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Google Places for Your Business
Google Places is a free service that allows you to create a listing for your business. If everything goes right, once you start using Google Places your information will appear in search results when someone in your area does a search for a keyword relevant to your business. It is advantageous for you to list your business on Google Places for many reasons including the ability to keep hours of operation and other information updated, better rankings for local results, and other opportunities to promote your products and services.
How to get Your Business Listed on Google Places
Signing up for Google Places is a simple and straightforward process. Follow these steps and you will have a listing in no time:
Step 1: Sign-up for Google Places
If you already have an existing Google Account you can use it to sign-up for Google places, if you do not have an account you will need to get one before continuing. Once you have the account you can go to the Google Places site and sign-in.
Step 2: Submit Your Business Listing
Now you need to go through the steps and enter information for your business. Take your time on this section and make sure you provide as much accurate information as possible. There is quite a bit of optional information which you will want fill out, even though it is not required. The more information you provide the more helpful your listing will be.
Step 3: Validate Your Google Places Listing
There are two ways to validate your listing, either by postcard through the mail or phone. Regardless of the method you choose you will be required to enter a unique code that validates the information you have entered is yours. For obvious reasons phone verification is much faster than doing it by postcard. You want to complete the validation as quickly as possible because your Google Places listing will not be active until you do so.
Step 4: Maintaining and Updating Your Listing
After setting up Google Places for your business you want to make sure you regularly maintain the listing. It is a good idea to keep hours of operation and contact information up to date. You will also be able to add things you skipped over during the initial sign-up phase.
How Google Places can Help Your Business
Google Places offers many features to help promote your business. One of the best is the option to view your listing's statistics. This will give you a good idea of what kind of activity you are getting on your page. Some of the analytics available to you are number of visitors, where requests for directions to your business are coming from, and what your potential customers are searching for. Some other features include QR codes for mobile devices, opportunity to respond to reviews, and ability to offer coupons to your customers.
It is apparent that Google Places offers many benefits for your business. If you have not signed up yet it is in your best interest to do so. The longer you wait the more customers you may lose as a result of them not being able to find you in Google.