Google Places Local Search Ranking Factors 2011 is Out
David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors 2011 just came out. In this time of chaotic Google Places algo changes, you will want to be sure to read every word and bookmark it for future reference.
I was honored to be selected as a contributor, along with a distinguished group of local marketing experts to share insights and opinions about the most important Google Places ranking factors.
This year’s survey focused exclusively on Google Places. It was a long, detailed survey for all the contributors to get through, made more complicated due to the fact that we had to try to cover all the bases on the 2 separate Google local algorithms. Due to the new merged (blended) algo there is a lot more info than last year that you’ll need to make time to read and analyze.
If you deal with Google Places Optimization and local search, then you know David’s Local Search Ranking Factors is considered THE holy grail for local search. Be sure to read it top to bottom, especially the wise comments from all the experts.
Oh and good luck getting anything else done today.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you! 
PS Huge thanks go out again to David for coordinating everyone’s efforts and compiling all this data for the benefit of small businesses and the local marketing industry.
Attention SEOs, Agencies & Google Places Consultants
Best Google Places Software & FREE Local SEO Tools&
Linda Now Offers ADVANCED Google Places Training
Including: templates, time savers, forms, cool optimization tricks & lots more
New here? Subscribe to RSS feed or follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
I couldn't believe my results! Went from #44 to #1 (Chiropractor Washington)
#1 Jim Rudnick wrote on June 3, 2011 :
the comment about not getting anything else done today is very apropos, Linda…I’m still looking thru the grading and the comments, eh!
oh, and a big Canuck YUP as to the extra Kudos for David…well done lad!
Jim
#2 Linda Buquet wrote on June 3, 2011 :
Hey Jim,
Have fun diggin’ through all the details, and here’s to us putting them all to good use! Cheers!
#3 Calli @ Wedding Favors wrote on June 5, 2011 :
Hi Linda,
Thanks so much for providing this info. I never had a decent info about local search ranking factors and I’m so glad to have stumbled here in your post.
And big thanks to David too.
#4 New Google Places Phone Support Option - Google Places Optimization Blog wrote on June 20, 2011 :
[...] if you are a fellow contributor to the Mihm Local Ranking Factors, a regular commenter on my blog, part of my local insiders circle – I’ll share. Use my [...]
#5 Google Places Survey: How Much Does Organic SEO Control Google Places Blended Rankings? - Google Places Optimization Blog wrote on June 21, 2011 :
[...] THIS SURVEY? As many of you know David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors 2011 was recently released. If you are in the local search industry or have a business and are trying to [...]
#6 WA DUI Attorney wrote on July 2, 2011 :
A lot of talk about NAP consistency with the rankings factors but I didn’t hear anyone suggest that you should change the Place page title to match the business name if you are currently using a Place page title that is not the business name. Anyway, would it be a good idea to change the Place page title to match the business name used on the website and for offsite citations? I understand that this would create NAP consistency, but I’ve heard that if you change the Place page title, this could destroy current rankings and put the Place page in an under review state where it is not active. Any thoughts on the impact of changing a Place page title for NAP consistency? In my case, my current Place page title is a DBA that I no longer use.
#7 Linda Buquet wrote on July 3, 2011 :
@WA DUI Attorney.
When I talk about NAP consistency, the 1st most important part of that is getting NAP right on the Place page. However if the client has already built a web of inconsistent upstream data then it can be difficult to figure out the best way to go. With Attorneys I often find really messy upstream name data due to lots of name variations. That’s one of the reasons I don’t personally take on attorney clients, but refer them all to my protégé (let him deal with the NAP mess.)
Whether to correct title now depends on many factors and many times it’s a damned if you do/don’t scenario. EACH CASE NEEDS TO BE RESEARCHED IN DETAIL, so don’t take anything I’m about to say and make changes based on this because THIS may not be YOUR situation. However if I had a client that had lots of trust points for his REAL business name but had been using sort of a KW rich DBA for awhile, I may change name IF IF IF my research supports it.
But you are right ANY change to title can have a profound impact on ranking and/or send you to pending. So really important to research, weight all options, make most informed decision then STICK that name from now on.
On the other had I just had a Dentist that wanted to do away with their practice DBA name and just go with the Dr name and I recommended against it. It was a name starting with A from back in the days when an A name got you higher in the yellow pages but the name really had no meaning so they wanted to axe it. Well over the years all these yellow pages and directories had picked up “Practice Name: Dr. Name” So my research showed me they would be best not changing their Place title. (Both names were OK in G’s eyes, both registered legal names so then it becomes a matter of which name or combo has the most trust points.)
At any rate – it’s complicated and each case is different. I don’t do full optimization services for Atty’s and like I said, I refer them to someone else, but I do offer spot consulting for Atty’s, so if you want hire me to just analyze that one piece for you I’d be happy to help.
#8 WA DUI Attorney wrote on July 3, 2011 :
Hi Linda, thanks for your detailed response. Just curious, what are your other reasons for not wanting to work with attorney clients? I don’t see how they could be much different than your dentist clients….unless you’ve had a history of working with over demanding attorney clients. =)
#9 Linda Buquet wrote on July 3, 2011 :
Oops sorry, should have explained that better.
I WANT to help everyone and try to help everyone I can. But I’m since I’m a 1 person company by choice, don’t want to scale or add staff AND have serious carpal problems, I have to pick my battles carefully and decided one way to do that is to focus on a single market, when it comes to doing the complete optimization service. (Consulting/training I help other industries, even SEOs and other marketing consultants – it’s just doing the hands-on optimization that I limit to one market.) I chose Dentistry because I have a strong background in that industry as a speaker, author and management consultant. Also Dentists in general are not really very marketing savvy and therefore I feel need my help. Now having said that, Dentists ALMOST ALWAYS have major dupe probs so that’s an issue that makes Dentists more challenging than certain other small businesses.
However if I were to expand, Attys would be one market I would personally avoid AS FAR AS G PLACES GOES. That’s just me, many consultants really like to focus on the legal market.
The reason being… (warning, stereotypes and bias coming…)
I guess you probably know if you are reading this blog how very complicated Places can be AND you probably can tell my hat is white.
Atty’s as a whole IMHO tend to be pretty aggressive marketers, which increases the likelihood that they’ve had keyword stuffed naming issues, used tracking numbers, often have multiple Atty’s in the practice, etc. All those issues can be a bear. AND they all help increase the likelihood of dupes which is the biggest bear of all.
Add to that the fact the most Atty’s that come to me also have multiple fake locations set up to try to dominate their market and most have broken lots of other G guidelines – either they’ve done it on purpose themselves to try to rank OR have hired one of the sleazier local SEOs. Most, at least the ones that usually come to me wanting help, have so many problems it would honestly be difficult for ANYONE to dig them back out.
I think I referred out about 5 Atty’s last week and I only worked 1/2 a week. But the last one I talked to tried very hard to get me to take his case on personally. I told him that even if I charged him 10K it would not cover my time and headaches to bail him out of the mess he was in. (Dupes, penalties, fake locations.) He said he didn’t care about the $ just wanted me to fix it. I told him the ROI would not be there and it would not make sense for him to do it.
Bottom line, I’m at a point in my career where I’m doing this more for the fun of it than for the money and luckily can afford to pick and choose my clients. What I work for largely is the RUSH I get from helping a well deserving small business who needs and appreciates assistance rank on page 1 and increase their business.
Trying to clean up a huge mess of no-win Google dupes, bugs, blatant violations and other problems is not my idea of a good time!
(Excuse abbrevs. carpal probs)