If you’re a business owner who’s looking for ways to attract more web prospects to your small business website, then Google Places is a MUST. Local Search is really beginning to build momentum. Next time you use Google Search, add a location to your search term, such as “Social Media Marketing Doylestown” and notice the listings that come up next to the Google Map. This post will help you list a business on Google.

Why is this important? It’s important because as a small business, you can start outranking large organizations on Google. If you notice, the local listings appear at the top of your search page. This means that those businesses who used to rank 1st on Google, are now ranking 4th or lower.

Having a Google Places Listing for your small business can greatly increase the traffic to your website. Setting up a listing is actually pretty easy. The only pre-requisite is that you have a Google account. If you don’t already have one, simply create one and then get started on your Google Places Listing – it’s FREE. Here are a few steps to help you out:

1. Navigate to the Google Places Business Center and click “Add New Business”
2. Fill out your profile as completely as possible, the more details, the better
3. Add your business listing
4. Add your business information – TIP: Add a few custom fields and insert relevant search terms for your small business. This will help you rank for those search terms
5. Last, but not least, claim your new Google Places Business Listing – You can claim your listing by phone, text message, or postcard

Not only will having a Google Places Business Listing help increase traffic to your small business website, but there are also a number of other benefits. Here are just a few:

• You can add coupons for your small business to your Google Places Listing
• The Google Places Business Center allows you to track stats for your Places Listing
• You can provide your business contact information on your listing
• Customer Reviews can be added to your listing to help build credibility for your small business

If you don’t already have a Google Places Business Listing for your small business, definitely take some time and add one today. You’ll be happy you did.

Tags: google local, Google Places, google tools, local marketing, local search

Check out some Related Posts

• March 16, 2010 -- Promote Your Small Business Blog through Google Places (5)
• September 23, 2010 -- Add a Coupon to Your Google Places Page (2)
• July 1, 2011 -- Generating Local Search Traffic for Your Small Business (0)
• June 22, 2011 -- Add Local Twitter Hashtags to Your Tweets (0)
• March 7, 2010 -- What Are Your Top Ten Traffic Sources on Google Analytics? (11)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 9:19 am and is filed under location marketing, Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.