Hi Brad ~ This post is chock-a-block full of valuable advice - thanks! There's much here that I haven't done so I'm bookmarking it for my to do list.

One thought - I've gotten turned off by Yelp. The hiding of reviews from people who don't review frequently is really obnoxious I think. My plan is to get clients to submit reviews / testimonials elsewhere.

Liz

Brad:  Yikes, this sure can get complicated.  How in the world are us "normal" folks supposed to be able to compete with this ?

Hi Brad, thank you for the ecellent post, it will take a little to absorb it all!

Brad - Great blog. Thank you for gathering this information. I learn a lot from AR community.

Brad - This is a fantastic post.  It's now time to start paying attention to Google Local!

Woo Hoo Brad! We just got our letter from Google Places. We are one of the most popular local businesses on Google. We are on of less than 250,000 businesses in the U.S. to receive this recognition, that is less than 1% of all U.S. businesses. 

Of course, we are saving this letter for our listing presentations!!!! And a press release to our local media. Katerina

Hey Brad...glad you posted this...I was just doing some maintenace to my blog, and thinking of other things I could do to advertise we are here ...Thanks :)

Great tips. I'll work on this tomorow. Seems easy enough.

Hi Brad ~ Thanks for some excellent advice. Too much to digest all in one sitting, I too will be bookmarking this so I can go down your list and check off things that I don't have covered yet. BTW, particularly liked the graphic. It definitely helped get your point across.

Denise

While it does take work, I think the pay off far outweighs the couple of hours it would take to optimize for local results.

Hi Brad,

Thanks for the info.

YOU need to post more often!  :)

Thanks for the post.  Look out, the Rain Gods will want you on the platform for RAIN Camps.

Thanks for the great tips.

There are a lot of tips and a lot of information to digest. I need to bookmark this and digest it a little at a time.

Brad - lots of good information here to use. Have done some of this already but will now get on the other sites you mentioned besides Google. I agree - it makes sense to spend the tiem to do this correctly.

Jeff

Brad...Great Information...THANK YOU for Posting!

Wishing you much continued success!

T

Brad ... This looks like good staff, and thanks for the post.  Since I am not enough of a techie, it takes me a while to figure out what you are talking about.  Like Google places.  Where to begin with that? I'll set aside some time for that on Friday afternoon, so I am bookmarking.

Wow, I love this kind of info especially all the stuff about being local! It is the way to get people to notice you.

Brad - thanks for these valuable and informative tips. Great post and thanks for sharing it with AR.

Brad, Thank you.I will bookmark this post and read it again and use some of the tips..

Thank you for sharing this information. . .one of the most valuable posts I read in the last few days! . .I;m glad I subscribe to you!

As always...Thanks for giving us great information with pictures.  It really does make it easier to grasp with the visual help.

Brad, what great info especially about localeze & infousa...i've been doing all the rest but needs the fine tweaking and review you suggest.  thanks so much!

It does like a lot of work, a lot of worthwhile work!  I am bookmarking this for action!  Thank you!

This post is full of valuable advice - thanks! I have just registered with Info USA, so I'm bookmarking so I can complete the registration process. Need to look at Bink too.

I LOVE your post, Brad! Bookmarked for some serious work.

Thanks for the valuable info! I'm going to work on this today. And probably tomorrow . . . and the day after that . . . and the day after that . . .

Brad, great information here thanks for posting it. It's going to take me a while to get through all of this!

Brad...

This is great information, and a good reminder that SEO requires proactive effort!

Wow, thanks a lot for the info Brad. Like the guy above me, it's going to take a while to get through all this!

Wow Brad, that's a lot of information. I've got homework to do now!

Hi Brad, great information as always from the Dakno dudes. I'll work on it as I do come up organically but not in the top 7.

Good information about the local directories.

One note - when checking your own rankings, make sure you are SIGNED OUT of gmail.  If you are signed in, the rankings might be skewed toward places you have clicked on before.  So you might be number one when you search but number who knows what when a potential client searches.

Wow!!!   Thanks Brad!!  I have to bookmark this post since there is so much listed here that I need to do.  It is almost a full time job just trying to keep up.

Great list, I am going to work on some of these today.

WOW!  I had no idea.  Now I can work more intelligently.  Thank you.  I like to work smarter not harder. 

Brad, a lot of good information here. I'll have to bookmark this post and come back to it and try to tackle each item at a time. Thanks.

I feel as if I'm back at ground zero, starting all this again.  I did all of this back in 1997, spending many, many hours submitting my site.  It's so important not to be complacent.  Thanks for the heads up.  I see I have my work cut out for me . . . again.

Thanks, Brad.  This is a keeper.  Great info ... plus I love the bonus tips as well.

My head is spinning...LOL...thanks for not only the great info but the easy to follow layman's terms which means even someone like me who is techno-challenged may be able to "get" some of it. 

Brad,

Thanks for all this. I have bookmarked this post. It's currently a little beyond my own capabilities at the moment.

Brian

Great advice! Just updated all of the profiles. Appreciate it!

Fantastic Post!  I just updated all my info!  Thanks!

This is fantastic! Thanks so much for posting this info. I'm in agreement with one of the other 'Rainers above...you should post stuff like this more often:-)

This is EXCELLENT!  I'm going to try to reblog & bookmark (if I can figure out how).  I love this.  I have been doing some of this, but not all, so you've really supplemented my to do list.  Thank you sooooooo much.  I'll put some on the "to do" list for this weekend, and then maybe some more for the following 2 weekends.

WOW. Great stuff! Before I could finish reading the post, I was off following all your tips.

Google places? Check...

Localeze? check...

Love your work! I subscribed to your RSS feed. You're a smart dude... keep up the great work, and thanks for sharing!

