Question : Google maps listing optimisation

Hi yea,
When I do a search on in this case "upholstery london" I find googles
results all is fine, I also see a google map showing a few links to one side
of it,

like this

Local business results for upholstery near London

it gives a list of links from "a" to "j",  under that it mentions ..
More results near London »

My question is how would I optimise this so my site would be first listed on
these map listing and not on the " More results near London »" link,  I do
come up first in the listings of the search but not on the map listing.

grateful for any input

k

Answer : Google maps listing optimisation

We've done local optimization for a number of vacation rental (holiday rentals for you folks in Europe) where Google's listings with the map usually show up first

Here is what we've found to help in getting into the top 10 of those results

1) Make sure you are submitting a correctly formatted feed to Google Local - http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?gl=us&hl=en-US

2) Make sure the address field is formatted cleanly - type it into Google maps first to make sure it is instantly recognized... you want the format of the address that is recognized as default by Google maps.. Mount Hood vs. Mt. Hood etc. (just one simple example, but you get the idea)

3) MOST IMPORTANT - Get a number of reviews for your listing ! This is the #1 way to get into the top 10 results (vs. just showing up anywhere else)... It is important not only to have ratings posted within Google local, but also on popular rating sites that are crawled by Google... You can find which sites are crawled by Google by clicking on the reviews link for any other listing that shows up iin those Google local results

4) Make sure your address and name of business on the other rating sites matches exactly what you've submitted on Google so Google is able to match them up accurately

Hopefully this helps

MGandhi