Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi John, I'm not sure that's the best decision, honestly. Before you do that, I would advise you to hire a heavy hitting local SEO to help you with this. BTW, the screenshot you are showing me (I'm not sure which page that is) is not the one I would expect to see. Read this thread and look at the 4th post on it:

http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local-important/1580-hooray-new-business-moved-feature-google-local.html

I am still not sure how the pending status is actually affecting you, John, as your listing is clearly live. I had asked about this, but don't believe you responded. I had also asked what the history of your communication with Google was about this, but did not see a reply on this from you. My advice is that you hire someone to dig fully into this beyond what I can do here in Q&A and figure out what the best steps will be for you. You mentioned David Mihm at the start of this thread, but David is no longer doing client work as of GetListed being acquired by SEOmoz. I would recommend any of these providers:

Mike Blumenthal, http://www.blumenthals.com/blog

Andrew Shotland, http://www.localseoguide.com

Mary Bowling, http://www.marybowling.com/

Matthew Hunt, http://www.smallbusinessonlinecoach.com/

I'd offer my own services but I am so busy right now, John, and troubleshooting complicated problems like this isn't really my area of client work. However, I do believe you would benefit from paying for an hour or two of consulting time from one of these folks BEFORE you make such a big decision. You need to present the whole history of your case and get personalized guidance. Hope my suggestion may save you from some headaches.

Hi John,

I'm saying that this is what Google recommends, in the case of moving. Their guidelines regarding this are here:

http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=154102

Nyagoslav Zhekov (a very talented Local SEO and chum) wrote quite a good article on this topic that I think you should definitely read regarding closing a listing vs. editing one:

http://www.ngsmarketing.com/closing-an-old-google-local-listing-vs-editing-it/

If you read both of the above resources, you will see that Google recommends certain procedures, but that some Local SEOs are experimenting with whether it is possible to keep a listing an edit if the move is within the same city. Given the controversy over this, I don't want to advise you one way or the other. I want to give you the facts so that you can make your own decision.

I believe if you brought this up in the Google and Your Business Forum, you would be advised to close the old listing, but not everyone agrees with this advice.

Hope this clarifies what I'm telling you, John.

Hi Stephen, That's a smart question to ask. Short and sweet: do not include anything in the business title except the company name. This is especially critical in Google's local entity, and because they rule the roost, I recommend following their rule on this everywhere you list your business, so that your citations are all consistent. Google is so crazy about this rule, they recently wrongly penalized a museum that legitimately has a city name in its business title. Read about this here: http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local/1779-google-local-unfair-censorship-childrens-discovery-museum.html Quite nutty! In sum, remember, when you're dealing with a franchise, be it large or small, the business name is the same across all locations. There is only one McDonald's, only one Taco Bell, etc. Leave it up to the engines to show the address on the listing to distinguish one location from another.

Hello!

Google+ Local is Google's new interface for their local index and is their attempt to increase the social aspects of Local. However, Google Places still exists in that it is the dashboard via which the listings are still being controlled by many business owners. So both things still exist.

If you'd like to read more from the period of time when Google+ Local was first rolled out, here's a good post that also links to a ton of other announcement-style posts from that time:

http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-plus-local-google-places.html

You should not create a second listing for your second website. If you have 1 business, you are entitled to just one listing.

See:

http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

I recommend that you study those guidelines and be sure you are complying with them to the letter. This rule specifically applies to your situation:

Businesses with multiple specializations, such as law firms and doctors, should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties. You may create one listing per practitioner, and one listing for the hospital or clinic at large.

Regarding your EMD sites, I just want to check in to be sure that you are aware of the recent, large penalties affecting those types of websites. If not, here's some good reading on this topic:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-emd-algo-update-early-data

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-exact-match-domain-playbook-a-guide-and-best-practices-for-emds

Hope these resources will be just what you need!

Hi John,

I'm stopping back in with another comment. The presence of links in your business description so surprised me that I brought it up in a discussion with Local Search Godfather, Mike Blumenthal. He informed be that this function has actually been available for some time...though it's rarely seen. Apparently, these links must be personally vetted by Google, so if you've got them, I must assume they are approved.

