Google Places Optimization Techniques

With the rise of smart phone use in the US, (Google Android and iPhone are currently reporting roughly 500,000 activations a day ) it’s more important than ever to have Google Places Optimization because when people use voice search on Android phones, the first results they see are from Google local.

Let’s start with a few facts. Did you know that;

73% of all online activity is related to local content (Google)
82% of local searchers follow up with a phone call or show up on your doorstep (TMP/comScore)
66% of Americans use local search to find local businesses (comScore)

Another reason to take Google Places seriously is the recent changes and enhancements that were rolled out. Now you will notice the map with local businesses appears above the ads on the right side. Also worth noting is that the local listings are appearing above all organic search results and have taken up more space, pushing the organic listings further down the page.

Take a look at these images from an eye tracking study. You can see where people’s eyes are drawn to as they are looking in Google.

It is critical you setup and optimize you listing in a manner that Google can easily located related citations. Google bots crawl other web properties and tie matching business names/addresses to your Google Places listing.

Check out our Portfolio page as we have several examples of clients with #1 ranking for their keyword/business. We are different then our competitors in the following ways:

Google Places Optimization

No long term contracts. We work month to month and you can stop at anytime
We also have a Guarantee #1st option. You don’t pay until we get results.
We actually get results and not just write about it. Check out our Portfolio Page
We stay up on the latest trends/changes from Google. They are constantly changing and if a company is using old techniques to get you ranked it won’t last long.