Brad:

I enjoyed reading your post and the comments. I have bookmarked so that I can go back over.

Brad - Bookmarked!  Looks like I need to go do some tweaking...thanks!

I know what I am doing for the rest of the day. Thanks for the list.

I love waking up in he morning and chewing on fantastic information like this. Brad thanks for taking us to new realms with your knowledge of seo

Thanks for taking the time to put this together in such an organized manner.  Looks like I have some work to do!

Excellent info, Brad. Now I have one more thing on my to-do (must-do) list. Thanks for sharing!

Is this organic or is lindacraft using costly PPC..? thnx

Okay - that is great and valuable information. I'm going to have to print out the entire post as this looks like a 3-day job. BTW, what do you CHARGE to do all of this?

Very valuable information .... I will bookmark this to go through each thing one at a time!  thank you

nevermind.. found the ppc placed ad..

Tag for future action - thanks for the info

Brad, this a really great information.  I am going to start a check list on your points and see how far I can get! Thank you!

Brad - all I can say is WOW! This is a lot of great information that I was totally unaware of, even after attending ReTechSouth.

Brad - first of all, Thank You for all the great information.

You specifically say to popular all 5 fields under "category" in Google Places.  But the categories are pre-populared with the only choice being "Real Estate Agency."  I tried to customize it with different cities but it did not allow that.

How else can we fill in all 5 fields.

Brad, thanks for the info. It's very informative.

I hope that I soon have a need to do exactly this...  ;^ )

"This is just too much work."

Ha Ha...yes it was, but I am sure it will be worth it.

Hi Brad,

Good to see another one of your blogs. I've bookmarked this one...so much great info and so little time to work on it.

Wow! Wonder where I can get a few more gigs of memory......for my brain that is. Maybe some duck tape to keep it from all leaking out too. Thanks I'll get to work.

Brad

You've been more dormant than I have here, LOL.  none the less you return with fabulous content.   Thanks for a great post.

Katrina Madewell, Tampa FL

Brad,

Once again thank you for this information. We work on this ober the next few days.

You provide a great service to our industry.

Dude... you don't post here in like a year & then you come out with a zinger like this! :P

Correction, make that almost 2 years since your last post :)

Brad - awesome stuff! Thanks...

Great info right there Brad!

Hello Brad, thanks for the graphics on this topic.  I'm in the Top 7 for some terms -- and am not certain altogether how I got them there, and further how to be the top 1.  This brings my task list into better focus.  Thanks!

PS - like Jeremy is saying: "welcome back."  Is this long interval related to your post on reducing the number of posts and improving the quality of the posts?  :)

Brad: Thank you this is an excellent information.

Brad,

Awesome Post.  Definitely important information to rank well on Google.

Thanks for sharing,

Matt Naumann

wow, wow, wow!  Great information!  Thank you!

Brad - Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me  :-)

But seriously, thank you for this great informational post. I've said it before, but every time I learn to jump higher, the internet gremlins raise the bar.

I did a search on Google for a blog that I am currently working on and this blog came up. Will come back later to read this. Bookmarked. Have a great weekend. Great post.

Great tips on "secret companies" that control Google Local!   I just added my info to Localeze and InfoUSA.  I also added a Google Profile page!  I'm looking forward to increasing my online search visibility!

Dynamite Info!  Thanks for sharing this!

Hi Brad...Congratulations on your feature post...welcome home. Loads of good juice in this post, really good content and positive suggestions..Thanks

Brad,

Thanks so much for your explanation and help with these areas. Very appreciative.

Brad, I had seen this information before but long ago lost it.  Thanks for posting it.  I do have a follow up question that maybe you would have some insight into.

In the past I was listed in the local search results.  Unfortunately I switched brokers within the past year and my new office is not in my target city anymore.  Talk about dumb luck.  It is on the east side of the street which is Glendale and the west side of the street is Peoria (my target market).

I hadn't thought of this at the time of my switch.

Now I am looking for a fix.

#1 go rent a PO box somewhere with a Peoria address.  I'm reluctant because I am not sure if PO boxes are considered local to the search engines or if the Info USA's of the world will even take a PO box intead of a physical address.

#2 - I really don't want to do this - but use a business address of one of my friends that has a company in Peoria.  Maybe just make up a Suite number and that will probably fly under the radar.

#3 - An even worse option would be to use my home address which is in Peoria.  I'm just not sure I want the general public to know where I live even though everyone will probably just assume it is a business address anyway.

Thanks again for your post, but at the same time it brings up a sore spot over my lost local search result.

Brad, Thank you.  This is very helpful.

Gloria

Nuff said!!

Thanks Brad, I need to get started on this soon

Great info Brad - So much to know about SEO, so little time to implement all of it!

Wow Brad you sound like you really know your stuff. Any comments about how my website can be improved:  www.stonemountaingeorgiahomes.com

THis is exactly what I've been looking for!  There are at least 10 sites that I'd never even heard of.... thank you thank you!

This is great! Simple direct action oriented items that I can wok on!

Thank You!

Great ideas! I am getting local exposure now but will add these site to my work list.

Just signed up to have you guys build my website and blog, really looking forward to working with you.  I've been very impressed with the work you do.  Very excited moving forward!

I have been studying google places/google map for a while now and examining ways to maximize placement on the map.  It is pretty interesting if your an seo nerd like me,. :)

Thanks for the post and the links. I some some work to do.

Brad-excellent stuff, I was trying to figure this out thanks for the post!

Brad, this is great information....I've signed up and am going to pass the same info onto my agents. Thanks for the tips.

havent seen you active for years, are you still in real estate? 

Good info. Some of the links are outdated, but the content is still relevant!