SEO on google places

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hydeisland

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San Diego,CA
Hey All,

Im starting to get serious about getting my online presence visible. I have a nice list of clients and get good referals but it would sure be nice to get a few calls a week from people who find me online. I have a website, am on angies list and do home advisor but it seems like the gold mine of internet marketing is google places. My questions are this:
How have the EC's at the top of google places gotten there?
Do SEO companies for google places work? If so what's the best way about finding the right one?
This are for google PLACES specifically.

Also for the mods: How do I get promoted from "junior member"? I ve been here for a few years yet Im still the same level as handymen and harry homeowner trolls;)

Thanks!
 
hydeisland said:
....

Also for the mods: How do I get promoted from "junior member"? I ve been here for a few years yet Im still the same level as handymen and harry homeowner trolls;)

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Not a mod, but I believe the number of posts promote you.
 
hydeisland said:
Hey All,

Also for the mods: How do I get promoted from "junior member"? I ve been here for a few years yet Im still the same level as handymen and harry homeowner trolls;)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I believe you become a Senior member at 100 posts.
 
petersonra said:
I think you become a senior member at 1000 posts.
Click to expand...

It's a 100.

So, about the SEO thing, I have no idea, but SEO companies are the snake oil salesmen of the 21st century. Have you checked around on Google's website to see what they say? For regular web searches their SEO suggestions were good.
 
Sweet, only 8 more to go! (now 7?)


George Stolz said:
It's a 100.

So, about the SEO thing, I have no idea, but SEO companies are the snake oil salesmen of the 21st century. Have you checked around on Google's website to see what they say? For regular web searches their SEO suggestions were good.
Click to expand...

It seems this is definitly the truth. There is no shortage of people who will gladly take your money for promised results.
 
How have the EC's at the top of google places gotten there?
Click to expand...

They are paid ads or they pay Google for other things like Adwords. Remember one thing- Google exists to make money- LOTS of money. You can jump through hoops with SEO and maybe show up for a few days for free on page 1 when someone searches for electrical contractors. If I had my way I would sue Google to oblivion but unfortunately they are a private business and can screw people over any way they want. The way it should work is when someone searches for electrical contractors every contractor in the area (and only contractors in the area) should show up in alphabetical order. :rant:

-Hal
 
George Stolz said:
It's a 100.

So, about the SEO thing, I have no idea, but SEO companies are the snake oil salesmen of the 21st century. Have you checked around on Google's website to see what they say? For regular web searches their SEO suggestions were good.
Click to expand...

I agree. Google keeps changing their algorithm to thwart the possibility of SEO.
 
I spent a LOT of money on google this past summer. Found out Yellow pages is still working better.

There are 3 web spiders or crawlers. They look for keywords and rank your web site accordingly. SEO companies take your money and tell you they are going to get you into the first page organic (not paid for) search results. They can't because they do not have control of your web site or at least shouldn't EVER take over control of your web site. But they will say they can do it for a nominal fee which is about the same as what you paid the last boiler room call you got that is sitting next to the guy on the phone. Coincidentally it is also about what a yellow page add costs.
If you start saying yes they will come out of the woodwork to get your credit card information. Will even call back to get you signed up for better credit card rates if you just give them your banking information. They will have a person stopping by tomorrow because you are gullible enough to agree.
Back to search engines, there are two types of results organic and paid. Paid are in the little boxes organic is what the web crawlers look for. You have to register your company and name with about 12 different services , Google, bing yahoo, aol, ... This gives you validity for them to put you on there maps. Last company I paid to do a web site and SEO sent me an email telling me I had to do my own registering. Then there is facebook rss twitter etc... Also making your web site compatible and friendly for cell phone internet.

Go to the book store. Remember them? Get SEO for dummies. That is where I am at now. If I am going to pay someone and not get results I might as well do it myself and make a couple of grand a day selling SEO.

As Mr Barnum said there is one born every minute.

One thing I haven't done yet is to look up who did my competitors web site that is first on the list, and hire them.
One thing to look out for. If you get too many hits on the web crawler you get put in purgatory. Google will blackball you and you have to be proactive in getting it ... unnoticed.
 
How much are you payin for Angie? I love renewing with them. This year they started out at $6000. I got them down to $1800. Check out youtube for self help. Found a vid about google maps saying if you have pictures you will be shown before someone without. Great advise. One thing I did notice is that none of the high dollar service companies are on Angie. Those guy are spending around %10 of gross I hear.
 
electricblue said:
How much are you payin for Angie? I love renewing with them. This year they started out at $6000. I got them down to $1800. Check out youtube for self help. Found a vid about google maps saying if you have pictures you will be shown before someone without. Great advise. One thing I did notice is that none of the high dollar service companies are on Angie. Those guy are spending around  of gross I hear.
Click to expand...
Angie is not even worth a dime to me. Maybe if I lived in a metro area I would feel differently about her. She can still hurt as much as she can help though which to me means she is still not worth spending any money on.
 
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