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How Google Places Uses Directory Listings

Google Places has positioned itself to become the trusted resource for local business listings. Google’s decision to give more weight to the Places listings in regular organic searches has boosted the prominence of those listings, meaning that businesses need to pay a little more attention to whether they have claimed their listing and how they can optimize their page for search. Companies that formerly relied on third-party directory listings should give serious consideration to their listing strategy in order to receive the most traffic.

How Third Party Directories Play a Role in Google Places

Before the big switch that began including Google Places listings in regular organic search results, third party directories were the best way to make sure your local listing could be found quickly and easily. The listings were considered authoritative and often ranked high in the SERPs. After the switch, the rules have changed. Google has given much more weight to Google Places listings, meaning that if you claim your page with Google Places, that page will be given more authority than a third party directory listing because you’ve created it yourself. However, third party directories still feed information to Google Places for businesses that have not claimed their Places page.

What This Means for Businesses

Since third party directories carry less weight than officially claimed Google Places pages, your first priority should be to claim your page and keep it updated. That will be Google’s first source of information about your company. You’ll also need to keep your regular website updated and maintained since your search ranking could be affected by the attention you’ve given to SEO there. Keep in mind, however, that Google does scrape third party directories and that they especially look for listings with reviews. Third party references to your business or website can lend greater credibility to your Places page, increasing your chance of being ranked highly. Other factors that increase Places rankings include review quality and quantity, links, and citations.

Google’s algorithm switch is proving to be a game changer for many local businesses. In order to remain visible, you’ll now need to register for and update a Google Places page as well as keep your third-party directory listings updated. The more trusted sources you have supplying the information, the more credible you’ll be and the higher you’ll be ranked in the organic search results.

Related articles

• The Ultimate List: 50 Local Business Directories (hubspot.com)

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

Google remains notoriously close-mouthed about the factors that affect their search engine results pages, and that’s not changing when it comes to Google Places. But through observation and tracking results over time, it’s possible to create educated theories about the factors most likely to increase your Google Places ranking. Because Google has begun integrating Google Places results within the regular organic search results, it’s even more important that you pay attention to your local listing in order to increase traffic for your website.  With that said, let’s take a look at five factors that will significantly influence your Google Places rankings.

1.       Address

Your address must be in the same city as the search query in order for you to be listed. For instance, if someone searches for hotels near Disney World, you must be listed in Orlando in order to show on the results page. The closer you are to the location searched, the higher your ranking.

2.       Complete Business Information

Theoretically, the more information you have on your Google Places page, the more you’ll be able to offer visitors and the more important Google will consider you to be. Beef up your page by adding a fleshed-out business description, pictures, videos, and all the relevant information you can to give your page more weight. The more consistent this information is across various websites and directories, the better off your results will be.

3.       Keyword as Part of Your Business Name

While Google has been very effective in stamping out spammy keywords, it still helps if your business name includes the keyword being searched. Avoid including a keyword if it isn’t really part of your name since Google can figure that out pretty quickly, but be aware that businesses with legitimate occurrences of searchable keywords included in their names may be given more weight.

4.       External Citations

Both links and mentions of your business by other websites will earn credibility with Google Places. Be sure that you use various business directories (I will be compiling a post of these directories in the near future).

5.       Customer Reviews

Because Google has begun relying more heavily on Google Places listings in their organic search results, it makes sense that they would want only highly valued businesses to appear among the top results. While simply having a large number of reviews on your site may be beneficial, Google does display overall rankings in the summary on the results page, so it’s important to cultivate positive reviews for greatest effect.

There are other factors that play into your Google Places results as well including domain age, business categories, and having a local phone number. Keep these and the elements listed above in mind as you improve your Google Places page in order to generate high quality traffic to your business website.

Related articles

• 4 Real Reasons to Care About Google Place Pages (businessinsider.com)

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

Apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, and now even Facebook’s check-in functionality have become all the rage these days. They represent a growing segment of the marketing industry that allows businesses to deliver advertising messages directly to their customers’ mobile phones based on their location. While check-in apps like these may be trendy, they don’t represent the whole picture when it comes to location based marketing. Whether you’re ready to dive into Foursquare or not, location based marketing can help your business in a variety of ways.

What is Location Based Marketing?

Location based marketing seeks to reach customers where they are by putting advertising messages that relate to their current location in front of them. It’s not a new concept. Phone books have been offering location specific ads for years. But with the new technological aspect, the process has become more personal, more effective, and more desirable. With the advent of mobile marketing, companies can use location information gleaned from a mobile phone to provide instantaneous marketing messages when people come within the vicinity of their stores.

What Can Location Based Marketing Do for Me?

The applications of location based marketing present new marketing vistas for the savvy company. Interactive point-of-sale texts that provide information about a product the customer is considering, location-specific coupons that entice customers into a store, incentives for checking in multiple times with an app like Foursquare, and mobile ads that appear when a customer is within a certain radius of the store can all help drive traffic and increase overall sales in your brick-and-mortar store. The key is to respect consumer privacy by using opt-in measures that allow them to choose which ads they want to see.

What is the Future of Location Based Marketing?

The future looks bright for applications like Foursquare. The company already has plans in the works for improved user experience, increased capabilities, and proactive recommendations. Spending in the location based marketing field is expected to surge to $4 billion by the year 2015 as companies like Google and Facebook jump on the band wagon with location specific features.

Location based marketing seeks to build a bridge between traditional and digital marketing. With millions of users relying on their mobile phones for internet access and product research, companies would be wise to take advantage of the opportunities available to incorporate location based marketing into their overall marketing strategy.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.