Google Places Optimization and Local SEO Blog

Why is this post so important? Because when Google makes changes to the rules, however subtle they may be – it is almost always a precursor to a coming algo change that could result in your account being rejected or sent to Google purgatory which is even worse! If you don’t know about Google purgatory, see link at bottom of this post.

If you’ve lost Google reviews and Google Places rankings, below are several great resources that will help. Here’s a story from InfoWorld about how Google is hurting small businesses due to the problem.

There is a BIG window of opportunity here for those that understand what the change means. Everyone that’s ranking on top right now in the new localMerge format, just got lucky and happened to do several things right, but most don’t understand how they got there. Therefore they don’t know how to move up or how to STAY on top. On the FLIP side there are a bunch of companies that HAD Google Places but are not even listed in the new localMerge results and can’t figure out why.