How to Rank Google Places

Google Maps search results are based primarily on relevance, distance, and prominence. These factors are combined to help us find the best match for your search. For example, our search technology

One of the more desperate requests I get from clients interested in Local Search is wanting to rank well in Google for local queries when they don't have a physical location in the searched city. The challenge is that Google appears to not want to show businesses that are not physically located in the searched [...]

If you've worked with Google in the past you'll know just how hard it is to rank for Google Places for many searches. It's also apparent how important Google Places have become - they often take up the top parts of the page for a search term.

Local businesses can usually find a place in Google SERPs by registering or claiming their business on Google Places For Business and Google+ Local. But what will set your business apart from the competition? Getting your website to appear in the first few pages of Google SERPs is determined by how well you optimize these seven categories of local search ranking factors.

Local marketing experts rank the most important factors that influence Google's local search algorithm. What's most important for Local SEO?

This year's Local Search Ranking Factors identified 83 foundational ranking factors. This guide explains the top 20 most important factors and offers a succinct, illustrated example of each.

The first thing you need to understand, there are two types of Google Places results: blended and pack. Where your keyword triggers blended results, the URL that you have chosen to represent in your Google Places listing will merge with your Google Places listing. They will become 1 entity for those keywords that trigger blended results.