Is Your Local Business Ranking Well in Google Places?

Google is the largest of the search engines with around 70% of the searches on the internet being made through Google.

I think that any small business that ignores the Google's search engine is risking its future. Google has a free tool for businesses that are advertising locally and need to reach more people, the tool is Google Places and it is part of Google Maps.

Google Places is seeing rapid growth because advertising locally is great when a small business is offering a service, or a product that the customer wants to see and touch before they make a decision to buy it.

Google Places will probably overtake the standard business directory and become the preferred means of searching for businesses.

To ensure future growth a small business needs to make sure that it is listed in Google Places and ranking well. To be successful the business must be listed at or near the top of the listings because there are many similar business also advertising locally in your area of the country.

Having your page rank higher gets you more business because your page will be noticed before the others. It’s like having a good position on your local high street.

There is a bit of work require to get listed high on Google Places but mostly its about being smart and learning the rules.

The following simple guidelines will help you to get better results from Google Places.

Get yourself a Google account - Sign up and log in, you will see a button “add new listing” the system will guide you through registering your business.

Enter the correct details for your address and contact details. Make sure this is the same as any contact details you have on any of your business directories.

It is important to place your business in the correct categories it is also important to note that Google Places ranks businesses higher depending on their location from the perceived centre of the area where they are registered.

Go through the form and enter as much detail as you can take your time because this is very important to your listing.

When you get to the picture section make sure your best picture is the first on, because this is the picture Google shows everyone who looks at your listing.

Decide how you want to verify your listing phone is the best and a post card can take 2 to 3 weeks.

Once Google has verified your details you will be listed with other companies who are advertising locally through Google Places and you can start benefiting from the local search.