In 2009, Google launched Places, an offering designed to take the place of its Local Business Center. Though it delivered dramatic improvements from day one, it focused on the same general goal of helping local companies increase their visibility. Today, the service is still going strong and arguably better than ever, yet few local marketers are using it to its full potential.
Fortunately, we have compiled a few tips on how to use Google Places to spread the word about your business.
SEO your page
At the same time, you need to be cautious of overdoing it and committing the dreaded act of keyword stuffing. Basically, you want to treat your Google Places page the same way you would a page on your website.
Interact with your local audience
So for example, if customers are raving about the great experience they have when visiting your location, encourage them to pass that praise along through a review. Google Places makes this incredibly convenient with tools that allow you to reach out, while enabling them to easily respond and take action.
You may also want to give consideration to getting them to be advocates for your business on similar sites like Yelp and CitySearch as some SEO experts believe that it can help with rankings on Google Places.
Measure your efforts
On the bright side, you can review reports that show you how many clicks you’re generating as well as what queries are driving impressions for your listing. So even though this is just basic information, it can be useful.
