Google Places - Local Search - Not ranking when 100% complete?
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Hi
I have followed the examples set by David Mihm and fully completed a Google Places listing - with the geographical area covering the area that it serves along with lots of local citations but when searching on google for 'accountants swansea' it is way down on page 4 of the places results.
Does it take time for Google to recognise these changes to Places listings or is my listing incorrect to attract a high listing for the search phrase. Looking at the competition many of them have not optimised or done anything with their listings pages so I am at a loss to explain why the listing is doing so badly.
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Thanks but with regard to the proximity to the city centre if you google 'chartered accountants swansea' you will see that the 2nd google places listing 'drpaccountants' are located way out of the city centre and they have no photos, reviews etc
Where as on my listing it has a 100% completed profile
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?hl=en&georestrict=input_srcid:492b90c33bfcc2ab
What else needs to be done apart from getting reviews? I have added lots of local citations to the likes of Yelp, Qype, Hotfrog etc but none are showing under the listing on google places? Also is there a reason why the description field is not being populated in the google places account?
The other issue is under the dashboard it displays 0 impressions and 0 actions is this normal?
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Hi
One of the biggest issues I see, is **your proximity to the town center. **That is, you are almost 5 miles from the marker for the town centroid for Swansea vs many of the competitors being right in the center of town.
Although a US article, try some of the things in this post on local SEO and the this post on advanced local SEO by the same author (I highly recommend Ted's blog in general, great stuff).
You'll need to counteract your longer distance from the center of town with getting as many reviews as you can, citations among other local listings and definitely try the things in those posts above!
-Dan
EDIT: Meant to attached screenshot of your distance to the town center.
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It does usually take some time for Google to recognize changes, though in my experience Google Places is a little faster to change.
Without over-doing it and keyword stuffing, make sure "accountants" or other important keywords appear in your description. Also make sure you have filled in as much as possible - add photos and videos if you have them. Even adding just a logo would help. Also fill in the "Additional Details" section with your services like Accounting, Tax Services, etc. If possible, get some reviews from your clients. That is not the easiest to do as I think they will have to register with Google Places to do so, but it makes a big difference in how your Google Places page ranks.
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Talk about chasing a greased pig. Google seems to be constantly shifting its places page rankings. My page showed on page one for 'chicago real estate video' for months, then disappeared. Sigh. I haven't given up, but it's certainly a time-suck trying to figure it out. Sorry this isn't really helpful - venting.
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