Google Local Business Top Positions

Hi Alexei,

Getting higher listings in Google Local Business Center hinges on a few certain criteria.
One being that "citations" weigh heavy in ranking your listing. Citations are those web pages found under the "web pages" tab when you open your listing.
Local city or national directories, local business reveiws...(merchantcircle.com, yodle.com, yelp.com, superpages.com, insiderpages.com, local.com, citysearch.com, metromix.com, infousa.com, localeze.com etc...) The more relevant the "citation" the better.....Try to use the same business name (with keyword) in each when signing up for each...

Another factor is how close the business you listed is to the "city center"....A business address used that is located close to the city center stands a much better chance that a business in an outer suburb of getting listed in the "10 box".

More factors are how complete your listing is....
Did you use your main keyword in your business title? (ex: Website Design by ABC Designs)
Is it listed in more than 1 category? Make use of the customized category with relevant keywords...
Did you make use of images & video's (as many as possible)? Google loves video's...
Did you add some coupons?

Keep in mind that not all keywords trigger a local map....some just list organic search results....so it's still very important for any business to do well in local organic searches....

And don't forget about getting listed in Yahoo local & Bing local....it's not all about google...

There is a lot of info online on how to optimize your google local business center listing....OR...Look up Scott Gallagher. He has some great info on local searches...he is a WF member...

Good luck,
Ken

Great advice Ken,

I've noticed that some of my clients popped right in when I submitted them. They already had a lot of citations and clout on the net, it was just connecting those last few dots.

I have a client that has a new restaurant (changed the name actually) and I still am not getting him on that first page of results (organic he's #1 though ).

I'd also suggest filling out the complete listing. Put pictures in, fill in the hours, even put a coupon in if you can. It doesn't need to be a "coupon", I use an image that just is like an ad for the site if my business doesn't have one.

Matt

All the points mentioned above are what you need to do. One other thing is to checkout each of the businesses in the top 10 box and analyze the citations, reviews, user contect and the information they have filled in. To get up there, you just need to do it better (get more reviews, more citations, etc).