Any chance for my listing to rank in top 7 Google maps?

[jesse1341]

Was wondering if it is possible to position a clients listing in one of the top 7 local listings on Google.

All of the listings in the top 7 spots have pr2,3, and even 4.The clients site is new and pr0.

his listing is:

Dallas Foundation Repair 

2770 Live Oak St, Dallas, TX ‎(214) 770-8975 ‎ · dallasfoundation-repair.comand we are trying to rank for keywords: dallas foundation repair,foundation repair in dallasalso please give me your advice as far as what approach I should be taking, thanks guys

[vmialik]

Hello Jesse,

This is very doable.  Local Results are not so much focused on Page Rank which is highly connected to actual links, but more so on relevant local citations with your NAP (Name, Address, Phone, Website directories and other citations that include your business info)  If you do a great job with local citations you can get up there fairly quick.

Also get a great review strategy and the most I've seen is 8 reviews on your keyword terms, I think even with 3-6 reviews you should be getting good results. Also make sure your Google Local listing is optimized with correct info, categories, and terms you want to aim for.

All of these should help work in favor very much!

Hope this helps!

[SEO5Team]

Check out the White Spark citation finder tool. You will find lots of relevant citations for that website that you can list it in. That should help with the local rankings.

[jesse1341]

good to know but do you think citations will be enough to outrank a pr3 site? I mean in almost all cities the sites that are on top are sites with high pr

[vmialik]

Again PR  is usually connected with links, and if you want to see how strong a site is you check the number and quality of links pointing to that domain.  In our case for local seo you need to check the number of citations that your competitor has. What you can do is take their phone number and search for that phone number and see all the places that it is listed. And that should give you the approximate amount of work that needs to be done. More here on how to do that, and for more advanced citation searching and building: http://ontolo.com/blog/phone-number-co-citation-analysis-local-link-builders

[vmialik]

This is a great resource too. Thanks SEO5

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Jesse,

Competing is nearly always possible, but the unknown quantity is time (how long it will take). Citations are definitely important, as some of our members have wisely recommended here, but the authority of the website is, in my opinion, an equal or greater factor in overall local rankings.There is debate about the exact importance of each ranking factor, as evidenced by the recent Local Search Ranking Factors. I recommend that you read this 2013 survey and try to do as much as you possibly can with the client in the foundational ranking factors category of the survey to start with. All of these steps will take time. So, it's definitely possible to outrank competitors, but the effort/funding/time that will take is going to be unique to each market and client. I would share the survey with the client to help them begin to understand the diversity of efforts that need to be made to begin to get in the game. Good luck!