti-monopolistic angle regarding the 3rd party reviews on Google Places, when I received a Google Alert for a Wall Street Journal Article saying almost exactly what I said. In fairness to the WSJ, they must have done their own research. : )

Google Places 3rd Party Review Change Exposed - Reporting Falls Short

2011-07-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Google Places has changed its policy with regard to counting third party reviews from Yelp, Insider Pages, and other Review Sites. In other words, companies that had 35 reviews last week with 12 of those actually created at Google, will only show 12 reviews this week. The 23 from the other sites are not counted in the total. This can dramatically effect the visitors impression of the company. Especially if competitors had concentrated on generating Google Reviews and now might be showing more total reviews than the poor sap who was generating reviews on multiple sites.

In addition, Google had been showing the actual content of the 3rd party reviews on the Google Places page, and they were showing these reviews in a more prominent location than their own reviews. This has ended. The 3rd party reviews are not visible on the Google Places page at all as of this writing.

These two changes have been widely reported. What has not been noted in any of the articles or blog posts that I've seen to date, is that there is still a list at the bottom of each listing on Google Places showing 3rd party review counts. Moreover, on clicking inside to the Google Places Page, these 3rd party resources are shown again. In both cases, these are clickable links which go to the 3rd party site and open the site in a new window. This takes some of the sting away for those who have worked hard to get a balanced review stream on multiple review channels.

What is at the root of these changes. I have written extensively that Google is worried about Google Places being investigated by the US Government for monopolistic practices. Basically, without getting into tall weeds, the question would be whether Google is using its dominant search ranking, and its clear advantage regarding location on the first page of search for Google Places on blended "Everything" pages, to take unfair advantage of the other directories, Local Search Engines, and IYP sites. The inclusion of their actual reviews may have seemed to Google to be a step-to-far. By backing off showing the reviews, but now providing a link into a new window, Google looks like a good citizen regarding the other competitive sites. You be the judge.

Finally, also notice in the example above, the inclusion of a blogspot reviewer. This was the first I'd seen of that. Checking with the Guru who knows more about this stuff than me, Mike Blumenthal, he was not surprised. He suggested I check his earlier post.

How to Correctly Pick Your Business Category on Google Places

2011-07-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

Click below for a complete tutorial!

Picking Your Business Category

Correctly Listing Your Address Isnt A No-Brainer

2011-07-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

Click below for the complete tutorial!

How to Correctly Input Your Address on Google Places

How to Make Your Business Title Work For You and Not Against You!

2011-07-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

Click below for the complete tutorial!

Pick the Perfect Title For Your Business Listing

Why Should You Care About Google Places? Get the Inside Scoop On How Important Google Places Is For Your Business

2011-07-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

Click the link below for the complete tutorial!

Why Google Places Really IS Important!

Is Google a Monopoly? Google Places May Be the Bone of Contention

2011-06-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

Google Places May Be the Way For Govt. Anti Monopoly Lawyers to Crush Googles Play. But Obama is pretty cozy with Google, so it might not happen on his watch.

The battle of this century is about the come center stage. In the last century another communications giant was split into pieces due to the government's decision that they were a monopoly. AT & T may or may not have been a monopoly, but the ensuing split of that company into the baby bells has certainly created a massive change in everything about telephones and telephone books.

Well, here we are again. The new telephone book is Google Places. Unlike Ma Bell in the 60's, there is plenty of competition for the business of advertising business addresses and phone numbers, including the old Yellow Pages and their new online variations.

But has Google Places crossed the line when the started blending the business results with the general search results. Certainly they knew that this would be a huge benefit to them while they are in control of almost 80% of the eyeballs doing general searches. If Google Places was merely available as one more component on the page, there would be a bigger battle as to whether this was a monopolistic move by the dominant player to give a huge advantage to one of its components.

This by no means suggests that it is a walk off victory for the government or the competitors. These cases tend to take years, and during that time Google can solidify its position and branding for Places. Moreover, the entire platform changes every couple of months. It may be much harder for Uncle Sam to hit a moving target. We could easily see Google remove the blended results for a few months and replace them with some other kind of method of encouraging searches to use their tool instead of Yelp or Bing or even Hot Frog.

Then you have the device question. With handhelds, phones, Ipads and such now grabbing 30% of search, especially for the valuable entertainment and emergency services sectors, who knows if Google can even hold on to the share they have. Plenty of chances for some clever new approach from say Apple to Ap their way into the lead for that crowd.

My bet. The best the government will be able to do on this shifting battleground is to keep Google thinking about Uncle looking over their shoulder. There may be a book about this battle someday.

New Video Up on the Latest Google Places Thinking

2011-05-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

Google Places is a moving target, so I try to keep everyone up to date. My business is doing very well at this point, which means I have less time for these updates. However, I did create a quick video that might help.

My Google Places Listing Disappeared!! What Happened to My Google Places Listing?

2011-04-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

These are the first words I hear on most phone calls coming from this blog. The business owner was listed and showing up in the Google Places sweet spot, but when the phone stopped ringing ... you guessed it ... the listing went AWOL.

There are multiple reasons why this might happen. Sometimes the owner has been playing with some black hat approaches (or at least gray hat), and Google has finally said enough already. Usually such a banishment is accompanied by comments in the Google Places Account Information. Possible Account Suspended, or "this location is not supported."

You may run into this same result due to inadvertent errors in following the Google rules. That is why we set up the $100 check under the hood option for our readers. In most cases we can diagnose the issue and have you up and running in no time.

However, there are other times when the issue goes deeper. Fortunately the Google errors have subsided since last year, but they haven't gone away. When Google has goofed, it can take numerous emails and trips to the forum to get a resolution. Even Google says this can take 6 weeks.

The third possibility is that you have lost out to the competition. This can be for a multitude of reasons having to do with location, reviews, improvement by them in their listings (by someone like me), or just more and more folks claiming their site or being added to the neighborhood by Google.

We can help with all of the above. Our goal is to help folks like you grow your business and your profits. Give me a shout at 310-910-1848.

Google Search Page 1 - An Analysis by Google Places Expert

2011-04-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry to go to the tall weeds and inside baseball stuff, but there is no other place where a small local business can advertise that has more impact than page 1 of Google Search. As has been true for the last three years, the methods and restrictions on Page 1 of Google are changing all the time.

The number one change that effects all local business is that the competition for being found on page one for the best keywords in every industry has gotten much, much tighter. Three years ago when the local search concept was just starting to be a separate idea, very few businesses were aware of the importance of getting listed on Google Local Business Center (now Places). Probably fewer than 5% had either created a listing or claimed a listing created by Google.

This meant that there was only a few businesses competing for those top spots. Moreover, the "rules" for getting those top spots were much simpler. Now the number of claimed Places sites has multiplied, and Google has continued to find more sites to put up that are still unclaimed.

The net result is that it is now almost impossible to get a business on page one of Google Places for a zip code or city that they do not reside in. On the other hand, you will almost certainly be on that page in your zip code and for your city, if it is relatively small.

Here is a screen shot of the Places Page for General Contractor 90066. You will note that our client, Green Planet Building, is showing here. However, this client does not show up under General Contractor 90203, just 5 miles away. They do show up under an easier keyword Green General Contractor in locations further from their own zip code.

For better or worse most consumers still don't go to the Places Page. They still use the Everything Page.

Now for the gory details. Here is a screen shot of the Everything Page. Please note on the left hand column where Google offers you multiple ways to search. You can search by maps, blogs, news, etc. The Everything search is still by far the most likely way folks are looking for you.

In the Everything search, you will commonly find paid ads at the top and on the right side, just as you do in this view. About 20% of visitors doing search will pay any attention to these paid ads.

Next you will see the "organic" or unpaid section. This is generally comprised of 10 websites, YouTube videos, articles, press releases, etc. In addition to these 10, Google now places from one to ten Places listings IF the search term lends itself to a local business search. These Places listings and other organic sites on the Everything page are the most important real estate for the local business owner.
And being on this first page is also critical, because only 20% of the population will search beyond the first page.

Our effort on your behalf is to get you on as many of these first pages as we can any way we can. It might be Places, your website, YouTube, articles, press releases, blog posts, or any other tool possible.

You will note on this screen shot that our client does show up in the organic listings far from home base. Montrose is about as far away as you can get from West LA and still be in Los Angeles County. But this is not their actual website. This is the landing page we created using the PowerOnSEO tool. If you were to click on this landing page, it will look pretty much like their website, but with different copywriting. From this landing page, the visitor can go to the other pages of the actual website.

I hope this helps you to better understand how the current Google Search works for local businesses like you. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to send me an email or call 310-910-1848.

Randy Kirk

Google Places May Be Hearing My Plea. More Changes In the Works. Attack on Spam!

2011-01-23T20:33:00.000-08:00

Matt Cutts, the principle engineer (his title), and the spokesperson for all things Google Places, especially issues of spam, has posted on the official Google Blog regarding a major crackdown on Google Search Spam.

