Will a Google Places Listing Mess Up National SEO?

[Pangaea]

No.

Insurance example?

StateFarm.com

subdirectories = Agent listings - places

root = shorttail "car insurance quotes"

 

[Justin Bilyj]

I think the reason why Google Places is going against the National SEO flow is because 80% of all google searches is for something local, it would make sense as a search engine to optimize locally.
You still can make the first page, just gotta
increase the page links with do-follow high pr few outbound going link sites.
optimize content for keywords
have a low bounce rate
and make sure your incoming links has anchor keyword text.

But I think these days local is the place to go for businesses...

 

[tlmarketing]

The answer you seek can be found here....the document was too large to upload, but look halfway down page for Dr. Matthew Peters report and take a look....I think Page 4 has some interesting information

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-places-seo-lessons-learned-from-rank-correlation-data

In the interim....i will be buying some new domain names today!!

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Great read!

I think it's a very tough to almost impossible balancing act for Google, especially with Places listings.

If I own a local ice cream shop in Odenton (my town) then that's extremely relevant to a search for "ice cream shops" made by Odenton residents.

Google can't require that people getting these local listings have advanced degrees in SEO or the entire theory of matching users with relevant local businesses blows up.

Can they not list "Odenton Towing" if an Odenton resident searches for "towing services" because they don't have enough backlinks, "likes" or other bullshit? No.

 

[moneymatterz]

I don't think a Google Places listing can hurt your ranking nationally. That would be a major blow to Google's algorithm. As long as you do local SEO ethically, you're good.