Get High Rankings for your Local Business with Google Places

It may seem like quite a lot of extra work if you are busy working hard “in your business”, but this an opportunity to work “on your business” that will pay off many times over.

And you do want to be found in Google, right?

Google continue to make changes to their incredible Maps application. Apart from adding realistic trees to street view and a number of other features in Version 6, they have updated the Google Places interface in a way that allows the astute marketer (like you) to really advance their product or service in their local area. I’ve been advising a number of my clients how to get the best out of this change, and have now written it all up once in a single post.

Here’s a short, step-by-step guide.

1. Adding your business to an address in Maps is just the start. Open a new tab next to this one in your browser. Search for and Login to Google Maps, (or just right click on that link and choose open in new tab) sign out from your Google Account at the top right*, type your business type (plumber, accountant, neuroscientist etc) in the Search box and click Go. Google detects where you are searching from and if you zoom in it will show you more and more businesses that have the right keyword(s) for your query, closer and closer to where you are. This is called geo-targeting. Yep – it’s clever, but it’s the reason (or at least one of them) why smartphones are going to be the preferred marketing platform over the next couple of years. It’also why you want to update your details, especially those keywords and get some reviews and photos.
2. Ok, now you are, hopefully, at or near your address. As you zoom in or out, you’ll see the listings change. (If you want, try searching “pizza”, there’s lots of suppliers and it will give a clearer idea of how this works.) You want to be heading those listings on the left-hand side, that’s what your customers will see! If you already have a listing, or are listed on Finda or another Google-supported directory like UBD that uses their client information to feed the Google search machine, you’ll probably already have a “marker” that looks like a red hot-air balloon:
   
3. Mouse over and click the marker (balloon) and see if you get some details. In general, they’ll be just your business name, address and phone number…   look for the more info link (in blue on the top right) and click it.
4. You’re now on the page where you see all the additional details your customers are able to see. It’s from this information that they are going to make up their mind whether to deal with you or not, so read it carefully, putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. It’s here that you can read reviews, but not edit them. These reviews are really a very cheap kind of market research, we all know that most people don’t tell you when they are not happy, they just don’t come back and they tell other people. For this reason Google puts a lot of weight behind the reviews that a Places entry carries. It knows when you do your own, too, by checking your IP address, but you could (presumably!) pretty easily find some happy customers and ask them to click on your entry in Google Maps and give you a rave review – the number of stars helps too. I tested this yesterday and moved a client from #8 to position #2 with one review; it’s the information you provide in this step that largely determines how you place in the rankings for local businesses on the left-hand side of your search query screen in Places.
5. Click on the “Business Owner?” link in blue at the top right. Right, here’s where you can make changes. Google asks you to sign in with your Google Account. (*We signed out earlier so you can see what the competition is really like for the “average” searcher, avoiding Personalised Search). Check the edit my entry radio button, and click “continue”…
6. Check your address details are up-to-date, and you have included any changed or additional phone numbers. Fill out the hours of service, payment types accepted and so on. Under business type, you can, and should, enter more than one category by clicking add another category, the blue link under the entry box. Make sure these are accurate but you cover the range of goods and services you supply.
7. When it comes to the description, you have 200 characters or less, and this is your time for an “elevator pitch” because it’s your chance to compel the reader to make a decision to call. Work hard to get this right, next time someone asks what you do you’ll already have a twenty-second sales pitch ready to go.
8. ADD PICTURES. Up to ten, make sure they are professionally shot if you can, your business will appear more professional, and you will present an aura of trust. And if you have any video loaded on Youtube, add the links to the most compelling of those too.
9. Drag your marker to the right spot. Sometimes the address is very approximate in Street View…
10. Google needs to know it’s really you, so you’ll be asked to verify with a PIN, which they will provide either by an automated return phone call or text to the number in your entry, or by snail mail: a postcard. If you use a postcard, don’t toss it out as junk mail!