Let’s say…. you have two Google Places listings showing; one you made yourself, and one someone must have created in the past. You want to remove the other Google Maps listing. Both listings say “Owner-Verified Listing”, but you have no idea what email address/Google account it was created under. How can we remove a Google Places listing that you can’t even verify?

An owner-verified listing means someone else has PIN verified the listing. In order to claim the listing and have access to it, you need to follow these steps.

1) Click on a link of “owner-verified listing” with a green check mark that you will see on the top right side of the listing.

2) It will ask you to log in your Google Place account, and then, you will be taken to your account’s dashboard. Here, add a new listing with the exact same details as the listing you want to claim., but it will ask you your business phone number before you do, then, it will show the listings that you have listed in the past. Click “add a new listing” button, and then, input the exact same details as the listing that you want to delete.

3) Once you do that, and hit submit, you should see the exact listing that you wanted to claim. Go ahead and claim it.

4) After that, you’ll have to PIN verify this listing. Please follow these instructions to verify the listing.

One you verify the listing, you can control the listing. Then, you can remove the Google Places listing.

For other local search, visit our Google Maps Algorithm page, Google Maps Optimization (Google Maps SEO) page, Live Search Map and Yahoo Local page.

Many business owners are concerned about how to list a business with multiple locations on Google Maps (Google Places). Look at the Starbucks. They have multiple locations. The best way to list your branches or stores in multiple locations is as follows:

• set-up multiple listings under one account
• use a different address for each location and different local phone number
• fill out the LBL (Local Business Listing) completely (100%)

It is okay to use the same domain name for each location. Also, you can use the same business name. What you have to be careful is to do “over optimization” . For instance, if you use your business title of Google places with extraneous keywords for optimization, which doesn’t look like your real business name, Google might consider that you are doing “over optimization”, because it is against Quality Guidelines for Google Places such as “Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world.”

Now, some say “it’s best to setup individual Google Accounts and pages for each location. That way if something happens to one listing, it doesn’t effect the whole”. This is an interesting opinion. We do the same thing for some of our clients, too. Either having a single account or multiple accounts is not against Quality Guidelines for Google Maps, so it is all up to you.

For other local search, visit our Google Maps Algorithm page, Google Maps Optimization (Google Maps SEO) page, Live Search Map and Yahoo Local page.

Google wants to know whether your business serves customers at their locations or not. If your business provides services, such as delivery or home repair, to locations in certain areas, you should choose service areas under Google Places’ “Service Areas and Location Setting”. Then, you have two options: “Select how your service area will be specified, either through a distance from a location point, or through a list of locations (towns, zip codes, etc.)” I believe there are some issues with the option to select area by radius, so choose “List of areas served”, and list all of cities and zip codes that you actually serves.

For other local search, visit our Google Maps Algorithm page, Google Maps Optimization (Google Maps SEO) page, Live Search Map and Yahoo Local page.

It seems to have a positive impact on your ranking when you do owner-verified listing on Google Place Page. Google values the information from the owner of the business than somebody else.

For other local search, visit our Google Maps Algorithm page, Google Maps Optimization (Google Maps SEO) page, Live Search Map and Yahoo Local page.

It is important to make certain your business name, address and phone number on your website are visible to the search engines and match up with what is in published in your Google Places listing. Your business name, address and phone number need to be in text on your website and they must match your places, other Trusted Provider and citation listings. If you want to use a toll free number, don’t forget your local phone number. If you want to use P.O.Box address in your website, don’t forget to insert your physical address in text on your website.

For other local search, visit our Google Maps Algorithm page, Google Maps Optimization (Google Maps SEO) page, Live Search Map and Yahoo Local page.

Nowdays a lot of people run their businesses from their cell phones, particularly those in the service industries. It is hard to imagine not being able to use a cell phone as the primary business number. However, when it comes to Google Maps SEO, using a landline phone in your local business listing (LBL) leads your website to rank well in Google Maps (Google Places). If you don’t want to have a landline phone due to the nature of your business such as delivery or home repair service to locations in a certain area, then, go to LBL, and select how your service area will be specified, either through a distance from a location point, or through a list of locations (towns, zip codes, etc.).

For other local search, visit our Google Maps Algorithm page, Google Maps Optimization (Google Maps SEO) page, Live Search Map and Yahoo Local page.

This feature is far too new to know the effect of using service areas and local setting in Google Places (Google Maps). Service area is a very important factor, but I believe there are some issues with the option to select area by radius. So far, there is no positive report on using service areas and local setting in Google Maps.

For other local search, visit our Google Maps Algorithm page, Google Maps Optimization (Google Maps SEO) page, Live Search Map and Yahoo Local page.

User generated content (UGC), as you have seen in MyMaps, KML files, geotagged images and videos, appear to be giving a big boost in Google Maps (Google Places) Rankings. UGC such as MyMaps does appear to correlate with ranking position.

For other local search, visit our Google Maps Algorithm page, Google Maps Optimization (Google Maps SEO) page, Live Search Map and Yahoo Local page.