Get Your Free Google Listing with Google Places

get-your-free-google-places-listing

Most people don’t even know that Google Places even exists. So today I am going to introduce to you one of the best things you can do for your business, especially if you don’t have a website!

Google Places is a local directory on Google’s Search Engine, when you are searching for a product or service online for example “Pest Control” depending on where you are Google will show you the most relevant results in your local area. Here is an example of a search I just did at home.

Now if I did a more specific search like “Pest Control Maple Ridge” you will see a completely different result, because we include the words “Maple Ridge” in this search. In this case we see our friends at Aggressive Pest Control as the third Google Places Result.

Why are they there? There are many reasons why Google produces the results they do, but one of the main ones is that the Owner of Aggressive Pest has claimed is Google Places Page and has optimized it’s listing by adding pictures and completing the listing.

Here is a story from a personal experience, last year around this time I was sent to Calgary to help out with sales. The second person I went to see was the owner of a Car Alarm and Car Stereo installation company. Before the call I did my research and found that there was an opportunity to get better placement since only 2 of his competitors had claimed their Google Places listing.

During the call I mentioned this to him and we claimed the listing then spent time optimizing it, when I got back to the hotel 20 minutes later I received an alert on my phone that his listing was approved and posted. Since I was in the hotel lobby I used the computer to do a search for “Car Alarms Calgary”. His listing was 3rd!

Are there opportunities like this in your Industry? It would be a good idea to do some of this research and find out yourself. Whether there is my suggestion to you is to go claim that listing of yours, why wouldn’t you it’s FREE!?!? You would be doing your business and yourself an injustice by not having a listing on the #1 search engine in the world.

Although this story does not guarantee those results for every business it will increase the visibility in the searches if you claim your listing, or if you don’t have one create one. Over the next couple of days we will show you how to claim your listing, create a listing if you don’t have one and how to optimize your Google Listing to be found!

Do you have any success stories about Google Places? Feel free to comment below, on Facebook or Twitter.