GOOGLE MAP LISTING OPTIMIZATION PROCESS

The Google map listing optimization process consist of these steps

• Creation of place page in Google map
• Removal of duplicates
• Building Citations
• Creation of mini sites on Business review portals
• Writing reviews
• User content
• Hyper local blogs

Creation of place page in Google map

Google map seo starts from even before creating the place page just like organic seo were one should first perform a key word research. Google allows 5 keywords named as “categories”. But with using 2 more keywords in business title, we get 7.

After keyword analysis we can create place page (approximately 1 hour to collect keywords from Google adwords tool)

>Create a Gmail account

A Gmail account is essential to create place page on Google map. The same Gmail account can be used in building citations (15 minutes)

>Collection of data

Use clients website to collect Description and any other info like working hours, number of employees, annual sales, products, services or ask the client about missing info.(2 hours)

>On place page seo + building the place page

There are some Google guidelines to follow such as

Do not use physical address or phone number except respective fields

Do not use company name except respective field

Do not repeat any thing provided before

Do not stuff category field with keywords

Do not use a phone number used by another place page

Use usps.com to verify actual address and zip code

Use maximum number of pictures and videos

Fill the information at 100%

>Verify listing by phone number

Not essential but helpful to prevent hijacking.

(1 Hour to check and recheck ever single aspect to ensure quality)

Removal of duplicates

Request Google to remove any duplicates created before with outdated date because these duplicates could suck all the juice of citations.

Building Citations

Now this is the heart of map seo. Google trust those who get trust of other people and rewards higher placement for higher trust level. It is not about liking; it is about how many people now you are there, providing services or selling products.

This is how we do this

1. Internet yellow pages
2. Local directories
3. Business directories
4. Niche directories

(20 days to 2 months)

Creation of mini sites on Business review portals

There are some premium business review sites that provides a full page listing for every business. Almost all of them also encourage people to review businesses (Google loves third party reviews). Keeping these mini sites up to date is very important.

Some examples are

1. Yahoo local
2. Yelp
3. Insider pages
4. Super pages
5. Kudzu

(10 days to create profiles)

Writing reviews

It is advised to get legitimate reviews from actual clients but putting 4 to 6 reviews randomly on Google map and on review sites using different accounts and unique content would be helpful.

(1 day)

User content

This is much more like book mark. When people uses “My Map” on Google map and creates a location pointing to that particular business location, Google gives that business a plus point but Google takes too much time to pick these kinds of votes.

Creating some user content is a good idea but always use different Gmal id for this purpose. (1 day)

Hyper local Blogs

These kind of Blogs are very help full for building legitimate citations. Although building Blogs is a time consuming work but it worth making if you are serious in map optimization? (5 days)

Time frame

Well it deppands on compation, location and many other factors. Normally a place page could takes about 60 days because of Google slow citation picking process.