Will signing up for Google Places affect my national rankings

[FidelityOne]

OK, Here is a question which I can't find but think people have thought about. I would like to know others opinion.

I have had a site that ranks well under generic national keyword terms. (not geographically specific)  Its a small website, only 10 pages.

We get 85% of our business from online applications.  These applications come from all over the united states.Our SERP rankings generate 70% of all our traffic.

My question is this: we operate in a state where we don't do business.  We are a virtual business.  Should I sign up for google places? Will It hurt my national SERP rankings?

[MiriamEllis]

My pleasure - sounds like your experience will be your most powerful asset! Sincere wishes for success!

Miriam

[FidelityOne]

Thanks for taking the time to reply.  Although I have been on the vendor side of the equation for over 7 years doing SEO, SEM & Consulting, I am now on the client side and making these decisions take on a whole new importance.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Fidelity One,

Thank you for clearing that up for me. I misunderstood your business as a virtual one. Your questions is one I have seen commonly asked, and one for which no Local or Global SEO firm that I know of has every published a firm answer. Google certainly hasn't. You can see a small discussion on this topic in the comments on a post of Rand's from last year:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/one-dead-simple-tactic-for-better-rankings-in-google-local

Here is what I can tell you, but please take this advice in the form of an opinion rather than a hard fact. Local and organic SERPs are running on two separate, distinct algorithms. Let's think, for example, of a franchise like McDonalds. They have a national headquarters and are an international business, but they also have Place Pages for each of their storefronts. Google is not going to think McDonalds is located at 21 Center Street SmallTown USA because they've got a Place Page for a storefront there, right? Granted, few businesses have the fame or clout of McDonalds, but the same factors should ostensibly apply to any business.

In your shoes, I would view Local as something I was doing in addition to my traditional SEO. In fact, you could start this out extremely small as an experiment (with, of course, stat tracking software in place). Instead of going the typical route of a purely local business, implementing geographic data sitewide, you could create just one page on your website with a locally-optimized URL, title, header, content, business name, street address and local area code phone number. In creating your Place Page, you could do what franchises do and link the Place Page directly to this URL instead of to the homepage of your website. Then, you could watch over a period of, say, 6 months to see what actual effect this has had.

Does your organic traffic drop in any way? How about your rankings?

Are you getting new visibility and links thanks to your local promotion? New traffic? New phone calls and business?

My guess is that you would NOT see any detriment to your organic standings, but because of the unwieldy and honestly unpredictable nature of Local in Google, you should treat your case as a distinct experiment. If you are new to Local, you need to know coming into this that Google Places/Maps is notoriously buggy and that folks like myself and Mike Blumenthal have been blogging about the crazy bugs in the system for years now. Stats were recently published that 8 million users have signed up for Google Places, but Google continues to pursue their policy of not offering real, meaningful customer support. When things go wrong (and they often do) getting help can be virtually impossible unless you've got an in with Google.

I don't want to scare you off, but do want to be sure to add this cautionary note if you are entering Local for the first time.

The other thing to remember is that Places is not actually an opt-in venue. If your address exists anywhere on the web (such as in a yellow pages ad or other directory), Google can create a Place Page for your business without any action on your part. So, if your address is already out there anywhere, this is all the more reason for you to actively participate in Local so that you have at least some control over your data.

I hope my thoughts have helped you to reach a decision about this important step! Thanks again for coming to Q&A to ask your question.

[FidelityOne]

We are located at a physical address and people can come through the door and work with us one to one, however that is not the preferred method.

My bigger issue is that if we only have one physical address and register it with Google Places, will it affect the rankings we are receiving in other areas of the country.

For example, in some cities, we are on the first page under the term "city"+keyword, but if I register our corporate address with Google Places, will it affect the other local SERPS?

[MiriamEllis]

Greetings Fidelity One!
Thanks for coming to Q&A to ask your question. If am correctly understanding your description of your business as being a virtual one, then this is not a question of rankings but rather one of appropriateness. Virtual businesses are not deemed to be Local by Google.

In order to qualify as local, you must have a real physical street address (not a P.O, box or virtual office, a unique local area code phone number and a legal business name. Clients must either come directly to the street address to do one-on-one business with you or your staff must depart from the physical street address to do business with clients (as in the case of chimney sweeps, carpet cleaners, etc.)

If any of these criteria do not fit your business model, then Local just isn't the right space for you.

Hope this helps!