Meanwhile Mike Blumenthal is reporting, and it has been confirmed by others responding to his post referring to Google Places verifications that phone call verifications may be a thing of the past.

Also reported in the same post is the reminder that there was an earlier period where phone call verifications disappeared, but then they reappeared. Post cards are required for some of the most spammy categories like locksmiths, but this would be a major step in the right direction to eliminate spam in other areas. It would make the SEM job harder, but ultimately more rewarding.

I had already noticed what seemed to be a realignment in the past four weeks or so, with white hat companies seeming to get their fair spots over not so white hat contenders. We could only hope. Maybe next Google will actually consistently reward those who claim and optimize their listings.

Reported everywhere is that the entire Google Places review and Hotpot thing is as buggy as all new Google products are. Agghhhh!

Google Places Reviews - Small Local Businesses At the Mercy of Amateur Reviewers and Worse

2011-01-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Don't take my word for it. Read all the other pundits in the local search game as I just did. I took a brief walk around the top guys websites and guess what? Business Reviews and how they show up on Google Places will be the dominant issue in 2011. I've been saying this for a very long time. You can find my articles, videos, press releases, and earlier blog posts talking about the impact of reviews going back over a year now. One by one my clients who were struggling to get and maintain top Google Places rankings are getting there by having enough of the right kind of reviews.

Stay tuned to this spot. We will be announcing ShoutDog 2 in the next few days. It will be the killer app of 2011.

Google Places Fixes in 2011 If I Were the President - Be Careful What You Ask For

2011-01-19T17:09:00.000-08:00

In 2010, Google vastly improved the old Google Local Business Center with an upgrade in the name to Google Places, and with maybe 100 changes to the look, the rules, and more. Each change brought happiness to some and misery to others. But the reality is that the product is still as buggy as the beds in Washington DC, and the algo rewards companies who are spamming or who haven't even claimed their sites, and messes up the early adapters of Google Tags.

As a Google Places expert and consultant I rode the roller coaster last year with days of glee and days of heartache. My clients and others who called me were as confused as they could be about Google's reason and intent. One thing they all knew for sure. They needed to be highly ranked to get the phone to ring or the door to swing. Here is one pundits plea to Google for 10 ways to fix their fantastic tool.

1. Without question the number one fix would be to reconfigure the ranking system or the bot that evaluates the ranking to be far more, dare I say, fair. Ok. How about just? Currently it is common to find unclaimed sites with no website, no reviews, and no citations ranking above sites with solid optimization, multiple reviews from Google and other sites, and citations aplenty. This hurt credibility for Google, and drives businesses, SEO pros, and even consumers crazy.

2. Help the helpless. With Google being so critical to the health of its business clients, why should the rules and nuances of those rules be reminiscent of Mario Brothers. The forum is nice and all, and sometimes Google employees and unpaid consultants give some "cheats" to those who have not been able to decipher the code. Why not have serious tutorials to help companies do it right. Better Google Places Pages would be good for everyone. Facebook Fan Pages is charging for tutorials. Fine. Charge.

3. Enforce the Rules! The first lesson of making a law is that it must be enforceable. I just don't think that any business has a real name of Best Price Junk Cars Los Angeles. Why doesn't the bot kill that one before it ever goes live. If Google Places is going to know all about every place on earth, shouldn't it be a priority not to list a business at an address that doesn't exist or that is an empty building.

4. Fix the thumbnail pictures. Why is this even an issue? Squashed faces and weird shaped logos don't do anything to enhance this product. Google plans to change the energy delivery system for the entire planet. Can this be so hard?

5. Title the movies. Who wants to watch random movies? Just give us 30 characters. More would be better. A description would be fantastic. This would help the consumer immeasurably

6. Improve the look of the Google Place Page. Currently there is no serious reason for the consumer to go to the "page" other than reviews. Maybe there could be template choices for layout, more choices for pictures including products in the top section. And how about bigger or more interesting fonts for the section titles. Currently it is a bit hard for folks to find the various reviews and citations, even if they want to.

7. Put the link to leave a review on the search page. It could go right under the stars.

8. Stop penalizing those who use Tags. Using mechanical scrutiny for every possible minor rule violation on Tags users while not using the same scrutiny on those who have not chosen to use Tags. I have no experience with Boost, so don't know if this is also happening with Boost clients.

9. Certify Google Places Consultants. Provide a course or a test or some method for determining who understands the system. Allow the certification # to appear on the listing page so that unintentional errors can be sorted out, and certifications can be lost if the errors are frequent or black hat.

10. Allow businesses to move their places listing from one Google Account to another. There are hundreds of legitimate reasons for this to be done, including the fact that no one who set up Google Places listings in the last two years knew this would be an issue. Many of them are associated with personal emails or multiple businesses.

Google Places is a work in progress. While it may never be completely "finished" and allowed to be somewhat static for a while, I believe that by 2012, the site will be far less volatile and more predictable for business owners and their consultants.

Google Places Business Directory 2011 - Eight Predictions For the Very Unpredictable Local Search Engine Leader

2011-01-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

Do you use Google Alert. Let me be the first to recommend it. My Google Alert is going crazy under the keyword I most care about: Google Places. There's been another spotting of possible new design changes being tested or previewed in Podunk, Iowa. The pundits are scribbling in their blogs and Twitter. The SEM experts are quaking in their boots. What will this next change do to or for their clients.

Google Tags, Google Preview, Google Instant, Google Boost, no more 7 pack, integration of regular search and Google Places, new rules, new rules thrown out with old rules back in force. All of this in 2011, and with each change the algorithm goes crazy. The next day, companies that had enjoyed great ranking can't be found. Companies who haven't even claimed their listings are number one. One thing for sure, the changes won't stop because we hung up a new calendar. What might Google do in 2011? Here are my top eight predictions for changes in Google Places next year.

1. Google Places will not only continue to dominate as the most critical advertising engine on or off the web in 2011, but it will actually grow in influence to the point that Uncle Sam will take a look at whether this is monopolistic or not. The government may already be considering the issue, but in 2011 there will be at minimum rumblings and rumors of intervention.

2. Google knows full well that this could be the case, and will start taking more steps to avoid government action. This year it would seem clear that their decision to show third party reviews (like Yelp, Yahoo, and City Search) above reviews created by Google Account holders would seem to validate their wide open eyes about monopoly complaints. One such step will probably be to change the algorithm to give other local search engines and directories higher visibility under local SMB categories.

3. Google will crack down hard on violations of their Google Places Rules. In particular the key word stuffing of the company name and fake locations.

4. Reviews will dominate the ranking battle on Google Places. As usual it will be impossible or nearly so to determine how Google is scoring this game. But their announcement that they will potentially pick up reviews from any source that properly marks up those reviews will result in a host of review sites hoping to get scraped.

5. There will be more huge changes in Google Places structure, content, layout, and rule book in 2011. I threw this prediction in so that I can be assured of getting one of these right.

6. Coupons will get some type of boost unrelated to Google Boost. Google has great mailing lists and the potential to advertise coupons as widely as they like. Somehow in this new year the coupon element will get some big and free help. But in 2012 it will cost money to put up a coupon.

7. Google will try to do a Groupon knock off or buy one of the lesser players, but as they often do, they will do it horribly. Then they will try to buy Groupon again.

8. The Google Places Page will be completely revamped. The current look is almost unusable and unfriendly, not to mention graphically boring. Google has the capability to solve this with ease. Why they haven't to date is a major mystery.

So there are my top predictions for 2011. Will they do other things that can't even be imagined. Yep. Will they do all these things. For the most part, I hope so.

Marketing for Small Business - Recent Articles by Local SEO, SEM, SMB Expert

2011-01-14T16:38:00.000-08:00

This blog is all about Google Places, but while Google Places is very likely to be your most important marketing resource in 2011, it Google Places should not be your only marketing tool. Randy Kirk and Associates does far more than provide state-of-the-art optimization of Google Places. We actively work on YouTube videos, press releases, articles, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, websites, email blasts and much much more. Here are some recent articles that have been published by EzineArticles.com covering various aspects of SMB SEM and local SEO.

Google Places Optimization Pages Updated

2011-01-01T10:12:00.000-08:00

I made a New Year's Resolution first thing this morning. I decided I was going to update the Pages on this blog to fit with the current rules and punditry at Google Places. So the following topics have been updated.

If you have thoughts or opinions about any of these pages, please let me know.

SHOULD YOU DIY or call us. If your business is so slow that you have nothing better to do than to learn all about Google Places, then keep up with the weekly changes to how they score and what they allow or don't allow, go ahead and use all the attached information to optimize your Google Places Listing. Keep in mind that one critical element to getting highly ranked is the citations, and those can take 30 hours or longer to research and learn to use.

But if you are not a great writer, or you don't particularly enjoy all this internet work, or your business is busy enough to keep you doing what you love instead of this, you will find that our services are really quite affordable, and that we can help you with things like YouTube videos, article submission, press releases, email blasts to client lists, blog set up and postings, Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, Linked In, and getting reviews.

