location address for google places

I want to set up a google places account for a business. I am several options as far as the location is concerned.

What factors should you look at to determine which location is best?

for example, should you look at the area's population? if everybody in that area is poor or cheap, it may not be a good area?
what about in terms of ranking? are there certain areas that google likes to rank in google places?

good area, next to reputable stores.

If you have free choice then do some keyword research and see what are the most searched-for terms, then analyse the competition and choose a beatable yet profitable local niche.

I personally find that G ranks businesses in the commercial centre of the metropolitan area.

So, for example, in London it is those businesses in the West End/City which tend to get listed as opposed to similar only a mile or so away.

Just my personal experience BTW but I'm looking to change addresses because of it.

Some good suggestions here. I would pick a 3 pronged strategy:

1. Do keyword research. Seek the city that has the most search volume.

2. Pick the city that is the most centrally located in the middle of the city. Similar to downtown in the US or city centre in EU/UK.

3. Check out the competition. If the first page has all PR5+ sites that have a strong social and backlink profile, you know its going to be tough.

Just my 2 cents

What Google considers the center of a city is different than what the rest of us think. Make sure to be as close to where the city name appears on a Google Map that is their center. If you compare apples to apples the one closest to that mark will always win. If the search includes the city name ex. "London diamond buyers" this approach works as the city center becomes your default location. In an alternate strategy searchers that leave out the city name but are somewhere in London will get geo located and the location they search from will be the center. If I am at the west end of London and type "diamond buyers" I get mostly west end locations unless an eastern location has a very strong presence.

Look at the competition on th google places ..how well optimoized