Getting Ranked via Google Local …With No Content At All
Posted by Melanie Phung on Monday, March 3, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I did a search on [Washington DC SEO] in Google and found a local listing in the #1 spot. Not surprising with Universal Search and the inclusion of a city name clearly indicating that there’s a geographical component to the query.
(Actually, I used to have a first page ranking in Google for Washington DC SEO and a #1 spot for the same phrase in Yahoo and MSN.)
So if you’re a small business looking for SEO services, you might think, “wow, this guy must be good; he’s #1 in Google after all!”
Here’s the funny thing: There’s no there there. The site has no content on it. This is what you get when you click on the link:
Luckily for him, the OneBox listing includes a phone number, so the guy might still be getting clients (yeah, right!)
Is that all it took to be #1 for “Washington DC SEO” – registering an address with Google Local Search? I’d be all over that, but I don’t think I want to make it that easy for any old stalker to know my address. What a shame.
p.s. I’d upload a screen shot, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to do screen grabs on my new Mac. 
Comments (3)
Category: Google
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Meneame -
- Digg
So true! Google local is still far away from where it should be. You can actually do a Google maps search for lets say “Fairfax, VA” find the center and get a P.O. box as close as you can to that location for a top ranking in that locality 
Neat blog.
Is this a common practice?
Is it a common practice not to have a website? LOL.
Or do you mean is it a common “occurrence” that a file directory gets ranked? In the latter, it’s an issue with Google Local listings. No idea how often it happens. I’m guessing not very often as it would require a business deleting their index file or something similar.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
