SEO for local business is useless now?

MintM said:

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?

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Go ahead and do the GP listing, you can add the website info later at any time if they have one. I have often subbed in other sites like a facebook or a quick landing page that I created for them but it is not necessary. Also, be aware that a PO BOX is different from a UPS suite. Google does not like the PO Boxes anymore. There are also "virtual office" services if you need, but they can be not very cost effective.

Your places listing will just improve once you add the site to it but it can rank just fine w/out it.

I provide seo for local businesses, for a living and have ranked my customers really
well for certain keywords that THEY chose! Needless they got some good traffic
and were thrilled with the outcome.

They really didn't give 2 turds about Google Places. They got more customers and made more money and then referred me to their business associates!

localdominator said:

Go ahead and do the GP listing, you can add the website info later at any time if they have one. I have often subbed in other sites like a facebook or a quick landing page that I created for them but it is not necessary. Also, be aware that a PO BOX is different from a UPS suite. Google does not like the PO Boxes anymore. There are also "virtual office" services if you need, but they can be not very cost effective.

Your places listing will just improve once you add the site to it but it can rank just fine w/out it.

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Hey thanks localdominator, that's just want I wanted to hear! Going to crank out the GP listing now, while I wait to get site up.

Thanks again mate, nice one

when it comes to google maps I don't know if it's a difference between business
and whatever else activates the maps, but I saw for one keyword
EACH LOCATION was listed as a result BEFORE the results. Saw this around 2 days ago. I thought maps were for businesses only but maybe not?
anywho, you may be in luck.

readingaddict said:

when it comes to google maps I don't know if it's a difference between business
and whatever else activates the maps, but I saw for one keyword
EACH LOCATION was listed as a result BEFORE the results. Saw this around 2 days ago. I thought maps were for businesses only but maybe not?
anywho, you may be in luck.

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Google is broadening its definition of "local results" and I have seen maps pop for a keyword + city or even state, which surprised me. I was working on a lawyer in IL and it popped for the entire state even though it was really a geo-targeted area that I was after. This is still changing. Google is doing some user input testing that is pulling these types of results on the fly and then measuring receptivity.

MintM said:

Hey thanks localdominator, that's just want I wanted to hear! Going to crank out the GP listing now, while I wait to get site up.

Thanks again mate, nice one

Click to expand...

Best of luck to you. Let me know how it goes if you get stuck.

Google places does not always show up in the first positions. A lot of times they are in the middle of the page or start at position 3. Regardless, anytime you do local SEO Google places should be part of the package. Otherwise you are not selling something that brings full potential value.

I take the "focus" approach in being the best at something, rather than offering everything and being mediocre. I do local search and parter with guys doing organic and other.

I agree that a top to bottom approach is ideal but not always possible. You are also correct that depending upon the search term the Serp changes, but the vast majority of anything business related now makes local king.

please explain how to do this..

Sell both services or combine them for a larger paycheck!

Hey Localdominator,

Was going to PM you, but I haven't posted enough yet, and anyway, thought this would be an a good thing to share with anyone else playing in the local space.

I've a client who's a contractor and I'm making him a WP based site, alongside managing GP and other marketing.

Lets say he is in commercial cleaning, and his main KW to optimize for is: "commercial cleaning cityname". However he also provides other services that he can do quite well out of, of which some have reasonable searches. For example it would be things like "Roof cleaning", Concrete and brick cleaning, graffiti removal.

I've got him a domain containing his exact main KW / service. I outsource the build of the site, but am able to update/maintain WP sites myself.

My question is how to structure the site to optimize for his main KW, but also other services / KWs?

I'm thinking to have the main / home page optimized for the main KW. Then, have static pages for each of the other services KWs (ie "domainname/service"). Internal links through the site obviously.

However, I want it updateable like a blog, to keep it fresh and ranking. Where/how is best to use a more traditional blog to keep it updates and rank for different KWs? Whats the best structure for a local biz with a few services like this?

One last question - I'll use his actual company name in all the title/meta so it shows up, but how to optimize GP? His company name and website name are different for SEO purposes (and because his company name is easily mispelt which leads the searcher to some really sick gay porn!!! - not what we want!). Whats the best way to deal with GP listing for this - call it his company name, or his website name?

Hope this isn't too much of a hijack, but thought others may find this useful.

localdominator said:

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.

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No, post it here; how to rank without an address.

Hello Joe,

Ignore the insult from this guys. To answer your question my opinion is that google places will not show on all keywords relevant to your local searches. I think google is experimenting something with local business and offering it for free then later on charge local business.

In order to help your local clients I will suggest you go and look at the difference between googlelocal and google place....a lot of people confuse them . One of it is free and the other is $25 pls read more on this and you may find your answer.

Stay strong and dont loose hope

Many thanks

yeah aside from many seo scammers too