# Google Places



## jacob33 (Jun 2, 2009)

Does anyone know how Google places figures their ranking, and what can be done to increase it? I'm assuming it takes time to climb up it if you do not hire someone to do your seo is this correct?

Thanks


----------



## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

People call me daily trying to sell SEO services. I havent hired anyone and I am at the top for pretty much any local search. A year ago I didnt even know what Search Engine Optimization was. Today I am still a student and very knew to it myself. My suggestion is to read and study as much as you can. A couple tips.....Get a Google account, Analytics, and Webmaster. Learn your way around the site and how to use the tools. Keep your Google places updated, submit your site to the search engines, do a search for painters in your area and submit your info to every single site you can find. Theres plenty of them and most offer a free listing with an upgrade option if you want to spend money. I am by no means an expert, but willing to share what I do know. Feel free to call. My number is in any of the links below.


----------



## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

And again, not an expert but I went ahead and right clicked your site and it looks like your title and description tags could use some work. Nobody is going to Google your company name. You also dont have very many keywords. At least that was my observation.


----------



## jacob33 (Jun 2, 2009)

Thanks Woodland. 

I really do not know what I am doing I put that together last night. I am meeting with a person this weekend that is going to help me but I had some free time and got started. It may all change. I'm not even sure were to add tags descriptions meta tags and that stuff I read about it but I do not know where to do it.  The only thing I got going for me is nobody else in my area has a website.

I appreciate it.


----------



## Ace Painting (Jan 11, 2011)

On my places account it says recomended because I gave out a few good reviews.


----------



## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

Ace Painting said:


> On my places account it says recomended because I gave out a few good reviews.


 What do you mean by gave out a few good reviews? Did you give reviews on another service?


----------



## dubinpainting (Feb 16, 2010)

Listing top five in Google Places Has to do with how relevant your site is to key search words. Unfortunately you can’t just pay to have your listing top five unless you do sponsored advertising through Google Adwords and start a pay per click campaign, but that can be expensive. If you type Painting companies in Braintree, MA I show up in the top five, but if you type in Painters in Braintree, MA, I don’t show up at all. It’s about relevance to keywords. Woodland gave some great advice. Right now 75% of my Leeds are coming from online and I haven’t spent a single dime. I do free listings through everywhere I can. Yelp, yellow pages, MerchantCircle, Google Places, Yahoo local, Bing local, just to name a few. There have been some great threads with links to free business listings, I use to know a few good sites but after I made my free listing I deleted it from my favorites.


----------



## jacob33 (Jun 2, 2009)

Key words do seem to be the thing. If I search residential painter or house painter in Bartlesville, OK I am first on the list, but if I search painters Bartlesville OK I am 8th. From what I read too it takes time to move up. I am the only one in my area with a website and one linked to my places page so that should help.

Small towns do not do much internet marketing but I think the younger generation will be looking online and Bartlesville has a large population of young professionals since Conocophilips has a large presence here. I want to catch those people. The town is only 30,000 so it is a small town and competition is basically contractors that have been here 20+ years so I will be about the only one really hitting online.


----------



## George Z (Apr 15, 2007)

You should find all your local info here

Where competition is tight, like in large cities,
it is harder to do it yourself. And if you get 150 visits a day,
web marketing is the last thing to be doing, you have a business to run.

When a homeowner says:
"I would paint myself but I don't have the time"

how do you feel?


----------



## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Add more pictures, video, reviews, coupons.
Not sure if it is still a problem, but there were reports of rankings dropping when using the "circle" to define your work area. Try changing that to all the cities/zips you service. Also in areas and categories.

Here are a few links you might like.

http://www.google.com/places/






Also, make sure you are searching from "private" mode or logged out of google.


----------



## PatsPainting (Mar 4, 2010)

George Z said:


> When a homeowner says:
> "I would paint myself but I don't have the time"
> 
> how do you feel?


If the home owner spent many many hours researching, trying different things and invested the time in learning themselves then It would not bother me a bit.

I think allot of us are hands on type of people, meaning if i can do it myself by self teaching my self the better I will be down the road. I can always bring my car into get the breaks done, its not a matter of cost, but for some reason I would rather do it myself then to pay someone.

If you need instant results then I agree, pay someone to do it, but if you can afford the time, take a dive into it and try learning. I think you will be better off in the long haul.

I know this is not everyone and nothing wrong with either way. JMO

Pat


----------



## George Z (Apr 15, 2007)

PatsPainting said:


> If the home owner spent many many hours researching, trying different things and invested the time in learning themselves then It would not bother me a bit.
> 
> I think allot of us are hands on type of people, meaning if i can do it myself by self teaching my self the better I will be down the road. I can always bring my car into get the breaks done, its not a matter of cost, but for some reason I would rather do it myself then to pay someone.
> 
> ...


Sure, I have done so much by myself for years. I loved it, still do.
I still do some blog stuff, Facebook, research and the occasional website thing or two.
I just think a 48 year old can't work 16 hrs a day. It's not a hobby after a while.
By the way, I used to change my oil, do tune ups etc.
Now I just have enough time to put my seat belt on.


