Place Search, Google Places and SEO

2010 has been a challenging year for us SEO Consultants. First there was Google Caffeine, then there was Google Instant and now we have Place Search.

Google rolled out Place Search early this week, a new kind of local search where information from Google Places is merged with the organic listings (as shown above) when Google predicts that you are looking for local information. You can also manually access this feature by clicking on the "Places" link/red pin on the left drop-down menu.

Instead of the old 7-box, you now get a list of "clustered" listings with convenient links to the Place Page and User Reviews, and a little map showing the locations of these places, displayed just above the Google ads on the right.

According to the Google Blog, "Place Search connects hundreds of millions of websites with more than 50 million real-world locations". You can read more about this new feature here.

Update: It seems that Google is no longer testing Place Search layouts - the different presentation of local search results that you currently see is permanent and according to a Google spokesperson, "depends on how confident our algorithm is in determining if you're looking for local information".

You can read more about it in this post by Matt McGee - Google Places Isn't Testing New Layouts ...Get Used To Variety.

Hence, it's now more important than ever to create a listing for your business at Google Places, if you still have not done so. There's a a strong possiblity that your business listing may already exist, and you only need to create a Google account, claim that listing and update your business information as necessary.

It costs nothing to list your business - you don't even need a website if you don't have one. You get added exposure on the world's biggest search engine and on Google Maps. You can also create coupons for your customers, post events and special offers, and Google even provides nice metrics and graphs about your listing.

Basically, there is no reason why you should not create a Google Places listing for your business!

In the beginning, it was quite easy to game Google Places (known as Google Local back then). One simply had to generate lots of user reviews, didn't matter if they were fake or genuine, and stuff the listing with keywords - in the Company Name, Description, Category, Additional Details, Images, etc. There were many ebook and video courses that showed you how to climb to the top of Google Maps like Google Maps Cash and Google Places Domination.

Since rolling out Place Search, Google has become more strict with the listings and there seems to be some kind of mechanism that automatically flags the system - spammy listings that were created before this update are not affected though.

When I created a new business listing, using the methods that had been so successful for me in the past, it was automatically placed under review because it "didn't meet the Quality Guidelines". After a week, the status changed to Rejected.

Despite editing my listing to comply as much as possible with Google Places' very vague guidelines, the status remained as Rejected - contacting Google for a review didn't help either.

Finally, I deleted the business listing and created a new one, but using the exact information as I did the second time around. Surprisingly, it was accepted! I had to use a different mobile number to verify though.

That said, there are still several things that you can do to optimize your Google Places listing for Place Search:

1. Having the keyword in your business name helps, however, this may get your listing flagged.

2. Choose the proper Categories for your listing and make sure to use at least some of Google's default Categories.

3. Ensure that your business address is located in the targeted area.

4. Provide as much details as possible for your Profile/Place Page, e.g. upload related images and videos, specify payment modes, etc.

5. Solicit reviews/ratings from your customers and high-authority review sites.

6. Use the Post to Page feature as much as possible to update clients about current events or special offers, showing Google that you are actively using your Place Page.

7. Citations are important for your Google Places listings, just as backlinks are important for SEO. The first thing to do is to ensure that you consistently use the same company name, address and telephone number.

Next, try to get citations from authority local business resources - the image below shows some examples for U.S. businesses. Determining such places for international cities are not as straight-forward, but a good trick is to look up your competitors' Place Page and see where they're getting their citations from under "More about this place".

I'm assuming that to rank high on Place Search, it's not enough to have an optimized Google Places listing but your own website needs to also be SEOed - this is especially true for clustered results under Everything for local searches.

I hope you have benefited from this hub. Kindly share your experiences with Place Search and Google Places in the Comments box below, if you have any, so that the rest of us may benefit from them. Thank you!