When you call 310-910-1848 you don't get a sales person. You get me, Randy. I do have associates who do some of the work, but they are all located right here in the good ole USA. Your primary contact will always be me. We will get your phone to ring. If we don't, fire us. If you prefer to contact me by email, send it to RandyKirk77@gmail.com

Google Places Categories and Google Instant - Ideas to Maximize Impressions

2010-11-28T18:01:00.000-08:00

If you've spent any time at all with Google Places, you know that a very minor change in the search can result in your business being #1 or #Not showing at all. The addition of the state to your keyword (eg Mortgage Broker Los Angeles CA instead of just Mortgage Broker Los Angeles) by two digits like CA on the end of a search can change the listings. Want to see a different list, then spell out the state.

But this can also change radically by adding services or service or making something else plural in the search. Google makes these decisions by how they find you business described elsewhere, primarily on your website. So if you have your address as CA all over your website, then that will get you higher ranking when that is how the lookup takes place. If you spell it out, your rank will drop under CA, but get better under California.

So what are you supposed to do? First of all, in choosing your categories, you generally prefer to select those that Google has offered as a Map. This is where instant comes in. You can quickly determine what has a map and what doesn't by making minor changes in your keywords in the search bar.

But then, something else becomes obvious. Google is giving you suggestions as you type. That's half the point of instant. Getting suggestions on what will provide the results you want. You client might start typing in something that would go right to your best ranking on a map, but as they are typing the word, other options pop up which may cause them to stray away to a map that you don't do well on.

So, in determining what categories you should list, begin by seeing what Google is recommending on Instant, then find out whether there is a Map for that. You may want to double check with the keyword finder tool to make sure that more than 6 people per year look for that keyword. Or alternatively, make a long list of the best keywords before you begin using instant to help make your decisions.

Now you need to go to your website and make sure you are using these words on your front page in the same way, so that Google can confirm that you are who you say you are and do what you say you do.

P.S. Google has just changed the rules. They seem to be reducing the number of suggested categories on the set up page. No clarity on whether they will also limit the variety of maps, too. This is part of their new rule that says the categories are supposed to be who you are marriage counselor, not what you do, marriage counseling.

Google Places Changes the Rules on Listings

2010-11-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

Just in case you were getting comfortable with the rules of the game, Google has changed the rules at Google Places, AGAIN. Probably the most important had to do with how to use or not use descriptions and categories. I could just repeat everything that another SEM Guru already said. Better to just send you to her for a great analysis.

Key ideas:

You can now use your business name, city, or category info in your description, unlike the last version of the rules.
Categories need to be who you are, not what you do. What does this mean??? See the blog post noted above
A new emphasis on no geographic or Brand info in categories.

Creating the description and selecting categories are very, very critical operations. Not abiding by the rules can result in getting suspended, delisted or just ending up with no visibility through page 10. Not being careful enough to do the full marketing analysis necessary to wisely choose categories could mean that you have great visibility under keywords that nobody ever looks up, but no visibility on your most important key words.

Google Places Expands Integration of Places with Organic to Pages Two and Three

2010-11-28T17:15:00.000-08:00

Only 20% of search goes beyond page one of Google. That is why our company name is Page1Listings. Being listed in the organic section of page one for searches important to you will generally result in 80% of those searching to see your listing. However, Google might have come up with a scheme to encourage folks to check out page two. By adding Places to the organic on page two and three, there might be a greater inclination to go beyond page one.

If you'd like to read more about this with a nice example pictured, visit this blog.

Now this is going to make a difference to you, the business owner in potential impressions. However, it doesn't change your strategic plan.

What about Google Places Offers - AKA Google Places Coupons

2010-11-28T17:03:00.000-08:00

According to some who claim to know Google has passed 1,000,000,000 downloads of coupons on the Google Places Listings. I have reported here and continue to believe that up until now, the coupon has been way less than effective as a way to motivate decisions or actions by local business clients. Google may believe that, too. They have changed the name to Google Places Offers, and they have provide more prominence to the "Offer." See below.

Google Places Problems? Google Places Having Lots of Problems. Experts Confounded

2010-10-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

Google Places has been hammered with multiple problems starting in Mid September. The sad part of the problems with Google Places is that they are impacting the best listings more than the so-so or poor listings. Those who have gone to the most trouble to follow the rules are getting SLAPPED (yes that is a term of art regarding Google Places) with suspensions, or fighting off dupes, ghosts, and other problems.

To make matters even worse, those who have added Google Places Tags to their listings seem, at least by some measures) to have been more likely than those who didn't add tags to be reviewed and placed under heightened scrutiny for minor offenses.

Meanwhile in the Google supported forum and in other forums, blogs, and personal conversations among the punditry that has grown up around Google Places, there is frustration and hand ringing. Consultants, including this one, are having to explain to new clients why their rankings have gone down or their listings disappeared altogether under our watch.

Fortunately, as with most things Google, they seem to be slowly-but-surely getting things under control. But there are still many businesses out there who don't even know that their situation was compromised. If you find yourself wondering what happened and wondering what to do about these situations, we are now able to help at least 90% of the time. We have set up a special service to deal with these issues. For $100, we'll do a quick analysis of your listing and any issues you are facing. We will give you direction on those things that are immediately correctable, and even do the work when it is a quick fix.

In much the same way as you might go for any diagnostic, the problems may be much more deep rooted than removing a Google no no. If there is more to be done than can be handled for $100, we will also provide you with a recommendation for additional services. The $100 will apply to any of our packages that you might select.

Google Places Exposed: Why Your Local Business Has Been Suspended, Reviewed, Location Not Supported, or Dropped off the 7-Pack

2010-09-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

When you have a great location on Google Places business directory, the phone usually starts ringing. When the phone suddenly stops, you might immediately go check to see the status of your listings on Google Places. You may be shocked at what you find.

SMB's (Small Businesses) today are at the mercy of the Google Places local business directory. While many local companies are unaware of the potential increases that they might find in phone calls, sales, and profits from gaining a great rank on the 7-pack of the Google Places Map, more astute owners are working hard to get those rankings and then hold on to them.

However, while Google Places can be a big traffic generator, it is a fickle friend of local business. Mysteriously, or so it seems, your listing may drop in rank, drop off of the 7-pack, drop out of site completely, or be reviewed, suspended, or have the analytics stop showing, and the words "location not supported" appear.

Google would undoubtedly be the first to admit that sometime, maybe even often times, these problems are due to hiccups in their systems. Clearly there are times when Google is introducing something new like tags or "instant" where listings are thrown into a tizzy for a day or two, just to come back to normal later. And, Google is constantly changing their methods of dealing with various things, and they don't always tell the rest of us what they are up to.

On the other hand, there are some very serious KNOWN reasons why your listing may be in trouble or merely sinking in the rankings. Here are the big ones:

    ✓    Spammy information in your listing. This can be the name, address, phone number, description, and possibly the details. It can also be that your first business category is not one that Google Places has on the drop down menu when you set up the listing. See Googles rules to determine if what you are doing is outside of their terms.
    ✓    The location marker is incorrect. Maybe you moved it to make it closer to the center of town. Maybe you didn't move it, but Google has decided it isn't correct. Make sure the marker is in the right place.
    ✓    Your description contains words that repeat what is in your basic information, such as city or address.
    ✓    You don't have any or enough reviews. If your competition is getting new reviews and you are not, you will drop in rank.
    ✓    Google is not able to find any or very much information about you elsewhere on the web. This is called citations. Google wants your information on the listing to be the same as it is on Yelp or Yahoo and especially on your website, or other websites that talk about you. If your competition has more great citations, you may drop in rank
    ✓    More on citations. If your name is spumy and filled with keywords or city information, and your website and other places on the web only show the basic name without the spam, you may drop way down or even be suspended.
    ✓    Google is now calling businesses to make sure that they really exist. If they call your company number and get bad information, we can only guess at the consequences.
    ✓    Multiple listings for the same address or phone number are well documented as a way to lose rank or get suspended or even black balled.

You can reverse all of the above and see each of these as ways to optimize your listing on Google Places. If you are having difficulties and can't figure out why, call Page1Listings.com at 800-920-1748

Google Places Secret #1 - Small Things Can Change Everything in Getting the Phone to Ring

2010-09-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Google Places Secret #1 - Small Things Can Change Everything in Getting the Phone to Ring

My newest account has a company in Northern Palm Beach Florida. His website text, title tags, and his address on his Google Places Listing all refer to Northern Palm Beach. This may be technically correct for the neighborhood. A quick search shows that there is a Northern Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce. But you see, Google Places doesn't always get these kinds of things right. Or maybe the folks searching get it wrong.

In any case, you won't find a Google Places map under Bakery Northern Palm Beach when you do a Google Search, but you will under North Palm Beach. Moreover, to save characters, you get the same result with N Palm beach.

