Google Places email question

[lhc67]

Hi Mozzers-

I just watched the recent Webinar on Google Places optimization. Unfortunately I missed the live broadcast.

I have a couple of questions:

• It was advised to use an email at the domain for claiming the listing. What about a Gmail address with the company's name in the address? I try to use an email at the domain, but sometimes I'm not able to get one setup.
• One of my clients provides a service where clients don't necessarily have to come to their location. I used the radius option within maps but they are still not coming up in other locations. I should note that they have very good visibility in the metro area where there is more competition. Some of their competition is showing up for lots of locations and they have offices in one location. Tips?

Thanks in advance!

LHC

[MiriamEllis]

Hello Llsa,

Thank you for coming to Q&A with your question. I'm the Local SEO Associate here in the forum, and will do my best to give you helpful answers.

1. Email addresses

Yes, it is ideal to claim/create a client's Google Place Page with a domain-based email address, but if this just isn't possible, you'll have to settle for doing it with a gmail address or other address. As WrightIMC has stated, you should not experience any actual penalty for this, but I believe that it's best to do it with the domain-base address whenever possible because of its ability to send a stronger trust signal to Google that you are the owner (or that the client is the owner).

2. Radius

It's vital to understand that Google will always view the actual physical address of the business as its key signal of relevance. Yes, for go-to-client business models (like carpet cleaners, landscapers, etc.) this isn't ideal because they may serve in a wide area. But, if the carpet cleaner is in San Francisco, Google views him as most relevant to San Francisco. His competitor in Oakland will be viewed as most relevant to Oakland. When I work with clients like this, I develop a strategy with them for getting high organic rankings for their service area, while the main local results must surround their actual city of location. That's just the way Local works.

Exceptions to this: if you have a client in either a rural area where there are few businesses, or you have a client with an unusual business model creating a situation of low competition, the client may well show up in results outside of his city of location because he is one of the only providers of what he does. This does happen...but not in metropolitan locations, busy suburbs or industries with heavy competition.

3. Tips

Study exactly what the competition is doing. Duplicate their strategy. And then go one better!

Hope this helps!

Miriam

[lhc67]

Hi-

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I agree, Whitespark's Citation Finder works great. Have you tried Citation Labs?

Thank you!

[WrightIMC]

We haven't experienced any issues (as far as rankings) from claiming with a separate email. However, I think it's a good practice and shows trust to the particular account.

From what we've seen so far with the radius is usually Google will serve the results based on the users specific location. So it may not show up for you, but it could show up for other users. Unfortunately, we haven't gathered enough data to say for sure. I recommend getting more citations. Check out what citations they have that your client doesn't. Also I'd look at the website and see if they are sending any other signals - for example if they are ranking organically for the other areas.

Try out White Spark's Local Citation Finder.