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Google Maps Placement Revisited

Google AdWords has done away with the local business ad that allowed you to specifically target Google Maps with your ads. For some AdWords programs we had set up separate campaigns just to feed results to the sponsored ad section on Google Maps with great results for some clients. With this important change for Google Maps, organic placement of your Google maps listing is now even more important, but just how do you improve your local organic Google Maps placement? This article may very well help you. You can visit this article on our website at: http://www.mccordweb.com/e-newsletters/instructions/google-maps-placement.php

“Why is my competitor the top site in Google Maps? How can I get there too?” Google has been pretty closed mouthed about their Google Maps algorithm and there really does not seem to be a lot of information on the Web about how to garner top placement. I decided that I should dig into this topic to try to find out what can be done to try to improve Google Maps placement for you.

First, it is important to understand that Google Maps will return the businesses that are in closest proximity to the center of the search query location. For example if I enter a search query in Google Maps for web design Waldorf Maryland, my own site appears in the number two position and one of my competitors appears first. She is located very close to the geographic center of Waldorf, has a site similar to mine and has been in business for a while. I am actually located about 9 miles or so out of Waldorf yet appear in a higher position than other sites that are located actually in Waldorf.

Screenshot showing Google Maps listings appearing just above organic listings and under paid sponsored ads.So, it appears that proximity is important to the center point of the search query, but Google is also taking into account other key factors when sorting the results. As I analyze my own situation, I see that my competitor has links from several very specific community sites that I do not have such as a link from the Chamber of Commerce, The Southern Maryland Tech Council, and a local business directory. Specifically, in my case I have nearly two times the amount of inbound links to my site than my competitor does, but I do not have the Chamber or County resource links. Clearly links from local directories and resources are more important for ranking in Google maps than the amount of content on a site and possibly even the number of inbound links to a site. Google Maps is very heavily weighting certain local factors in regard to determining top Google Maps position.

Additionally, in my case, reviews do not seem to be an important issue for my own Google Maps position, but they can be helpful for many businesses. In regard to Google Maps position and service reviews, you will not necessarily take a position hit for reviews or lack there of unless your competitor has several reviews and you have none.

The amount of information that your Local Business listing for Google Maps does not seem to be a big factor either for top Google Maps placement. In my case, I have a depth of information my competitor has literally no depth of information in her Google Maps listing. So depth of information although important and helpful to readers does not impact Google Maps placement.

In my case the only clear difference that is impacting Google Maps placement is the type of local authority links that my competitor has. As I did further research on this topic, I did find some helpful tips that I would like to share with you that may help you as you work to raise your Google Maps position.

  1. Get links from other local resources. If you are a member of the Chamber of Commerce make sure that they have linked to your website from theirs. Consider other authoritative local listing sites, but stay away from link farms. Other local sites might include the Yellow Pages, local business associations, and local review sites.
  2. Make sure to include your street address, and at least your city and state on each page on your website in text versus in an image.
  3. On your contact page repeat your full address with the city and even list the local areas your service by name.
  4. Add as much information as you can to your Local Business listing such as hours driving directions, areas served, consider adding a local coupon or discount.
  5. If you do not have a Google Local Business listing which will show in Google Maps, you can get one free from Google. You will need to create a Google account in order to do so.

If you don’t think that you should be thinking about your own Google Maps position, you may want to think again. In many cases Google is now showing Google Map listings on top and above all organic listings. Improving your own position on Google Maps is doable and can help improve your overall visibility on the Web.

If you like this article you may find more that you will find helpful in our instructions section or white paper section on our website.

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New Blogging Clients – the Writer Makes All the Difference

We’ve added some new blogging clients recently and wanted to share some great writing with you as well as some old favorites. With seven talented writers, we may just be the perfect match for your blog needs as well. Find out more information about our blog writing services.

Lindbergh Aircraft Tug Company

This blog is owned by DJ Products. We write for the main corporate blog and this is their second blog with us. They sell aircraft tugs that pull small aircraft out of hangers to the runway. The blog is interesting even though you might consider it a fairly complicated topic. The same writer has worked on the DJ Products blog for easily over a year and has developed a wonderful understanding of their product line.

