You are very welcome!

Hi DarrenX,

You've gotten some very good feedback here. In sum:

1. Let your customers review you where they want to. A diverse review profile is good insurance against massive review loss (which happens in big waves on Google). If you lose some reviews at one site, at least you still have some at other sites.

2. When you have a chance to gently steer a customer toward a review site, Google+ Local is always going to be a top choice, because they dominate all local business verticals. Yelp is the obvious runner-up, given how much prominence Google currently gives their pages, but it is against Yelp's policies to ever ask for reviews, so you have to be careful there. Then, depending on your industry and geography, as members have said, you will find that certain directories happen to attract more reviews than others. See where your competitors are prominent and keep those directories in-mind.

The above is best practice advice for local businesses. However, you indicate that your current client is virtual rather than local, and develops software. I am not experienced with your industry, but would suspect that product review and technical publications/websites would be your target review sources. Maybe things like: http://reviews.cnet.com/?

I think the key here for you is to figure out where your customers are. Where do people go to find software reviews? That's where you need to be prominent.

Hi Echo1,

If you find that those keywords are driving traffic, then yes, I'd select them as your categories...but not as your first categories.

Regarding services radius vs. areas served, I recommend you read this thread:

http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/service-area-business-issues/4780-setting-milage-radius-versus-static-location-places.html

Hope this helps!

Hi Michael,

You've gotten some excellent replies. I share Chris' sentiment about firing this client if they are telling you - their SEO - how to do SEO. As members have explained here, it has been many years since Google devalued the meta keywords tag, specifically because people were using it in the spammy way your client wants to. In fact, I would let your client know that not only will this tactic not help him, it could very likely hurt him.

Last year, Google updated their Webmaster Quality Guidlelines (share this link with your client: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66358) to speak against keyword stuffing of this kind anywhere on a page. The language reads:

"Keyword stuffing" refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking in Google search results. Often these keywords appear in a list or group, or out of context (not as natural prose). Filling pages with keywords or numbers results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site's ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.

Examples of keyword stuffing include:

• Lists of phone numbers without substantial added value
• Blocks of text listing cities and states a webpage is trying to rank for
• Repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural, for example:
  We sell custom cigar humidors. Our custom cigar humidors are handmade. If you’re thinking of buying a custom cigar humidor, please contact our custom cigar humidor specialists at custom.cigar.humidors@example.com.

*emphasis in bold mine

When Google makes a point of saying, "don't do this," and website owners ignore the warning, they are courting a penalty.

Share this information with the client and at the same time, lay out a proper Local SEO plan if they are, in fact, a Local business. Hopefully, this session of education will bring them up-to-date on best practices, but if they persist in insisting on spammy practices, tell them you can't serve them. You don't want spammy clients, believe me.

Hope this helps!

Hi Anatoliy,

It looks like you have a non-merged Google+ Local page (as opposed to a fully merged Google+ Local/Google+ Business Page). In most cases, this means that you will be editing your photos by logging into the old Places Dashboard, which still controls the backend of most Google+ Local pages. If I am correct that your listing is non-merged, you can go to this page:

https://plus.google.com/117400845160255741148/about?hl=en

(make sure you are signed into your Google account)

Then, click on the 'manage this page' button on the lower right side of the page. This will take you to a dashboard. At that point, you can choose to the edit button in the area labeled 'Your Businesss Info' in the right column.

That should take you to the completely editable dashboard where you should see your photos listed. You can then delete the photos and start over with a fresh one in the number 1 spot.

Hope this helps!

Hi Anatoliy,

I am seeing this Google+ Local page for you:

https://plus.google.com/117400845160255741148/about?hl=en

Both in the main SERPs and as the circle image on your Google+ page, I see a photo of a woman getting a massage.

This photo is coming from here:

https://plus.google.com/117400845160255741148/photos?hl=en

Because this is the first photo in your lineup of photos, it is the one Google is using as your main photo. This seems to confuse many people. See:

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/change$20photo/business/AiFuzhaOs6g/hd4H1BNxWDEJ

So, if you want a different photo to appear, you need to put it first in the lineup. Be advised, however, that photo changes can take weeks to go into effect.

Hope this helps!

Hi Digitalkiddie,

I would expect Google to be able to understand international prefixes. Can't give you a 100% guarantee on that, but I'm reasonably certain that they are sophisticated enough to get this. So, my advice is to list your complete local number wherever possible, but if some directories require a different format, follow their guidelines and provide what they want.

Hope this helps!

Hi Bede,

Unfortunately, yes, there is some concern about odd, buggy merges whenever this multiple practitioner approach is taken, but, as Google allows it, you have good ground to stand upon if troubles arise. Mike Blumenthal says that Google is getting better about this, and I value his opinion highly.

One thing to be sure of is that you are using totally different categories for the two different Google Places/+ Local listings. In other words, the categories of the doctor must be different than the categories of the practice.

Hope this helps! Good luck, Bede.

Hi Bede,

So, because of this from the Google Places Quality Guidelines:

Individual practitioners may be listed individually as long as those practitioners are public-facing within their parent organization. Common examples of such practitioners are doctors, dentists, lawyers, and real estate agents. The practitioner should be directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours. A practitioner should not have multiple listings to cover all of his or her specializations.

...essentially, what you are dealing with is 2 listings: one of the doctor's name and one for the practice name. There isn't a way (that I know of) to combine them all into one, but as Google allows you to have the separate listings, then basically, a client like this has 2 ranking opportunities, 2 citation building opportunities, etc.

Does this make sense, or am I not getting to the heart of your question? Please, let me know.