So, now, we go back to the questions about how you handled the move, how you've communicated with Google, what the effects of the pending status actually are on your business, and the presence of geo terms in your business description.

Hi Anton, Is your business local or virtual? If local, then yes, city landing pages are extremely common and typically contain the city name in the URL of the landing page. However, it is key with these types of pages to be sure that you are creating unique, high quality content that will be of value to the user. Do not simply duplicate content and change out city keywords across multiple pages. That would be spammy. City landing pages work well for service radius businesses like plumbers, landscapers and general contractors, because the staff travel to clients in a number of cities. They are not as good of a fit for brick-and-mortar businesses like dentists, restaurants or retail shops, because in such cases, all clients come from their locations to the locale of a business. If a brick and mortar business wants to write about cities other than its city of location, it has to discover a valid reason for doing so. For example, a doctor located in City A might have hospital privileges in City B and give seminars in City C, giving a good reason for him to publish content about his involvement in these other cities. But, to simply create pages for cities in which he has no involvement, just because he hopes patients living in those cities might travel to him, doesn't really make sense So, what you do with your city landing pages is a case-by-case situation. One rule covers all scenarios - always build unique, quality content on the pages with the goal of helping users.

Hi John,

Oh, those pending states are so frustrating. So, there could be many things causing this, but let's take a look at your Google+ Local page. I am seeing something on it that I've never seen anywhere before. Your business description looks like this:

Shearer Painting is a Seattle Painting Contractor started in 1990,  a full service painting contractor recognized as one of Seattle's Top ten painting contractors.

find out more information aboutHistoric House Painting, Wood Staining and finishing, Benjamin Moore PaintSee a walk through of interior painting project on a historic home  and a Seattle House Painting project on a 1913 built home- You shouldn't be using the word 'Seattle' in your business description. It's not in the written guidelines, but many people in the Local SEO community believe that the use of GEO terms triggers a penalty.- But the thing that is really jumping out at me is the links in the description. I've never ever seen that before. I didn't even know you could put links in the description. My eyes popped open, and I have to wonder if there is any chance that this is the root of your pending status.According to Google And Your Business Forum TC, Joy Hawkins:"_If a listing's status goes back to pending after being active, it could be any number of issues, including a quality guidelines violation, and needs to be evaluated on an individual basis."_See:
http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-search/1278-pending-status-after-verification.htmlSo, perhaps there is a problem with that description, but on the other hand, as you've moved, I'm curious about the steps you took with your Google+ Local listing. These days, Google's advice is that if you move, you're supposed to close your old listing and open a new one, though there has been much debate in the Local SEO and MapMaker communities about whether it's possible to avoid this if you move within the same city. How did you handle your move?Regarding reviews, yes, it is common to lose them when you move. Google considers your new location a new place.What attempts have you made to communicate with Google? What response have you received.Interestingly, as your listing is live, John, how exactly is the pending status affecting you beyond a note in the dashboard? And, apparently, loss of G. Places analytics data?Can you provide some further information? Moves and pendings are complex, and in the end, communication with Google will likely be the only way to resolve your issues, but I'd be very interested in your answers to my questions and will help more if I can.

That's correct, Jesse. You've understood this correctly. Hopefully, we'll see functionality of this kind in 2013!

Hi Jesse, If you know they are planning to move in the next few months, I would definitely hold off on anything. You don't want to have to go back and re-do the work. Right now, Google+ Local does not support multi location businesses. Multi location businesses and claim/manage their listings via the old Google Places dashboard. I highly recommend a careful read of this post on the subject of merging: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/08/10/google-business-pages-to-merge-or-not-to-merge-that-is-the-question/ Hope this helps!

My pleasure, Tom! Google reviews are important, for sure - widely considered to be a ranking factor in their algo, but I'd advise the doctor to get reviews in a variety of places, just so that all his eggs aren't in one basket.

