3 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
3 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Is Google Places Really Worthwhile? Not for me ...

by Toplink
2 replies
Hi,

I have been struggling a bit with one of my main sites in the post panda era. It ranked #1 for years but has been dropping a bit, so we are now adjusting our SEO strategy. We'll get back there soon.

But......... Google places!

I noticed for our niche, that the top 3 places are above the Google places entries and sadly we had dropped down into the Google Places list. Even though I never added by business to google places or 'claimed' my page....

Why sadly..?

Because the Google Places entires are cxxp! All you get is the title tag, a url and an address. Fine if you are the local plumber, but I have a National/International Business, and now LOOK like a local plumber.........

No more full meta description, no more site links .........

Why on earth would anyone want a Google Places listing? Give me the top 3 spots any day....

So after much hassle, we got our Google Places listing removed by Google. For our #1 keyword, we now have to work our way back up to the top 3 slots, which hopefully we can do in a couple of weeks. (we are now below all the Google places listings of course)

For our #2 keyword, we are back to #1 already. With........full meta description, site links etc.

Go figure.........

But just curious. If you are the local realtor, or plumber, or pizza shop, I can kind of understand what you might want a Google places listing. Kind of. (Not convinced, Because you just get 'listed' with all the other small guys who can't get a top ranking) But why else would you want one?

I am sure someone will give me a totally valid and logical reason why Google places are good. I'm just struggling to see it at the moment.
#google #google places #places #worthwhile
  • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
    I'm not a plumber or a pizza shop.

    We sell mold remediation and basement waterproofing services which can sell anywhere between $4,000-$15,000 a job.

    So google places makes us a small fortune.

    Here is 1 more thing. Several of my sites pages, that OUTRANK my OWN google places for those keywords, pull in more traffic than our site does. I think that happens because people consider google listings to be vouched for by google. Many of those people don't even click to our site, they just see our reviews and call us immediately.

    And btw, I have no idea what you're saying about "all the other small guys who can't get top rankings". Thats bs if you ask me. Two of my google places competitors are 2 of our industries largest competitors in the state. And both of them also happen to rank in the top 3 of the SERPS. Then yes, there are a few other "unknown" business in the google places area, but I still don't see your point.

    Its really simple to me. If you can make money in google places, then use it and use it well. If you can't... then maybe you have other problems you're not considering. Maybe your company name sucks. Maybe your pictures are bad. Maybe your reviews look fake. I can't tell you. But google places serves us well. And it doesn't make sense for me to sit here and try to convince you to use it. If anything, I'd prefer people stay away from it. Keep riding the SEO roller coaster, because I can say plenty of bad things about that.

    The goal should be gaining real estate in every manner possible. Since google places is very economical, and SEO takes a lot of money and time... I just don't understand how you can complain about it. Its like complaining about youtube. It takes very little effort to set up, and you can rank videos fast on page 1 (in my niche I can rank videos far higher/faster in the SERPS than geotargeted pages on my site). Once its set up, and you have hundreds of videos ranking, you get a lot of cheap/economical traffic. If I were to complain about anything, it would be SEO and PPC.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7803251].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Toplink
      Originally Posted by RedShifted View Post

      I'm not a plumber or a pizza shop.

      We sell mold remediation and basement waterproofing services which can sell anywhere between $4,000-$15,000 a job.

      So google places makes us a small fortune.

      Here is 1 more thing. Several of my sites pages, that OUTRANK my OWN google places for those keywords, pull in more traffic than our site does. I think that happens because people consider google listings to be vouched for by google. Many of those people don't even click to our site, they just see our reviews and call us immediately.

      And btw, I have no idea what you're saying about "all the other small guys who can't get top rankings". Thats bs if you ask me. Two of my google places competitors are 2 of our industries largest competitors in the state. And both of them also happen to rank in the top 3 of the SERPS. Then yes, there are a few other "unknown" business in the google places area, but I still don't see your point.

      Its really simple to me. If you can make money in google places, then use it and use it well. If you can't... then maybe you have other problems you're not considering. Maybe your company name sucks. Maybe your pictures are bad. Maybe your reviews look fake. I can't tell you. But google places serves us well. And it doesn't make sense for me to sit here and try to convince you to use it. If anything, I'd prefer people stay away from it. Keep riding the SEO roller coaster, because I can say plenty of bad things about that.

      The goal should be gaining real estate in every manner possible. Since google places is very economical, and SEO takes a lot of money and time... I just don't understand how you can complain about it. Its like complaining about youtube. It takes very little effort to set up, and you can rank videos fast on page 1 (in my niche I can rank videos far higher/faster in the SERPS than geotargeted pages on my site). Once its set up, and you have hundreds of videos ranking, you get a lot of cheap/economical traffic. If I were to complain about anything, it would be SEO and PPC.
      Thanks for the response. I suspected I was missing something here. And it's great that Google Places is working so well for you. Awesome to hear. And working well for big players too.

      My experience is only limited to my niche sadly, and certainly in my niche it is the small players who are listed on Google places. I suspect many of them (most) did not even create the listing, as it looks like Google default.

      You make a very good point about not relying solely on SEO. One we all need to keep reminding ourselves of I think ....
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7803303].message }}

Trending Topics