Linking to Google Place page??

[bdiddy]

I'm wondering if anybody has tried and had success in improving search rankings by creating links to Google Place pages. What say you?

[jsturgeon]

Hi bdiddy,

As a rule of thumb, if you want Google to like you--use their stuff

That goes for using the Webmaster tools and as some would argue, the adwords paid search (a little more controversial).

But as for your question, maybe you can clarify what it is you're looking for? Are you trying to get your Google Places listing higher in the results, or are you trying to get your website (www.yourdomain.com) higher in the SERPs by using Google Places as a backlink?

If it's the latter, understand that all the links on a Google Places page are "rel=nofollow". You won't gain any link juice (or friends at Google) if you make a bunch of place pages and link them back to yourdomain.com

If it's the former, and you want to get your places page higher in the local search, see Rand's research. There are a number of factors that go into winning in local search, but chief among them is making sure your business listing is consistent across the web.