Google Places Changes - How Does This Affect The Website Leasing 'Model'? | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

14 years ago

I'm not sure what type of site model you're using but when I build a "lease" site it's pretty much mainly a lead generation site. Google places might be an upsell or cross sell. Holding a place would be a waste of time because you'll still have to enter all the new details and location information and you can't get citations and reviews on a "holding place."

Thanks

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asharer

14 years ago

Newbie's here... good stuff

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1 reply

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Summertime Dress 14 years ago

Hey there Phil,

I'm in the same boat and agree with the last post...better to use GP as an upsell rather than risk your account with Google. How are you going to handle leads that begin to "trickle" in before getting page 1 traffic? Obviously some will say sell the leads...I was thinking of posting a Craigslist ad to sell the leads until i'm ready to present the website leasing package to business owners.
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jasonthewebmaster

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by philm

About 3 months ago I built a number of websites in 'local' markets with the intention of getting them onto page one of Google and then leasing them (or maybe even selling them)

When I registered the keyword rich domains the old Google 7 box was still the norm. I built the sites and then my focus was required elsewhere. I'm now going back to these sites and will start to do some backlinking etc

With the recent Places changes I'm not 100% sure what the best approach is to getting them ranked before approaching businesses.

Can I create a 'temporary' Places listing and then amend the details once I know which business will lease/buy the site from me, or do I need to do the SEO on the site and backlink it and then do the Places stuff after the site has been sold/leased?

If I can't do the Places listing prior to selling/leasing the sites is it still possible to get a top 3 ranking purely from backlinking? Or is it really neessary now to have both a website and a Google Places listing?

I haven't done any SEO focused on local search terms before or created any Google Places listings so if anybody could maybe provide an overview on what is the current 'best' approach to local SEO/Google Places when building websites for local search terms (with a view to leasing them or selling them), I'd really appreciate it.

Many thanks in advance

Phil

What I do is setup the places page with a false address, and a free Google Voice telephone number.

Then I verify the listing by phone.

Thanks

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MichaelHiles

14 years ago

I just got a competitive site kicked off of Google Places on behalf of a client who invests heavily in internet marketing. The site was clearly a lead generation site that was being run up as a lease candidate.

All it took was one message to Google and in 48 hours the site was gone from Places... they had falsified the street address.

Our response back from Google was that real businesses such as my client's, who are investing heavily in legitimate marketing, aren't taking kindly to opportunists attempting to scam the system by violating Google's terms of service - and are aggressively reporting false addressees. Google is relying on local businesses to report on the fake sites and will act on the reports post haste.

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madisondev 14 years ago

Hey thought I'd jump in here as we build and lease sites as well. I have been looking at ways to set up a places page and lease it out after the debilitating changes to local SERPS. I have seen a number of places pages set up that way - with a false address, etc.

Problem being is, yes, one of your competitors will probably report the listing and you'll be gone as @Michael did. Hell, I would too for one of my clients.

Two, if you go back and change the address on a ranked places listing once you have secured a client, that address now conflicts with the address of the directory listings you probably would have submitted to need in order to rank in the first place.

And/or the change in address will be re-accessed by Google's algos. Either way you will likely lose that places ranking and look like dipstick to your client.

I would have to agree with @Vincenzo, at least at this point, that the best solution currently is to increase your local SEO efforts and use places as an up-sell.
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- attorneydavid 14 years ago
  
  Hey,
  anybody know what would happen if you took a website off one google places account and listed it with another? Is it even feasible or are you locked in. I'm guessing you'd have to screen clients really well.
  
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  I've lost 90 pounds(160+ overall) fasting since January 2016 after failing for years on diets that just made me sick and miserable. Check out Prudently.com where I'm writing about fasting and weight loss. Get a Brandable Domain Name at Name Perfection.
  
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alanball01

14 years ago

Yes, Google changed its local place system, but some time its very great all the website which were on 2nd page now its on 1st page. but some local listing down from Google.

Thanks

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rhab

14 years ago

Are people finding that it's tough to outrank a places listing with a regular site? I'm going to be doing places as a primary service but also planned to have a site lease model for local as well. Wondering if it's only a matter of increasing linking efforts to outrank places, even an optimized places listing...