Hi Dan, My guess from your question is that you may be a virtual business competing against local businesses for your specified search term. As you've probably seen over the past few years, Google is placing increased emphasis on their local results whenever they believe a search may have a local intent. Your search term could definitely have a local intent, so this is Google's reason for showing these local businesses. You are correct that one of Google's displays is to show their local results below 1-3 organic results. But, another quite common display is for the local results to be first on the page. This is what is showing in your first link. If you saw the display for this kw phrase go from one type to the other, that is just a sign of Google's constant changes to their presentation of data. It could stay the way it is today, or change tomorrow. So, for virtual businesses who do not qualify for inclusion due to lack of physical location, results like these can be a huge drag. But for local business owners, they are great. Google's goal is to present the information they believe will be most relevant and helpful to the user. In the case you've cited, Google has decided that more people want local results than organic ones, presumably.

Hi Kevin,

Google's review product has been buggy since day one, but as of the rollout of the new Google+ system, the rise in review issues has been totally astronomical. The Google and Your Business Forum is literally drowning in complaints about this.

Read Mike Blumenthal's quick post: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/07/30/google-local-and-review-issues/

And here's another one from Mike that's been widely cited: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/09/24/asking-for-reviews-post-apocalypse/

I have seen lots and lots of threads in the Google forum about reviews being visible when logged in, but not in public.

Here's one: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/business/XQYWVOCFebc

Here's another: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/review$20only$20visible/business/9ro8W8hzKiM/CALKB8W7vwAJ

I wrote a post here at SEOmoz back in August on the subject of lost reviews:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/lost-your-google-reviews-take-a-proactive-stance

However, despite the efforts of things like the Mike Blumenthal consolidated thread of lost reviews (referenced in my above blog post) the review system continues to be totally broken. This is a cause of huge frustration, particularly since Google has made it increasingly difficult to even leave a review. When so many of them get filtered out, the appeal of making an effort to review a business is certainly diminished. Google is basically trying to fight spam - which is good - but they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater in too many cases when it comes to reviews.

Hi Copyjack,

There are many positive things about Localeze's product, but honestly, most of the Local SEOs I know agree that there is no product currently on the market that can replace manual citation building and claiming. Different products build a certain number/variety of citations, but only when you do it yourself can do you have total control over the quality of what you build and where you build it. The tradeoff, is, of course, that manual citation building is much more time consuming than a one-time submission via a provider like Localeze or Yext. If you do decide to go the Localeze route, I think they are a good company.

My pleasure Clicksjim!

Hi Joshua, Yes, if a totally separate website (like a manufacturer's site) lists your client's NAP (name, address phone number), and lists it in indexable text, that would definitely be a citation. You're very welcome!

Hi Joshua, Are you saying that a business will list each of its 15 locations on its website? If so, I would not consider this as a citation. A citation is what a second party says about the business, not what the business says about itself. If I've misunderstood your query, please clarify.

Hi MagicianUK,

Very good question. Linda Buquet did an awesome piece on this topic just a couple of months ago. Suggest you read:

http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-seo-ranking/849-local-keyword-research-tools-tricks.html

Of course, there is not going to be an answer which speaks to every case, but Linda's research is very illuminating. Hope you'll find it helpful!

Hi Jason, You can't force Google to alter their display of your business. All you can do is work on your Local SEO in hopes that you'll impress Google enough with your popularity that they will award you maximum visibility. As for altering your business name for different locations, I cannot recommend this technique unless your business has different legal names at different locations or a registered DBA with different names for different branches. Google does not want you to list anything but the legit business name. See: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528 Business Name: Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. Do not include marketing taglines in your business name. Do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name field, unless they are part of your business name. Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business in the business name field. Hope this helps!

Hi Clicksjim,

There's nothing silly about your question. I think it's a smart one. It took me a couple of days to get back to you on this because, like others on this thread, though I work in Local, I don't work in the UK. I wanted to speak with someone who does. We had a little chat.

Basically, I think there is agreement in the Local SEO community that a local area code is a ranking signal, but the strength of that signal, in relation to all of the many other signals, is unknown. It may be that Google uses that local area code signal to associate certain content with a geographic region, but how vital this is, in the whole scheme of things, is unclear.