This is not an unusual occurrence, and this is the very kind of thing which separates the individual SMB (small business) owners who want to do this on their own from the professionals who do it all day long.

Examples abound, but commonly deal with the category of business you list under when you set up Google Places. The issue of selecting the critical keywords for search goes beyond Google Places. The category choices on any LSE (local search engine) or directory are limited, and Google's are one of the most complicated. I have discussed that in detail here and here.

One client we have helped considerably is a roofing contractor. He had done a fair amount of online work when we came to the account. He knew that important keywords for his category were roofing, roofing contractor, and roof repairs.

After a competitive analysis, keywords analysis, and actual evaluation of what Google Places would and would not have a map for, we found that re roofing was a major category that he had left out. He is in a major metro area, and the addition of re roofing contractor gained him visibility on the outside 7 pack for Google Places in adjacent cities where he had not previously appeared.

These kinds of discoveries are not unique or even unusual for us. But it would be a shock to find a DIY customer who had the sophistication to find these huge potential keywords. Imagine that your one time payment of under $1000 could result in multiple additional locations where your business could be found on Google Places. In the case of the roofing contractor, one new job would pay many times the entire cost of hiring a pro.

Testing

2010-09-09T16:30:00.001-07:00

Testing twitter and facebook :)

Local Business Review Sites Are Changing the Ways Your Customer is Making Decisions About Where to Shop

2010-08-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

Need more business reviews? Need one good review? Do you already have a seriously negative review on Yelp? All of these and more can have a major effect on your business. Now it's ShoutDog.com to the rescue

ShoutDog.com is ready for use. We've been talking about the cute Orange Dog for some time now, but after a huge effort on the part of the entire team here at Page1Listings, we are breaking out the champagne.

What is ShoutDog.com. It is an easy way for you, the small business owner or marketing manager or consultant to generate local business reviews, and yes, the Holy grail of business review sites, Google Places business reviews. We send you the necessary html or images and links to put the ShoutDog logo and link on your website, blog, Facebook Fan Page, or email newsletter.

When your clients see the ShoutDog logo it will be obvious that you would like them to help out with a review of your business. Now the best part. When they click on the ShoutDog, the will be linked to a page specifically constructed for your business with easy as 1, 2, 3 instructions for them to create those golden reviews.

You will have a unique page that will specifically point out the business review sites that you care about. These can be the large local search engines and directories mentioned above, or industry specific sites like AVVA for lawyers, urbanspoon.com for restaurants, or tripadvisor for hotels. All your customer needs to do is click on the link to these business review sites, and they will go directly to the very page where they can say wonderful things about you.

Go to http://www.ShoutDog.com right now and sign up. The sooner you sign up the sooner you can start to see your star rising up on Google Places. You do know that part of your ranking at Google Places is based on how many reviews you have. AND, not only how many reviews you have at Google itself, but they also give you cred for having reviews on other directories. What are you waiting for? http://www.ShoutDog.com

Did you know that when your potential customer visits CitySearch or SuperPages looking for the kinds of goods and services you provide, they are twice as likely to call you or click through to your website if there are positive reviews about you? And the reviews themselves can be the motivation needed. At only $19.95 per month, it will likely only take one person to visit you or call you because of these reviews to more than pay for the monthly subscription. http://ShoutDog.com

ShoutDog.com Business Cards

Special Bonus to sign up NOW! We will also send you 250 business cards like these. You can hand these out to customers at check out or to friends and business associates at meetings or functions. What an easy way to ask a favor: "Please help me grow my business with a review." We want to help you get those reviews. We will be posting other ideas and suggestions for how to use your ShoutDog as a massive review generator. Get your bonus. Go to http://ShoutDog.com

We are positioning ShoutDog as a proactive online reputation tool. You may have already experienced a negative review on one of these sites. The best cure to one or two negative reviews is five or ten or 50 good ones.

Or maybe you've never been "flamed." A flame is a really bad review that is more commonly written by a disgruntled former employee or competitor that a really mad customer. But it has the same effect. The best way to get ahead of a future flame or other negative review. Have multiple good reviews already posted. Either way, the answer is ShoutDog.com

Put a City Name as Part of the Category in Google Places? That would be a NO!

2010-06-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

You may still believe that putting a city name as part of your category in Google Places is ok. Here's the video that tells the facts.

Google Places Loves Keyword Stuffing in Your Business Name. Not

2010-06-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

There is more than a little confusion about what you can and cannot get away with when setting up Google Places. The name of your business is a critical piece of that confusion. Can you call yourself The bakery birthday cake and wedding cake company of St Louis MO? Maybe. Here's how or why not.

Is it Easy to Set Up Google Places? Is It Hard to Set Up Google Places? Yes!

2010-06-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

How easy or hard it is to set up Google Places is largely dependent on your business category and city. For some businesses in some cities, it may be the hardest thing you will ever do on the web. Here is a short video that explains the details.

How to Set Up Tags on Google Places - Not So Easy - First in a Series of TIps on Google Places Tags

2010-06-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

If you are in California, Texas, Washington, Illinois, Texas, DC, or Atlanta, you can start using Google Places Tags. If you aren't in one of those states, you'll have to wait a bit longer. No schedule has been posted on the official page about Google Places Tags.

What is a tag? A little yellow advertisement on your listing that will make you stand out from the crowd. You only get about 22 characters showing, so this is even a better test of your advert writing skills than Twitter or Adwords. This new program will be the first to cost money on Google Places. The introductory cost is $25 per month.

If you are in one of those five states, there is nothing easy about setting up tags. To begin with, you can't create a tag unless you have claimed your Google Places Listing. This may be the easiest part of the process, but there is nothing easy about how to claim your Google Places Listing. Of course, as you claim your listing, you will want to use all the advice found on this blog.

Now you can proceed to do a tag. But since this is going to cost you money, even if a paltry sum, you want to plan your campaign. The good news is that you can change it every day or more often if you like. Google also has no contract on this. You can quit any time.

So, what do you want to accomplish? You have Five basic choices. You can point to:

Your own website or blog
A video
A picture
The Google Places Coupon you would create for this purpose
The Google Places Post you would create for this purpose

Each of the above has a link that can help you understand more about the choice. For now, I am going to explain what I believe will usually be the best use of the Google Places Tag.

Back on the Google Places Account page, you can click on the small analytics graph and see the full analytics page. In the upper right hand corner of this page is the location where you can place your post.

The post can be up to 100 characters and will show up on your listing page as shown above. However if you point to this text as your TAG, only the first 22 characters will be visible, so choose wisely. If the viewer clicks on the tag, they will go to the listing page and see the entire Post, and everything else on your listing. Your goal is to use the tag to stand out and to create enough interest to get a click through. The clicks on the tag link will have a separate graph for analyzing its effectiveness.

Once you have decided which of the five you intend to use, you will see on this same page with the graph an offer to add the tag:

Once you have chosen from the pull down menu the type of tag you want, you can go to the check out page where you will set up your billing. If you have not set up a Post or Coupon in advance, you will not see Post or Coupon on the pull down menu. If you now create the Post or Coupon, you will need to refresh the page in order to see them on the pull down menu.

You can call a Google Rep to help you with this process at 800-838-7971. If you would like someone who will help you with the marketing rather than just the processing of your account, please give me a call at 310-910-1848.

Google Places - How to Claim Your Business Listing on Google Places

2010-06-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

Before you can really take advantage of the benefits of Google Places, you need to make it your own. If you have been in business for a year or so, you may be listed already. However, the information may or may not even be correct. And you can be certain that the information will not be as good as you can make it. Additionally, claiming your Google Places Listing is known to be one of the most important factors in determining how you rank compared to your competitors.

There are two ways to go about claiming your listing. First you need a Google Account. You can go to Google.com or to Gmail.com and set up an account. Once you have an account go to local.Google.com. This will take you to a page that looks like this.

To the left hand side you will notice it says "Put your business on Google Maps." My son the editor would maintain that they should have changed this to "places" by now. : ) When you click on this link you will get this page.

If this is a brand new account with Google, you won't have all these things, but you will at least have the choice of Google Places. Click on that link and you will go to a page that looks like this:

Start adding in your company name address and the rest of the items asked for. As you do this, the map on the right will go more and more local, eventually ending up at your location. When you finish this section, you will see a continue bar, click on that and you will be given some choices. If your company is already listed, Google will offer you one or more chances to claim the existing listing. If you see a good listing or even one that is close to correct, go ahead and choose that and continue.

If none of the listings they show is you or if there is no options at all, then just follow the instructions. No matter what you do, when you continue, you will now be back to the form and there will be more things to fill out. Finish filling out the form using all the best practices shown on this blog. At the bottom of the page you will be asked to submit.

Usually after submitting, you will get a choice of confirming your listing by phone or by post card. The post card now shows that it will come in a week. For most folks, I would suggest that you just take the phone call, get the code and enter it into the box as shown. Then you are done claiming the listing.

