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Google Places (Formerly Local Business Center)

In the early 1990s, when I was first online, very few businesses
had a website. Gradually companies started coming online, but
most of them were those that served a national or global market.
While many local directories also came online, it was rare to
see a strictly local company with a website. There were some
exceptions, like those with professional practices such as
dentists, doctors and lawyers. In fact, professional practice
websites were some of my earliest SEO clients, although they
weren’t in my local area. But even in the mid-2000s, the
typical hair salon, plumber or chiropractor were very rare to
find online.

About 10 years ago I remember looking for a chiropractor in my
area online and could only find one with a website, and it
wasn’t even one in my town. Much to my dismay, I ended up using
the old-fashioned telephone book to make sure that I found all
the nearby chiropractors.

Things are different today. While there are still a surprising
number of small local businesses without websites, they are
easily online thanks to Google’s local search results. Did you
know that, according to Google, one in every five searches is
related to location in some way? It’s no wonder that Google has
put a lot of effort into enhancing their local search listings.

This week I learned through Search Engine Land
(http://searchengineland.com/
google-local-business-center-becomes-google-places-40307) that
Google had changed this feature’s name (http://sites.google.com/
a/pressatgoogle.com/googleplaces/press-release) from Google
Local Business Center to the simpler Google Places. In addition,
they’ve added even more cool things you can do with your Google
Page, once you’ve claimed your listing. For instance, if you’re
located in certain cities, you can purchase an enhanced listing,
which they now call “tags,” for $25 per month.

And if you operate a hotel, restaurant or local store, you can
even apply to have Google photographers come and do a free photo
shoot (http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/faq.html)
of the interior of your business!

They’ve also added “QR code,” (http://www.google.com/help/maps/
favoriteplaces/business/barcode.html) which you can have printed
on business cards or anywhere else. The code enables those with
QR readers in their phones or other devices to go directly to
your website.

More useful to the average business owner, however, is the new
ability to post messages to your Place Page. This is great if
you have an event coming up or just any special thing you want
to tell people about. It can be up to 160 characters and it will
show for 30 days unless you delete it sooner. You can post URLs
that will become clickable links, but you can’t use HTML code
(I tried!). For our Place Page, I added the date to our upcoming
SEO Class with a link to the class page. I think it’s a nice
touch.

If you claimed your company’s local listing a long time ago and
haven’t checked it out in a while, you should definitely log on
and revisit your page. And if you’ve never claimed your Place
Page, there’s no better time than the present!

Here’s how to find your Place Page in Google: Head over to
Google Maps and search for your company by name. When you find
it, click the “more info” link. That should take you straight
to your Place Page. If you haven’t claimed your Place Page yet,
click the link that says “Business Owner” and then click the
“Edit my business information” button on the next page. Now
you can fill in all the information on the form.

You might be concerned at this point that someone else could go
in and change your information or edit it incorrectly… but
don’t worry. Once you’ve filled out the form, nothing will go
live until you verify that you are the true owner of the Place
Page. They do this by sending you a postcard via snail mail that
has a verification code on it that you have to go back later to
enter.

Be sure to do a thorough job filling out the description field
for your website. This is where you want to add your main
keyword phrases where they make sense to do so. Don’t try to
add keywords to your company name, however. The spammers and
scammers have already killed that little trick and it will only
get you in trouble with Google rather than helping.

You can and should add the maximum 5 categories to your listing
because what you choose there can help your site show up when
people are searching using similar words. Note that you don’t
have to stick with the categories Google recommends; you can
make up your own. I suggest doing some Google Maps searches
using the types of phrases you’d want to show up for, and seeing
what some of the sites that are currently showing up are doing.

I also highly recommend that you add photos and videos to your
Place Page if you have them. Be sure that one of the pictures is
your company logo! You can take a look at what we’ve done with
our High Rankings Place Page (http://m1e.net/
c?31787615-FC26SnDI.spIY%405246283-.xm9iPwsHrLMQ) if you’d like
some ideas.

One place we’re lacking at our site is reviews. We’ve been
meaning to solicit some from clients, class attendees, forum
users and newsletter subscribers, but haven’t gotten around to
it. Come to think of it, while I have your attention and while
you’re visiting our Place Page anyway, please feel free to
write a review! Under “Photos & Video,” you’ll see a section
for reviews and a link to write one of your own.

Even if your company is national in scope and doesn’t do much
local business, I strongly suggest claiming and enhancing your
Google Place Page. These local listings are showing in more and
varied ways in the Google search results, well beyond just
Google Maps. I expect them to gain even more prominence, given
all the effort Google has been putting into them lately.