Google places how to obtain a good ranking and letter on ballon?

Listed but not well ranked

[Kickedout]

Hello, got my business listed in Google places, however though it ranks ok in organic search results, the listing on map is very poor.

I mean, my listing didn't got a baloon with a letter, instead shows a small pink circle as many other business in city. While some others have the A,B,C etc.

How do you improve your search results in Google Maps? Is it about what? comments? I got listed this week, so it's soon still but I don't feel like time will make it happen alone.

[Silvery]

Google looks at a number of factors to try to determine relative popularity and ranking.

So, newer businesses will be at a disadvantage over older, better-established businesses.

You need to perform promotional activities such as getting mentioned in local newspapers online, local blogs, and add your listing into top directory sites such as internet yellow pages.

There is more to it than that, but this would be a good start.

[Kickedout]

Is there some tags to add in order to indicate that your business is on the area, I've heard putting the name of city in title may help...

[Catalyst]

Kickedout,

1st off if you just have small pink circle, that means you are on the map but on a page further down. Go to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th page until you find your listing. On that page of the map search results, you'll have a letter.

But obviously you want to be in the A - G spot (7 pack) on the 1st page.

"I've heard putting the name of city in title may help... "

NO, NO, NO. You are only supposed to list your legal business name. Companies that are adding GEO modifiers to their name are getting penalized. So don't have your name be like ABC Dental Oceanside, unless Oceanside is part of your legal name.

Also be careful about going in all the time to try to tweak things. If you make too many changes it sometimes causes your account to get pulled and flagged for review.

[Silvery]

Catalyst is right - jamming extra keywords into fields within your Google account page could result in penalization. Business name in the name field and category name in the category field -- don't force in the city name into a place where it shouldn't be.

However, on your own website, you might consider carefully forming the homepage Title to contain the name of the city -- this can help and is not considered a bad practice. Example format:

"Business Name - Category in City Name"

Using this format, a business named "Acme" which does "Auto Repair" in "Chicago" might have an HTML title on their homepage like:

"Acme - Auto Repair Shop in Chicago, IL"

However, for improved rankings, your business needs to appear more popular than the businesses which currently rank higher than you. So, your business needs to be mentioned in places like yellow pages, newspapers, press releases, blog posts, twitter, etc. This is why I suggested that you should look to do promotional activities to improve your company's online visibility.

[Catalyst]

Yes Silvery has some good suggestions.

Just be sure on all your promotional efforts you use an EXACT match of the business name, address and phone that you used for your Google Places page or it won't help your local ranking at all.

Don't submit ABC Plumbing 123 West St. anywhere if your
Place page is ABC Plumbing INC. 123 West Street (spelled out). Must be exactly the same.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

Linda