Possible to rank above "non-merged" local map listings?

1.) When the 7pack is on top in my experience there is no way to outrank that. If it's less then 7 then yes it is possible.

2.) Google decides on their own terms there is not much you can do to influence google. You can however have the correct google places info (NAP) and when they do decide to change it up you can be prepared.

Here is what is coming up for me for 'hair salon miami fl'
It is a regular 7box.


I think you are trying to point out if an organic listing mingled into a 7box is possible?
Example below for "chiropractor ft lauderdale"
Where the organic listing is mingled in the 7box.



"chiropractor ft lauderdale"









"hair salon miami fl"

Yup, as the image above shows, it's definitely possible. I rarely see more than 2 regular listings above merged listings though.

One of my clients has a sub-page ranking #1 and their general merged listing ranking #3.

To get a top-ranked merged listing your Places page and your SEO have to be solid. Is the hair salon actually in Miami? I would look at optimizing your Places page well and making sure you have reviews and citations to match the competitors.

But nothing beats good on-page and link-building. If your site would have ranked well without Places, and your Places address is in the city being searched, Google will usually give you a merged listing no problem. I saw it happen literally overnight when a client moved offices - we were already ranking without a merged listing, once I updated their places address we shot up to #2 with a merged listing.

One thing to note though is be sure you're building keyword-rich links to the home-page, even if you're optimizing for multiple terms using sub-pages. For example, if your salon also offers spa services like massages and facials, don't only build "massage" links to /massage. Build links to the home page with "miami massage service", "miami fl massage company", "massage service", "massage miami", etc... while also building to the sub-pages with the same keywords. This is how I've achieved double-rankings on merged results.

I have seo clients and my own web rental sites merged and even above places.

As stated above, your on page and off page seo has to be solid.
Shortcuts will get you short term rankings.

Some sites have been left alone for six months or more without doing any
additional link building after the initial 3 months.

Hey guys,

Sorry for not responding sooner! Thanks for all the great feedback!

Actually what I was wanting to figure out, is if was somehow possible to get a website ranked above the "7-pack" if the google places results are NOT merged with the organic results (I figured it wasn't possible, but wanted to ask anyway). That's why I used the "hair salon miami fl" example, b/c they are not merged.

Sorry I didn't communicate what I was asking correctly. Does that make more sense?

And then I was thinking, "If it's not possible to rank a site above the 7-pack when it's not merged with the organic listings....I wonder if there is anything we can do to make google start merging the results for a given keyword" (like the chiropractor ft lauderdale example).

It would be awesome if there was a trick to make google start showing merged results for a given keyword, b/c THEN you can rank pages above the "A" spot!

What if your renting sites and you technically dont have a physical place to create a google places. What do you guys do for that so you can still rent the site and be #1

I am not sure if you can influence google. And I wont say that it's impossible too

So you guys just register say a UPS address and register the google places address with that? Doesnt google places have to send you a postcard for verifcations? Also, do you think this deters people on the internet from calling if they see an address and maybe its on the other side of town?