Thanks
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AussieT

14 years ago

Originally Posted by rhab

Are people finding that it's tough to outrank a places listing with a regular site? I'm going to be doing places as a primary service but also planned to have a site lease model for local as well. Wondering if it's only a matter of increasing linking efforts to outrank places, even an optimized places listing...

Good question I would like to know the answe to this also. I have certainly seen sites listed ahead of Google Places listings but not sure what the key to doing so is.

Thanks

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vndnbrgj

14 years ago

Originally Posted by rhab

Are people finding that it's tough to outrank a places listing with a regular site? I'm going to be doing places as a primary service but also planned to have a site lease model for local as well. Wondering if it's only a matter of increasing linking efforts to outrank places, even an optimized places listing...

Here's what I do... I hope it helps.
Let's say you do Places for $795/month.
Let's say you lease your other site for $495/month.
This equates to about $1300/month, right?
This also requires 2 sales, right?

Wouldn't it be easier to dominate the whole page and charge $995, and not even have to create a "Site lease model"?

Then you don't have to outrank any places listings. Just do a proper job with places, and take up a lot of the organic stuff. Done.

Now you may get about $300 less but,.....
You only have to make 1 SALE, and don't have to make the lease model site.

I don't offer a "Site lease model". I have no intentions of getting into either. It just seems like more work. I guess I am just lazy and will take less to do less. I do offer an Upsell for custom website design though.

Hope this helps.

Thanks
2 replies

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LiquidSeo

14 years ago

Originally Posted by vndnbrgj

Here's what I do... I hope it helps.
Let's say you do Places for $795/month.
Let's say you lease your other site for $495/month.
This equates to about $1300/month, right?
This also requires 2 sales, right?

Wouldn't it be easier to dominate the whole page and charge $995, and not even have to create a "Site lease model"?

Then you don't have to outrank any places listings. Just do a proper job with places, and take up a lot of the organic stuff. Done.

Now you may get about $300 less but,.....
You only have to make 1 SALE, and don't have to make the lease model site.

I don't offer a "Site lease model". I have no intentions of getting into either. It just seems like more work. I guess I am just lazy and will take less to do less. I do offer an Upsell for custom website design though.

Hope this helps.

Agree - the site lease model is broken and has no place moving forward. It does not comply in any way with the latest Google Places guidelines.

Google is aggressively moving to stop "map spam", and this certainly qualifies.

It's a slippery slope - you just have to decide how you want to run your business.

Thanks
1 reply

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WildGale 14 years ago

Originally Posted by LiquidSeo

Agree - the site lease model is broken and has no place moving forward. It does not comply in any way with the latest Google Places guidelines.

Places is just one way to get to Page 1. If I had a site for lease, I'd make sure it was #1 on Page 1 AND I'd get their Places page optimized.

I have a site coming up in a competitive market and have a potential client who actually doesn't have a website or any Places optimization. I'm not doing a lease but will probably do a pay-per-lead model with him, putting my own 800 number on the site and call forwarding to him (there are discussions in this subforum about the model). The Places page will have his real number so I won't make $$ from those calls, but his market has the new format of Places listings and most people will probably click through to see his website and, in reality, that website will be my website with the 800 number on it.

In any case, mine isn't a leasing model per se, but it is in spirit and I don't see Places as a barrier at all.

As a previous poster noted, the long tail offers a lot of opportunity as well. In fact, you often don't even have to backlink for long tail terms. There simply isn't much competition for them.

Amanda
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LocalBizUK

14 years ago

This will sound naive, but thats ok, because I am completely new to all of this, but working hard to learn.

I have just bought a couple of Google Places WSO's (including Brian's Cheat Sheet) but have not implemented any as yet)

My question: How do you dominate the whole page when doing a Places listing? Is it possible to get more than one place using google Places? Can you only use Google Places for one keyword or can you use it for many?

Thanks,
Rob

Originally Posted by vndnbrgj

Here's what I do... I hope it helps.
Let's say you do Places for $795/month.
Let's say you lease your other site for $495/month.
This equates to about $1300/month, right?
This also requires 2 sales, right?

Wouldn't it be easier to dominate the whole page and charge $995, and not even have to create a "Site lease model"?