The Local SEO I know (a very smart guy I trust) with UK clients says he ALWAYS advises clients to use a local area code landline because he feels it may give them a slight edge over competitors who don't, but he didn't state that he felt it gives them a really big advantage (but, most of us will try to take any opportunity we have to edge out the competition, right?). Another Local SEO I spoke with said he wondered if mobile numbers get less calls that landlines do, but he was just theorizing.

So, in your shoes, I would go with a local number for your UK clients, if you can, because it may give these clients a bit of an advantage, but if you absolutely can't do this for some of your clients, the effect will probably be slightly disadvantageous rather than majorly. so.

Hope this helps!

Hi Masterworksintl,

Bede is offering you good advice. You need to report the closed business as closed, and also engage in work to remove/edit any references across web that feature the old address. This can be a big job, so be prepared to spend some time on in, or hire a professional citation editor to do the work for you. It's amazing how many citations of a business can appear around the web in even 6 months' time.

Hi Wayne,

Sure, I'm glad to give a quick answer on this. I'm assuming your client is a go-to-client business model like a plumber, general contractor or carpet cleaner, from your description.

Because Google considers local businesses as being most relevant to their city of location, the client's main local efforts will need to revolve around their city of location - not other cities in which they serve. They can strive to achieve a high blended/local ranking for their physical location, but not really for their service radius cities. Instead, for those other service cities, they can create a content development strategy for building up content on their website that highlights their work in those other cities. You can do further research on this topic if you look up discussions of 'city landing pages'. The goal of this work is to gain secondary organic rankings for these service cities where the client has no physical locale. The goal in NOT local rankings, because they won't typically be able to outrank competitors who do have physical offices in those other cities.

So - local rankings for city of location; organic rankings for service radius cities. This is my top advice for this very common situation for service radius businesses.

Hi Donnie,

I'm very sorry to read that an SEO company suggested forbidden tactics. That burns my onion, and, as you can see, you were guided into a situation that has ended in really negative outcomes for your business. So, it's definitely time to turn your back on anything spammy you learned from this SEO firm.

Unfortunately, as your business has already been punished for violations, there is nothing you can really do at this point to get back into Google's good graces apart from vowing to play by the rules from here on out. Memorize the rules and check back from time to time to see if they change:

http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

I truly do understand the frustration - I've spoken with so many business owners who are just on the borders of major areas in which they wish to rank or in which they serve - but the answer is the same for one and all: if you want to benefit from the exposure Google's products offer, you must play by their rules.

How you and I may think Local should work is, unfortunately, totally beside the point. It is Google's conception of how their products should work that matters. You need to try to understand their vision and see how you can fit into their vision, rather than trying to bend that vision to fit your individual business.

So, how Google feels right now (and they are constantly changing their policies) is that a business is most relevant to its city of location. If you're physically located in city A, you can make your best effort to gain high blended/local rankings with a clean listing, citation building, content development, etc., in City A. You cannot reasonably set the same goal for Cities B, C, or D, because you're not physically located there. There are exceptions to this, but they have been rare since the Venice update in early 2011.

Your best strategy for gaining some visibility for these other cities  where you're not located will have to be to make efforts that gain secondary organic visibility...not primary local visibility. So, certainly, have a Places Listing/Google+Local page for your true location and authentically represent your business locale everywhere your data is published on the web, but don't engage in any work that paints a false picture of your business. Your customers do not want this, Google does not want this, and as you have seen, they are cracking down harder and harder on their definition of spam.

It is my understanding that records exist of edits that have been made to accounts...if that is correct, then you've got to see your profile as being marked with a big red flag that any Google editor can see. That being the case, I strongly suggest that you do not try to get back into finding workarounds (such as forbidden virtual offices etc.). If you were my incoming client and had come to me with this issue, I'd be preaching the straight-and-narrow sermon to you and telling you that you've got to forget anything spammy you learned from the old SEO firm and start adhering to all guidelines to the letter. I don't want to go on and on about this, but I do feel real concern about whatever else that bad SEO firm may have taught you about Local.

I have read of cases in which, in order to get more visibility out of the system, businesses with suburb or metropolitan border issues like yours have decided to move their companies to new offices, and while that would certainly be a legitimate thing to do, it's also a rather extreme and expensive reaction. I have also read of cases of people moving offices within a city to get closer to the centroid or business cluster. Again, that seems rather extreme to me, but some people are apparently motivated enough to do so because of the large effect Google's products have on their bottom line.

