David Mihm: Ranking Well in Google Maps. Google’s local data comes from the Local Business Center, Third Party Data Providers & Web Crawling. Very important to claim your local listing at the Local Business Center. Top 4 ranking factors…all tied to claiming to your local listing (including address in city of search, proper categorization, product / service keywords in title). Important to claim listing manually because Google likes to know they are displaying correct information…maximum trust. Distrust of bulk uploading of listings. Google also gets local data from third party feeds and web crawling. Some are found in the “Web Pages” tab of your local listing. “Citations” = Mentions of your business name in close proximity to either your address, phone number or both. May or may not be accompanied by a link to the website. Citations have a high trust factor. Citation total and business title are significant predictors of rank on Google Maps. Get involved in your LOCAL virtual community…quality of citiation is as important as quantity. Links also help with SEO too.
Chris Silver Smith: Top 4 Local Search Ranking Factors: Proximity of Address to Centroid, Positive Reviews / Number of Reviews, Overall SEO Health of Business Website, Keyword Relevancy (Categories, Common Locality Names & Neighborhoods), Have Keywords Through Website, Include Names of All Cities In Metro Area, Include Name, Category & Locality In Website Title. Additional Elements: Include Local Address & Phone Number in plain text on home page, contact us & locations / maps page. Multiple Store Locations? Have separate page for each. Adding photos/coupons/videos may increase CTR. Single address targeting multiple cities: Build one page on site for each city or obtain phone number / mailing address in each city. No physical address but local provider: Get listed in Google by 3rd party, rent PO Box. Google will show a non-pinpoint market when unable to map locations & for some address-less businesses.
Steve Espinosa: Trusted Sources: Go to Yahoo Listings, Anchor Text the link with the key phrase matching the key phrase placed in business name. More Yahoo Local categories = more web references. Google is more likely to rank a source in Yahoo Local rather than your website especially if your site is new or has little to no links. Standout = More Calls. 5 Star Reviews, Enhanced Local Listing & Keyword In Business Name. Video: Create a separate page for your video on your site. Surround the video with a description and link to your You Tube page with anchor text being the keywords you like to rank for. Submit the same description to each video site. Include your keywords in the title and business page. Twitter is now being used as a “web reference”. Use call tracking for free within Google’s audio campaign (even if you don’t subscribe).
Olivier Amar: Case Study.
Jennifer Chin: Google Maps Product Specialist: Editing and Controlling Your Listing. Community Edits Feature: (owning a listing that has bad information). Community Edits will show up in Maps immediately though it won’t show up in the web until verified. Claims actual local hijacking is rare…difference between hijacking and spam. Marking listings for removal…one option to get rid of spam. Reporting spam will help Google create rules to better the maps data.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.