----------



## PatsPainting (Mar 4, 2010)

George Z said:


> Sure, I have done so much by myself for years. I loved it, still do.
> I still do some blog stuff, Facebook, research and the occasional website thing or two.
> I just think a 48 year old can't work 16 hrs a day. It's not a hobby after a while.
> By the way, I used to change my oil, do tune ups etc.
> Now I just have enough time to put my seat belt on.


I hear ya, I'm sure one day I will be the same, already paying for stuff now that I used to do myself because of time issues. I guess I was just aiming and the young guys who have the time.

Pat


----------



## Ace Painting (Jan 11, 2011)

Woodland said:


> What do you mean by gave out a few good reviews? Did you give reviews on another service?


 Another forum I'm on we gave reviews to each other.


----------



## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Ace Painting said:


> Another forum I'm on we gave reviews to each other.


:no::no:


----------



## straight_lines (Oct 17, 2007)

After a few tweaks footbridge has me sitting pretty nicely to be a contractor based outside my target city. I still need an address in that city, or some other way to show up on the map.

Certain search keywords I am numbers 2, and 3 on the map, but for PC I am around 20th. First after the map thou.


----------



## 6126 (May 9, 2010)

Ace Painting said:


> Another forum I'm on we gave reviews to each other.


Thats just wrong.


----------



## SouthFloridaPainter (Jan 27, 2011)

Google Places is just like your website in the fact that it has many ranking factors. You do SEO on there, just like you would your website. Making sure to obey Google TOS. They just made several changes so be sure to read and obey them.

I'll focus on reviews for this post.

Reviews are one of many ranking factors taken into consideration.

Whatever you do, do not use fake reviews!!!

Google does what it can to identify fake reviews. Yes, many still get away with them, but you never now for how long that will be. Once identified, your account will be suspended.

There are people that sell reviews for your listing. Just like they will leave one for you, they will leave for others using the same account. Meaning if Google was to inquire, they could easily see they have left reviews both nationwide or even globally. Just clicking on the reviewers name on your profile page will reveal where else that account has left reviews. Even if they open new ones, its still not advisable. 

I don't believe in trading reviews either. All IP address's are tracked, and I would prefer to have reviews for my local business to be from local IP's. 

Yes, I know it may work today, but Google is constantly changing on a daily basis. Better to be safe then sorry.

You need to get them from clients or if desperate, friends or family in your area. Only one review per household to be safe. 

That means only review per gmail per household, even if there's two computers in the home, you should just use one. Do not leave a review for yourself.

Do not put up reviews to quickly. I would not advice more then one per week. 

Reviews on other sites that Google pulls from is advisable. Google will show reviews from other sites along their own reviews. You should have profiles on other sites like Yelp or Angie's List, or the many others. Advise your clients to leave a review there also.

Over time Google will find it and add it to your places profile. Here's a tip, after you search the term your targeting ( house painters in your town ) visit your competitors profiles and see what sites Google is pulling reviews from. Then make sure you have a listing there also.

Well, that's enough for now.

Good Luck


----------



## PatsPainting (Mar 4, 2010)

Yep, could not agree anymore, like you said some get away with it, but google is not retarded, I think it will catch up to you.

Pat


----------



## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

Just a reminder to feed and care for your places page!

Post from Darren.


----------



## Coat It! (Dec 3, 2010)

I've done a lot of research on what causes your business to rank well in Google Places and while it's a fluid situation (Google is constantly tweaking their algorythm), I've found the top factors to be the following:


Keywords - Industry specific keywords in your title gets you ranked better (ex: Seattle Paint Contractor - ABC Paint Inc.)
Reviews - In general, the more good reviews you have, the better you rank.
Location - This is the tough one, Google Places actually give preferential treatment to Google Place listings in the "city center". Listings closer to what Google defines as "downtown" rank better and there isn't a great way to get around this... I've seen companies who are very dependent on their GP listings by a PO Box in "downtown", add that to their GP listing and watched their ranks rise to the top of the list.

There are other factors (other companies linking to your page, media uploaded, etc.) but the three above have been the most helpful for me.


----------



## SouthFloridaPainter (Jan 27, 2011)

Nope.....Sorry Coat It!.....this is bad advice.

Not your fault, there is lots on info floating around about google places.

1. Keywords in Company Name Field.

You DO NOT want anything other in the Company name then your actual real company name. The placing of keywords in the company name field is an old tactic that will get your account suspended. Yes, it actually worked and continues to do so in certain cases, where listings have not been suspended.

Do not violate googles TOS, eventually it will catch up to you. It takes about two seconds for your competitor to click the "report this listing" and send google an email with your violation. And it may be quick or take ages for google to find out.

I know its frustrating when somebody is getting by with it, but it will come around. I know of accounts that have been suspended for this violation.


2.Reviews - your correct in this, the more the better, but this must be done right, I think i posted a long post in this thread on this, or if not its in one of the other technology threads, just search my posts.