So, what can you do? I don't know what your business model is (are you a stationary business like an attorney or a go-to-client business like a plumber?) but the tactics are typically the same:

• Put the majority of your effort into gaining high local visibility for your true physical location.

• Build citations to support your physical locale

• Create a content strategy for featuring your work/involvement in other cities with the goal of  achieving some secondary organic visibility for those keywords

• Win/build links to support that organic content

• If you can't get where you want to with either of these 2 efforts, you will have to engage in PPC to get the placement you want.

Something that might be helpful to think of in future: imagine that if instead of investing in the bad SEO company's spamming Google Places/+, you had put that money into content development. Imagine if that content had been so awesome, so shared, so linked to and cited that it was now supporting some visibility for you in those non-location cities. Right now, you would be sitting pretty rather than dealing with a big mess and loss of funds. You can start working on achieving this right now, Donnie, in hopes that it will serve you well in the future. Every local business can make this kind of effort, either in-house, or by hiring experts who are committed to using only allowed practices for the benefit of their clients. I'm rooting for you in turning this bad situation into a really good one in 2013!

You are very welcome, Wayne.

Hi Bryan, If you have a Google+ BUSINESS page, yes, Google is saying to delete it now, and yes, manage multi locations via the old Places dash. For more on this deletion thing, read this: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/business/technical-issue/MI5yJcP1pJ8 It won't affect every business, but it will affect service radius businesses who built a Google+ Business page. Take care!

Hi Bryan,

Unfortunately, at this point, multi-location businesses are still not being supported by the new Google+ Local system. There is no way to link multiple Google+ Local pages within a single brand and you should not attempt to create a Google+ Local page for each location or to try to merge them. Clark has linked you to an early article on this from Mike Blumenthal from around the time that Google rolled out Google+ Local, but read one of Mike's more recent posts on the huge amount of issues going on with this before you make a move in any direction:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/11/28/having-issues-with-your-glocal-social-merge-my-advice-dont/

So, for multi-location businesses, you can still create a listing for each unique address via the old Places dashboard, but should not try to create a Google+Local page for each of them. At some point, this will be possible, but it hasn't happened yet, so you will need to stay tuned into the news on this which is constantly being updated. Just last week, for example, Google announced that all service radius businesses have to delete their Google+ Business page (if they have one). This is a brand new rule that will affect countless businesses adversely if they don't happen to hear about it. Point being: with all things related to the whole Google+ system and especially with Google+ Local, you've got to stay on top of the news on a daily basis.

Hope this helps!

Hi Wayne,

It sounds like you've taken such a great approach with your national clients. This mindset will also serve you well in Local, although Local SEO is definitely a distinct practice. I've been working in Local SEO for about 7 years now, and would like to offer you some resources to start getting you up-to-speed in this unique discipline.

I'll start with David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors 2012. This is the premiere annual industry report. It's a survey of some of the top Local SEOs on the planet, and while the last survey took place just before Google made the big change from the old Google Places to the new Google+ Local, the report is still relevant in nearly every regard: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

Next, I will give you two articles of my own which I share with incoming clients and which have received a nice bit of industry acclaim in 2012. These 2 articles lay out what I can consider to be the best mindset and the best tactics for approaching a Local campaign. They should fill you in on the key areas of focus you will need to understand and keep in mind:

The Zen of Local SEO

http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1314

The Rudiments of Local SEO http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1344

Finally, I'd like to link you to what is generally agreed to be the top Local SEO blog going. This is Mike Blumenthal's blog, and should become weekly reading for you if you're delving into Local: http://www.blumenthals.com/blog

A couple of other Local blogs I highly recommend for regular reading:

http://www.ngsmarketing.com

http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/

The main things to understand about Local SEO are that Google rules the roost because of their market share, obeying their rules is critical to succeeding and violating their rules is a really bad idea, all of Local SEO hangs on the consistency of your client's NAP (name, address, phone number) across the whole web, and that the medium is constantly changing, meaning that Local SEOs must keep up with the news on a daily basis, literally. It's an extremely lively and exciting area of SEO, but is also probably the area most fraught with bugs and client frustration due to a lack of transparent communication on Google's part and their beta mentality regarding the products they roll out. So, buckle your seat belt; you are in for a fun ride! I sincerely hope the resources I've provided will get you started on the right foot!

