Does anyone have any idea how you do this in a big city.. is there any rhyme or reason? One of my former associates, who passed away a few months ago, was one of the least technologically capable people I ever met and he is actually still on the first page of Google Local when you search for a DC realtor.. he even said himself "I don't know what I did, but I did something right"... and here I am someone who knows all about PR, back links, keywords, etc., and I cannot figure out how to get even a fifth page placement... I am wondering if it is where he put his marker.. which I have no idea where it came from because that is not where our office is nor where his house was...eh.. seriously frustrates me I want to get to the top.

Do you have a link for your former associate's site?

Hey why not conduct a seance? lol just kidding.

There are a few ways to jump to the top quickly. But the best (most ethical) way is to use the key words "real estate" and "agent" many times in the descriptive paragraph for your business. Also, the city should be pretty close before and after those key words. If you search for an agent in greensburg I'll be in the top 3 most of the times depending on your search words.

But if someone knows an good way to do that with yahoo and bing without paying I'd love to know that one.

Positive local reviews also help get you to the top too. Like yelp, google reviews etc...

If it's a website buy the website.Take out his name and put yours in leaving everything else the same with the website as far as wording etc.

I've had some success with google places bouncing around between #2 and #5 for the last year or so. The 2 things that I always try to get clients to post a recommendation on google places and I log into my places account once a month.

I'd like to learn more about how improve my rankings here as well. Anybody else have any thoughts?

Hey, I grew up in Ligonier!

Although you may be extremely savvy in SEO (self-admittedly), Google Places has little (if anything) to do with PR, back links, etc. and is more about the content you place on your Google Places listing.

By the way, feel free to peruse the rest of this forum, you may find that the 'Successful Web Presence' section may be more applicable for your thread and perhaps you'd get better responses as well.

Small world, especially when you think how small Ligonier is! Though they have the number 1 kids park in the work! (So they say any ways.)

But yeah if you type Ligonier pa real estate agent I should be top 2 or 3 on the page. Nearly every city in Westmoreland County
Working on Allegheny county for next year

Used to be Idlewild Park and Storybook Forest - it seems to all still be there. The last of my parents passed away 2 years ago so I won't be going back much even though the rest of the family is there.

I played at the Park and the Forest and I also took my kids there when they were growing up. It's beautiful, playful and not real scary for young children. Nothing like the killer rides at Kings Dominion in Richmond, VA.

Just make sure you have a complete places listing. Using illegitimate info like throwing the city in your name or keyword stuffing your description isn't the answer.

Take some time to upload some photos, don't get greedy with categories or keyword stuff those, use the categories that pertain to your profession provided by Google and no more. Make sure you include your Places address on at least your contact page if not as a fixture on some part of your site(footer, header, whatever you prefer as it is seen on Places).

Another factor is making sure your information is up-to-date/consistent across other IYP(Internet Yellow Pages) as a way of validity or verification.

You will not see instant results right after the listing is complete so don't let that get you in the spammy mindset.

Google places is one of the banes of my existence. Figure it'll take 6 months to rank. I've finally got my law practice doing well after spending 3 months killing a dupe listing soaking up my real estate citations.

1. Citations are mentions of your business name number and address. Google picks up on these and lists them your google places. Best way to get them is to sign up for a directory submission package. Go to warriorforum.com several providers.
Best if you back link the submissions.

2. Linking to the google places page helps.

3. Put a kml map file on your webpage.

4. yes- get the info right. Avoid custom category listings.

5. Citations

time
more citations.
oh and reviews getting 5 is a magic number.

That's about it.