Would it make sense to do organic seo on a website if the keywords being targeted brought up tons of businesses with Google Places ads in top position?

Do you mean ranking above google places? If so then yes because google places is beatable

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackha...le-places.html

Originally Posted by rodnice1

Would it make sense to do organic seo on a website if the keywords being targeted brought up tons of businesses with Google Places ads in top position?

'Google Places ads' implies paid ads for Google Places aka G00gle AdWords Express; so you'll need to create a (paid) advert and optimize it.

Now, if by 'Google Places ads' you mean Google Places listings, then it really does depend on what the organic search results are for specific keywords; and the competition on page 1.

If the top positions on page 1 consists of just Google Places listings (or if it's a mix of organic search results and Google Places listings), then in addition to ordinary SEO, you'll need to create a Google Places listing as well, and optimize it.

Originally Posted by turbohacker

Do you mean ranking above google places? If so then yes because google places is beatable

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackha...le-places.html

I mean G places and not adwords. Certain keywords bring up Places ads first and then show organic results below them. Even if you are #1 organic you still dont stand much of a chance against the Places ads above you. I guess id have to make a Places ad and try to get it to rank up there on that first page.

In my opinion if you can get your business to rank on page 1 in G Places there is no need for organic SEO efforts.

There is a thread floating around where a guy after much effort beat the g places listings by 1st getting to page 1 through his prior efforts. When he stalled and was stuck behind the 7 block of local ads he HAND BUILT a 10 or 20 web 2.0 blog tier with unique content then backlinked that tier and next thing you know he ramked above the g place listing. I don't know if this is for you or a client but based on the amount of work involved it may just be better to rank your g place listing. There is a basic wso in downloads that has some info about that.

Originally Posted by Getwhatchuwant

There is a thread floating around where a guy after much effort beat the g places listings by 1st getting to page 1 through his prior efforts.

Think you may mean turbohacker and the thread in post #2.

i beat out google places simply using scrapebox and about 1600 no follow back links to a google blogger blogspot blog. it can be done.

Originally Posted by n3wbseo

i beat out google places simply using scrapebox and about 1600 no follow back links to a google blogger blogspot blog. it can be done.

How competitive was the kw?