Google Places

I am agree with Kip FX Design.He is exactly explained.

Most frustrating, as clients are up-in-arms about it. I foresee more upheaval before the algorithm and rankings stabilise.

There's been a few changes to google places over the last few months which may explain why peoples accounts have moved around a bit.

As people may have noticed the map has now moved to the right hand side, and there is a lot more emphasis on ranking the places and website in the same place.
For some this is beneficial and for some it isn't

As kip fx quite rightly said, they are going to be ranked on relevance so the better filled in it can be, the higher it will rank.

Use google to help you! They will show a percentage of how well filled in your place page is, if its not 100% then add more info, simple really.

There are also off page SEO techniques you can use to better the rankings on google places, which arent always neccesary, dependant on how competitive the area/keywords are

Also, a general rule of thumb, keep to around 5 key phrases to start off with

Regarding having two place pages for one website, thats fine as long as you actually have a physical location for the second office/shop (otherwise people would just spam it with a shed load of imaginary offices/shops)

hope that helps

we have just re appeared on the maps again after 2 months of floating around in cyber space somewhere

Thats excellent news, unfortunately in some geographical areas, google places is still in beta testing, which is why some searches dissapear then re-appear or look different from others and such like.

There is a particular problem that I am aware of at the moment regarding locksmith businesses on google places, many legitimate businesses including some customers of mine have had accounts under review due to some teething problems and fraudulent places accounts set up by scammers claiming to be locksmiths!
So as a temporary measure Google have disallowed the word locksmith in places accounts.

Very interesting as I have a client locksmith in exactly that position at the moment.
Fraudulent businesses claiming everyone else's Places listing! You actually KNOW that that category of business has been 'under review' or are you just speculating?

Well as far as I am aware it is the majority of people in the locksmith industry, many have been under review for quite a while unfortunately. I'm sure google will be working behind the scenes to rectify the problem eventually, but as far as i'm aware it's not just in the UK that this problem has occured. I cant comment on when or where the fraudulent accounts were happening but thats what i have read from reliable sources. If you nip onto google and search 'google places banning locksmiths' you should see the scale of the situation.

That's great news. May your enquiries start pouring in.

I can't see my advert for a long time...Maybe because I leave in London...

it can be difficult to get on to the front page for 'london' but then people are more likely to be searching for the area of london
e.g.

'plumbers in camden'
rather than
'plumbers in london'