The Google Places Coupon Can Help You Score Points with the Google Places Local Business Directory

2010-05-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

Truth be known, I don't think many consumers care much or even know about Google Places Coupons, but you can be sure that Google cares about them and will add to your "score" if you create a coupon for you Google Places directory listing. Here's more on the subject in a short video.

The Google Places Description is a Critical Element in How to Set Up and Optimize Your Google Places Directory Listing

2010-05-31T18:14:00.000-07:00

You may have heard of the elevator speech where you need to tell someone in 4 floors enough about your mortgage broker business to get your listener to ask for your card. The description space on the listing form for Google Places Directory is only 200 characters, counting spaces, or about 40 words. You need to tell your whole story in a way that is captivating and yet includes keywords.

Here's a video with much more to say on the subject.

Google Places Directory - Ten Tips on How To Get Conversions from Google Places Business Listings

2010-05-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

Getting your chiropractic office set up on Google Places is one thing. Getting it on the outside MAP is the second thing. But what if all that work doesn't cause the phone to ring. No internet Marketing plan is worth anything if your resulting visibility does not result in conversions or actions taken. What is a conversion?

A Google Places conversion is turning the impression into a visit, the visit into some kind of action, and the action into an order. At any point along the way, the process can get hung up and the impression is wasted. It is not unusual to see companies get 30 impressions per day with only 3 actions such as clicked a link to the website, blog, or other link offered, looked for directions, or checked out the coupon. Google Places offers no method for finding out if someone calls your company on the phone. Your staff should be asking every caller and visitor to the store how the person heard about you so that you can determine which advertising efforts are paying off.

What can you do to increase conversions:

Be on the outside MAP.
Show up #1. If this is obvious, sorry, but it needed to be on this list.
Have lots of reviews. Consumers assume (probably correctly) that number of reviews correlates with quality of the business
Make sure you have a great first picture as it is the one that shows up as a thumbnail icon.
Fill out everything in the listing in great detail per the tutorials and posts in this blog.
Have plenty of action steps available. Use links in the NewFlash section and the More Details.
Offer a great deal in the coupon and in the NewsFlash
Look over all the content and ask if this content would sell you on taking action.
Make sure you website, blog, facebook or any other resource the client clicks to is a selling machine. Does it engage, persuade, close, and capture the client.
Watch your analytics and make changes based on results

Google Places Business Listings More Details Section - Load It Up!

2010-05-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

Let's say you are a law firm using Google Places and you've filled out the rest of the form using all the ideas and suggestions in this blog or on the video series. Now you are at the bottom of the page and you get lots of space to talk all about what you do. You could put practice areas on the left and then list family law, criminal law, real estate law, and personal injury law on the right hand side.

Or you could list family legal services on the left and divorce law, custody issues, spousal support, child support on the right. You can also use this area to link your Facebook to Google Places or your Blog. Just put in any URL you want to link. You could also link an inside page from your website that was about a specific area of your business. So using the law firm example again, you could put child support on the left and then put a link on the right that goes to the inside page of your website that talks about child support. Here is a video that explains more detail.

Google Places Official Site Recommends Videos

2010-05-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

Putting up a video is really easy. Finally something that is uncomplicated. But where or how do you get a video. This video give you several options including hiring us to create a video for you.

But if you don't have a video, you might find some on the web that you can use. If you are an Orthodontist setting up Google Places looking for videos to put up, you could search YouTube for videos on Invisalign or braces or other manufacturers of aspects of your business. There is nothing wrong with listing these videos on your Google Places as long as they are not your competitors.

How to Put Pictures on Google Places Business Listings - Video Tutorial

2010-05-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

The picture section of Google Places is extremely important. Obviously, putting picture onto the places information section makes the whole presentation look much more exciting. For a lawyer or doctor, a picture of the owner might be a good idea. But for a jewelry store on Google Places, I would suggest a picture of a really nice ring.

The potential customer or client will learn a lot more about you from 10 pictures than from 10,000 words (or so the saying goes). But the importance doesn't stop there. Google counts those pictures towards your 100% status and thus it will effect your standing on the outside MAP. If those two reasons weren't enough, your first picture becomes an thumbnail icon on your primary listing. And if you have that picture, and it is emotionally appealing, you will undoubtedly increase the number of folks who click in to see the rest of your places site. Here is a video with some more instructions. You can also check out the pictures tutorial on the right side column of this blog.

Google Places Categories - Video Gives Clear Tutorial on How to Select Google Places Categories

2010-05-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

Google Places has only one piece of advice for you on selecting a category. The first one of the five allowed should be one of the options that Google Places offers in the pull down menu that appears when you put in a key word. How do you decide which one to use? What about the other four categories? These questions and more are answered in this video and in the Tutorial in the right hand column. Some of the material is in both places. A few things aren't.

Google Places Directory: How To Claim Your Google Places Listing

2010-05-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

Received an email from a visitor to the blog who astutely pointed out that I had never covered the beginning of the process. Obviously, it is kind of hard to understand all the detailed inner workings of Google Places if you have not been able to find your business and claim it.

First, let's define CLAIM. Almost all local search engines and directories (same thing to me. I like to just call all of them LSE's), buy or otherwise acquire lists of businesses from various sources. So when you try to find your listing for a Hair Salon or Barber Shop on YellowPages or Yahoo.local or here at Google Places, you might find that there is information about you appearing and you didn't do anything to cause that to happen. When you find a listing of this type and you have not "signed up" with that LSE, then your listing is fair game.

By fair game, I mean that in many cases any member of the public can add to, subtract from, or change your listing. This might be friend or foe. You can well imagine the ways that your competitor or any other enemy might alter your listing for their benefit. AND anyone can claim your listing. They can say that they are the owner. Now, each LSE has different ways to try and keep an interloper from claiming what is rightfully yours. However, the best way to solve that is to claim it yourself.

There are two ways to do this. Step one in the process is to look your business up on Google Maps. Type in your business type and city (see first image below for Bakery Pomona) or business name and city (see second images below). You will get a map most of the time. If you see your name, click on more information if that is showing or reviews if not. If you are not already listed, skip way down on this post to see what to do to create a new listing.

You will now get a screen that looks like this

And you will note the location that ask if you are the owner. Please note it also offers an opportunity to edit if you aren't the owner. Once you claim the listing, this offer goes away.

Once you click on this "Business Owner" link you will now find yourself on a partially filled out form that will look like the below image.

Go ahead and fill in the spaces. I will not repeat all the recommendations here with regard to how to fill in each of these blanks. Just let me say that even the Name of your company is critical. The address, phone number, category and description all matter. So please read the Blogger pages in the right hand column or watch the video tutorials or both before filling in these blanks.

After you have filled out the first part of the form, it will look something like this. Note that I have just begun to fill in the category section, and it shows a drop down menu for selecting choices that Google suggests. Always choose one of Google's ideas for your first category.

The rest of the process is self explanatory. Now let's take a look at the other way that you can add a new listing or find an existing listing. This begins by typing this url into your address bar local.Google.com

You will get a screen that looks like this.

When you click on Add business in Google Maps, you will either go directly to a set up page if you have a Google Account or you will be prompted to set up a Google Account. Setting up the account is easy, so I won't cover that here. Once you have a Google Account, start this process again, and you will get the following screen

If you are new to Google, you may not have this many items, but find Google Places and click on that. You will now go back to the screen that offers you the same form to fill in. Of course, this time it will be completely blank. When you complete the form as far as I took you in the example above and you click on continue, you may get a screen that says Google thinks you already exist. If you get this screen take a look at the options and select the obvious one.

When you have completed the entire form, you will be offered the opportunity to submit. After pressing that, you will have a choice of postcard or phone (most of the time. Sometimes you will get only postcard. See my post on this.) If you choose phone, you will get a series of prompts that will allow you to complete the process.

Google Places Analytics - Tips to Getting Maximum Benefit from Google Places

2010-05-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

As a marketing consultant, one of the greatest challenges I face is working with my client to get tracking for any campaign. Whether it is a newspaper ad, Craig's List, a local trade show, an ad in an industry publication, or the use of a promotional product, most owners and their employees have a hard time remembering to ask "How did you hear about us," whether on the phone, by email, or in person.

Without accurate tracking information there is little hope of getting enough real feedback to determine the success of any effort. Sure, you can look at the quantity of contacts during the campaign, or the total sales around that time, but these are subject to other influences, and therefore not an accurate gauge.

Enter internet marketing. One of the best aspects of online marketing is that many of the stats are automatically gathered by the advertiser or through attaching statistical tools to the back end of any online marketing ap. So it is with Google Places. And the huge results that can be seen in the analytic tool supplied by Google Places is one of the reasons I continue to point to this marketing product as the most important in the local internet marketing toolbox.

Here's the sad thing. Most owners of small local businesses don't bother to check the analytics that are so easily accessible and free. The wealth of information is huge, and can be used to impact future purchases, locations, phone practices, prices, couponing, event planning, and other online advertising approaches.

