Optimize Your Google Places

 Steps needed to optimize your Google Places listing through several simple techniques that work together to create an overall, competition-crushing strategy. The combination of these techniques is greater as a whole than is the sum of its parts…and while you can surely skip some of the seemingly small techniques that make up part of this strategy, it will subtract from the dominance you gain by employing all of the steps together.

Local Search is the Answer

 As a local business, you have a huge, wide-open opportunity to dominate your local competition by getting a free, prominent listing at the top of Google, using Google’s Places search features.

You have likely noticed recently that when you do a search on Google, often times your search results include a local area map with several local business listings next to it. These listings are easily identified because they contain prominent map markers next to each of those listings. These listings are also easily noticed because Google places them at the very top of the search results.

Local search can best be described as any online search that takes the place of a traditional search involving the local phonebook’s yellow pages. Local search is often categorized as a search being made with the intention on finding something
(business, product, service) in a specific geographic. More specifically, local search can be identified by searching online for a transaction that will occur offline in one’s local area.

Google Places

 Is a revolutionary and totally free service that can literally catapult a small, local business from obscurity to insane profitability almost overnight. By taking advantage of a Google Places listing, you can highlight your business’
products and services and place your information in front of thousands of local customers who are searching for your particular type of business in your particular local area via Google.com.

There are many ways to get your business listed aside from Google maps. The reason why you should get listed in many places as possible is that you achieve more citations. Citations make your business popular. The more citations you have, the more popular your business becomes. SEO calls this link popularity. Google and other search engines take into consideration the number and quality of links you have when it comes to link popularity.

Google Places