Then you don't have to outrank any places listings. Just do a proper job with places, and take up a lot of the organic stuff. Done.

Now you may get about $300 less but,.....
You only have to make 1 SALE, and don't have to make the lease model site.

I don't offer a "Site lease model". I have no intentions of getting into either. It just seems like more work. I guess I am just lazy and will take less to do less. I do offer an Upsell for custom website design though.

Hope this helps.

Thanks
1 reply

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vndnbrgj

14 years ago

Originally Posted by LocalBizUK

This will sound naive, but thats ok, because I am completely new to all of this, but working hard to learn.

I have just bought a couple of Google Places WSO's (including Brian's Cheat Sheet) but have not implemented any as yet)

My question: How do you dominate the whole page when doing a Places listing? Is it possible to get more than one place using google Places? Can you only use Google Places for one keyword or can you use it for many?

Thanks,
Rob

You can not get more than one place using Google Places.
You can get the Place listing to show up for more than one keyword.
I can usually get at least 5-10 keywords for the Places listing.
Between primary and secondary keywords.

How do you dominate the whole page? Marketing
This is Internet Marketing... just good marketing takes over the page.

Thanks
1 reply

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- Neale Donald Wilson -

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WildGale

14 years ago

Dominate the page by having something in Places and then taking up the lion's share of the organic results. You could rank YouTube videos, BlogTalkRadio shows, Hubpages, and and any number of other properties.

Thanks
1 reply

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rhab

14 years ago

Thanks very much for the replies. Some very helpful insight. Wildgale, your last post above is much like what I have in mind. I can't speak from experience entirely yet as I have not yet launched my business officially yet. But my intention is to use the site lease model combined with places and incorporate youtube and a couple other web 2.0 sites.

What I'm looking at in the site lease model is more for my own comfort level. I'm not a salesman and I feel like I need to go buy someone's ebook on anxiety everytime I think about trying to sell someone something lol.

The site lease model for me is intended to sell itself by showing the business owner the actual product, not selling seo that he has to wait for and hope I deliver. This way it's an easier sell and theh are already warmed up to it. This is where I will introduce google places optimization and seo for their existing site or web site services if they do not have one.

Then we begin to look at the multiple listings and such. I currently have a wedding photographer site ranked at #2 on page 1 and plan to begin with this site.

I had asked about competing with places rankings as I haven't encountered that yet and still trying to grasp why some terms will show up in places but using the same terms but different niche will have no places entries.

Thanks
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WildGale

14 years ago

Originally Posted by rhab

I had asked about competing with places rankings as I haven't encountered that yet and still trying to grasp why some terms will show up in places but using the same terms but different niche will have no places entries.

David -- I think your plan is good and it should sell itself.

On Places, just based on what I'm seeing, I would say that Places don't come up when you are far enough in the tail that Places Pages themselves don't use those particular keywords. It's also possible that there may be dentists in one market optimized for "invisalign braces" and in another market, no one optimized for it.

Thanks

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zoro

14 years ago

Originally Posted by rhab

Are people finding that it's tough to outrank a places listing with a regular site? I'm going to be doing places as a primary service but also planned to have a site lease model for local as well. Wondering if it's only a matter of increasing linking efforts to outrank places, even an optimized places listing...

The trick is to use Long Tail Keywords that don't bring up the Google Places Map. Then add lots of backlinks and blog posts and use the Keyword in the Anchor Text.

Thanks

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WildGale

14 years ago

Originally Posted by rhab

Are people finding that it's tough to outrank a places listing with a regular site? I'm going to be doing places as a primary service but also planned to have a site lease model for local as well. Wondering if it's only a matter of increasing linking efforts to outrank places, even an optimized places listing...

No, I'm not. With good on-page SEO and some directory and RSS submissions I'm ranking above Places in some medium markets (60-70K population) right out of the gate in some cases. In more competitive markets it would obviously take longer, but it's just SEO.

I wouldn't worry about Places at all. Once you have the client relationship you can get their Places listing optimized, until then just rank above Places.

The changes in Google make it easier in some ways because the Places listings are "broken up." You can get in the middle of them before you move to the top.

Amanda

Thanks

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Google Places Changes - How Does This Affect The Website Leasing 'Model'?

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