Google Phone Numbers
-
What process is performed to get a company's phone number to show as "A" on google maps. Google displays the phone number for the company on the map as "A" first. It would be beneficial to get that position.
Is there a sub-category of seo that does this?
Thanks in advance!
-
Hi Joseph,
Like Corey, I'm reading your question as being about getting a high local ranking. If this isn't your intent, please correct me.
Corey has linked to the Local Search Industry's premiere annual report, which surveys some of the top Local SEOs in the world. It's an extremely helpful document, and it outlines what participants feel are the top local rankings factors. Now, the 2012 report (I'm a yearly participant) was undertaken before the rollout of Google's big new local product - Google+ Local - which basically replaces the Google Place Pages of former times. So, be aware that there have been some major changes since publication, though the basic advice remains solid.
Local SEO is the practice of obtaining high rankings both in the blended/local packs of results (the ones with the lettered pins on them) as well as high organic rankings for local terms that don't bring up the actual pinned local results. The lettered local results' rankings are derived from a combination of both organic signals (like the strength of the website, link profile, etc.) and local ones (like having a violation-free, complete Google+ page, number of citations from other local business directories, proximity to the centroid of business in a given city) etc.
To qualify for inclusion in Google's local products, a business must meet all 3 of the following criteria:
-
Have a unique, dedicated physical street address (not a P.O. box, shared address or virtual address)
-
Have a unique, local phone number in the city of location (not a toll free number or shared number)
-
Have in-person transactions with clientele either at the place of business (like a restaurant) or at the client's place of business (like a plumber)
If any of those 3 things doesn't match the business model, then you cannot seek inclusion in Google+ Local.
Most Local SEOs consider Mike Blumenthal to be the leading expert in the field, so if you're just getting into this, you should start reading his blog on a regular basis: http://www.blumenthals.com/blog
You might also find a couple of recent articles from my blog to be useful in getting you into the right mindset about this unique field of SEO:
The Zen of Local SEO
http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1314
The Rudiments of Local SEO
http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1344
The main thing to understand about Local SEO is that it is constantly changing...arguably even more so than traditional SEO, so constant study is a must in this field. It's a really dynamic area to work in. Hope these resources help!
-
-
Well, if we're talking about Google Maps, this falls within the dense world of Local SEO. By 'the phone number showing as "A" in Google', I assume you're referring to being the #1 local listing, shown with an "A" when searching maps.google.com?
If this is indeed the case, here are a hundred or two considerations to help you start planning how to get there: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Brand on Google Knowledge Panel
Hi, I have a question that maybe someone can give me some insight, as I haven't been able to get any kind of solution by Google My Business support so far for several months. Our brand "neakriti" is a news organization located in Greece. If you search the brand "neakriti", you get all the results as normal, but the "Knowledge Panel" on the right of the search appears empty. However, if you search the brand as "neakriti.gr" on google search, it appears on the Knowledge Panel. I have been talking about this on the phone support of Google My Business for months now (more than a year), and I get responses like, "give it some more time and it will appear on neakriti results too". We are authority for the keyword "neakriti", and it is our site that appears first. Our website is linked to the business profile too. I have claimed the business, I have filled all its information, with daily posts specifically for the knowledge panel and so on. Is there any suggestion as to why we are unable to show up with just the brand name on the knowledge panel, or suggestions for actions we can possibly take?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ioannisanif0 -
Does google ignore ? in url?
Hi Guys, Have a site which ends ?v=6cc98ba2045f for all its URLs. Example: https://domain.com/products/cashmere/robes/?v=6cc98ba2045f Just wondering does Google ignore what is after the ?. Also any ideas what that is? Cheers.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CarolynSC0 -
How to rank my website in Google UK?
Hi guys, I own a London based rubbish removal company, but don't have enough jobs. I know for sure that some of my competitors get most of their jobs trough Google searches. I also have a website, but don't receive calls from it at all. Can you please tell me how to rank my website on keywords like: "rubbish removal london", "waste clearance london", "junk collection london" and other similar keywords? I know that for person like me (without much experience in online marketing) will be difficult task to optimize the website, but at least - I need some advices from where to start. I'm also thinking to hire an SEO but not sure where to find a trusted company. Most importantly I have no idea how much should pay to expect good results? What is too much and what is too low? I will appreciate all advices.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | gorubbishgo0 -
Google ignoring Canonical and choosing its own
Hey Mozzers, We have several products that all have upto 6 different versions, they are the same product but in a different specification. As users search via these specifications (within our website) it is beneficial to keep all 6 products as different listings on the website. In google however it is not. So we kept all 6 listing but chose 1 to be the google landing page, the only different between them all is the technical specification + occasionally size. But 95% of the pages are the same. Let call the products A, B, C, D, E, F, we made all the canonicals point to C because this is out best selling version of the product. However, google has chosen E to rank instead. What is my best move here? Should i accept the page google has chosen and change the canonicals the point to that version or should I be stubborn and try to get google to change which version it ranks. As always many thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ATP0 -
Google is indexing the wrong pages
I have been having problems with Google indexing my website since mid May. I haven't made any changes to my website which is wordpress. I have a page with the title 'Peterborough Cathedral wedding', I search Google for 'wedding Peteborough Cathedral', this is not a competitive search phrase and I'd expect to find my blog post on page one. Instead, half way down page 4 I find Google has indexed www.weddingphotojournalist.co.uk/blog with the title 'wedding photojournalist | Portfolio', what google has indexed is a link to the blog post and not the blog post itself. I repeated this for several other blog posts and keywords and found similar results, most of which don't make any sense at all - A search for 'Menorca wedding photography' used to bring up one of my posts at the top of page one. Now it brings up a post titled 'La Mare wedding photography Jersey" which happens to have a link to the Menorca post at the bottom of the page. A search for 'Broadoaks country house weddng photography' brings up 'weddingphotojournalist | portfolio' which has a link to the Broadoaks post. a search for 'Blake Hall wedding photography' does exactly the same. In this case Google is linking to www.weddingphotojournalist.blog again, this is a page of recent blog posts. Could this be a problem with my sitemap? Or the Yoast SEO plugin? or a problem with my wordpress theme? Or is Google just a bit confused?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | weddingphotojournalist0 -
Google Reviews
I have a couple of reviews from clients on Google that seem to have just disappeared. What gives?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bronxpad0 -
Can Google Read Text in Carousel
so what is the best practice for getting Google to be able to read text that populates via JQuery in a carousel. If the text is originally display none, is Google going to be able to crawl it? Are there any limits to what Google can crawl when it comes to JavaScript and text? Or is it always better just to hardcopy the text on the page source?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | imageworks-2612900