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Another Google Places Dilemma

by Kirrybows
10 replies
Made a thread about a dilemma before, and I'm still confused as to how the hell google ranks these businesses.

I decided to go deep this time. I searched for a "city + grocery" keyword, and analyzed all the top businesses that show up. I made an excel analysis and then graphed it.

I uploaded the graph to a website where you can zoom in to see better. Here it is: Pixenate - Edit photos online, fast and easily - No plugins required.


As you can see, the ranks go from left to right. So Price Chopper ranks #1 and is at the left of the graph. Sam's club has almost the most backlinks to its homepage, yet ranks the lowest.

If anyone's interested, I can post the excel spreadsheet chart too.

But basically, the confusion is here:
  • Price Chopper is #1
  • It has a pagerank of 6 much like 3 other stores.
  • It's Places listing isn't owner-verified
  • it has only 14k backlinks as opposed to sam's that has 200k
  • 33 citations. 2 other stores have more, but rank worse
  • It has 3 reviews, others have up to 22 reviews
  • No pictures
  • No videos
  • 5 related maps much like most other listings
  • No review ranking.
  • It isn't any closer to the city center than other stores.

I would understand if Green Hills Market, which ranks #2, if it were first. It actually has a verified page with pictures, reviews, a review rank, and a pretty completed general listing.


Anyone have any ideas as to why the results are all over the place? I mean this is totally inconsistent with what we're learning about all this google places optimization.
#dilemma #google #places
  • Profile picture of the author Kirrybows
    Wow, nothing? Alright.

    Apparently it's more popular to talk about how much we like money and how we can get clients and charge them rather than figuring out how we can stand up to our words and rank on first page by understanding how Google Places works. Makes a lot of sense. Where did all the big dogs go all of a sudden?
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    • Profile picture of the author caryduke
      Not really sufficient information to provide you an answer and your photo doesn't show up. PM me the exact keyword and I'll run an analysis for you using the tool in my link.
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      • Profile picture of the author TE2
        Kirrybows,

        I read your previous thread, and like you and others, it has me stumped as well. I thought I had it all figured and under control until you posted that scenario.

        Last night, I re-read google's "quality" guidelines for google places but nothing jumped out at me for the "Ah Ha" moment.

        So the only thing I can offer is my opinion, which is:

        Google is all about "relevance" and quality is a key factor in determining it. The fact that they write about and act on quality in so many areas (adwords, organic serp's, google profiles, google places, etc...) tells me that it is a critical piece to the google puzzle.

        So I believe our answer lies in the quality of the listing. We just have to figure out what the pieces are that google see as "quality" and how they are weighted with regards to a listing relevance.

        So far the quality pieces are: relevance, listing completeness, business age and legitimacy, citations, & reviews.

        I believe that the quality of the citations and reviews is also a heavily weighted factor.

        As I stated above, I sense that google views some types of businesses as more "legit" that others. Haven't figured out the criteria yet.

        Having stated all of the above, I apologize if I have just repeated our conundrum. :p

        Regards,

        John

        ps - Thanks for creating the threads on this topic - it is certainly one that makes us think.
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        • Profile picture of the author Kirrybows
          CaryDuke, the keyword is [syracuse+grocery]. Feel free to run an analysis with your tool.


          TE2, I did the exact same thing yesterday. I went through virtually all of google's guides and "quality guidelines" and nothing did jump out at me either.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Richards
    The Google algo used for the GP ranking is definitely beyond me at times.

    "Press on with what we know and do it better than the rest" is my motto for the day =)

    Rob
    Signature

    Need Help With Your Google Places Results?
    Let Me Create 50/100 High PR Citations For You!
    Just $50/$100 - PM Me When You're Ready

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  • Profile picture of the author mark01234
    As an online marketer I'm able to offer a whole range of services to help small businesses market themselves online, without the need for a physical place of business. I travel a lot and not being tied down to a locality helps me stay mobile. Moreover, I've never met many of my clients. We speak on the phone, or communicate via e-mail, unless they're local to me and express a wish to discuss things in person. And so I'm not the only one that finds themselves caught in a dilemma when it comes to utilising Google Places, because my place of business is officially my home, and for obvious reasons I don't wish to show my home address, just like many other services providers in my position and home workers.
    Google Places don't allow you to use PO Boxes in your listing: this is a killer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tiduslite8
    In looking over the information for the top 5 showing, I think I might have an idea.

    Content (details) provided. The details for Price Chopper are from Yahoo, and actually list services provided and specialties. By comparison, Save-A-Lot has no detail information.

    I do believe that Google is trying to increase customer faith in their place page results, so a GP listing that has a lot of details (along with pics and video) will do quite well.

    Seems that content might still be king.
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    • Profile picture of the author JimmyD
      What puzzles me with the Places search results is this:
      Run a search for "town" "restaurant" you get the 7 pack.
      At the end of the 7 pack there is a link to "more results" click this and the resulting list is in a completely different order.
      Click the map in the sidebar and you get another completely different list.
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  • Profile picture of the author hallpart
    run an analysis for you using the tool in my link.
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    • Profile picture of the author Bobster0007
      I find this difficult to decipher as well. Im hoping for one of our big money Gurus to provide some answers. How can i sell any " place listing " to someone if i cant get them ranked higher in "places" than they could do on their own? Where is the real value that we are trying to provide?
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