The guide I wrote on Ranking in Google Places received/receives quite a bit of traffic. Obviously, this is a big deal to small businesses; what with Google Pages listings showing among organic search results.

I’ve been tracking the types of search terms that come through to the article, and wanted to answer some of the most common questions that are asked when people are searching. So, here they are:

How do I rank in Google Places?
I’m afraid you’ll have to read the whole guide. There’s a lot to not only creating and optimizing your listing, but also getting it to rank. Once you’ve taken the steps outlined in the guide, be sure to check out the local citation finder tool we looked at a few weeks ago. This will help you build citations to your site.

There are major determining factors that you should look at:

Those are the major factors, everything else is in the details.

How are some businesses already listed in Google Places?
I think these people are wondering how their, or other businesses are listed in Google Maps/Places without being submitted by the owner.

This usually happens when Google crawls other sources to fill up their database. They use other online directories, usually giving prominence to highly specific sites. For hotels, for example Google will crawl TripAdvisor.

They are also fed by “feeder” sites, like Info USA and other major business directories. So, if you see your business in Google Places but were not the one to include it, simply claim that listing and make it yours.

How often are Google Places listings clicked?
The answer to this question really depends on your location and type of business. I can tell you though, that when a business ranks in the Google Maps listings as well as high in the organic listings, we get a nice look at what has an impact. Depending on the business, those Maps/Places listings bring as much traffic as the natural results (if not more).

It should also be noted that not only do these listings drive a high percentage of overall traffic, they also convert much higher. We’re talking a lot. So much in fact that circumstantially, our efforts will sometimes focus primarily on a client’s Google Places account.

This has only become more important since the recent Google Places/Organic listings merge. Having a solid Google Places SEO strategy and Local SEO campaign is becoming more of a need.

Using your home address
There are many questions about home-based businesses that come through. If you don’t want your address to show, that’s ok. Simply use the “do not show my address” selection. This will allow you to get the listing, verify it should you chose to receive a postcard and keep your home address safe.

PO Boxes
On a related note, there are a lot of questions coming through pertaining to PO Boxes. Google doesn’t allow them, at least that’s what they say. I used to use PO Boxes all the time with no problems. I haven’t done so in quite some time, so I’m not even sure if it will even take it.

However, if you feel more comfortable using a PO Box, you can get a “mail box” from UPS. Here’s a special hint. You can try to find a UPS store near the center of the city, get one of their mailboxes and you’ve taken care of a huge determining factor. You’re welcome.

Google Places pulling wrong address/info
We feel your pain. A lot.

The official word from Google is that you can simply claim the listing if you haven’t already, and update it. If there are duplicate listings, you can claim both, and delete one of them from Maps.

I’m sorry to say, this isn’t true. Not yet anyways, and not for a long time. I’m not sure what they are doing in the Maps department at Google, but I can tell you this doesn’t seem to be high on their list of priorities. This has been a problem for far too long.

My only advice is to keep submitting tickets to them, and make sure you have as many citations as you can get. There’s a chance Google is pulling that information from another source and attributing it to your business. This is most common when a business has changed locations, and there are listings out there with that old address.

Tags and Google Places rankings
So far, we’ve seen absolutely no correlation between purchasing tags and higher rankings. In fact, we’ve placed a hold on purchasing tags for our clients because they simply don’t perform up to our standards. We’ll keep an eye on them with a few of our test accounts and post something should this change.

How to hijack Google Places listings
I’m not going to give any advice on that front. Keep searching though. As difficult as it has become, it’s still way to easy.

How long does it take for updates to take effect
Rather quickly. We make a change, and can see a listing updated within minutes. Rankings changes can happen within about 20 minutes. Stability happens within a few hours. There have been a couple of exceptions this last month, but that’s the norm for us so far.

That’s it this time. If you have any yourself, please feel free to leave a comment, or contact us.

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