I am glad that you answered because I think you are the most experienced person on Seomoz when it comes to Google Local so let me share some information with you.
" If I knew the name and location of your business, I would begin searching for anything that associates your name with the listing." I already did that but I will let you do it as well. I found my name in Angie's List and Picassa. I will upload an image at the end with all the info.
This is my main problem: 9 months ago our old Google Places account disappeared from the radar completely due to a phone call from a Google employee asking about our location. I have been trying ever since to re-instate it with no success. I read all your posts on Seomoz about this, I checked Linda's website as well, I called Google verification line twice and I am no further than I was last year. The guys at Google told me that everything looks good, I am following Google's guidelines about hiding my address due to the nature of my business and that they see the listing it has been pending for a long time and they will escalate it to Google maps team, they also told me that I should be re-instated soon. I called back a few weeks after that, spoke with somebody else and he said the same thing about re-instating my listing but this time he verified my business again (he called our office while on the phone) and a few days later a got a post card in the mail from Google, pin verification! Prior to this, I have been in touch with a Google places forum moderator, we have exchanged a few emails but after a while he did not respond anymore. The funny thing is, I was closely watching one of my biggest competitors (who was having the same problem as i had) writing on Google forums and waiting to apply whatever they would advise him. This competitor got re-instated with a help of the same moderator (Keenan) that did not reply to my emails anymore after pointing out who and when he had helped).
There is more to come...Reading over and over again about this competitor that managed to raise to the first position in Google Local for a number of very searched for keywords I have started to play with Google map maker and a few days ago, I realized that my G + business local listing had been removed a long time ago. I've edited the listing and submitted it for reconsideration and a few hours later, there I was! My G+ listing was live again but Google places is still under pending. I know that Google + local shows just the location of the business based on the pin on the map, it does not influence the local SERP's in any way. The good part about this is that I got all my 30 reviews back which I have work hard for. The bad part of course is that my Google Places listing is still under Pending.
I have done everything the best I could, I researched this subject to the point where I don't know what to do anymore, I read Mike, yourself, Linda and other knowledgeable people's thoughts about the subject and I feel that I just hit a wall.
Being a member here helped me achieve great results, there is so much good information on this website that is literally impossible not to succeed if you follow it. I need to be in Google local due to the nature of my business but, there is no advantage for being on first page in Google for more than 10 strong keywords when I know that my organic listings will be below 6 or 7 local results. Isn't this ironic?
I am not even sure if what I do is the right thing anymore, can you point me in the right direction?
Thanks!
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