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Hi Chris, I guess it stands to reason! Thanks for the feedback.

Hi Marco, Yes, I'm sure good markup would be a prerequisite for this scenario.

Would also like access

Good luck with this George, google places is a tiresome part of Google many have lengthy issues with. Try anything and everything, you can stop when it finally works.

ok cool thanks for your help.

Hi Linda, I will definitely stop by your forum to read up on this. Sounds quite complicated, indeed. Thanks for the heads up!

Hi Phil & Jason, I thought this may be of some use as well. It is pretty basic but gives some very good reasons for a modern updated website. http://www.zemanta.com/blog/you-might-need-a-new-website-design/ http://blog.kissmetrics.com/leave-a-website/ I hope this it is of help, Thomas

I'd quote five minutes per location per listing because you have to verify everything also... ya know, check your email, all 350 of them.

Thanks Colin - very good feedback. I was leaning that direction but you're advice pushed me over the edge. I agree, I think all the 'off site signals' are what's got my non geo home page ranking for Dallas.

Don't forget that I am from Holland and that a lot of the American directories do not work for for Holland. But thank you for the advice.

Yeah - that's a terrible and misleading article from Mark Robertson. In his defense, he has admitted some of the flaws in the comment thread, but he never clarified in the article that "indexed" does not equate to "ranking with a rich snippet in the Google organic results". TL:DR - No, you can't do it and even if it does start working, it's a bad strategy as it's never going to be consistent when other's can also embed your YouTube videos and rank for them.

Interesting. That may be a better option than Google Voice. Less expensive to setup a new phone number when the old one runs out. Thank you!

Agreed with Takeshi.  We do this all day long.  Great way to have content on your site and build up your YouTube Channel.  Keep it up!

Hi Wayne, Your local area code phone number is the 'P' in your core business NAP (name, address, phone). Listing it consistently as your primary phone number is crucial to you sending a clear signal. Glad you asked, as this is very important!

Sorry to hear that Chris. Bede, would you happen to have an update on what you reported about your client on this back in March? I'd love to hear, too.

Hi Chase, Great questions. I highly recommend that you study GetListed.org's Local Search Ecosystem infographic to start getting a handle on the big players and the way in which data feeds from one source to another. It's a truly awesome illustration of how this all works: https://getlisted.org/static/resources/local-search-data-providers.html

Hi Jon, Your competitor should not be included in the local results for his display homes as these fall under the following Google Places Quality Guidelines (http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528 "Rental or for-sale properties, such as vacation homes or vacant apartments, are not eligible to be listed on Google Maps and should not be verified. Instead, verify the listing for your sales or leasing office or offices. If you have a property with an on-site office, you may verify that office location." So, unless there is an office on the property that can be listed, this type of property cannot be included. How is your competitor getting away with this? I don't know. Perhaps they have an on-site office, or perhaps it's a goof on Google's part. Place Pages/+ Pages that are in violation of the guidelines certainly exist and can be live for an indeterminate amount of time before Google takes notice and penalizes or removes them. If the competitor is violating the guidelines, they are in danger of their whole profile falling under suspicion if/when Google catches on to the fact that they have listed vacant properties. If you feel that the competitor's current advantage is unfair, you do have the option to report the listings, but that's about all you can do. Hope this helps.

Hi Bob, I like Chris' answer, and will add to this. The naturalness of an overall review profile is important to think about. Additionally, a big reason I would not recommend getting only Google Places/+ reviews is that this product has been plagued time and again with massive review loss for years. The Google And Your Business Forum is swimming in reports of business owners having lost many or all of their reviews. If this happens and they don't happen to have any reviews any place else, then they are suddenly in a review-less state with absolutely no record of their good service. So, while Google Places/+ Local is likely to be one of the most important sites to earn reviews on, it is definitely not the only site and a diverse review profile is good insurance against massive review loss. I recommend that businesses let their customers pick their own favorite review sites. You can steer some clients, if you like, but in the end, if a customer only likes to use Angie's List, by all means, thank her for reviewing the company there. Don't ever insist that she only use Google Places/+.

A client of mine may only target 2 local keywords, where his home page is for national keywords and an internal page is for local. Is this even a good idea?

Hi BobGW, Provided you are getting them from quality sources, then, no, I would not be concerned about having more citations that competitors. However, if you have far surpassed your competitors in the number of citations you've earned and it isn't achieving a defined goal (like rankings for certain target keywords), then I would recommend that you devote effort to other pieces of the puzzle. So, for example, if it's obvious that a business is lacking reviews, turning your attention there would likely be a wiser use of time/budget than continuing to build citations if you've already outdistanced the competition in that area. *Nota Bene: Though you didn't ask about this, Bob, I will add - don't get a ton more reviews than any of your competitors. While you want to have more reviews than your direct competitors, you don't want to earn a TON more as this can look spammy.