Recent content by Simon James

1. If you lost rankings your very first point of call should be your WebMaster Tools account. Does Google give any warnings to you there about unnatural links? You have almost certainly had a Penguin Slap. For example, there are 520 links pointing to your website from a website called...

:eek: So glad I took a leaf out of Linda's book and didn't hang my hat on doing G+ Local as my main service offering. Selling Lead Gen is looking more and more attractive each day. :D

Sorry, I just thought I'd BUMP my previous post to see if anyone has an idea about the different suite formats.

Why would you want to remove the tag?

It won't help for Google's understanding that (along with the address!) the following line appears as the home page search snippet: "Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Expert Services by LAD Solutions." Also the Places page has it's address as "900 Jackson Street, Dallas, X75202", whereas their...

WARNING - BAD PUN ALERT: Maybe its supposed to be a "Phone Tic Name", for when you get twitchy after too much cold calling :D

I recently did a test with a business I haven't fully set up yet. I created a Local G page and the Places page. For the address I entered "Suite 1, 44 Castle Street, etc." The Google Maps listing activation postcard I got back from Google UK (with a Netherlands address!) was addressed to: 44...

I found you on Places for the phrase "Boat Rental Service key west". You were down on page 11. Position 108 out of 514 listings... Phew, that is one crowded market you are in! I think AdWords is going to be a better bet for you in the short to medium term; and in the meantime start doing some...

Do you know why? My quick analysis suggests it's linked to the fact that you appear to be located in a marina, where there are several different businesses located at your address, including Dante's Restaurant & Pool Bar which is shown on Google Maps as being at 951 Caroline Street but on its...

I haven't tested it yet, but I would be willing to bet hard cash that if you post some relevant content and videos, it will help considerably. Certainly generating targeted content will help with your natural listings, and should help you rank for long tail phrases that don't initiate places...

Nerdy force of habit. Almost anything displayed on a webpage has its origins detailed in the source code. So most pages I land on, I have a look at the source code and the "Inspect Element" function.

If you right click on the page to see the source code and then search for "Verified local business" you will find that on a merged Local G+ page there are two Div classes: 'Pua a-f-e Lra JB' and 'Rr sU Ora a-f-e qU' (whatever those mean) ...whereas on other pages there are none.

I'm not sure how many of these apply to the UK, but it's a timely reminder to get more laser focussed on where my ideal customer hangs out, and start building an audience.

Perhaps if there was a comprehensive, well structured, up-to-date user guide; and a reliable database structure across Maps, G+ and Places, then there might be very little need for a support forum at all. Perhaps, if whoever at Google is overseeing this mess (Larry, Sergey, Urs, etc.) had some...

Bon appetite.