Using Google Places to be in the first page of Google

It is important for a website to be listed on Google Places to make it possible to appear on the first page of Google especially if the business is offering services or products in a specific area.

Optimizing a Business’ Google Places Listing

There are several things to be considered on how a website will be listed in Google Places. Real estate firms in Sacramento should not appear in the same list with a restaurant in Brunswick. They will be listed differently. The factors which affects a business listing in Google Places includes the type of industry that the business is in,  the location of the business and the keywords that the website is targeting.

The first element that affects the ranking is the business address.

Business owners who want their website to get high rankings for certain keywords which are related to a specific location like a city, their businesses should really be located in that locality. For instance, a businessman who has a website and he wants his website to be found in Nashville, then the physical address of his business must be in Nashville.

The keywords in the business’ name also affect its listing in Google Places.

The change for a business to get listed on Google Places results on the first page of Google’s result page increases if the name of the business contains the keywords which the owners want to be found. “Marcus’ Restaurant” has a better change in appearing on the first page of the results page for the keyword “restaurant” compare to other restaurants that don’t have the keyword “Restaurant” in their business name.

Another element that can affect this is the business category.

Businesses that sell car parts must not be listed in real estate category and law firms must also not be listed in the restaurant category. Business owners must see to it that their business is listed in the right category.  When submitting to Google Places owners can specify the right category.

Citation of a business is another element which can affect a business ranking on Google Places.

Citations are also called web references.  This refers to a business name and address that are mentioned on the web pages whether there is or there isn’t any a link to the business’ website.

For instance, the local chamber of commerce or a yellow pages directory might have a certain business listed in their website without the link to the business’ website. The more instances that a business is cited, the more likely it is for that business to get listed for a local search.  Just like the way on how backlinks have effects on regular website listings, citation also has that same effect on local searches.

One way to show to Google that a business is real is by listing a business’ website address on as many website as possible.

The proximity of a business to the searched location is another thing that can affect a business’ ranking.

Businesses which are near the location that is being search are more likely to appear on the search results.  Google Place listing would most likely show “The London Knee Clinic” for the search term “clinic near London Bridge.”

Positive Review on a website also affects its ranking.

Google Places, first and foremost, is a recommendation search engine which means that it recommends establishments, service providers, product s and other types of businesses in the search results based on the keywords used in the search. If Google Places shows businesses in the results page that offer poor products or services, people would most likely stop using it.

The more positive reviews that a business has, the better it is for that business. Businesses should encourage their customers to write positive reviews about their products or services if they think that their customers are satisfied with them because this positive reviews and ratings will be a big help in giving Google Places the confidence to recommend their businesses to include their websites on the first page of the results.