Catalyst - 5:40 am on Mar 9, 2011 (gmt 0)

I agree with earlpearl and was going to say many of the same things.

I've studied the new merged algo a lot and what it takes to rank high now is a combination of 3 things.

1) Well optimized Place page including everything that used to work on the old Places algo. Citations, reviews, etc. (About 50 factors go into this algo with 5 of them being uber important & most have been mentioned above.)

2) Well SEO optimized site with high organic ranking. (I think I've heard there are around 250 factors that go into the organic ranking - however for the new local merged algo on-page optimization has gained in importance and plays a VERY big part from what I'm seeing.)

3) Then you also need the right local hooks to tie it all together. A few different factors play in here and there are different ways to do it. As a bare minimum be sure the same exact name, address and phone number (that are on the Place page) are in the footer or sidebar of the site.

Linda