Get Found in Google Places by Will Hanke

Would you believe me if I told you there was a way to get ahead of 88% of your competitors online in just an hour?  What if I told you that there was a way – with a little focus – that you could be ranking on page one for some of the searches your customers perform every day?  You’d probably think I’m crazy.  But I’m not (yet).  There is a way.

At the end of 2010, Google ramped up their focus on local search results.  They added a map to all searches they thought had ‘local intent’, and soon after that they added local business results right in with the organic results.  That means that if your business is listed in the Google Places system, you may show up three times on one page – in the map, in the map listings, and in the organic results.

But a staggering eighty eight percent of all businesses in Google Places are unclaimed.  These unclaimed businesses are still being shown in the results, but only after those which have been, as Google calls it, ‘owner verified’.  And verifying your listing is a great start, but in order to get the most out of your listing, follow these steps.

Find and Claim Your Listing

The first step to getting ahead of your competition is to claim your business.  Visit http://www.google.com/lbc and search for your business.  Once you find it, push the Edit button to get started.

Fill Out the Basics

This is a no-brainer.  Fill out all the info you can about your business.  Put a keyword rich (but not spammy) description of what services you offer.  Fill out your hours, what payment methods you take and your business address, phone number and website.

Add Categories

This is where some optimization tricks can come into play.  You’ll need your keyword research list out and ready.

The rule for Google Places is that you have to enter one category from the list that Google supplies.  So pick out which one seems best suited to your business.  You can type in a keyword and a list of potential categories will appear.  Next, hit the ‘Add Another Category’ button.  If another Google category makes sense, put it there.  If not, make up your own category that’s keyword specific.

For instance, if you’re a concrete business, you may want to add ‘concrete contractor’.  If you’re a wedding planner, there’s a category for ‘wedding planner’, but there’s not one for ‘wedding coordinator’, a term that will bring you traffic.  Then hit the ‘Add Another Category; button and fill out all five category boxes, each with a unique and descriptive category/keyword.

I should also mention here that you should not add geo-specific words to your category.  ‘wedding coordinator st Louis’ is not acceptable.  They’ve already got your address and know where to place your listings from that.

Service Areas

Do customers come to you or do you go to them?  If you go to them, you can create a custom service area that covers a certain radius, certain zip codes or even a custom area.  Fill this out completely, but don’t think that adding areas you don’t service will help – it won’t.

Photos & Videos

It’s always a great idea to upload photos of your products, your storefront, and your staff.  This is your chance to ‘sell’ to visitors of your Places page before they decide to contact you.  Put up good quality photos that show your best products or completed jobs.

If you have videos of your products in action, there’s a place to promote them as well. You’ll need to upload them to YouTube first and then point to that URL.  Videos are hugely underutilized and are a great way to gain an edge over your competitors.

Additional Details

If you’ve got any other ‘bragging rights’, this is the place to put them.  Did you win an industry award or do you support your local high school? Put it here.
It’s also a good place to put practical things such as ‘Parking available in back’ and ‘In business since 1952’.

Confirm Your Listing

Once you are happy with your listing, push the submit button.  In most cases, you will then be offered the opportunity to verify your listing immediately by phone.  Sometimes, though, you’ll have to select the postcard option.  If that’s the case, you’ll get a postcard in the mail a few weeks later with a pin number that you can use to verify your listing.  But if you get the phone option, definitely use it.

Being a ‘Twelve Percenter’

Following these easy steps will get your business ahead of a lot of your competitors.  With the ever increasing world of mobile search, you’ll not only get into the ‘normal’ search listings, but your Place page will also show up on smart phones.  Get ready for more calls, website traffic and in-store visits!

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