Hot off the press! Today Google announced a fundamental change in the way they display local listings. Called Google Place Search, it’s set to dramatically increase the importance of small businesses having a well-optimized Google Places listing.
Here’s how the new service works:
When you type in a general search like ‘IT support’, Google will continue to [...]

We’ve mentioned David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors article before – it’s a crucial guide to the ins and outs of how Google (in particular) determines where in the Google Places results a local listing will show up.
Each year David Mihm surveys a number of top SEO practitioners regarding the local listing results they’ve seen, [...]

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Today, Google announced a rebranding of one of its key features: the former Local Business Center is now known simply as Google Places.
One out of every 5 searches is location-based, so naturally Google wants to find ways to improve their local search results and make money off of the space, too. For that reason, along with [...]

Up until now, the Google Local Business Center has had some real limitations for the following scenarios:

Service businesses that work in multiple cities but only have an office in one
Home-based businesses that don’t want to reveal their home address on their Google Maps listing

The first scenario has been particularly troublesome for us and many of [...]