PehnecGems’  The Lab Gem Supplier Blog

We have just started this blog on Wednesday September 2nd. I think as you review previous posts and then the post from Wednesday on this blog you will agree that a quality writer makes all the difference in the world. This is a new blog for us and we are still learning about the topic so stay tuned to see what we do with it. You can also follow PehnecGems on Twitter and review the tweets that we supply there as this client is also using our Twitter Executive Program.

Marks Psychiatry

Although this is not a new client for us, we have been writing for Dr. Marks for several months, the writing and information we provide on this blog provides tremendous value to the client’s website visitors. Even the Dr. has been favorably impressed with the quality and authority of the content on topics in her area of expertise.

Permanently Beautiful

We have been writing for this blog since it’s start up in October 2008. We have had a few different approaches taken on content and I think the new direction we have recommended to the client is “spot on”. Check out the last week’s posts that focus on celebrities and a younger market and then scroll back a few posts to see what you think. Sometimes on your own blog you have to try new things to see what works best for your readership. This is our real value to you, we recommend new approaches and direct our writers to try new topics when we feel that the writing is turning stale. We work hard to provide you with the great content you want and need, but with a very smart audience-centric approach.

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Google AdWords Trends From August 2009

There are several marked trends that we have seen across many business sectors in Google AdWords this past month. One has been an increase in advertising start up and the other has been a marked increase in conversion activity. Both trends bode well for a change in our economy and for increased business for the fourth quarter of 2009.

First, many clients who have moved out of AdWords due to budget restraints and the economy are moving back into AdWords this past month. We’ve had several new account set up and several paused clients re-start programs. What is interesting to me is that with this flow back into AdWords, typically we see a rise in the cost per click as more competition drives the click cost up on AdWords, but we have not seen this activity yet. Possibly we will this next month, but not so far.

Second, we’ve seen a real jump in conversions across nearly every market sector. Conversion activity has been particularly strong in August with many clients having their best month ever or for the best month in the past six months. Now not all conversions are sales in “AdWords language”. For some accounts a conversion does mean a true online purchase, but for other clients a conversion actually means a lead. A conversion lead really should called a micro-conversion, but AdWords calls it a conversion in their tracking and control panel. Whatever you call it, increased leads and increased sales is good news for our economy and our own personal clients.

So based on these trends should you be moving back into AdWords or should you wait out the economy a bit longer? The decision may be in part based on what you sell. Most of the activity we are seeing is still for products under $1,000 or so and not the big ticket purchases of $2,000 and more, but based on the activity we are seeing, the prospects for a strong economy for the fall are looking pretty good.

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Twitter – Best Practices

How can you effectively use Twitter, how often should you tweet, what should you tweet about, when should you tweet? These are just a few questions that I get asked frequently. In this post I will share with you my best practices and recommendations for effective Twitter use.

First Twitter is a very conversational and casual medium. Consider it like a “big” instant message to the world. Each tweet can only be 140 characters including spaces so you have to be concise and yet persuasive in each tweet to build your following. Here are some of my top tips to consider.

  1. You do not need to necessarily use proper punctuation in order to stay in character count. You can drop your period and move to one space at the end of a sentence.
  2.  Consider using common abbreviations such as mgmt. instead of management or gGr8 instead of great. However don’t get too cryptic, most people will know LOL (laughing out loud) but may not know LMAO (laughing my arse off). You get the drift, only abbreviate when you need to and when it will be understandable.
  3. I recommend, for people really wanting to build a following, that they do between 5 to 10 tweets a day.
  4. Space out your tweets. Don’t send out all ten tweets one after another, space them out using a system like TweetLater (now weirdly called SocialOomph). I usually do one tweet the first thing in the morning and then program my tweets out for the rest of the day separating them by at least one hour.
  5. Make your tweets be valuable to readers. When you don’t offer interesting information you will not grow your following. I focus on interesting links, cool tidbits, interesting information you may not have known in the field I am tweeting on, and sometimes (but not in every tweet) a link back to my website to a specific page, feature or service. Make sure that tweets you do are more than self promotion. I have found that I really grow my following quickly when I take this focus. Additionally when you take this approach more followers will promote you to a special category where they hang on your tweets versus just being a tweet in the crowd. You will leverage your Twitter power with this approach, I know from experience.

Don’t feel like you have the hang of Twitter? We can start you out, just check out our Twitter services.

Do you have another tip you want to share here? Love to hear what you recommend, just click comments below and leave me yours.