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Yeah, simple text is OK. There's new YOUmoz article about this: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/increasing-your-local-search-presence-through-regionalization ..and a Search Engine Land article too: http://searchengineland.com/what-not-to-do-on-local-business-websites-81650

Well a light box actually has the code in the site, but just does not show all the images at once. a) should make the page lighter b) still has all the image links, ALT, and image description (usually included with light boxes) So from an SEO standpoint, as well as a user standpoint, this is all great! Your light box should just show/hide images that is already within the code, so yes, ALT and Title tags are good practice. If this is not the case with your light box, will you please provide a link or code snippet?

HI Mike... I'd love to discuss with you a couple of my findings, any chance you're on Skype?

I would go with the abreviation, as it is the most common form other people will put it up as.  You might even get someone listing your business on their website unsolisited.  Often i find these people will use abreviated form, and what really matters is that it matches what is in your google places. either way, pick one now, and stick with it forever. don't change it, and make sure it matches everywhere. also google definitely prefers local numbers to 1800 numbers as primary phone numbers in places page. and make sure you use their format: (123) 456-7890

Same problem here. We tried updating some keywords around our website with the obvious terms (forums, discussions, etc.) and got nothing so far.

You can try uploading your video to amazons3 with a link back to your site. I would recommend using <cite>**www.ezs3.com. **</cite> However, there is nothing worse than seeing the same exact video on a SERP.  Why not do different videos related to your topic so each video give usable information.

I have been enjoying your comments more and more. It is very clear you are reading great articles and expanding your knowledge every day. I had not read the article you shared before now. I enjoyed it very much. Matt Cutt's video is from Aug 2009. He shared that originally links were treated equally but Google's link analysis was growing and becoming more sophisticated. The article you referenced was written Mar 27, 2010. This type of article is exactly why I am a member here at SEOmoz. That article represents the thorough work and analysis of SEO experts on the valuation of links. It's a great article. I am not 100% confident in their findings, but they are very logical and I will accept them and incorporate them in my future efforts. So it appears you answered your own question, and thank you for taking the time to share the results.

We all feel your pain. Looking at the local landscape of SEO firms in our market you see a lot of this. Ryan and Dignan99  have it right I think.  Five or six great links will overcome all the spammy stuff. Look at great content ideas.  Do a day of out of the box thinking about on site content that will draw a crowd. Use the standard content ideas to start  ( Tips, Forums, Contests, Opinion, events).  You need real sites to notice you and real traffic to overcome the less imaginative but prolific 4000 links to a url crowd. In my experience it takes components of at least three for this type strategy, meaning not just the content, but the distribution of it, and the  promotion of it. All three areas have to be good.  Where throwing together a bunch of low quality sites is a component of one thinking.  Low quality linking and SEO (Like most things I suppose) are symptoms of taking the easy road, and the course of least resistance. So,  not only can you write some great content ( or have a professional do it)  that will draw some attention, but you can also promote that content through ad words for a short period, and face book ads, with a very targeted campaign to the bloggers and movers and shakers in the Industry. It's the old my blender can blend an i pad thought process.  I bet if you really find something interesting and unique to demonstrate on the site, promote it well, and distribute the information in a thoughtful targeted manner, you can and will out rank the dark forces.

Thank you.  I have been reading the David Mihn stuff it is a great resource!

PMC, Absolutely!  One of the biggest ranking factors for your Google places are your citations. Anytime your clients business is mentioned online it acts as a citation. If you are using different NAP you wont get the credit from these citations.  The other issue is this can cause duplicate places page in Google. When this happens your clients best places page is pushed down and the new less optimized duplicate listing shows up. At this point you will need to claim this listing and TRY to delete the duplicate listing. This can take a lot of time. If you're going to use a different NAP for tracking purposes you'll want to do it as an image so Google bot can't read it. I've also attached a link where you can read about duplicate listings in Google places Hope this helps, Bill

In addition to the resources already listed, I'd also recommend checking out the learning center at http://getlisted.org/resources/ Specific to the, "Any surefire ways to get more citations there?" question... Check out your competitors places listings, too. See if they're getting any citations from local sites, resources, or lists. If Google is indexing these citations for your competitors and adding them to place pages, it will probably tie them to your places page too, if you can get listed.

Again, many thanks for your answers and your time in looking at these results. I hadn't even noticed that the first listing hadn't actually claimed their place page (which does surprise me). When you say that a company could achieve the same results by doing appropriate SEO on the local and organic level, I take it you mean SEO on the Places page and local targeted SEO on the main site? Many thanks for your help and advice on this. I wanted to gather as much information regarding this area within the local search before committing to the client. I have done a great deal of research about local search and SEO but was unsure of what was making Google actually rank these sites where they're ranking them. Regards, Michael

Hello Kevin, I would suggest that you Change the old Listing to the new name then add in the tracking number to the "other numbers" category of the listing. Then suspend the new listing. Google Boost may assist, however Google Tags have helped me in the past with promoting a video about my client.

Aviva - good luck, and yes, I'd love it if you could update this thread if you get a response. Maybe title your forum thread something like: Whole Parts Of Israel Excluded From Places? That might get a rep's attention.