SEO for local business is useless now?

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joe0074

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Due to the change in Google places, local business websites for organic search are placed at the bottom of the 1st page below Google places listing.

I think local business owners don't want their websites to be on the 1st page for organic search anymore. But they want to rank high in Google places 7 box A-G position.

Any comment on this ?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
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You already read it, right?
Can you please tell me about it?
I have no time to go to a library right now.

Thanks,
 
EdwardD said:
Read Darwin's Theory of Evolution.


Seriously, good book. It will specially help you.
Click to expand...

get the movie its better.

what a pointless comment LOL

yeah if its down the page you are screwed. Let say this "SEO" as you call it was too much easy. Anyone with a computer with copy/paste could have done it. Just get in SEO for real and propose your services. I sell some linkwheel for 5$ instead of 40$ like in the BST section and I am rollin' on money haha
 
yes this is a problem. to get the map listing you have to have a phone number and an address to begin with...if you're a freelancer with no office, hmmm not good
 
yup its absolutly useless, so everyone on this website can give up now. Better luck on your next ventures guys. It was fun while it lasted.

Okay back to McDonalds to flip burgers see you guys later.

joe0074 said:
Due to the change in Google places, local business websites for organic search are placed at the bottom of the 1st page below Google places listing.

I think local business owners don't want their websites to be on the 1st page for organic search anymore. But they want to rank high in Google places 7 box A-G position.

Any comment on this ?

Thanks
Click to expand...
 
Nothings changed Joe... SEO will always be around... just the techniques change.

Google Places was always on top but you still had the 10 organic listings. Now GP has taken over as the majority instead of the 10 organic listings. To be relevant and lock in your position on the GP you must SEO both the GP and organic listings. Again nothing new... just different techniques.

I've had top ranked GP spots that dropped when the change was made and I've had top organic spots disappear form organic and jump to the top of GP. If a site was strong before it will continue to stay highly ranked (or be very easy to regain it rankings)

I had a top ranked organic spot for over a year disappear from the first page. Created a GP for it (just the basic biz info - not optimized at all) and it came back to the #2 spot overnight in GP. Once I optimized the GP listing I'm sure it will go #1.

It's not all doom and gloom just because Google made a change to the way they display the SERPs... just adapt with new methods!

Most of my local biz clients are fine and once I explained to them what was going on they were very glad to know that all the time they had been paying for SEO that they are still on top... even when google makes a major change. Instant customer loyalty :)
 
it's best to get ranking in both areas. Google places and organic listings still do work hand in hand. Meaning, you will get more benefit to your GP listing if your regular site is SEO'd properly as opposed to not. They help each other. If you're worried about not having any weight in GP read up on some map techniques.
 
G00gle still didn't finish testing. I saw results displaying a mix of organic listing with g00gle places data. and I saw a display of the top 4 local listing with 4 indented listings plus all the top 10 organic results.
Check pizza chicago for example compared with restaurant chicago.
 
I use a PO box for my address on Google maps. but local SEO is not dead, the organic searches still show up. Sometimes they are below the local, but sometimes they post the top 3 above. It still is worth ranking for those keywords, and you just need to show your clients that.
 
Someone's allready said it but I feel it's worth repeating...
It's just about impossible to rank highly in places if your
sites SEO sucks... SEO (both on page and off page) is
now a large factor in your Google Places rankings.
 
It depends on the type of client you have. If your client has a business that is local to a specific geographic area (ex. hvac contractor in San Jose), the changes in Google Places may help him. As long as you set up a places page and still optimize his site like normally, there is a chance that he can show up in the "pack listings" when geographically relevant and in the organic listings if the proximity is too far.

For searches that have no local component, (ex. cut and stack labels) you should still get organic results.
 
In case you don't get it business owners now actually need you more. How many of them you think actually realise what this means. Be an expert not a chump crying about the changes.

Google may change it all back next year just go with the flow, stay on top of it be an expert.
 
DimaKritchevski said:
Someone's allready said it but I feel it's worth repeating...
It's just about impossible to rank highly in places if your
sites SEO sucks... SEO (both on page and off page) is
now a large factor in your Google Places rankings.
Click to expand...

I have had plenty of success with the new changes without my clients having to have a website. Many of my clients aren't allowed to have a website due to their franchise agreements. You can get them ranked to the top just fine without a website so don't worry about that too much. For other business types, if the don't have an address there are legit ways around that too. If you got q's pm me.
 
Hi,

I read your comment on not needing an address to get in google please could please explain how to do this.

Many thanks - Joe
 
Since PO Boxes are not allowed, I have found that using a simple UPS suite works just fine, especially for companies that don't have a "real" office location. That combined with a free Google number and you can do business just about anywhere.;)
 
I've had success with PO Boxes in the past, but haven't tried recently. Have a new client to set up places for, and am doing a site for him now.
Should i get the site up first, then do the places, or can i go ahead and do places while waiting for site?
 
Shift focus from Organic SEO to Local Listing SEO.
Same effort anyway!
 
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