Hi Titan552,

When I am explaining to my Local SEO clients how to view search engine rankings, I say something like this:

"You are ranking in the B position (2nd) in the blended/local results for X term. You are ranking 3rd in the organic results for X term".

I differentiate between the two types of results, because they stem from different factors, though some factors are shared. Let me show you this as a live example, to be totally clear. Look at the results on this page for the query 'dentist san francisco':

https://www.google.com/search?q=dentist+san+francisco+ca&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

SFGreenDentist is in the B position (2nd) in the blended local results (the ones with the lettered pins). DrMarkle.com is ranking #4 organically. In other words, SFGreenDentist.com has managed to achieve high local rankings and DrMarkle is doing pretty well organically, but hasn't broken into the true local results with his/her efforts. If you, instead, looked at the first page of the SERPs as a whole, I suppose you could say that SFGreenDentist is 5th overall and that DrMarkle is 11th, but I would not recommend doing this, particularly if you are working with Local SEO clients because it is important for them to understand that these results stem from 2 different sources.

This often comes into play, especially, when dealing with service radius businesses (like plumbers, landscapers, chimney sweeps, etc.) who serve in a number of neighboring cities. The way Google is handling local rankings at this point, the typical strategy for, say, a plumber physically located in San Francisco would be for him to go after a primary blended/local ranking for 'san francisco plumber' and to go after secondary organic rankings for other cities where he serves where he is not physically located. In other words, for terms like 'plumber san jose', 'plumber oakland' and 'plumber santa clara', he would be targeting organic rankings for the most part, because Google is unlikely to show him in the true local results for these searches due to his lack of a physical location in the neighboring towns.

So, viewing these 2 types of results as separate makes good sense, in my view, because the work and potentials of gaining high rankings in them requires different factors and tactics. Hope this helps!

Hi Zach,

I want to be sure I am understanding your question. I'm not sure what you mean by having both a Google Places page and a Google+ Local page for your business. Google Places is currently still in existence as a dashboard for Google+ Local. See: http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2623007

Now, your query is kind of special, because of the nature of your business. Back in early 2010, Google stopped showing true local results for web design and seo firms and certain other types of marketing firms (see: http://www.searchengineguide.com/miriam-ellis/google-shoves-their-liaisons-off-maps.php) I believe that there may have been 2 factors involved in this decision: 1) heavy spamming in those verticals and 2) a belief that such businesses are more virtual than local.

As you can see in this Mike Blumenthal article from just last month, Google continues to treat these categories of businesses differently, when it comes to Local: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/11/12/google-local-search-results-where-none-have-gone-before/

Because of this, any efforts you make with Google's Local products will be hampered by the fact that they do not choose to display website design companies in their true blended/local results, though I believe it's still possible to exist within maps.google.com.

However, Local SEO Andrew Shotland had a highly-publicized experience with his SEO company and Google last February that is worth reading about, if you haven't already: http://www.localseoguide.com/hey-seos-if-google-maps-calls-dont-answer/

I hope these resources will prove helpful, and if you would like to return with further clarification about what you mean in regards to having both a Google+ Local page and a Places Page, I would be glad to read it. Please, link to objects whenever you can. Thanks!

Hi Samuel,

Great question! This has recently been noted in the Local SEO community. The double links are likely a result of your merge request. DO NOT delete your places account as it is still the main dashboard for all things Local. No one is 100% sure why the double links are appearing now...some have suggested it's an engineering issue of some kind, but it definitely seems to be happening to fully merged accounts and is not something you should worry about.

I recommend you read this great little thread on the subject at The Local Search Forum:

http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/google-local/1590-seeing-double-2-g-local-links-serps.html

You'll see a number of examples like yours...and even one with 3 links instead of two!

