Physicall business in GMaps

[arielbortz]

Hi, how are you?

I'm working with the SEO of a hotel. I completed the Google Places profile, but i'm having a problem: when you go to the map in google maps near the hotel, it shows all the hotels around like in the picture i'm attaching, with little icons like a fork for restaurants, a bed for hotels, a bag for shopping malls.

Do you know what reasons could cause that my hotel isn´t appearing like that, with those icons?

I'll be really grateful if you can help me with this.

Thanks!

Ariel

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Ariel,

Thanks so much for bringing your question here to Q&A!

The icons you are referring to are called 'Place Labels'.

Read these:

http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=174115

http://www.iexposure.com/2011/06/16/how-to-get-a-google-places-label

http://www.iexposure.com/2011/07/26/how-to-get-a-google-places-label-part-2-update

These 3 links should bring you totally up to speed on this subject. Best of luck!

Miriam

[RobertFisher]

Ariel,

Go to Google Map Maker.http://support.google.com/mapmaker

Go through how to use it and it will assist you in editing your location, etc. While I cannot guarantee that making changes in Mapmaker will get you the icons, most do see results from it. Make sure with Categories that if the hotel has a restaurant you put that in as a category, etc. Since it is a hotel, obviously, that should be your primary category.

After you update Google Map Maker, you will usually see that someone has approved the edit or not within a few days. Rarely does it take much longer.

Hope it helps

Edit: Wanted to find the exact verbiage - make sure you do a good job in Places, pictures, etc. and do not do things like fill categories with locations, etc. (hotel houston tx, etc.) From Google Support :

One factor these algorithms consider is the accuracy of the business listing and the richness of the content associated with the listing, so you can improve the chances that your business will receive a place label if you claim it in Google Places.