There is a sea change in local searches as a result of Google Maps

[earlpearl]

Pops:

Enter the info directly through g business center. don't rely on other methods.

[earlpearl]

Pops:

Didn't understand the question.

I tried something like that and it didn't work . Now if you were able to expand that and say that you performed your work there, etc. and essentially created 2 addresses...then it might work.

[pittbug]

Originally Posted by mblumenthal

Hello All

I hve just written a summary of my current thinking (to go along with Matt's recent post) on how Google Maps is working...

It can be viewed here:http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=108

I would appreciate feedback and suggestions as to technical details as well as clarity and other issues you may think relevant

Mike

Mike

Good stuff, although I'm surprised you didn't make any specific mention of the Axciom database, which is heavily (ab)used.

[earlpearl]

I've seen some businesses referenced with more obscure references. While several people are referencing 4 major data sources are those the original sources from which all others pull their data?

If not then G is scanning far more resources for its data.

[mblumenthal]

How do you mean?

[earlpearl]

My mistake. I pulled a reference from what I thought was a very obscure directory, looked at it again and it is a Spanish directory pulled from Verizon IYP.

[mblumenthal]

Originally Posted by pittbug

Mike

Good stuff, although I'm surprised you didn't make any specific mention of the Axciom database, which is heavily (ab)used.

Reuben, not sure what you mean here...how do you see it fitting into the google local ranking algo's?
Mike

[pittbug]

Mike

You covered it in broad terms under Relevant #2, but I thought you may want to include a little more detail.

We know that it uses Acxiom to populate its list of categories (which we cannot edit/alter at the moment) and the category name is also a major factor in ranking.

[Matt McGee]

Originally Posted by earlpearl

Need an address in that town in order to compete on those listings.

Clearly it helps a LOT, but it's not necessary. I've seen listings just in the last 2-3 days where a business in the neighboring town somehow got listed above businesses in the town that was searched.

In terms of other ranking methods it no longer seems to be # of references. It looks like reviews counts a lot.

They're certainly part of the algorithm, but there are all kinds of local SERPs where a business with X amount of reviews is listed higher than a business with 2X or 3X amount of reviews.

Try [italian restaurants in portland, or] -- I think that one had a biz with 14 reviews in the "A" spot, and bizz with 43 and 47 reviews below it.

[Matt McGee]

Originally Posted by skitzzos_pop

is that an address you input via Google Local or some other way. Or is it simply an address that appears on your website? For instance, if I want to show up for St. Louis, can I mention on my site that I enjoy

Crown Candy Kitchen
1401 St. Louis Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63106
(314) 621-9650

?

Pop, I believe that would only confuse matters and don't see how it would help your cause. The address you're putting in your content like that wouldn't match the address that (I assume) appears elsewhere on your site, nor the address in your domain registration, in your business database listing, etc. Google would be/should be smart enough to figure out the difference, and generally will ignore such a reference, IMO.

The only way I could see it helping is if there are absolutely zero matches (or close to zero) for the keyword-location combination you're going after. In that case, the local algorithm's strong emphasis on actual business data could be trumped by on-page references.