Unfortunately however, these listings are really only relevant for literal places in which you only conduct business. If you office out of your home, or primarily use a PO Box as your business address, you won't want to pursue this option. PO Box addresses are actually deleted from a Google Places listing, so only put your home address (if you run your business from home) if you actually meet with clients there and are willing to have people show up unannounced at your house.
For all you retail, restaurant and businesses with an office location however, this is a great way to go! A Google search likes to display a variety of results - normal search, images, video (thus the importance of a YouTube video if you can create one appropriate for your business), and maps! So having your business listed in Google My Business will help you appear near the top.
Test this for yourself and open a new tab, enter in "dog groomer" and see the top few results. Most likely the few near the top are Google Places listings. Sometimes these results are pulled from other listings, but listing with Google Places is free and will assist you in achieving the same result.
So, get yourself on Google Maps! Click here to start.
Then, click on "list your business" and enter your business phone number. If Google has any information on your business, it will populate some fields for you. Otherwise, just enter the appropriate fields on the next page.
Keep your description short and to the point. Don't get long-winded or push the envelope with keywords here. Abuse of that field will likely get your post deleted by Google also.
You can also add up to five categories for your business and upload a photo. Even uploading your logo works well here. Don't have a logo or photo? Proceed anyway, you can add this later.
When adding categories, remember to be a bit conservative. Google has a lot of quality guidelines for adding a places listing. They are all worth review, but I'll note the one's pertaining to categories below:
Provide at least one category from the suggestions provided in the form as you type. Aim for categories that are specific, but brief.
- Categories should say what your business is (e.g. Hospital), not on what it does (e.g. Vaccinations) or things it sells (e.g. Sony products or printer paper). This information can be added in your description or as custom attributes.
- Categories should not contain location-based information (for example, Dog Walker Los Angeles is not permitted).
- Only one category is permitted per entry field. Do not “stuff” entry fields with multiple categories.
You can also add payment methods, hours of operation and service areas that your business focuses on. When entering your service areas, try the "Distance from one location" method instead of adding all zip codes or cities individually. It will be less work for you, and you'll have a map with a red circle around surrounding cities and suburbs, so you can decide how far-reaching you want your service area to be.
Finally, add any additional details about your business using custom attributes. Read about how to use custom attributes here. Too involved? Just skip this part for now, and put it on your to-do list in a week or so, it will help your listing show up in specific search results, but don't let this piece overwhelm you to inaction. Just getting your business listed with Google Maps is a great start.
End by clicking submit and you'll then have to verify your listing. The nice thing about entering in your information is that you can see how your listing will appear in the preview pane on the right side of the screen. So you have a live view of what you may need to think about improving.
Again, just get this going, and mark a follow up time on your calendar to upload a photo (if you haven't already), and get custom attributes added to the additional details section.
Also, you may have noticed a message on the top of one of your sign-in screens about Google Tags and Google Boost.
Definitely check into signing up for both of these programs. Google Tags has a 30 day free trial and after that is a flat $25/month fee. Google Boost is another way to increase your rankings in a search result, managed through your Google Places listing and is a bit easier than setting up an entire pay-per-click ad campaign in Google Adwords. So, mark a day for Tags and a day for Boost as further to-do for your ongoing SEO efforts.
