Claiming the Google map listing for your business is a great way to jump straight to the top of the search engine results page for your location based keywords and is very simple to do. Have you ever noticed that the map listings always appear at the top of the search results? Well every business can claim the map listing associated with their company and optimize it effectively and this is a great way to market your website online.
Map listings will only show for search terms that include a location name and so optimizing your Google map listing is the perfect way to build brand awareness in your local area. Here are some easy to implement tips for optimization.
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Include As Much Info As Possible
Once you’ve claimed your listing there will be many different fields for you to fill in regarding all the information associated with your business. In order to get the best from this process you need to fill out as many of these fields as possible so that your potential customers will have all the information they need. Also it may seem like it would go without saying to include your premises address and not your home address but I have seen this done in the past.
Include Keywords
In the description section of the listing you will have a certain amount of characters to sell your business as best you can. Here you should include information about the products and services that you provide but remember to use the keywords that you want to be found for. For example if you are a confectionary store in Manchester you should be including phrases such as ‘Manchester sweet shop’ and ‘sweets in Manchester’.
Include Special Offers
The idea is to make your map listing as appealing as possible so that when it does appear in the search results people are more likely to click on it. A great way to do this is to regularly update it with any special offers or deals that you might be running that could entice people in. Remember to change this when the offer runs out though.
Include Pictures
Pictures are great to have on your map listing, especially if your business requires your customers to see the products before they buy them. This is particularly important in say the technology where people may not know what they are looking for purely by its name. Pictures will also make your listing stand out in Google’s search results.
Ask You Customers For Reviews
Once your map listing is claimed and up and running you can start to ask your loyal customers to write reviews about you in Google’s review tool. The more reviews you can get, the better your business will obviously look but also, when you reach five or more reviews Google will start to give your map listing a star rating. This will then improve depending on how many positive reviews you get and will look great to potential customers.
If you are struggling to do your own SEO, be it map listings or general website optimization, then there are plenty of UK SEO companies that will be able to offer their services. SEO is a great way to market your business online but can take a fair amount of effort and time and you may want to seek a little advice before you get started.
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on
Thanks Chris for providing great tips to optimize the local business listing for Google places.. In fact Google business listing optimization can provide us lots of location targeted customers.. i have been trying to get my listing appear on Google but still not get success.. i am doing whatever you said above.. Hopefully it will start appearing within few weeks.
on
I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to actually spelling this out. Most of the time comedians such as myself can only put effort in producing material for the stage and have no knowledge about self-promotion. This article helped a lot with that 🙂
on
Really excellent tips about Google Local Places. Thanks for sharing for your own thoughts.
on
Definitely a great internet marketing strategy for any local businesses to boost their positioning in Google.
The review tool is a new one on me, thanks for sharing.
on
I find keywords extremely important. I also think that if the online special offer is good enough, it could help your business with tons of new customers and people spreading the word.
on
Thank you for this information. I have many clients that ask about how to optimize Google Places, and your blog article has provided a concise and easy-to-follow method to optimizing your listing. Google Places is more and more important, especially if you have a local business.
on
Keywords are the way to go, and the trick is to use the maximum number that can describe it the best when thinking about the place. Also don’t forget to put the information that people may look for, like contacts and address.
on
I tend to focus on keywords. Pictures have never really helped us before but maybe that’s just because of our product.
on
Keywords are definitely the main ingredient to thrive in Google listings.
I still have a lot to learn about this matter, but all I know is that it’s all about thinking the right strategy.
Thanks for the information.
on
Google Places is an another source of traffic to you site and this is the first thing we have to do before building citations for our site. This helps to customers to find the business location or service area of business easily. Almost 60% of customer are using Google maps to find the business locations. Also Google providing a plat form to maintain and update places listings. From here we can track all the impressions and clicks which our places listing got in particular time period. And also its tracking which all the keywords lead to our places listing.
on
Google Places seems to take up all the space above the fold for many many niches in my neck of the woods. I wish I knew the secret to how so many one-location businesses are able to get multiple listings in several local cities. I had a hard enough time getting just one listing.
on
I think all the tips above are very helpful but for my opinion the most important is the second one : keywords .I have used this technique with my own blog and it worked.