Setting Up Your Google Places Listing

Lesson #2: Setting Up Your Google Places Listing

Setting up your Google Places page is not hard. However, you should know what you’re doing in order to reap the benefits of reaching the top of the listings. Just being listed is a good thing, but there are certain things that you must do to set your listing up for top search engine rankings.

NOTE: It is highly recommended that you have local search citations from other local search engine directories BEFORE setting this up. That way, Google finds those and they can affect your ranking.

If you need help, check out my Local Search Optimization and Submission package.

To setup your Google Places page:

1. Go to: http://www.google.com/local/add/
2. If you already have an account setup with Google, sign in to you account. If not, create a new account.
3. Click on “Add a New Business” and enter your company information.
a. Use your primary business address and your main local business phone number.
b. Use your actual business name and physical address.
c. Enter your hours of operation.
d. Provide a keyword rich description of your business.
e. Choose as many categories as there are that relate to your business.
f. Add up to 10 photos and up to 5 videos.
g. Add coupons.

Fill out as many of the fields as you can in regards to your business. The more information the better and you can always edit this information whenever you want.

Be sure to add photos and videos relating to your business because this gives more strength to your listing. Coupons are also very good to use because in addition to making your listing stronger, coupons are very good for converting visitors into customers.

If  you already have a listing, you can claim it when you are prompted.

Once you are finished, you will have to validate it using a PIN that will be provided by Google. You can validate by phone or by mail. (Due to testing, you may or may not be given both options.)

If you want to validate by phone, they will call immediately after you complete your listing. Before you add your listing, plan ahead to make sure you will be able to take their phone call.

Otherwise, you can choose to verify via mail. Google will mail a postcard to you with your PIN on it within 2-3 weeks.

Once you receive your PIN, log back into your account and click on the section that says “Enter your PIN” and click “Go.”

That’s it… your listing is now completed! Just so you know, it may take a day or so before your listing is live.

Again, if you need help, be sure to check out my Local Search Optimization and Submission package.

Glennette  Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting

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