Google Places - Overcoming a geographical disadvantage

[MatrixCreate43]

We have done some work on the Google Place entry for this website:

http://www.royalhoteliow.co.uk/

We have spent a lot of time ensuring we have consistent address information, to make sure we have a good number of citations, and have worked with the staff at the hotel to ensure that there is a regular stream of reviews coming into a variety of websites  that we know are used by Google.

However....

Our target searches are 'Isle of Wight Hotels' and 'Isle of Wight Hotel'.

If you do a Google map search for 'Isle of Wight', it drops a pin in the middle of the Island, which is 30 miles by 20!

The main areas for hotels on the Isle of Wight (dictated by tourism), are about 15 miles from where Google percieves the Isle of Wight is, in the coastal towns.

So it seems that no matter how hard we try, in terms of citations and reviews, GP is always going to prioritise those close to the middle of the area.

Anyone got experience of a similar issue, or got any suggestions?

[totalseo-155734]

One of the often overlooked factors in local ranking in customer reviews.  Implementing a simple email marketing program to request positive customer feedback can boost rankings and expand the geographic area your citation is "relevant" for.  Couldn't hurt to buy adwords for your target keywords and include your places listing as an ad extension.

[MBayes]

This is one of the more difficult challenges.  Here are a few things we have done to help with the Geo challenge on maps.

You may notice that the top ranked sites have huge domain scores, but the third place does not.  Look at that site and the first thing you will notice is the address is the first title.  Add you address on main pages. Maybe on top. It's very difficult to find an actual address on the site.  This is very important.

Encourage your reviewers to use the term Hotel on the Isle of Wright, in the first paragraph or title.

Do you sue the term in your meta title and description?

Do you have a page with that title and URL?

Have you run a keyword report on your home page to grade its optimization grade for that term.

Have you built strong quality citations and links.  You are competing against  of t some well optimized sites.

And last thing for this post. Look at top sites and ask your self, why are these showing up?

We have been successful in overcoming the geo marker challenge, but you do have to stay at it!