For those of us who are into Google Places I've found some resource that might be of interest to people. I'm in the UK so I tend to look at that market but there's some things here that benefit everyone wherever your market is.

Please share any other resources you find to help others.

Tools:

http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/ - Citation finder. You enter your search phrase and the software will locate all the sites where the top listings are getting citations from. There’s a limited free version going up to $100 a month for heavy users.
http://www.localsearchtoolkit.com - Analyzes results shown on Google Places. Lists citations, reviews, photo uploads, verified or not and so on.
http://www.brightlocal.com/seo-tools/ a number of local SEO tools, some paid, some free, some still in development
http://www.chaddo.com/index.php/google-places-software/ - Chad Kimball's software

Analytics - Tracking GP traffic is not that simple apparently;

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tracking-...ogle-analytics

http://www.localseoguide.com/how-to-...gle-analytics/ - tracking mobile traffic

Citations - tips and advice

http://www.sitevisibility.co.uk/blog...ocal-listings/

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2010/12/...ompared-rated/ - list of UK business directories for citation that apparently Google take notice of

http://www.brightlocal.com/blog/2010...s-directories/ List of top business directories in the UK, it’s a couple of years old but still useful if your looking for some directories.

http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/how-to-ra...cal-in-the-uk/ - UK specific

http://www.poweredbysearch.com/local...ation-webcams/ - using a webcam to promote your listing! No seriously, it’s true

BHW Pages to download Google Places WSO's

Google Cheat Sheet: WSO 307645 http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackha...eat-sheet.html
Google Places Takeover WSO 490728 http://www.mediafire.com/?25cbt7r77327xbi
Google Maps Letter WSO 291544 http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackha...w-clients.html
WSO 258166 Google ***** http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackha...-can-copy.html


Other Reading:

http://www.seo.com/news/google-place...ative-reviews/
http://www.seo.com/blog/ways-rank-to...calized-serps/
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/one-dead-...n-google-local

http://searchengineland.com/does-inc...rankings-19669

http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/10-l...algorithm/519/

http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/...ies-you-missed

http://www.whitehat-blackbelt.com/20...your-business/ - GP dos and don’ts

http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/seo-in...-war-facebook/

Excellent resource, dotcom. +rep given.

Bookmarked,

Thanks for the time you took to compile those sources.

Thanks dotcom, great to have all these resources in one place.

Thanks dotcom, looks like I have some reading to do!

Thanks for the sources, nice list.

You are the man.... loving this thread

excellent list, but u missed one big one: davidmihmDOTCOM/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

Link for billyblanco's suggested page:

http://www.davidmihm.com/local-searc...-factors.shtml

Really good article for Places.

surprised you got so few thanks on this OP. well done, its a useful list. Thanks and rep given.

nice one dotcom. thanks for putting all of these resources in one place. how's your recent experiment going (last time i read on another thread, i think you were about to start distributing prospecting letters by hand?)

Awesome job on the Google Places resources. Has the 7-pack been replaced with the 3 to 4-pack in your area?

thanks dotcom, really useful

to post above, in my area it is now a 3 pack and not the old 7 pack

Thanks! I will be looking at it in depth later.

Originally Posted by boom1

thanks dotcom, really useful

to post above, in my area it is now a 3 pack and not the old 7 pack

Yeah I've spotted just 3 slots lately, why is that? I thought maybe it was because they don't have enough businesses to fill 7 slots or am I missing something?

do you guys have any insight if there is a difference in the usage of the tools if using them for German keywords and sites?

I'm going to start GP in 2 weeks after my exams are finished and looking forward to absorb all the info.

Awesome man, great list, thanks

Can someone please explain to me what a citation is? I've seen the word around the forum but I don't understand what it means. Thanks

This looks like a good pile of stuff to read. I'm thinking about getting into it and this will help.

This is awesome! I'm working on a Google places but the website for the project is not fully setup, it's under construction for the next 2-3 weeks. Do you guys recommend that you have a fully setup website before working on Google Places?

I do but I'm no expert. I just think it's important for your future clients to be able to see a website behind the letters they get. However I've read some people are doing this without their own sites.

Originally Posted by Markthedude

This is awesome! I'm working on a Google places but the website for the project is not fully setup, it's under construction for the next 2-3 weeks. Do you guys recommend that you have a fully setup website before working on Google Places?