Google has now created a central location where you can access all of your Google products and tools. Just type in Google.com/accounts If you haven't signed in recently, you'll have to supply your id and password. You will get something that looks like the above (although you likely don't have quite so many items on your page).

If you have claimed a Google Places business under this account, you should see Google Places as a link like the one in the first column on this page. click that and you will go to this page.

Here is where you can start digging in to see who is looking for you, what they do when the find you, and what keywords they are finding you under, just to name a few. I will devote more time to this in a future post. For now - just go there and play around to see what is of interest to you.

Google Places Business Listing Tip - The Phone Number Question

2010-05-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

Your name, address, and phone number need to be consistent throughout the web if you want Google Places to rank your business high on the outside MAP. We discussed how to choose the company name and address on tutorial videos 1 and 2. Now we go on to the issue of how to choose or determine the right phone number to use.

Google Places - Confirmation by Phone or Postcard? Tips and Secrets

2010-05-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

You have just finished filling out all the blanks on the Google Places local business listing form. With equal parts pride and wariness, you push the submit button. Instead of the message you might be expecting that "an email has been sent to your email address. Please open that email and confirm your listing by clicking the link as instructed," you are told that you will have a choice.

Your choice is to get your Google Places listing confirmation by phone or by postcard. You are warned that it will take up to two weeks to get the postcard. If you want to get confirmed by phone, you need to be ready to answer the phone listed on the form. You also have the choice of providing an alternate phone for the purpose of this confirmation.

You are almost always going to want the phone confirmation. Who wants to wait two weeks? So if the phone confirmation is offered, click the little circle and continue. At this point you will be notified that if you continue, your phone will ring right now. It will. And a robot will give you a 5 digit number that you will use on the form now in front of you to confirm your listing. Easy, fast, no problem.
If you choose to use the phone route, don't use and alternative phone number. Don't ask? Just always use your primary number
When you press go, the phone will ring almost immediately. If you have multiple lines, the call may be answered by someone not expecting a robotic voice to give a five digit number. So, alert your staff in advance that the next call is yours.
If you blow it. If someone else does pick up, or if you get the number wrong, or if anything goes wrong, you can go back and resubmit, and generally you will still get the phone option.
For reasons known and unknown, sometimes you won't get the phone option. Go ahead and click the postcard option. In two week or less you will get the postcard which will have the five digit code. Go back into your listing area and put the number in to complete the process.
After agreeing to the postcard method, wait an hour and go back to edit your listing. Go to the bottom of the page and submit. You may now get the phone option. If not, try again the next day.

How to Set Up Google Places - Video on Choosing Your Addresss

2010-05-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

Because there is no better location on the Internet for most local businesses than to be visible on Google Places, each and every aspect of setting up your listing becomes critical in determining whether you get the results you want. One such element is the address. Wish it were so simple. Just write down your address. As explained in the tutorial on Google Places Choosing an address in the right column of this blog and expanded upon in this video, you might need to think a big more about your address choice.

#1 Google Places Business Listing Tip - How to Choose Your Business Name

2010-05-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

Local SEO marketing expert Randy Kirk explains how to choose your company name when setting up your listing on Google Places. What? You already have a company name? Kirk explains that you may need to change it. This is the first in at least ten tutorial videos that will supplement the written information in our pages on this blog.

Can You Pay Us to Help You with Google Places Business Listings?

2010-05-21T10:31:00.000-07:00

We are in the business of helping small businesses with their internet marketing as well as their more traditional offline marketing. We have become especially proficient and knowledgeable with regard to Google Places, thus you have this blog. However, we are top drawer creators, designers, and developers of websites, email blasts, PR releases, YouTube Videos, blogs, and related activities.

Our prices tend to be under market as our niche is businesses with no employees up to about 50 employees. We have no interest in becoming a 10 story office building with blue reflective windows. Instead we would be excited to have a bunch of mom and pop businesses growing and prospering in part due to our input.

You can learn a lot more about our services by going to Page1Listings.com. You can learn a lot more about me personally by Googling my name, or checking out my old nasty website at SearchPage1.com. It is pretty ugly, but the information is very valid.

I have also produced a couple of dozen Youtube videos that might help you with various aspects of your business such as collections, sales, or how to benefit from the use of YouTube videos.

Call me anytime at 310-910-1848. No secretaries to intervene, no voice mail and call back. You'll almost always get me. I might be at the ball field watching my son strike out the side, but I'll still pick up.

Google Places Business Listing Issue – One or More Businesses or Business Services in One Location

2010-05-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

Google Places Business Listings has a major issue for almost all businesses. Almost every business has more than one thing they do or want to tell the world they do. Even if I'm a restaurant, I may want to rank high for restaurant in general and Mexican Restaurant Specifically. But now what do I do about my catering business, or my banquet business. Then I may want to use the location as a great meeting location.

Our restaurant owner really, really wants to appear on the outside MAP for all of those. He isn’t at all happy with being relegated to the inside listings on page 4 or 5 for any of those.

The answer to his dilemma is very complicated and can be expensive. First, he can go 100% legit. He lists his business, Paco's, the address, phone, and then goes to categories. He puts his five categories in the boxes and uses the description, and detail sections to further illustrate that he is really good at all five.

Chances are that if he does all the other things listed on these pages, he will show up on the outside MAP for at least restaurant (depending on how much competition in the city) and maybe his second choice.

What could he do to get a few more. How about change the name of his restaurnat to Pacos Mexican Restaurant and Catering. By having all three in his Name, he will help to get those three to higher levels of Google’s attention. He needs this new name to be on all places where his name appears on the web, including his website, blog, City Search, Yellowpages.com, Yelp, Yahoo, and everywhere else.

What next. Go ahead and start a second business in the same location. Get a real honest-to-goodness dba or corp name for the second business. This one could be Mexican Banquets and Meeting Room. (If you hire me for branding, I will do better than this, I promise.) Now you need another web page or landing page or blog that shows this name and your address, and a different phone number. Now list this second business all over the web. Then, last, come back to Google docs under a new Google Account and set up your second company.

There are other possible solutions, but I’ll save those for another day.

Google Places Business Listing - Put A News Flash on Your Google Places Business Listing

2010-05-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

Google Places Business Listings should start pulling way ahead of the other Local Search Engines real soon. They just have so many ideas that are so clever, useful, and inexpensive. This one could be called the Twitter of local search.

Since you, as a marketer or business owner should be checking your Google Places Analytics daily or at least weekly to see trends and make revisions in your strategy for both Google Places and your other online advertising, you can quickly put up a news piece right as shown below. And since Google seems like they forgot how to name things after they created the great name Google, I'll name this for them. Google Places News Flash. Note the box under the "Post to your place page." I created a post for this client. All you do when you want to change it is do a new one in that box.

Here is where your Google Places News Flash appears. Note how I also used the location to create another link to the website.

Ten Quick Tips for Setting Up Google Places

2010-05-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

You take one look at this blog and your already exhausted just thinking about how much work it will be to truly optimize your Google Places listing. Just filling out the form for the basic set up of Google Places is enough to make some people wish for 5:00 to show up. So, can I give you some basic, quick help for Google Places that will at least take care of the obvious and maybe get me on the outside MAP in easy cities for easy keywords. Here's that list:

1. Use the real name of your company. Add one or two keywords if your company name has no keywords in it. (eg. Trendy is the real name and they are a women's shoe store. Use Trendy Women's Shoes.

2. Use your real address and make sure it is the same everywhere it appears. Put the address on the front page of your website.

3. Use a local phone number, not and 800 number. Make sure it is the same number that appears on the front page of your website and elsewhere on the web.

4. When choosing the category for your company, use one that Google suggests for the top category. For the other four, use Google suggestions or make up your own.

5. Put up pictures. The first one should be a picture that will look good as an icon, as it will appear to the left of your listing on the inside MAPS.

6. Put up videos. They will help to make Google Happy. Use any video about what you do. Does not have to be a video you produced.

7. Use the additional information boxes at the bottom of the listing form. You can use links in these boxes to your blog, facebook, etc.

8. Create a Coupon. Can't hurt. Might actually get some sales from them

9. Set up your business in a New Google Account. Don't put it in your personal Google Account, another business Google Account, or a 3rd party vendor's Google Account.

10. Get reviews. Lots of them. Ask friends, family, and your best customers to review you.

Bonus. If you want this done right, either read and completely follow the instructions elsewhere on this blog or hire a pro to do it for you. In fact, hire us. 310-910-1848. Ask for Randy

Google Places - Set Up New Google Account For Each Business - No Third Party Google Accounts

2010-05-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

DON'T LOSE YOUR HARD WON GOOGLE PLACES REVIEWS AND CITATIONS!!

