My experience with Google places...

[kopykat]

So I wanted to get my business listing on google places, seems like an easy task, well it isn't.
I have a mobile locksmith business in Philadelphia, and apparently Google is not very fond of locksmiths these days. There is just a great deal of spam in places that Google is making it very difficult if not impossible to get your listing started.
Before I created my places page I first did some homework. I learned that citations are extremely important; so I gave myself some time to submit my business information in pretty much anywhere that could count as another citation, keeping it consistent with the same exact business name, address, phone number, etc.
After that, I waited, letting all these citations a chance to get crawled by google's spider, hoping that maybe, just maybe, google will create a listing on its own and all I'll have to do is claim it. I waited for about a month and a half, more than enough time for everything to get indexed. I even asked all my customers to help me out and write me reviews meanwhile.
So I created my page, knowing that google and the term "locksmith" dont get along, I decided not to choose locksmith as a category, instead I chose handyman and security system supplier. I did however name the business Total Security Locksmith.
The immediate status was "action needed"; the term "locksmith" is not allowed. I had to remove the word locksmith from the business name.
At this point the listing was pending for a short while, and then was active along with a "verified by owner" mark. Well great, but I do need to get myself listed as a locksmith afterall.
I add the category locksmith, at first not only did the listing remain active, I could actually see my listing appear in the serps right away.
Two days later, Pending, "under review please allow several weeks"
Meanwhile I added some pics of my work van, and made sure my profile was complete.
You can still see my listing, but only if you search for the business name. It is no longer verified by owner. And I still appear as though my category is handyman.
What can we learn from this experience?
I know I didn't understand anything!

[DarrenHaye]

I remember reading a post that was almost exactly the same as this.

Are you trying to provide useful information? or are you trying to use seochat to build links to your site..

[Nyagoslav]

kopykat, yes, Google has severe difficulties with managing the locksmith spam. Exactly because of Google's inability to deal with it this situation occurs. Usually it takes time until a locksmith listing is being manually verified by a Google Moderator.

When you try to create a new listing with the word "locksmith", "lock", "key", "keys" in the name, Google disallows you. Furthermore, when you add the category "locksmith" to the listing, it immediately goes to pending status.

I would suggest you to stress more on your website SEO than the Google Places page as there is little you can do to enhance the process. If you've listed your business on all the respectable and trustworthy websites, your business should be approved in 4-10 weeks.

If you have any special needs regarding any problems with your local search ranking, feel free to contact me.

[mike_12]

sometimes google places possess location problem

[Nyagoslav]

sometimes google places possess location problem

As I mentioned in my comment, I believe this particular case has nothing to do with "location". The problem is that kopykat is a locksmith and Google has some serious problems with this industry's representatives.

[bkseo]

citations seem to play abig role in google places so target all the local direcotires ...as for the keyterm lockmith I have no idea