Google Places? How good is it for SEO?

seachto7

Hi guys,

Just a question on Google Places. What are you experiences using it. I recently loaded up some bulk listings for a few different websites/businesses with multiple locations around Ireland, and am doing some research into how it really works in terms of showing results and listings, as well as helping SEO indirectly.

So, say my site is selling curtains, and has 30 shops around Ireland. Now, say Dublin has 5 shops.
If someone searches on "curtains in Dublin", what listing is going to show? Would it be a case that none will show.
Would it be that someone has to enter "curtains in Castleknock", then Google places will show a listing for all curtain shops in Castleknock who are registered on Google Places?

There is also a shop in Limerick. If I enter "curtains Limerick", the placing won't show up. If I am bidding on it in PPC, the ad shows, if I have optimised a page, the organic result will show for "curtains Limerick".

How does Google places show my result for "curtains Limerick". If I have 2 shops in Limerick, how does Google decide which listing to show, or will it show both together. I have only recently had the buld listings approved, and when I did a search on "curtains Limerick", it's not showing up in Google Places results.

So, I looked at tweaking the description so each location is different. The phone numbers and addresses are all unique too, as well as the contact email. So how would I make it show for "curtains LImerick" or "buy curtains in Dublin".

I had a good dig around online and can't seem to find an article that will tell me "this is how Google places shows results for search terms". There is plenty of links for optimising your listings, but nothing on how it works.....??

kbrian

Hi seachto7
definitely an interesting subject and getting more important every day. Thought you might find this study report from bizable useful. I certainly did.
http://bizible.com/local-search-ranking-factors/google-places-optimization

seachto7

Cheers for that, will have a look through it.

I am curious as to how it displays results and how they differ from people who would search on:

"curtains Dublin"
"curtains Ireland"
"curtains in South Dublin"
"curtains in Blackrock, Dublin"
"curtain shop street name, Blackrock, Dublin"

seachto7

Cheers for that.

So, if I type in "buy curtains in Dublin", how does Google decide what stores to show in the Google Places listings.....(just in the map)

mneylon

seachto7 wrote: »

Cheers for that.

So, if I type in "buy curtains in Dublin", how does Google decide what stores to show in the Google Places listings.....(just in the map)

I *think* (could be wrong) that the number of reviews and the completeness of the listing(s) will help.

I generally search for the product / service and the place on Google maps - I wouldn't ever use a full phrase like that.

Or are you looking at the general search results? ie. not Google maps specifically

seachto7

Nope, just concentrating on how Google Places shows results for general search terms.

For example, if I type in "tyres Limerick", which is very general, there is one result in Google Places for Tyre Stop. Now I can see they have included photos, and as much info as possible.

Now, obviously there are more tyre companies in Limerick, and I know a few of them, on their website, have Google Places listings for all of their branches.

Is there any reason why they would not be showing in the results, it just seems to be one company showing in the map to the right.....

benbob65

seachto7 wrote: »

...Is there any reason why they would not be showing in the results, it just seems to be one company showing in the map to the right.....

Afaik, Google Places returns are related to your organic serps.

seachto7

In the example "tyres limerick", there is only one result in the map/places listing, but I know number 2 in the organic rankings has multiple branches in Limerick, but are not appearing. I am confused as to how it works....