Towards the end of 2010, Google made a number of changes to the algorithm that determines the position of your Google Places listing.
It used to be that businesses without websites ranked equally as well as those without, but this is no longer the case.
This is good news for all businesses who have a company website but not so good for those that don't. While having a website for your business has always been a good idea, it's become more vital as a result of this change.
Here are seven additional tips to help you improve your Google Places' rankings:
1. Pay close attention . . . → Read More: More Google Places Tips
With Google Places, formerly called Google Local, you have the ability to create a high-quality free listing for your business whether you currently have a website or not.
While it’s relatively easy to create the listing, it can be much more challenging to get your listing to appear on the first page for the keyword phrases you are targeting.
To that end, I offer the following seven tips:
1. Choose you keywords carefully.
Before creating (or claiming) your listing it is important that you do thorough research. You should know what keyword phrases you want to rank for and what your competition looks like for . . . → Read More: Google Places Tips
A few years ago, at the 2007 Strategic Advertising Summit, Microsoft mogul, Bill Gates, predicted yellow pages usage would drop to near zero by the year 2012 for people under the age of 50. Gates’ prediction seems to be coming true as the yellow pages are beginning to see double digit declines in advertising sales, as their former users are now turning to a faster, friendlier and easier way to find local businesses—the internet.
And with a greater than 72% market-strangling hold on internet searches, it is Google that is leading the way.
Simply put, Google has become the new ‘yellow pages’. And . . . → Read More: The Power of Being Found for Local Online Searches