When setting up your Google Places account, keep in mind that there is no way to transfer this account to someone else. If you should sell the business or have any other reason to want to transfer control of the account to another person, you will need to shut down the listing and start over. This means losing all of your reviews and citations. Obviously this could be a huge loss.

Therefore, DO NOT allow your marketing consultant, advertising agency, or any other outside company to create your listing in their account. They may wish to do this for convenience. You need to create this listing in YOUR Google Account.

DO NOT use your personal Google Account or the Google Account of another business you own or control to create your listing.

DO Create a brand new Google Account for each business that you own. This way you will be able to transfer control of the account to a new owner without losing any of the work that has gone into the creation of the account.

You should use this thinking with regard to all local search engine listings such as MerchantCircle, HotFrog, YellowPages.com, Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, and others.

Google Places Alert - Add Links to Your Google Places Listing

2010-05-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

Started to see info about this a week ago when we reported that Google Places would allow links to a restaurant menu or a hotel reservation desk. Some wondered then whether this would be expanded. Apparently there was no expansion necessary. But in another example of Google being a monster version of Mario Bros, we just need to figure this stuff out for ourselves. Thus, put any link you want. The obvious links would be anything that isn't your website and things in your website that you would like to point to directly.

So blogs, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, MySpace (who?), Meetup pages would all be examples of pages outside your website that could be linked. As far as inside is concerned, you might want to point to specific products, brands, services, specials, biographies of leadership. The list could go on and on.

To add these links you merely access your Places listing by going back to your Google Account. Next hit the edit link. All the way at the bottom of the form you will see the Additional Details Section. You add the link just as I have done for Montrose Bike's Blog.

Google Places - Multiple Professionals in One Street Address Can Have Multiple Places Listings

2010-05-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Just picked up off of a new Blumenthal's blog on Understanding Google Maps and Local Search

In an interview with Google

I decided however, to get Google’s “official” opinion on the matter so I asked Ari Bezman, Google’s product manager for the ~~Local Business Center~~ Google Places as to how Google thought this situation should be handled.
MB: What is Google’s recommended practice in regards to handling the multiple listings that most professionals and clinics end up with?
Should we endeavor to have one listing for the practice Place and merge all of the doctors (or whatever) into the one listing or should a we endeavor to keep the individual doctor listings?
Ari: Each doctor (or other independent professional) should have their own listing, with one more listing for the clinic.
MB: A related question is that often the Doctor listings come into Google with a format of Dr Name: Speciality . Is that the preferred business name or is just the Dr. Name preferred?
Ari: The name should just be Dr. Name. The specialty should be in the category and/or the description.

There followed a lively discussion on what this means. Does or should this only apply to professionals? What about businesses with widely different product categories or services? At least for the moment, we have it from the horses mouth, professionals operating out of a single business location can list themselves one at a time. As to the issue of how to name each professional, I noted that Ari said "should be." I doubt if that is true. I believe that the Dr. Could surely add a specialty, but I would stop at Dr. Jones Heart Surgeon unless I had a DBA for a longer name.

Google Places Says, "Owner Content Gets Priority"

2010-05-09T07:39:00.000-07:00

The new Google Places Help Forum is not great yet, but certainly better than before. An employee posted that Google does buy information from others, including YellowPages.com. In the course of buying that information, there can be competing information. This competing information can even have to do with key elements such as your name, address, phone number and such.

One of my clients has a picture on her Places listing that she doesn't like. It came in from CitySearch. No telling where CitySearch got the photo, but you get the point. The Google Places Rep said that Google will even call a business to find out which information is correct, when there is a conflict. I would love to hear of examples of that happening.

The key element in the forum post: Owner supplied information, pictures, and videos will always be preferred to info coming in from other sources, including the paid sources. This is why it is so important that you claim your Google Places listing and keep it fresh.

Google Places - Yellow Pages of The Present and Future

2010-05-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Lest anyone think I dost protest too much, check out the following post. Google has to the position, the product, and the power to be the king of local search. Like the 2010 Lakers, it is there's to lose.

Is Google Becoming the New Ma Bell?

By Gregg Stewart, ClickZ, May 6, 2010

Sponsored by Microsoft Mobile Advertising

First off, some younger readers might not get the comparison. The colloquial term Ma Bell ("Mother Bell") was used to refer to the conglomerate that held a complete monopoly over all telephone service in most areas of the United States. In effect, they were the utility that brought communication to U.S. consumers and businesses. Fast forward about 100 years and we see a similar "utility" emerging in Google as it moves further to embed its product set and services in the minds of both consumers and businesses.

Nowhere is this pattern more evident than in the realm of local search. With over 65 percent marketshare of search (according to comScore) and nearly $12 billion in annualized revenue from U.S. search (according to Google's Q1 2010 Quarterly Earnings Summary); I think we can all agree that Google is a successful business. Interestingly though, all of this success has come from leveraging a relatively small base of advertisers, around 1 million U.S. advertisers (as of 2009). Considering there were over 29 million businesses in the U.S. in 2008 (according to SBA), it stands to reason that Google has an opportunity to dominate the local search marketplace.
Let's consider the facts; one in five searches on Google is now explicitly location-specific. Recently, Google has taken some steps to enhance the local-search process on its site as well as the local content itself. Most notably, these steps include:

The revamp of the Local Business Center - now called Google Places
Google Maps allowing service-based businesses to target service areas
The enhanced localization of Google Suggest

Google Places and the Effect of Citations on Placement on the Outside MAP

2010-05-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is for fellow SEO and marketing consultants who are looking for a major edge over the competition, and for those business owners and marketing managers who are frustrated with their inability to get the Google Places listing to rank as high as they would like.

You've read every word in this blog. You have more reviews than anyone. You have 100% rating on Google Places in completeness of your listing. You have an active coupon. You have listed the company with exactly the same name, address and phone number on a large list of other Local Search Engines, and the name address and phone number are on the home page of the website in text. You've done all that, but you're still showing up on an inside page of Google Places.

Why do all those things first before worrying about citations. Because those things are all more likely to get you to your goal, and because this advice on citations is hard, boring, and only remotely going to add to your "points" with Google.

Then why do it at all. Because those last few points might be just what you need to move up.

With that huge long introduction out of the way, we next need to define citation. A citation is other websites that mention you, especially if they have credibility in the same field. If you are a bakery and you get a write up in the local paper as the best bakery in town, and the online version of that paper includes your name and hopefully your url, you gain credibility. These are citations.

Now, go to every listing above you in rank. Check out the citations that Google is showing as per the picture of the example listing shown here. What you now want to do is see if you can get a citation from those same sources. In some cases it may be as simple as being added to a directory of some kind. In other cases you may need to convince someone to do a write up on you.

The frustrating part of all this is that there is absolutely no guarantee that Google will pick up your citation even if you do all this work. But they probably will. The good news is that most of the citations you gain might have benefits in their own right, and may also help the status of your website, blog, or other urls that are mentioned in the citations.

Google Places and the Prioritizing of Keywords and City/Zip Codes

2010-05-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

Can you have it all? Truth? No. You can do everything I suggest and do it at the top of the game, but you aren't going to get every keyword for every city and every zip code you care about on Google Places. I happen to be working with a personal trainer in West Los Angeles right now who's business makes the case.

She would like to rank high under Pilate Instructor, Pilate classes, Fitness, Exercise Classes, Nutrition, Personal Trainer, boot camp, weight loss consultant, personal fitness coach, and others. In addition, her location in West Los Angeles would allow her to draw from 15 actual cities such as Santa Monica, Culver City, and El Segundo, plus another 10 Los Angeles "villages" such as Westwood, Venice, and Marina Del Rey. I wish there was a way to do all that.

Google Maps and other Local Search Engines (LSE's) are all structured to provide at least some indexing based on how close they are to the search city. So in the example above, if I'm searching for Personal Trainer Santa Monica, I'm not going to want an El Segundo business to show up first. (El Segundo is 8 miles away.)

However, if I'm the business owner, and my business is on the border of Santa Monica and Mar Vista, but actually located in Mar Vista (a much smaller village of Los Angeles than the City of Santa Monica), I sure would like to show up on the MAP in Santa Monica.

Unfortunately...reality check time...you are going to have to do some prioritizing. In fact, you should likely pick one key word and one city first. Next decision. Do you try to expand your reach under that keyword or work harder to show up under more key words in the primary city? Either way, the further you get in distance or the more keywords you want, the harder it is to achieve. But it is better to at least set clear goals.

If you want to expand your reach beyond the "natural" limits of Google Places algorithm, there are some tricks that I will likely never publish. For that you probably need to call me at 310-910-1848.

Restaurant Marketing With Google Places - Outside on the MAP is Critical

2010-05-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Google Places for Restaurant Marketing should be a top priority for all who hope to compete in any local market. And after you've done all the basics outlined on this blog in the PAGES section, you will need to really step up the effort on Reviews, Coupons, and Citations. Everyone in the local search engine business agrees that you will need to get more and more reviews on Yelp, CitySearch, YellowPages.com and other local search engines if you want to compete. In the restaurant business you also need listings and reviews in the specific Restaurant directories, and you need to be front and center on the mobile device listings. This is a tall order, but your future could well depend on it.

