Setting up your business as a Google Place is a great way to get your location "on the map." When people search Google for local businesses, your "place" will be one of the dots on the Google map. However, only the top local results for your business category will be highlighted by Google, listing their name, their contact information and a description of what they offer.
Optimizing your Google Places listing is one of the most important steps you can take in local SEO. Besides the initial step of setting up or claiming your listing, there are several basic things you can do to improve your Google Places listing.
Fill Out All of the Information
Customers need to know who you are, what you do and where you are located. But they will also likely want to know your operating hours for each day; your phone number and email address; and the services, brands or product categories you offer. There is a lot of potentially helpful information you can add to your Google Places listing; Google will tell you when your listing is 100 percent complete.
Have Consistancy
Make sure your information is consistent with what you have listed on your website and on the various other citations of your business that occur around the web. It is best for your business name and contact information to be a letter-perfect match with what is listed on Google Places to make it easier for Google to make those connections and gather more information for your Place page.
Encourage Customers to Post Reviews
Of course, you preferably want good reviews. However, even negative reviews can provide some (limited) benefit, for a few reasons:
- Google does not display a star rating for your business until it has at least five reviews stockpiled. Having no star rating displayed can be interpreted by searchers, either consciously or subconsciously, as indicating that you actually have a rating of zero stars--even if the three or four reviews that you do have rate you highly.
- Having more reviews indicates that you are at least popular and relevant in the area. Being popular and relevant is much more important than being good when it comes to securing the top spot in Google's local search rankings.
- The way that you respond to negative reviews can impress searchers, proving that you care about your customers and are committed to making things right.
Use Keywords Wisely
You can include SEO keywords in the information you post to Google Places improving your search ranking while clarifying which searches Google should associate you with. Just make sure you do not "stuff" keywords in awkwardly or where they do not belong (such as in the business name or category fields).
Upload Content
You can (and should) add photos to your Google Places listing and you can also post comments or videos.
