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My Google Places page is stagnant. It never changes its rank, doesn't find corresponding reviews on directory sites, disappears altogether after a few days for certain keywords and ranks poorly overall. We have had a horrible time getting our web presence to be uniform...name, address, phone, etc.

Our business was previously a different name so all those listings were still active, we have had different doctors over the years...those were associated with the business name in different listings, we used a referral service that sponsored listings using a diffferent phone number, change web url in the past year so some sites indicated the wrong address. HUGE HEADACHE

Are there any positives/negatives to deleting the Places page and starting over?

Here is the page:

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&georestrict=input_srcid%3Ab1706925095a8afa

Thank you for your help!

We offer Wellness programs for dogs and cats. A lot of the information is the same except for specifics that relate to young vs. senior pets.

I have these different pages:

Senior Wellness

Kitten Wellness

Puppy Wellness

Adult Wellness

Can each page have approx. 75% of the same text? Or should I rewrite each page so the information (though the same) appears unique.

haha. I was originally told by a representative that they would spend at least 5 to 7 hours a week on our SEO with a dedicated account manager and that they had 8 people in house to do links, copywriting etc.

Then I called the owner of the company. He said "oh no, that isn't right, it is more like 10 hours per month." He wasn't sure why the site packages listed it incorrectly. Then he mentioned that they have a "network" of support - so basically no one in house. He also said " yeah man" a lot.

I don't know which is more difficult...doing SEO on my own...or finding a reputable SEO company. Needless to say I am not going with the SEO Godfather.

Thanks Ryan. I appreciate your feedback and the help you have provided the last few months.

I am calling the "godfather" today. Self-coined I imagine. I will bring up some of the concerns you mentioned and try to think about what my expectations are for the money being spent.

And yes, having a horrible time with Google Places. I am unable to call to verify duplicate listings so they can be deleted and postcards never get delivered. The main places page is listed as "active" but does not show up for most of the main keyword searches for the area. Updating the page does nothing - hours are not showing up, description is from SERP and not what I typed in and no additional information I provided shows up. Frustrating.

Why would this be spam or a joke?

I am seriously asking about this.

I am thinking about hiring this company to do SEO work for 3 months (minimum contract). Anything I should be aware of? Questions I should ask? (calling them back today)

There are so many people out there claiming to be the best that it is overwhelming - especially with the overall cost involved.

The company was started by Peter R********? Supposedly the "SEO Godfather."

Any help is greatly appreciated!

The Google Cache date for my website:

This is Google's cache of http://www.petmedicalcenter.com/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Aug 28, 2011 03:19:05 GMT.

Does this date coorelate to the last time Google reevaluated their rankings for my site? So if I had done 15 or so backlinks after the August 28 date, will those start to affect rankings (once they are discovered) after the next time the site is updated?

Looking for someone to take over our local seo - to maximize our visibility in Google Places. Currently I am looking at the company Local-One.

Has anyone heard of them or have any feedback on their website/services offered? There are so many different people out there claiming to be the best that it is overwhelming.

http://www.local-one.com

Thanks for the help!

I have decided to give my website a boost by outsourcing some of my SEO.

Especially looking for building quality backlinks and help with Google Places. Any good recommendations?

I know they recently started rolling out their update of their Places pages but a lot of people, including myself are having problems such as missing descriptions, hours, categories (not updated), etc.

Anyone have any insight into when we might expect these issues to be corrected? As far as I can tell Google has not really addressed the problem whatsoever. Their forum is packed with people complaining but so far so they have remained quiet.

Thanks!

I claimed the Google Places listing a few months ago - added a description and all the necessary information. Finally got the page to show up in the places category on the 5th page for the search "vet las vegas". Then on some computers it likes to show up on the 8th page and on others the 5th page - weird!?.

I need some help on the following:

• How can I get Google to put my website as an link in the "More About This Place"/citation section? The old website which was at a different domain is present but not the new one (the new one has been live for 2 months).

-Am I missing any key information to help with my ranking? The 8th page is a pretty poor ranking and holds no value whatsoever.

• The description I typed out on Google Places does not display in the search results. - I am assuming adding citations is essentially just about adding backlinks that Google can pull to add to the "More About This Place" section - any surefire ways to get more citations there?

WEBSITE: http://www.petmedicalcenter.com

PLACES PAGE: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&prmd=ivnscm&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1187&bih=649&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=vet+las+vegas&fb=1&gl=us&hq=vet&hnear=0x80beb782a4f57dd1:0x3accd5e6d5b379a3,Las+Vegas,+NV&cid=13431404354265657899&ei=5Bf1TdvWLIey0AGe-M3sDA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=4&ved=0CEIQ4gkwAzhG

Any other feedback or ideas would be really appreciated. Thank you to all the SEOMOZ members would have helped me over the last month - you guys are awesome!

Thanks again,

Brant

My Google Places page is stagnant. It never changes its rank, doesn't find corresponding reviews on directory sites, disappears altogether after a few days for certain keywords and ranks poorly overall. We have had a horrible time getting our web presence to be uniform...name, address, phone, etc.

Our business was previously a different name so all those listings were still active, we have had different doctors over the years...those were associated with the business name in different listings, we used a referral service that sponsored listings using a diffferent phone number, change web url in the past year so some sites indicated the wrong address. HUGE HEADACHE

Are there any positives/negatives to deleting the Places page and starting over?

Here is the page:

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&georestrict=input_srcid%3Ab1706925095a8afa

Thank you for your help!

haha. I was originally told by a representative that they would spend at least 5 to 7 hours a week on our SEO with a dedicated account manager and that they had 8 people in house to do links, copywriting etc.

Then I called the owner of the company. He said "oh no, that isn't right, it is more like 10 hours per month." He wasn't sure why the site packages listed it incorrectly. Then he mentioned that they have a "network" of support - so basically no one in house. He also said " yeah man" a lot.

I don't know which is more difficult...doing SEO on my own...or finding a reputable SEO company. Needless to say I am not going with the SEO Godfather.