Hope this helps. My advice: don't touch anything. What you're seeing is quite normal, but could change at any time.

Just popping by to endorse Bede's excellent replies on this thread, Carin. As he's said, going upstream to correct underlying data problems and then doing various searches to find any instance of the incorrect business title is the work you'll need to do. One wrong listing can be propagated in dozens of places and you've got to try to edit them all or Google will continue to be influenced by them.

Hi Richard,

Darin and Thomas are offering good advice for the basics of neighboring town optimization, but I feel more needs to be said, given the nature of your sample client's business model.

First, let's touch bases about keeping your priorities straight, like this:

• You main goal is to optimize and rank well in the blended/local results for West Palm Beach.

• Your secondary goal is to go after organic rankings for other nearby towns (not local rankings, as your client is not physically located there)

Now, here is where I differ slightly from the good advice that's being given by our members: Creating city landing pages is the most common practice for achieving these secondary organic rankings. However, you need to have something real to write about to justify the creation of said pages. For a dentist, this may be a little more difficult, as his business model is by nature stationary.

By contrast, a carpet cleaner has an easy road ahead in creating city landing pages because he actually travels to those cities. What you need to ask yourself (and your client) is what the dentist does that can justify him creating content about those neighboring cities. For example, does he give or attend dental seminars in any of the neighboring towns? That would be a good reason to write a page optimized for the other city terms. Or, perhaps he sponsors a little league team in one of the neighboring cities, or visits elementary schools there? Try to find something to write about that genuinely reflects his presence in a neighboring town and your content will have a point beyond a grab for organic rankings.

But always bear in mind, for a stationary business like a dental office, the bulk of your focus must always be placed on building up his authority in his city of location.

I do not recommend creating a separate set of service pages for each city (botox jupiter, botox royal palm beach, botox wellington, dental implants jupiter, dental implants royal palm beach, etc.). This is awkward and not really useful to anyone, given that your dental client is in a single location offering the same services to all comers. So whereas go-to-client business models (plumbers, chimney sweeps, landscapers) are a natural fit for city landing page development because of their actual work in a variety of cities, stationary business models (restaurants, retail shops, dental offices) must be more creative to have a legitimate reason for creating this type of content.

Definitely don't just throw up a bunch of thin or duplicate pages, swapping out city names in the title tags...but do try to discover if there is a true connection between your dentist and the neighboring towns and then use that as your reason for writing.

Hi Instantly Popular,

As Keri has mentioned, virtual offices violate Google's guidelines which read:

Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist.

See:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

Google definitely does not want virtual offices in their index, and though you will see many businesses getting away with this practice, Google is getting better and better at fighting spam in Local and any business with this type of listing is in danger of being penalized...possibly even banned.

Building city landing pages on a website is a good practice, but typically, the results of this will be organic, not local, in nature. There are some exceptions to this, but they have been few and far between since the Venice update in early 2012.

Hi Ray,

Harvey is definitely pointing you in the right direction. Definitely read David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors. It is the premiere annual industry report. *Do bear in mind that the last report (I'm a yearly participant) was published just prior to the launch of the whole Google+ Local system, so it does not reflect that big change. Here are 2 pieces I send my own clients when they are just getting acquainted with Local:

The Zen of Local SEO
http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1314

The Rudiments of Local
SEO http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1344

Local ranking factors are very diverse...there may be more than 200 factors in Google's local algo. Here are some of the most widely cited factors:

• Lack of violations on your Google Places/Google+ Local profiles. Nothing kills rankings like violations. Memorize the guidelines: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

• Age and authority of your domain (you can't control age but you can build authority) - Local and traditional optimization of your website

• Consistency, quantity and quality of citations

• Quantity of Google-based reviews

• Proximity to city centroid of the target city and proximity to Google's cluster of similar businesses

• Traditional SEO factors such as quantity and quality of links and co-occurrence.

• Social factors

That's just a start, but it does sum up some of the main things that go into achieving a high local rank in the city in which your business is physically located. Read David Mihm's report, the 2 articles I've linked to and the Google Places Quality Guidelines I've linked to and you will develop a very clear picture of your business' opportunities, its present failings and its room to grow.