SEO differnce between SERP and Local Business Listings

Hi everyone,

For a long time I have been focusing on SEO for my websites, using white and black hat methods. For the most part it has worked very well.

Recently I decided to register my local business on the google Local business listing page at the top of google results.

I noticed without any optimization at all, I was able to get on the first page (position 4).

Im wondering why and how this is possible. There seem to be over 30 odd business listings in this category.

???? Any ideas

I too look forward to seeing the answer

Whats ur domain name?

Google Local as well as Bings and Yahoos seems to be pulling their info off a different algo then the general search listing algo they use.
A few questions to get more info for this:

What is the name of your business?
Did you use targeted Keywords in your Business title listing?
Did you fill out all the sections, descriptions hours, details etc...
How complete are the other listings?
What search terms did you use when searching for your listing?
And possibly the biggest one that may cause the difference is were you logged into Google at the time you searched for your listing?

If you are logged in and the personalized search is on you will get different results.
Also if you searched using the exact same phrase that your listing is under and you said local or the specific city, then it will show up higher then without those words.

Im also looking to work on figuring out how to rank high on google local. You can add you title tag to almost all craiglist listing for local terms to 80-90 percent of niches and end up on the first page....

The key to google local is using the most searched on term for your business in your title. Make sure you fill out everything for the address and description add some of your keywords, youre only allowed 200char so make it good but dont stuff.
Also be sure to use the products and everything else and phone number.
Then on your websites home page, make sure your address is listed in Text not an image, make it a link to your page that has your Google map on it using the map that is in google. And be sure to claim your business listing.

That has been my experience and has worked and ive done 100+ local listings for my clients.
Google is cracking down hard on Local listings because of all the hijacking and spam so in this case, best thing to do is just do it correctly.

Great stuff! Nice to hear from someone who's done it. Google seem to rank you higher if you verify immediately with their phone process, rather than opt for a mailing. Go figure.

"Inland Empire" you in Spokane?

Rwh909r said:

The key to google local is using the most searched on term for your business in your title. Make sure you fill out everything for the address and description add some of your keywords, youre only allowed 200char so make it good but dont stuff.
Also be sure to use the products and everything else and phone number.
Then on your websites home page, make sure your address is listed in Text not an image, make it a link to your page that has your Google map on it using the map that is in google. And be sure to claim your business listing.

That has been my experience and has worked and ive done 100+ local listings for my clients.
Google is cracking down hard on Local listings because of all the hijacking and spam so in this case, best thing to do is just do it correctly.

Click to expand...

You might find http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml useful.