Google Places was Local Business CentrePreviously Google "Local Business Centre" (LBC) was a good but somewhat limited product! As with all things Google (What an awesome company) it has evolved to a fantastic business tool and has been renamed "Google Places". A front page Google Places Listing is not the same as a front page Organic Search result. There are 5 areas on the Google Front Page we can rank in; 4 are Organic or Free and 1 is paid. The 4 free front page results are; (click for larger view) | Images: | Videos: | | | Serps (Top 10)
| Places (Map Top 7)
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Images that match the search term sometimes are part of the results as are relevant YouTube videos. Then there are the paid results that say "Sponsored links", these are in a list down the right hand side of each Google Page and 2 at the top of the page.
But really the desired Front Page Google results we are after are, either Google Search Results Position (Serp's) or Google Places Position.
Serps have 10 positions and obviously the closer to number one the better, Google Places have 7 positions. So we strive for 1 of 17 front page positions to stand a chance of creating business online. Today we want to concentrate on the seven (7) Google Places Front Page Results.
Front Page Google Places Position | Why do we want it?Every business owner with a business related website strives for the all elusive Front Page Google Position. It is common knowledge that unless you are found on page one of Google I.e the front page; then your chances of receiving website traffic is very low. How does Google choose the results?Googles job is to show listings that are the best match to any given search word, words or phrase. To be in the top 10 of Serps, Google reads (Indexes) and rates your website with a number of variables. To be in the top 7 Front Page Google Places results, Google reads and rates your Google Places listing (and some outside factors, but for this article we can concentrate on the listing itself). This is not your website, it is a listing you create online and after verification will become part of Google Places results for your desired keywords. However just being part on the results is not enough; we want "Front Page" results in the top 7 so searchers will see us next to the map on page one. How to get a Front Page Google Position?Google Places listings have an almost unlimited customization level and allow you to upload content like images, videos, Vouchers, Certificates, Testimonials and more. You also create typed content showing the regions your business covers and the categories and services you offer, your branches, complete contact details, Profiles, Descriptions etc etc.
To get a front page result for a given search; you need to show Google through all the content you place in your listing, that you are one of the top 7 companies that best represent that search. If Google shows anything less than the best 7, they have failed and Google hates failing. Font Page Google Position Guaranteed ??? It has recently come to our attention through TLD clients that there is at least one company making claims of having a relationship with Google that allows them to control the top 7 positions on the Front Page Google Places results. The first thing we did was do a Google search lol. "Front Page Google Scam" shows a number of people saying comment like: "Google Can't be brought"
"There are no guarantees with Gooogle results"
"Scam"
"Seen Scams like this before and will see them again" From Google employee John Mu: No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. See the complete Front Page Google post here Here is Finda's responce to Front Page Google Property Talk has this on Front Page Google
Our clients have been told, things like, "At the moment the top 7 front page positions are on a rotation basis and once we fill the top 7 then the current companies will be dropped off" They were also told "we deal with the best SEO [Search Engine Optimisation] person in the world as well as the best website developer in the world" "They named "Armand Morin" as the best SEO person; however "[they] can't tell you the name of the website person as it is a secret" they even have the balls (excuse that but there is no better way to put it) to say that "if you ring Google NZ, Google will deny having anything to do with us, however if you ring Google UK they will verify the relationship"
It also appears these guys have grown in confidence as the price has increased from $475+gst to $525+gst.
Our Opinion - Front Page Google - TLD to FPG We do not feel these guys were really intending to scam people. They (or their reps) have certainly misled there clients. Front Page Google has been renamed "At The Top" - although the companies office still shows FPG LTD. So "At The Top", at the most, is a trading name - nothing wrong with that, TLD is a trading name for Sound Ideas Ltd. We do not know if the owners of "FPG LTD" trading as "Front Page Google" coached or even understood what their "Independent Representative's" were saying to potential clients. That is very hard to police, a salesman will try and get the deal after all. The owners of "At The Top" may in fact have told their representatives not to make these claims. No company want to be associated with a scam.... You can be the judge, it would be interesting to sit in on a few of these appointments with different reps and see what they say now.
At The Top offesr a service that simply creates your Google Places listing for you. A well designed one could take a couple of hours to do yourself. There is a lot of info on how to best optimise Google Places (In fact we are writing one). The fact that not many New Zealand Businesses have Google Places listings, actually makes the job for people like At The Top pretty easy to get "at or near the top" 7 positions. All a salesman needs to do, is target industries that are not very competitive and bingo their clients will be at the top in the 7 results, almost guaranteed (Ooooh i used the word). Another point is, the companies that do have a Google Places listing, mostly have inherited it from their old Local Business Centre listing and these have not been updated. As we mentioned above there are a lot of new features; so adding more content that includes well written text with your keywords will definitely help your results. My guess is once a company sees they have been bumped, they will then update their listing using the new features, and all things being equal, will get their listing back at the top. Only time will tell.... Thanks for your time. |
