Any tips for optimising for Local Search/Google Places

[intermingle]

I have a client that used to come up on Google Places consistently for some very competitive keywords - when they ranked quite low for them through their normal website - places would see them above all the organic results in normally number 2 position - whereas they would rank between 16 - 26 normally

We have optimised the site and have 'A' grade keywords for the ones we are interested in google placing for and just recently we are out of it all together, even though we have improved their optimisation for that word with SEO

Someone said that their phone number on the website had to match perfectly with google places and so does their address.  Is this true?  Is there anything else that will help them keep their position in places ?  ie. setting up a Google + page etc.,

Any advise would be appreciated

thanks

[BedeFahey]

Hi Maria, There are a number of factors that influence ranking, but it sounds like there was a ranking drop recently afte r you made some changes. How soon after you made changes to the site to did the drop occur, and what changes did you make to the site? I ask because, since the end of 2010 rankings in local search are generally a combination of the SEO/authority of the site itself and the optimization/citations/reviews of the listing. If you changed something on the site, it could impact local rankings, too. For the phone number and address, it should match, but unless you are seeing duplicate listings, or you changed it significantly, then it's unlikely that this is the problem. If Google is not creating duplicate listings, then it's likely it will recognize the information. To cover these things, I would check to make sure that: - There are no duplicate listings suddenly appearing - search for phone number+business name, address, business name+city, and any other combinations you can come up with. Do this on maps.google.com as well as google.com. If you want to be really thorough, check http://www.google.com/mapmaker as well. - Their places listing is still active (e.g. no "needs attention" etc.) - That you can access their listing by clicking on it. I know this sounds odd, but sometimes there's an error that says "we do not support this location" which needs to be dealt with. I believe this is becoming less and less common. - The client hasn't suddenly lost reviews - No one attempted to merge a Google+ page with the local listing without your knowledge If all of the above is working correctly, and you've made no major changes to the site that could cause issues, I would check out what the competition is doing. Do any of them suddenly have more reviews? Is someone cheating and putting the business category or city in their business name? These things might cause a rankings drop by bumping you down. If that's not happening, then it's time to start checking things off against the following post: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml Some of these things you can influence, some of them you can't. Assuming that your listing has the right categories, and a good description, the two main things you should focus on are building citations and building decent reviews. Hopefully this helps! Bede

[intermingle]

Hi Bede,

thanks for your informative reply - I have checked all the points above and do have a number of issues of concern

1.  The competition has received more reviews lately

2.  There are duplicate listing as they are an accommodation provider and they are listed on booking agencies - so their name comes up for these booking agency ads on maps.google.com - but not with their address or phone number details and I assume the same would be for their competitors also so I don't think this is the major contributor.

however I am worried as the business name of my client - includes the city they are in and one of the major keywords - their name is Vintages Margaret River - their website is www.vintagesmargaretriver.com.au and they are competing for the keywords - accommodation Margaret River and Margaret River accommodation  - what would you recommend?  Any thoughts?

thanks

Maria

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Maria, I see you've started 2 threads here with the same question. I've responded to the version of your question, here: http://www.seomoz.org/q/optimising-for-local-search#post-149218