3.Do not use P.O. boxes. I know people that use and other like they will use vacant lots they find, they will search for an office building downtown and and add a fake suite number, use a UPS store address and make up a fake box, all kinds of things. I even seen shopping centers. Google has taken out phone verification ( not completely, but more so everyday )for this reason and relies more on the postcard it sends out with pin number.

It knows people have taken advantage of the center of city tactic. It will always be changing it algorithm to make up for things like this. For example, google looks for citations of your business across a wide variety of directories and data aggregators that provide these type of information. It will look for your google place address to match up with whetever company information is available on any database. So when it does match up, that's a point for you, as it make your business more genuine. The more matches it makes the more points your listing gets, but when N.A.P does not match it is not counted.

My advice for the long run is to adhere to TOS, and take advantages where you can. For example an SEO optimized company description, will work wonders for you. A 100% completed profile is best. Using seo - optimzed names on the pics before uploading to your profile is a tactic that is used. The videos you link to should also be optimized, etc...

So in my opionon, stay within the lines, but take full advantage where you can.

Good Luck


----------



## Colour Republic (Aug 20, 2010)

As stated Google Places has many factors but it relies heavily on directory listings

This I can say with 100% conviction!

The most important factor when listing yourself on business directories is to make sure your directory listing matches your google places listing as close to 100% as possible i.e. phone numbers in the same format etc. In addition make sure your directory listings have all the keywords you want to list for in your description.


I knew what I wanted from my website but spent a long time doing it! In fact there was a very long period after registering the domain and me actually putting any content on it. For over a year my website consisted of nothing more than a high res jpeg of my business card (no text, just image)

In the run up to building the website I knew I needed back links, a way to get cheap links is by filling your details out on 100's on business directories (but stay away from spammy looking ones who no doubt only list you so they can sell your email address.)

We ranked top in google local (as it use to be called) for many different search terms and all without a website or at least a website that consisted of just one jpeg. So the SEO of the actual website played no part in getting our listing to the top of Google Places. We did put a fair amount of info on our Google Places listing which helped but our website had zero effect. I also live in a busy city with hundreds of competitors, so it's not like we were listed at the top because we were the only ones.


I'm not saying your website has no benefit to your listing as it clearly does help and has boosted our listings in some areas. But I believe the ranking of your google places listing is weighted much more in favour from third party data rather than data you supply via your own website.

We are still top to this day for many different trades, every time I see us drop a few places I register with a few more directories and we go back to the top


http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=de...n&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=8cd36e4cef8e0e7

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=de...bat+fitters+brighton&pbx=1&fp=8cd36e4cef8e0e7

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=de...g1g-v1g-m1&aql=f&oq=&pbx=1&fp=8cd36e4cef8e0e7

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=de...+decorators+brighton&pbx=1&fp=8cd36e4cef8e0e7

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=de...i=g-v1g-b1&aql=f&oq=&pbx=1&fp=8cd36e4cef8e0e7

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=de...aqi=g1g-v4&aql=f&oq=&pbx=1&fp=8cd36e4cef8e0e7

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=de...aic+artists+brighton&pbx=1&fp=8cd36e4cef8e0e7

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=de...on&aq=&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=8cd36e4cef8e0e7


One major setback to our position was when I registered another business with google places at the same address. Our listing for Colour Republic dropped off the face of the earth, I deleted the other business listing and a few weeks later we were back up the top


----------



## y.painting (Jul 19, 2009)

SFPainter got it!

Also, for a more comprehensive list of the agreed-upon factors in this regard, folks can take a look here.


----------



## ARC (Nov 30, 2011)

some great tips here, thanks.:notworthy: I am gradually building up my "web-cred" from basically nothing, and its hard work. 

any idea how long it takes to get a google rank increase? Ive heard a range of a few days, to 6 weeks, or as long as 2 years, depending on what is being done, etc..


----------



## Finn (Dec 18, 2011)

Time management is a factor here as well my friend, I spend a lot of time on Internet doing research but it's easy to get caught up in it and we spend just as much time on there as we do on the job. Select a time period for research and out of that time allocate time for Internet promotion . Make you website personable as people want a service yes, but they also want to know who they are letting onto their property. As my friend said google is one of the top search engines , look at their packages for promoting your name and site. Be prepared to pay something , my rule of thumb is my net profit on my average job. This should be a fire and forget tool with maintenance every month. Hope this helps

God Bless


----------



## ARC (Nov 30, 2011)

Here is a related question: what is the effect of links in our signatures on this, and other, forum websites? How helpful (in SEO terms) is it?


----------



## RCP (Apr 18, 2007)

ARC said:


> Here is a related question: what is the effect of links in our signatures on this, and other, forum websites? How helpful (in SEO terms) is it?


You will show up in Google searches for terms used in your posts, and if customers search your company name, many of your posts will appear. You might want to hyperlink your signature to read Toronto Painters.
Another thing I would suggest is using a self hosted WP blog, many more SEO options.


----------