Originally Posted by sicnarf

Can someone please explain to me what a citation is? I've seen the word around the forum but I don't understand what it means. Thanks

It's basically a reference to your client's address somewhere on the internet, usually a directory site such as Yellow Pages, Yelp, Qype etc

It's not a link in the Anchor Text type way but it's confirmation that ABC Business is based at XYZ Street.

Originally Posted by dotcomdesigns

I do but I'm no expert. I just think it's important for your future clients to be able to see a website behind the letters they get. However I've read some people are doing this without their own sites.

I agree and it would be ideal to have the website fully up and running but the people I'm dealing with are slow to get me the material needed for the site.

For those of you who don't SEO the websites do you think it effects your places rankings or do you feel the places isn't effected by the websites but more by the citations to the places page?

Thanks for the resource list. Here are a couple of links that I believe are worthy of adding.

http://getlisted.org/ - a good place to start on your citations - they also have A Nationwide Series of Search Engine Optimization Seminars Created Specifically for Small Business Owners ( I have attended one and it was worth the cost)



http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/ - some pretty good free resources such as "The Definitive List of Local Search Citations (USA, UK, Canada) – a good blog with the some of the latest happenings - also a free newsletter

wow! Why did you get so few thanks!

Thanks, this is my only toolbox for the GP SEO

anyone here who knows a lot about google places and can help me out. please pm me looking to hire a expert

swweeeet nice resource buddy thanks!

Add this plugin for google places as well -

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-places/

Great job on these resources! Some here I had not come across, so it's saved a bit of time waiting on testing.

Appreciated

Macmikes

Originally Posted by nixnash

Add this plugin for google places as well -

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-places/

Thanks, does anyone know how this works / helps?

Originally Posted by dragon123

Thanks, does anyone know how this works / helps?

It automatically creates 2 kml files. Read this post, it explains it far better than I can

HTML Code:

http://www.martijnbeijk.com/tutorial/using-kml-for-local-seo/

Originally Posted by Markthedude

I agree and it would be ideal to have the website fully up and running but the people I'm dealing with are slow to get me the material needed for the site.

For those of you who don't SEO the websites do you think it effects your places rankings or do you feel the places isn't effected by the websites but more by the citations to the places page?

I think it will effect the places page

Thanks, This is great

This makes quite interesting reading. It's an article about a survey that was carried out asking local businesses about their Google Places pages. What I find sad is the number of SEO companies claiming they are banging their heads against brick walls trying to impress upon their own clients the importance of local search and being met with indifference.

It makes me realize the battle we have out there to convince local business.

HTML Code:

http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/local-search-ranking-factors-not-actual-industry-practices/4827/

Hey dotcom

This is pretty indicative of local businesses generally when it comes to SEO in my experience.

Some want to be #1 but don't want to pay, some just don't understand the volume of people searching for their product/service on a monthly basis, especially now so many people have smartphones.

And another link for tracking GP clicks

http://www.internetsalesmanager.org/...ogle-analytics

Originally Posted by dotcomdesigns

Yeah I've spotted just 3 slots lately, why is that? I thought maybe it was because they don't have enough businesses to fill 7 slots or am I missing something?

It appears that it is site wide. I check for "NYC Lawyers" and only got a 3-pack, but did get other selections... Accident Lawyer, Divorce Attorney and it asked about locations... what area of the city I wanted.

It appears that the "select from 3" is the standard for now. It does have greater user experience, studies show we like to select from 3 items. Too many and brains get confused.

IMHO
HTH

Just shared in the downloads section:

HTML Code:

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/member-downloads/405868-get-maps-marketing-blueprint-197-course-offline.html

It's a big video course on how to get listed in Google Places. It's selling for $397! Looks like there's over 1 gig of video to download.

Great thread. Many thanks.

great resources to share,i like it
very useful list

Awesome info! Rep + thanks given.

Couple more links...

http://www.whitespark.ca/blog/post/6...places-listing - 16 tips on improving your Places listing

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/01/...-complete-100/ - Pie chart showing how to get your listing 10 100%

Originally Posted by dotcomdesigns

Just shared in the downloads section:

HTML Code:

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/member-downloads/405868-get-maps-marketing-blueprint-197-course-offline.html

It's a big video course on how to get listed in Google Places. It's selling for $397! Looks like there's over 1 gig of video to download.

This video course is the best one i have seen on Google Places, goes into great detail and you will learn a lot, thanks for the link Dotcom...

Is there a way to get a google places listing without an address? I want to do a few lead generation sites in several U.S. cities but I don't have an address in those cities. Any ideas would be appreciated.