How to have your Business be Found

Recently Google relaunched its business-listing feature related to Google Maps and renamed it Google Places (formerly called Google Local).

It's advantageous to list your business with Google so it can be found more easily in Google searches as well as in Google Maps.

• First sign into your Google account (if you already have Gmail or Google Docs, etc. then you should already have an account).

• Then go to Google Places and "claim" your business listing by adding your business location and information.
  

• After this Google will verify your business listing by mail or phone.

By the way, don't worry if you have a home business or an address you don't want specifically located on Google Maps. Once you've set-up your listing, you can hide the actual street address.

Google only allows one business per address, but you can list multiple locations for your business.

Very important: See the Google Places Quality guidelines to assure that your business listing is verified easily. For instance, don't use a URL or phone number in your business name. Also be sure to check back at Google Places in a few days to see if your account has been verified. If not, you may need to fix your listing and re-submit it for verification.

How to take your Business Mobile

Once your business is listed in Google Places you can create free Coupons which your customers can print-out and bring to your store, or can be viewed on their mobile phones and shown to people at your store for discounts, etc.  Of course people will also be able to search for and find your business from their mobile devices or from home.

Not only this, but you can even see what people are searching on to find your business, so you can make strategic business decisions based on what you find out in your Google Places Dashboard.

For more information see the short Google Places video.

There's also a new paid feature called Google Tags so you can promote your business listing in Google Places/Maps by highlighting it with a yellow marker. Tags currently cost $25/month. Note: These tags do not affect your search engine ranking in Google's search engine results.

So what are you waiting for? - Go list your business right now (it's free)!

And for more information on local business listings for Yahoo and Bing see our prior Tip of the Week on: Increasing Your Online Visibility- Facebook Vanity URLs & Bing, Google, and Yahoo Local Business Listings.
 

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