When it comes to Google Places, you need to have a high ranking in order to see the full benefits of your Google Places listing. When the search results come up for the user, they start with the letter A and continue through the alphabet. Ultimately, the letter A should be your goal. There is a variety of factors that impact your rating and effect the way that Google calculates that ranking.
Proximity – How close your business is to the location indicated in the local search has a big impact on how you will rank in that set of search results. Your Google Places page will show higher in the rankings and higher in the search results for addresses and locations that are closer to your actual physical location than you will for those that are not as close to your business’s location.
Completeness – How complete you Google Places listing is has a very big impact on how you will rank against similar businesses in your area. For that reason, you should make sure that you input the correct information in all of the different sections of your Google Places listing. When your Google Places listing has empty sections, it can negatively impact your business’s ranking with Google Places.
Citations – References to your business that are found on other websites are called citations. You can get citations for your business by submitting the same information that you submitted to Google Places to other online business directories. Information that will be requested by other online business directories includes you business name, address and the telephone number for your business.
These work to increase you ranking when Google’s web crawlers identify matches between the information on your business’s Google Places listing and the information provided by other online business directories. When it comes to citations, the more you have the more it will help your ranking.
Reviews – Your ranking with Google Places can be increased further by getting customers to review your business on your Google Places listing. As with the citations, the more great reviews your business has, the more it will benefit your Google Places ranking.
Website SEO – The most important part of your Google Places ranking is your business website’s overall organic SEO ranking according to Google’s index. The better the ranking of your business’s website, the better your Google Places listing will be ranked in almost every case.
It is in your best interest to be sure that you attend to all of these factors as soon as possible after claiming or creating your Google Places listing. Even after you do all of this you can expect it to take some time to show the results of your efforts.
