Current best practice for G+ "introduction" (Formerly Google Places Description)

[frederickwebpro]

Current best practice for G+ "introduction" (Formerly Google Places Description)

Hi all, am wondering if anyone cares to share what the best practices are for length of and how touchy the keyword stuffing spam filter is (or isn't) regarding the length of a company description/

The google and my business forum I found roughly around 2010 when some of my client's G Places page got dinged. If memory serves it was GMB member MYSQLPerformace who said ( and I'm paraphrasing a lot)

if your company name is also your keywords, you'd better not repeat those keywords ANYWHERE in the G Places description.

He used the term "Draconian" spam filter.. (I remember that because I really, REALLY wanted to use that phrase in a local SEO blog post but felt it unethical to rip Andrew off.. it was is copy, not mine, I wish I'd thunk it, but he did first)

OK so 2010 was maybe pre Panda, and certainly pre Pigeon.

fast forward to today:

I have a client that's a pawn shop.. Now I know Google is a "relational database" (again, Kudos to Andrew for pointing that out to me)
meaning.. if all of the competitors for a given genres websites all suck:
-have zero optimization,
-all of them use graphics and little to no text
-all of the keyword stuff pretty much identical to each other

... the one that, from Googlebot's perspective "sucks the least" wins...
-that doesn't mean they "earned it"
-it doesn't mean google likes what they did
-all it means is whoever ranks #1 sucks slightly less than the other 5 or 6.

so before I set out to craft a "superior" optimized G places description, or as Google Adwords Express terms it, an "introduction".. I did some competitor spying/ reconnaissance first.

Every single G places description I looked at were blatant examples of keyword spamming.. if I was the algo and I had to pick a winner based on this.. I'd be horrified.

So. anyone hear care to shed some light on the current best practices?

thanks

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Re: What is current best practice for "introduction" (formerly Google Place descripti

I think as long as you craft it with the customer in mind you will be fine. For example, I think it is useful to add hyperlinks to specific pages on the businesses website that would be useful for the user to click to to learn more about a product or service. But if the description is soaked in exact match anchor text links that all go to the same page or something like that I think it can hurt.

As far as length goes, the main thing to consider is the longer the description, the further a potential customer will have to scroll down the page to see your reviews.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: What is current best practice for "introduction" (formerly Google Place descripti

Great point Colin about pushing the reviews down.

Here's a post I did back in 2013, much applies today.

<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/nap-categories-dashboard-data/9653-description-best-practices-new-google-places-dashboard.html">Description Best Practices in the NEW Google Places Dashboard</a>

However since Pigeon I don't think Google is quite as picky about keyword repetition. In the past I've seen lots of listings totally penalized for repeating City too many times, but now I see spammy descriptions ranking all the time. Still I would be careful.

Google has told us the description is not a ranking factor. So stuffing it will not help and just looks bad. So I'd take Colan's advice and write for the user.