But the big deal is being outside on the MAP. Getting that position will actually depend on getting those reviews, citations, and having an active coupon. Methods for getting reviews will be the subject of an upcoming post.

For most restaurants, spending several $1000 dollars per month on print, radio, AdPac, etc., is pretty much the minimum you can do. For just $1000 to $2000 you can really get a ton of permanent online positioning that will last for years to come. You can do it yourself by reading these pages and subscribing to these posts, or you can get it done by a pro. If you're inclined to just get it done, call 310-910-1848.

A great website with excellent local SEO is a big part of the way you get on the outside MAP. Local SEO is one of our specialties.

Google Places Help Forum Now WAY More Helpful

2010-05-02T16:25:00.000-07:00

Used to be that a trip to the Google Local Business Center Help Forums had about the same chance of yielding a satisfactory answer as doing the lottery in California. Can't say that I was never helped, but after going there for help 3 or 4 times, I gave up.

Happy to say that the change of the name to Google Places seems to have also created a change of heart with regard to the forum. There are experts and others who are answering questions and some of the answers even make sense.

Let's be clear, however. They are NOT going to give you gray hat approaches. You'll still need me for that. I will never give you black hat, and almost everything I do is white hat, but shades of gray are part of the internet game.

Optimize Google Places - How to Score 100%

2010-05-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks for not only the great information, but the great visual from Mike Blumenthal's Blog. Getting a 100% rating from Google on your listing is not critical when it comes to ranking, but it can't hurt. And it isn't that hard.

If you don't like such beautiful visual approaches, here is a chart with the same information.

Google Places Promises to Help

2010-05-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

Latest news from Google Places is that there will be more information, newsletters, better forums, and all kinds of help coming our way. I am going to be all over that. Send me your questions. If I haven't answered it already somewhere on this blog, I may know the answer or with all this new help, I might be able to get an answer.

Google Places Coupons - Worth What They Charge

2010-04-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

MerchantCircle.com has coupons, and if you fill those out, they are likely to show up on Google Search on the first page. Google Places Coupons on the other hand . . . I've never seen one show up on search. On the other hand, I have had at least one customer have a client walk in to the store with a Google Places Coupon, which to date I know of no one getting a MerchantCircle Coupon in their hand.

For now, the few minutes it takes to fill out the coupon is likely to help with ranking, so do it.

Google Places Analytics - Worth Watching

2010-04-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

All marketing should be tracked. Even free marketing. Google Places is close to free. It takes an hour or two to do a decent job of creating the listing, and they now hope to charge you $25 a month to do a bit of advertising, but either way that's about the least your going to pay for any kind of marketing. In this case, the almost free marketing could potentially make you a bunch of money. So check once per week to see how you're doing on Places.

The basic information will look something like this. You will see how many folks saw your listing and how many took action. Scroll down and you can see what kind of action (eg. directions, clicked to website, etc.)

You can also see what kind of keywords they found you on, and what part of the city they were in when they asked for directions. Some pretty cool stuff. The trend line on the above sample was a bit unnerving, as the number of impressions and actions dropped precipitously. After extensive investigation on forums and emails to other pro's, nobody can explain it. All of the losses came from lookups of the company's actual name, not from keywords, but a search of the company name in various spellings showed that it was a stand alone listing on the outside map in every case. Google Places has Glitches. And nobody's at home to help with the fixes.

Google Places Own Words - Published Guidelines

2010-04-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

When you are uploading your listing to Google Places, you can certainly take advantage of their helps and their forum. WARNING. Useless. However much to the surprise of everyone in the local search engine world, Google issued some guidelines earlier this year. I think they are all covered in my tutorials on the Pages here, but just in case, here it is in their own words as reported by SearchEngineLand.com

Google Places quality guidelines

Business Listings in Google Places must have correct information about physical, local businesses, as they appear in the real world. Google reserves the right to suspend access to Google Places or to other Google Services to individuals or businesses violating these guidelines.
Ownership

Only business owners or authorized representatives may verify their business listings on Google.

Business Name

Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. The name on Google should match the business name, as should the address, phone number and website.
Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business into the business name.
Do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name.

Physical Location

Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist.
PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.
Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.
Businesses that operate in a service area as opposed to a single location should not create a listing for every city they service. Service area businesses should create one listing for the central office of the business only.
Businesses with special services, such as law firms and doctors, should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.
The precise address for the business must be provided in place of broad city names or cross-streets.
A property for rent is not considered a place of business. Please create one listing for the central office that processes the rentals.

URL & Phone

Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible. For example, you should provide an individual location phone number in place of a call center.
Provide one URL that best identifies your individual business location.
Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or 'refer' users to other landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business.

Custom Attributes & Description

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.
Please see this page of Google Places User Guide for examples of acceptable custom attributes.

Best Practices

Use a shared, business email account, if multiple users will be updating your business listing.
If possible, use an email account with a domain that matches your business URL. For example, if your business website is www.giraffetoys.com, a matching email address would be you@giraffetoys.com.

Google Places Will Take an Offering Now

2010-04-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

I have written here that Google is god, or at least intends to become god. I won't go into detail here as I have gone into some detail here.

One aspect of Googles godlike behavior is that so much is now free. Google docs, search, mail, voice, and so on. I claim that it is only a matter of time before they will pass the offering plate like any good religion. And so it has begun. Check this out from a very savvy Internet Guru:

2. Advertising with Tags - For 25 bucks a month, businesses (in certain cities) can use Tags to highlight their listings on Google.com and Google Maps. These are yellow markers that let you promote important aspects of your business. They can be used for thins like coupons, photos, and other select features. They don’t affect the rank of search results, but they give customers more information and may prove beneficial. You can expect Google to increase the number of cities where this option is available.

I will be recommending this option to everyone of my clients the minute it is available in their area. The income from this little collection will be enormous.

More Rants RE: Google Places - Flagged and Pending Listings

2010-04-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

To date I have created about 250 Google Places Listings. These have been done one at a time for clients. Each one has been labored over like the launch of a new product. For some of my clients, such as plumbers, carpet cleaners, and restaurants, getting on the outside (page 1) of Google Places map is a very big deal.

In the course of so many submissions, I have also scoured the internet to learn as much as I can about what others are doing and saying on forums, blogs, websites and so forth. I have emails coming to me all day from Google Feeds alerting me to any news regarding Places. In other words, when I put up a Google Places Listing, I know what I'm doing. No bragging here. Just truth in plain words.

In fact, I only give that introduction because with all that background, sometimes I get flagged. Sometimes I get Flagged. I go back and change things. I take it down and put it back up. I wait...and wait.... and wait some more.

C'mon. This is just irritating. Imagine if it's your first experience. Surely if the robot is clever enough to flag the account while it does a content check, it is clever enough to indicate what content it is checking. There has to be some way for the user to get an update.

I don't happen to be paying for any adwords or be involved with adsense. I have heard that if you are in contact with a sales person, you can sometimes get straight answers of get your problems resolved. I guess that's fair. Pay to play.

Of course, this is not the only odd result on Google Places, but it is by far the most irritating to me. What about you?

Google Places Needs to Improve Videos

2010-04-25T08:50:00.000-07:00

Once again we must give Places a Shout Out for allowing the upload of five videos to the listing. However, these videos, unlike even pictures, have absolutely zero appeal sitting there with no description. At least with a picture, you have the ability to show a product, an emotion, your good looking staff, your storefront. With the video icons, the visitor has no idea what is on the video, so no incentive to spend a few minutes taking a look.

The answer seems so simple. A Title or even a short description for each video would make this section of the listing come alive, be useful, and improve the visitor experience.

Fixing Google Places - Pictures

2010-04-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

I am going to take Google on. I happen to be a major fan, so who better to pick at their nits. But the truth is that Google Places has the potential to be awesome, and it seems like the parts that keep it from being the cat's meow are easy to fix. So the rants begin. Don't hesitate to add your own rants to the comments below, or email me and I'll set you up with your own column. RandyKirk77@Gmail.com. Maybe if we raise enough stink, they'll actually solve some of this stuff.

The pictures section is the worst of the problems, so I'll address that first. Thank You Google Places for allowing us 10 pictures. It is totally a neat deal that you use the first picture uploaded as the icon for the listing on the inside map pages. But why have you made it so hard to make the pictures look good. No other local search engine has this issue. If you try and put up a normal 3 X 4 picture, it commonly squashes the contents and distorts everything. Sometimes it cuts people's heads off (see above). Go ahead, check out any page on Places and you'll see distorted pictures.

Number Two - Why can't we have a caption on these pictures? Google, you are supposed to love information. So how is it that the pictures are left naked with no explanation as to what we are beholding in them. We get to know who supplied them. Who cares? We want to know what the heck we're looking at. How hard can this be?