I’m contemplating doing a series of posts on here of “Local SEO 101” tips. Each post would outline a specific tactic for ranking in local search results, including local searches under blended/Universal Search as well as with Google Maps and other local search engines.
Local Search Ranking Factors include a lot of pieces including citations from internet yellow pages, newspapers, vertical directories, community guides, business review sites, and more.
By its very nature, local search optimization is more complex than regular keyword search optimization because there are more ranking signals involved and locational information including geocodes, business directory listings, street addresses, phone numbers, city names, geolocation, PlaceRank signals, and more.
If you’d be interested in this series, please post a comment to let me know.
ShareThisTags: local marketing, local search, local search engine optimization, local search optimization, Local SEO, ranking in Google Maps
I am very interested. Your initial two posts make sense. Trying to understand all the local promotion options is dizzying. In a search on Maps, the teardrop is claimed and the dot is unclaimed, correct?
David: No – there are a couple of kinds of dots on Google Maps. The little tiny dots interspersed with the teardrop markers usually indicate listings to be found on subsequent pages of results after the current page.
Larger dots usually indicate a business where the street address is unknown or unmappable. For instance, if someone has set up their listing and suppressed the street address, the dot might be placed in the centroid of their city or in the ZIP code area centroid.
The dots bear no relation to claimed/unclaimed business listings.
I am a small business owner of a hair salon and I’d love to learn more about local SEO search especially pertaining to Google maps.