Help - Google places,a service my competitor has used...

[copywritingbuzz]

I was just doing a bit of detective work on a competitors website and noticed they had employed the services of an SEO company. Anyway, i went on this SEO companies website and discovered they offer a service called "Google places". Now I have an idea what google places is (my company is registered with it) but how are SEOs using Google places as a method for SEO? And how can I copy this service to do this for my own website?

[Keith-Eneix]

Hey Nick,

Google Place is an excellent way for your company to receive benefits from local SEO searches for free. All you need to do is create a Google account, go to Google Places, and create your listing. The secret to an optimized places listing is pretty simple, fill out all the information, keywords, and pictures (Google will send you a confirmation letter which takes about 2 weeks to confirm your address). Once you have a complete profile you will be ahead of most other companies who do not have a complete profile. For those companies who are ahead of you I would suggest learning more about ranking organic keywords to the front page of Google. Google places will combine your front page ranked keywords with your map listing and give you higher rankings. If you need any help we would love to be of service at fannit.com.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question. I'll take a step-by-step approach in my reply.

• The first thing to do is to determine whether your company qualifies for inclusion in Google Places. In order to qualify, you must have a business name, a dedicated local area code phone number (not a toll free number or redirected number) and a dedicated physical street address (not a shared address, not a PO box or virtual office).

• Additionally, in order to qualify, you must do business face-to-face with your customers. So, for example, if your business was a virtual business like an eCommerce store or a virtual directory, you would not qualify for inclusion. But so long as you meet all of the above criteria, you do qualify.

• Next, go to maps.google.com and search for your business name and phone number. See if anything comes up. Many business owners discover that they already have a Google Place Page because Google populates their index from much 3rd party data. If you already have a Google Place Page, you will want to claim it by clicking the 'are you the business owner' link on the page. In such cases, look carefully at all of the information published about you to see if Google has made any mistakes so that you can correct them when you claim the business.  If you do not have a Google Place Page, you will be creating one from scratch and must have a Google account (such as gmail, etc.) in order to do so.

• The next thing to do is to carefully study the Google Places Quality Guidelines. Read them closely to be sure that you will not violate any of the guidelines in creating your Google Place Page. The Guidelines are here: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528 The guidelines will explain to you exactly how to list your business, and most especially, what NOT to do. The reason that this is so important is that if you violate the guidelines, your account may be penalized or banned and getting back into Google's good graces can be next impossible to do after you've erred.

• Due to a recent change in Google's guidelines, it is now critical that you determine which of 3 types of business models describes your business.

1. All customers come to your place of business. In this case, you simply allow Google to show your address and need not take any special steps.

2. Some customer come to you and you go to some customers. In this case, while creating your Google Place Page, you will choose to have Google show your address, but you will also be selecting a service area radius showing the extent to which you travel to customers.

3. You travel to all customers (chimney sweep, landscaper, taxi company would be businesses like this). In this case, you must choose the 'hide address' function while creating your Place Page in order to be in keeping with Google's new guidelines on this.

• So, basically, read all the guidelines and comply with them. Consider uploading up to 10 photos and 2 or more videos while creating your Place Page to make it more complete.

• Then,at the end of filling out your information, you will be required to verify it. Sometimes Google offers you the option to verify by phone, in which case, they will call you with a pin number you have to enter. At other times, Google offers verification by postcard, in which case, you will be receiving a postcard with a pin number that you have to come back and enter in. Sometimes Google offers both options...sometimes only the postcard option.

• Once your Place Page has been verified and indexed, the work ahead of you will involve gaining citations and reviews for the business. These are things you can learn about as you go along. If your business fits the local criteria described at the beginning of this post, you will also want to be building other profiles in other local business indexes. Here is a link to an excellent SearchEngineLand post on the top 50 citation sources for the USA and UK:

http://searchengineland.com/top-50-citation-sources-for-uk-us-local-businesses-104938

• Finally, getting your Place Page filled out and verified is just one important aspect of a Local SEO campaign. The Local optimization of your website is critical to your rankings. So, this is another area of study ahead of you.

Hope this detailed summary of steps is helpful. Good luck!