The Importance Of Google Places Optimisation

If you are the owner of a business with a physical location or one that specialises in a local service you already know the importance of your website. Well the way Google places listings are displayed now mean Google now has another way of showing your business to people making a search with a local theme. While it is true that having a solid website can help your Google places listing and that some of your SEO work will carry over and boost your listing you really need to do some specific actions to ensure that your maps listing now shows up in searches. Google now displays these listings a lot more in searches and sometimes even higher than the main search results. These can show the details and contact details of your business meaning they might not even make it to your website before they pick up the phone and call you or your competition.

The most important thing to do whether you plan on doing any optimisation on the listing itself is to find or add your business. Search for your business name and or address and if it is already listed you need to claim it. Add it to your account and verify you own it and fill in the profile you would be surprised how many businesses are listed with wrong details and not even claimed by the owners. Take hold of it add your logo and check your contact numbers and address are correct.

On mobile phone searches and computers where Google can read the location you are going to get results tailored to your location and searches. More and more often this means that you will see local listing results when you search for a product or service. This is a great time to get in on the action if you are not already. The age of your listing is a great factor in where it ranks so claim it and let it start accumulating before your competition does. Mobile search engine optimisation and marketing is actually one of the fastest growing areas of search and marketing so you need to ensure your business covers all possible angles and areas where your business might show up in a search. As we said before this system now means people do not even need to go to your website or click through to call you or find you. On most phones you can also click the number and have it start calling you directly.

If you have worked on search before for your website and haven not had this aspect worked on. Luckily for you there are companies that deal specifically in Google places optimisation for your business. Even if you are carrying out optimisation on your main site make sure you get your local listings and google places listing covered too or you could be missing on on business and not even know it.

Another easy thing you can do when you claim your listing is to make sure it is listed in the correct categories. You can add up to 5 but you can put a few things in the boxes if you need to as long as you do not stuff it with keywords. Have a think and make sure you pick the best possible categories. If you have an SEO campaign running try and fit in the keywords you are working on.