Progress in Google Places rankings is non-linear. If you’re #6 for a given search term, the next ranking you achieve might be #2 or #19, but it probably won’t be #5 and then #4.
Your business is unlikely to inch up or down in the local rankings. The problem is that can make it very tough to tell if you’re doing things effectively or back-asswards. You need some indicators that you’re at least headed in the right (or wrong) direction.
Here are a few milestones you’ll probably pass if you’re on your way to better Google Places rankings:
- Milestone 1: Everything you see when logged into your Google Places “Dashboard” reflects what’s “live” on your Places page (the stuff customers see). If you make edits, it may take Google a while to process them, but if you see discrepancies that don’t go away after a couple weeks, you may have duplicate Google listings, which you’ll need to get removed.
- Milestone 2: Your GetListed.org score is 90-100%. It takes a little work to achieve this, but it’s worth it. It’s also a good indicator you’re listed on the major third-party sites, and accurately.
- Milestone 3: “At a glance” snippets appear on your Google Places page, and they’re at least semi-relevant to your services. These snippets often tell you what services Google associates with your business—that is, what it thinks you’re “about.” Get them by beefing up your listings on third-party sites with detailed info on your services and business.
- Milestone 4: The green bars in your Places “Dashboard show that the search terms people are currently finding your Places page for are roughly the same terms you want to get visible for. These stats aren’t always reliable, but they can help tell you whether you’re on the right track.
Your trek up the Google Places rankings may be a bumpy one. But it’s less disorienting if you know which milestones to look out for—and how to reach them if you haven’t already.
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Can you think of any other “milestones” you’ve passed—or would like to pass? Be a sport and leave a comment, will ya? 🙂
= Extremely user-friendly tool.
= A tool that’s good to use repeatedly—both before you’re visible and after, as part of a maintenance routine.
= Paid tool, but a heck of a good investment. (Any tool that doesn’t have this symbol next to it is free.)
In the world of local search, GetListed is handier than duct tape and a Swiss Army Knife put together. It instantly analyzes how locally visible your business is and gives you specific recommendations for how to get more visible. Plus, the rest of the site contains some 
Before 
Beautifully simple, yet powerful: a giant list of all the business categories you can choose for your Google Places page. Use it to make sure you’ve picked out all the categories that may apply to your business. It also includes synonyms corresponding to each category, which help if you’re unsure about which categories to pick. Created by none other than 
Getting good-old-fashioned links to your website can help your Google Places rankings. In a nutshell, this is the best link-finding tool I’ve used. It’s made by 
You can learn a lot about how to rank well in your specific local market if you spend enough time poking around on your competitors’ Places pages to find out what categories they use, which citations they have, and so forth. Local Search ToolKit lets you gather that competitive intel instantly.
I had a brilliant idea: little buttons you could put on your website that customers simply could click to write reviews for you…but then I learned the chaps at 
A great way to keep quick tabs on your reviews (how many and what ratings) on the most important review sites, with a really handy “dashboard” feature. MyReviewsPage also has a number of other features for monitoring and gathering customer reviews.
Google’s bots like it if you add your business name, address, and phone number to the bottom of every page of your website. But the bots are tickled pink if you can format your name, address, and phone number with a few specific lines of code before doing so. This format is called hCard. You can prepare the code you need at 
The more information Google has about the location of your business, the more likely it is you’ll rank well locally. Whereas a regular sitemap file is a way to tell search engines where the pages of your website are located, a geositemap file tells search engines where your business itself is located. The easy-to-use GeoSitemap Generator lets you create the two files you’ll need to upload to your site.
Even the best compass isn’t much use without an accurate map. This comprehensive, definitive study will help you at any and every stage of your push to get visible to local customers. If you ever find yourself wondering “Gee, what do I need all these tools for?” look no farther than this document.
A simple plugin-like tool that shows you a really sexy heatmap of where your website visitors click, the traffic sources those clicks come from, how far down the page they scroll, and other crucial intel.
A screenshot tool and photo-editor wrapped up into one very handy bundle. You need 
Want to know where your competitors are getting publicity (and citations and links)? Need to know if they’re talking smack about your business? Set up some Google Alerts and you’ll receive emails from Google that let you know what’s been published on the web about you or your competitors.
