Q: How To Google Rank [Places]?

Have a look at the image.

How is it that a business with NO reviews and comments ranks higher than a business with 60+ reviews (4+ stars)

Good question, I would assume besides a website in general, some optimization of Google places itself.

I would assume some pictures of the item in question labeled and for real by you, not a stock photo.

Some people claim to optimize the schema for the google places too has a big effect, with geo sitemap and KML files.

Don't forget a keyword rich bio on the plus page. This is what I heard I am going try it out myself.

Moz had a huge survey of local broken down into pie charts and graphs and math. It was for 2014 local-search-ranking-factors

Sully Do you have a link by any chance?

Noctur said:

Sully Do you have a link by any chance?

Click to expand...

Here you go mate http://bit.ly/1BWkYBl

How can a listing with no reviews outrank listings with reviews?

1 word - proximity

There are many other answers of course. Such as volume of citations, how many reviews they have on other directories, the authority of the website itself + dozens of other factors.

But generally speaking, G local is easy to rank for. It's not rocket science it just takes A LOT of work, persistence and patience.

Back in 2012, I was ranking 1 after another after another and overtaking all my competitors. This was before pigeon came in and outright removed the 7 pack for a lot of my keywords.

The method I was using was more like a war plan.

1) Build the site up with tons of geo-targeted pages, make it an authority site.
2) Slowly and continually get citations month after month. I usually aim for a little over 300 and outsource this for $180.
3) Slowly and continually build up reviews on not just G local, but as many other directories as possible. This is very hard and takes a long time. But it is worth every hour of the effort.
4) Solid backlinks and authority to the site.
5) Good user experience and all that bullshit.

Out of all those things, I'd say I've had the highest ROI from reviews. And I mean, really good reviews. My listings don't just have more reviews than all our competitors but the reviews are not generic bullshit like "Good and honest company. Highly recommend". The reviews tell stories. There is passion behind these stories. Because we go above and beyond to serve our customers even if we're not getting paid a penny. In fact, some of the best reviews we've gotten have came from people who didn't pay us anything. Like "I called 3 other companes, 2 of them were trying to charge me over $250 just for the inspection, the 3rd company didn't even inspect our home and tried to sell me a $16,000 system! But xxx company (my company) came out, did a thorough and free inspection, was extremely professional and polite... then told us our home NOT need xxx work! It was such a breath of fresh air to find a someone so straighforward and xxx (name of inspector) obviously cares about his business and customers. I'm not just recommending this company but I think you'd be very unwise to use anyone else".

The point is, the reviews are all unique and there is a genuine enthusiasm and passion coming from our clients.

I really can't explain the value in reviews like that.

Because here's the thing. When our 7 pack does show we'll rank #1 within a 20-30 mile radius.

Outside that radius, sure, we'll rank #2, 3 or even 5.

But when people see this:

A) Competitor - 4 reviews
B) Competitor - 3 reviews
C) Competitor - 14 reviews
D) Our company - 68 reviews
E) Competitor - 1 review

Who do you think they're gonna click on first?

A or D?

I'd say 80% of the time they're gonna go for D.

Or, they'll compare the reviews of A, C & D and see that D doesn't just beat A & C by volume, but obliterates them by the quality of the reviews.

My point is, where you rank in the pack isn't what really matters. Cause I've had new sites ranking #1 with just 3 generic good reviews that didn't pull anywhere close to what lower ranking listings pull with a massive amount of reviews.

Another thing that is crazy about reviews, if they are credulous, they genuinely condition your customers to be less skeptical, less resistant, more approachable, easier to deal with... and overall HAPPIER >>>BEFORE you even start talking about business. So when a customer does have a problem, it's 100xs easier to sell. Then there are the people who call us up and we will say, "we recommend that you get multiple estimates, how many other companies have you called"? And they will say, "None, we'd prefer to work with your company cause your reviews were very impressive". My brother will push them further using reverse psychology. And he'll continue on saying shit like, "thank you, but for your own peace of mind we still advise you get multiple estimates". And it just drives customers that much more to NOT want to call our competitors.

Anyway, focus on those reviews. They are the reason we do "FREE" inspections because the customer doesn't realize when they leave an awesome review, they are actually paying our company thousands and thousands of dollars in the long run. Meanwhile are competitors are busy trying to charge people for inspections, pissing them off, getting shitty reviews or very few at all. They think they have some special formula for screening out the buyers (which to an extent is true) but they are leaving so much money on the table in the long run and have no idea what it's really doing to their bottomline.

-BB

BB! You are... never mind 100.. but 1000% on the money here. That picture that I posted... I looked at 66 reviews firdt before I looked at the first one. Simply because it had SO MANY reviews.

I am always in better company, but I would like to add something on the location and proximity in the form of an observation from my business. My hometown is on the river the divides NJ from PA. So I am close to a bunch of bridges. After the Pigeon shakeup for local, I had Philadelphia electricians showing up in my hometown local in NJ.

Wrong Location, Wrong Trade License, etc.... the common point between these carpetbagger listings was large number of reviews. Dozen plus usually if not twice that.

So Google either doesn't account for trade licensing or very little against the reviews from what I saw.

Interesting... anyone else would like to comment?

Sure I will comment. It is possible that your IP address is right next to the location that showed up number one. That you would have to check. Your computer isnt necessarily seen in Google searches at your exact geo location.

I will be 25 minutes north of Miami but look at the the IP and bam it says I am in South Miami.

Thanks mate...common sense is amazing

thanks for the help.