How to rank in Google Places

[jasonwdexter]

Normally, I don't have a problem with local SEO (more of a multi-channel sort of online marketing guy) but this one has got me scratching my head.

Look at https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wedding+venues+in+essex

Theres two websites there (fennes and quendon park) that both have a much more powerful DA but don't appear in the Google Places (Google + Business or whatever it's labeled as).

Why are websites such as Boreham house ranking top in the map listings?

Quendon Park has a Google places listing, it's full of content, the NAP all matches up. Its a stronger website. Boreham House isn't any closer to the centroid than Quendon Park

Just got me struggling this one

[Chris.Menke]

Danny Dover at Moz did a whiteboard Friday that goes through the basics and is a good resource: http://moz.com/blog/the-basics-of-local-seo-whiteboard-friday

There are also several good blog posts on the topic that will help, including this one: http://moz.com/blog/40-important-local-search-questions-answered

And David Mihm, now at moz put together a list of ranking factors that you should be aware of: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

[jasonwdexter]

Thanks for the response! My knowledge of the map listings is a little low (my website usually get above it).

What can be done to push Quendon Park to the top of the map listings? I don't really see anything that differs between Boreham Hosue and the others

Thanks

[Chris.Menke]

Jason, there are different algorithms in use for the organic listings and the local listings. The local listings aren't (as) dependent on PR (DA) as the organic listings.

Borehamhouse happens to be the strongest of the local results and since local results in this search show at the top of the page (they show up differently depending on the search query), they make it top of the page via the local search algorithm.

quendonpark and fennes are being held back from the top of the local results for any number of reasons, but because they have sufficient organic authority and relevance, they make in onto page one via the organic algorithm. Due to poor performance according to the organic algorithm, however, even though it's at the top of the local results, Borehamhouse doesn't even show up in the first few pages of the organic results