you can still rank number one without a Google places. I've seen many local niches that have websites without Google places attached to them. But I do think that it probably does help to have a Google places account attached to it. This is all speculation though and I can only go on what I see.

you can get no.1 place without the help of google listing.
but for that you need seo help. don't use black seo. because google algo hate black seo.

You are talking about non-local organic rankings in Google.

You need to build links to rank in the organic listings in Google. You need to either have more links or more valuable links than your competition to accomplish #1 in organic listings.

Organic results will always show under the local results... And any time a city name is included in the search query, local results will always come up on top.

Can it be done? Certainly.

Can it be done easily? That is a tough call.

Can it be done in an affordable manner? It depends on how many of your competitors are doing the link building thing too, and how much of a head start they have on you.

Can you sell the site to some dentist after you accomplish it? Yes, and likely for a very high price.

Hi Keith

Short answer - Absolutely.

But then a short question - why wouldn't you create a double benefit for the client by doing both?

regards

Bronwyn and Keith

Hey thanks everyone for your insight.

The reason I ask this question like this is that initially I want the site to rank for a local keyword before a business has it. After the fact indeed they should be added to Google places.

I'm just trying to understand if it's even possible to get my site ranked above the Google Places entrys on the search results prior to having a business listed in Google Places.

Keith

Keith,

Google also looks at other yellowpage like sites that list the businesses information and other factors. Its good to do both to get the site ranking though. Also your organic listing does have a factor on your GP listing as well. Many factors...

You can definitely get to #1. I have a site with the same format domain name - locationbusinesstype.com. It's currently #3 with no backlinking and the two spots above it are both superpages, not google places results. The domain you got is really good, so I would stick with that and backlink if need be. However, if you target smaller cities, you'll be more likely to immediately get that #1 spot with zero backlinking.

No secrets given here but I do this all the time . . . have it down to a bit of a science. So while it's a bit of hit and miss as mentioned, it's not totally hit or miss. I have sites that rank above places in a number of niches.

Garret

How about contacting a denist on page 4-7 and doing an equity share program? You move him up and you share in the profits. Use Google Voice and a lead page that can link to his site. If he stops sharing with you, you then have the landing page to offer to his competitor. If it works then this model is scable to other denist in other cities.

I have seen mixed results depending upon the industry. Some clients are above the places while most have their places listing at the top. I would suggest you use every angle available to you and if places pops in your industries, use them, plain and simple. Continue to work on your organic but use all of it. Realize that the places will help you drive traffic too, it can't hurt you. I've used this before.
http://www.trafixs.com/Build-a-Googl...rafixs-Tut.pdf

If I correctly understood your question. Your asking if you ranked #1 organically in a search term, if you could later "flip" that website/property, and create a Google Places listing for that client if they will get ranked high.

And the answer would be absolutely. The top 1-2 spots in most categories, will go to Google Places listings that are properly optomized and are authority sites (or ranked highly in search results) for that search term. So per your example if you were trying to target Chicago Dentist, and had a site that was coming up #1 in the organic search results for that search term. And later added a properly optomized Google Places listings, than there is no reason you wouldn't at least get in the top 5 results for that term.

lol i think you can* but still u need to try hard

I think that places registration helps and does factor into the algorithm. Take every piece of help you can get!

I don't think you can do both.
I don't think you can get a website to number 1, then flip it and get the client to number one as well.
When I utilize Google Places, I dominate the whole page.
I can't dominate the whole page twice.
I would either dominate it for the client or for the flipped website.

On doing both i suggest you to use 2 different sites like drbrownnewyork com and newyorkdentist com /org/net, and work them all the way up.

yes..I think you need to SEO help.. than you sure get no 1 place..