If you Google your trade or profession plus the area you work in – e.g ‘painter and decorator Thanet’ – you’ll notice that on the results page there is a set of local business results next to a map and above the main search listings.
These are results from Google Places (which used to be called the Local Business Center). These results provide links to local businesses and work in a slightly different way from the standard search results that appear below them. Whereas the standard results will display any websites that Google has found that it thinks match the search terms, the Google Places results will only display results for those businesses that have added themselves to the Google directory.
The advantage of this is obvious: if you appear on the local business results, you will appear higher on the page than the standard results and therefore generate more traffic to your site. So by adding your business to Google Places, you are gaining an advantage over your competitors.
Adding yourself to Google Places is easy. Go to http://www.google.co.uk/local/add/ and log in with your Google account (or sign up for a Google account if you haven’t already got one). Once you’ve signed in, click on the ‘Add new business’ button then follow the steps to add as much information as possible about your business. Once you’ve submitted your details, you verify them via a text message that Google will send you and you’re done.
Improving your local business search ranking
So far, so good. But the trick with these listings, as with all search listings, is to get yourself on the front page. To do this, you need to ensure that the information you provide is as comprehensive, accurate and relevant as possible. Make sure you follow these five steps:
- Ask existing clients to add a review to your listing and ensure they rate your business with as many stars as possible
- Use keywords in your description and company name – for instance, if your company name is John Smith Limited and you are a plumber, enter your company name as ‘John Smith Limited plumber’. Ensure you include likely search terms in the description as well, maybe ‘plumber’, ‘leaky taps’, ‘boilers’, etc.
- Include as many photos as you can of your business – things like logos, where you work, photos of work you’ve carried out if relevant
- Add videos – if you have relevant YouTube videos you can link to them from your listing
- Offer coupons – you can provide coupons to people who have found you on Google Places
Additionally, you should provide links to your listing from your website. Here’s ours: Web Design Thanet. If you’ve found this article useful, please click on it and leave a review. We’ve even included a money-off coupon.
[...] online directories are one of the key factors that Google uses to determine your position in its local listings. By doing some research on local listings for Thanet and Kent, we can identify the business [...]