localdominator
Newbie
- Nov 18, 2010
- 48
- 2
GP has made a bunch of changes lately. How has it affected you or your clients in terms of traffic/rank? Are you increasing/decreasing? Thoughts on how to adapt and or combat the new tweaks anyone...?
Google Places Optimization/Ranking
- Thread starter localdominator
- Start date
corvettespeeder
Regular Member
- Aug 19, 2009
- 303
- 15
I am happy that seo plays a role in the places now.
Lawrencess
Junior Member
- Oct 31, 2010
- 148
- 36
I have found it to be an interesting experiment.
I run dual listings for my offline business, one keyword stuffed and the other just company information.
They are 1 and 3 in the 9 place long list at the moment.
Keyword leavy listing is number 3 FYI.
I run dual listings for my offline business, one keyword stuffed and the other just company information.
They are 1 and 3 in the 9 place long list at the moment.
Keyword leavy listing is number 3 FYI.
localdominator
Newbie
- Nov 18, 2010
- 48
- 2
One thing someone pointed out to me just recently is that the decrease I have seen in traffic in some listings could be due to more clicks on their website. I have checked the analytics and confirmed this nearly across the board.
Interestingly, for those who don't have a website they have been still have been displaying front page with very little difference. It seems as though only the ones that did have a website changed a bit until I checked the site traffic and cleared up the discrepancy.
On a different note, I have also noticed that where citations are placed is greatly impacting results. Meaning, Google is weighting them differently from one site to another. I did a test in creating the same reviews on multiple sites for a test biz to see how it would rank and I got some interesting results. It seems that G first wants big name sites or national/state level citations, then looks for niche sites, then looks for social sites, then review sites, then everything else. Can anyone else confirm this?
Interestingly, for those who don't have a website they have been still have been displaying front page with very little difference. It seems as though only the ones that did have a website changed a bit until I checked the site traffic and cleared up the discrepancy.
On a different note, I have also noticed that where citations are placed is greatly impacting results. Meaning, Google is weighting them differently from one site to another. I did a test in creating the same reviews on multiple sites for a test biz to see how it would rank and I got some interesting results. It seems that G first wants big name sites or national/state level citations, then looks for niche sites, then looks for social sites, then review sites, then everything else. Can anyone else confirm this?
Just wanted to add, Goog's official position on Places is it's still in a beta-ish stage, so things can change day to day by their own reckoning. Have to agree with Graddis tho'
I also think they're giving brownie points for "participation" i.e. using their other tools, COUPON offers! I got a brand new client, brand new site with little offsite seo as yet a huge bump using the coupon offer, status/update post and a cpl other bigG free business tools. As best as I can tell tho' coupons did the most damage to the competition.
seem to be playing reasonably equal roles AND completeness of the profile as well.
I also think they're giving brownie points for "participation" i.e. using their other tools, COUPON offers! I got a brand new client, brand new site with little offsite seo as yet a huge bump using the coupon offer, status/update post and a cpl other bigG free business tools. As best as I can tell tho' coupons did the most damage to the competition.
localdominator
Newbie
- Nov 18, 2010
- 48
- 2
Have any of you been getting calls from google asking you to put out for tags? I have had a number of customers route their calls to me from Google trying to hit them up.
JamesHenry
Junior Member
- Dec 9, 2009
- 157
- 104
I had really nice listings when they first changed. Over the last two weeks i have had changes in the positions.
localdominator
Newbie
- Nov 18, 2010
- 48
- 2
Overall, I like the shift,(although it entails more work than in the past) it has improved my client's visibility and they have been satisfied with the results. I am interested to see if anyone uses the Hotpot. I think it may be too early yet to tell if that is going to succeed/flop.
KBC-12
Regular Member
- Dec 19, 2008
- 311
- 274
I wouldnt be so sure. If they use android to push hotpot they may have success with hotpot. Android has really been increasing its market share.
laptopsmasher
Registered Member
- Sep 16, 2010
- 75
- 10
does anyone found a way around the postcard verification yet? do you think this is temporary and G will bring back phone verification?
thoughts?
thoughts?
adminx
Registered Member
- Apr 19, 2008
- 66
- 16
I'm experimenting with my own GP account...
theme is: SEO using Maps/Places
after about a week I dominate
on a 100km radius... for a bunch of targeted keywords..
with keyword: cities or zips or even the region/county...
funny if I search: g00gle city|zip|region or county
I come up no1... (not sure what use that is... lol)
I find stuffing the places "title" for new listing hosted on new domains
ranks equal to places accounts hosted on aged domains
I setup a free w0rdpress.c0m account and I'm dominating above
web agencies that have been in place for years...
the name of my GP is keyword+the 1st two numbers of the zip code...
theme is: SEO using Maps/Places
after about a week I dominate
on a 100km radius... for a bunch of targeted keywords..
with keyword: cities or zips or even the region/county...
funny if I search: g00gle city|zip|region or county
I come up no1... (not sure what use that is... lol)
I find stuffing the places "title" for new listing hosted on new domains
ranks equal to places accounts hosted on aged domains
I setup a free w0rdpress.c0m account and I'm dominating above
web agencies that have been in place for years...
the name of my GP is keyword+the 1st two numbers of the zip code...
Last edited:
Is everyone experiencing G going to complete postcard verification recently? That's whats happening here... only the postcard option.
I completely expected this. It had to be done from G's point of view. I can't imagine they will continue this for very long. The sheer expense of sending out so many postcards, verifying them, extra staff, man hours, etc. tells me this is something temporary.
However, they only have to do this a total of a couple of months a year to mess with a nice GP business.
laptopsmasher
Registered Member
- Sep 16, 2010
- 75
- 10
what did you verify a gmail account?
since when sms where a option for gp listings? never heard of that
since when sms where a option for gp listings? never heard of that
adminx
Registered Member
- Apr 19, 2008
- 66
- 16
yes here in france either telephone, sms, or post card...
to verify a new GP listing
maybe there are less spam scam crap here ...
as I said the land of SEO milk and honey at least for the time being...
I up a screen-shot if I could ... not sure if I can though