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How to Advertise on Google Places / Google Local - for Free! - Special Google Tags for Free Promotion Announced

Google Places is arguably the most important but most poorly promoted venue on Google for small businesses and marketers. Local searches - like 'pizza' or 'hypnotherapist' - can be hugely valuable for any business that depends on people in the local community, and who use Google to start their business search. Google just renamed Google Local, Google Places, and started a new advertising option for just $25 a month - called Google tags. The Googler who gives these products their incredibly confusing names should be shot - but beyond that, this is a tremendous free opportunity to gain exposure for your business. Let's investigate!

By Jason McDonald Senior SEO Instructor - JM Internet Group. Posted: July 26, 2010

Contents:

Google Places - Claim Your Free Listing
Google Tags - How They Work
Advertise for Free for Thirty Days

Google Places - Claim Your Free Listing

In case you've missed it, Google has steadily promoted their 'Local' search, once logically called 'Google Local,' and now renamed by the marketing department at Google, 'Google Places.' I personally hate the new name, as it just doesn't flow off the tongue and makes little sense. What's even worse, it is very confusing for customers to figure out how to write listings for businesses compared with competitor Yelp. But 'Google Places' it is, and it is Google.

Google Places works based on searches that are logically local in nature. Try these for example -

• Pizza (Google Search)
• Dry Cleaner (Google Search).

In most instances, these sorts of searches will cause a big box of local business results to appear beneath the search query.

Obviously for anyone whose business is local getting to the top of Google's free Google Places listings is very important. If you aren't listed, simply go here and follow the instructions.

Google Tags - How They Work

Google Tags are another poorly named but important feature of Google Places. It's a poor choice of name because what it really is is advertising on Google Places, even though the word tag has come to mean to tag items in a blog, or on a social bookmarking site. But these are Googlers, after all, and I guess they just are not that hip to the whole Internet thing yet. God bless them.

At any rate, Google Tags are simply paid advertising on Google Places. You pay $25.00 per month (flat fee), and your listing on Google Places enjoys a little Yellow 'Tag' that makes it stand out. Again, this is flat fee advertising, not pay-per-click, as on Google AdWords.

We have had a few clients use these when it was experimental in San Jose, and they got very good results - much better results dollar for dollar than on their Google AdWords. So I always recommend that anyone use Google Tags where available. It is now being rolled out nationwide, and has a free one month promo. Below is a screen shot of it at work (the yellow tag):

To use Google Tags, simply log into your Google Account and sign up. You can find out all the gory details, here.

Advertise for Free for Thirty Days

On June 21st, Google announced that companies could advertise, for free, on Google Places for thirty days. According to the blog post-

Some folks are offering coupons to incentivize sales and provide better value, while others are using videos to engage with audiences and give their business listing more personality. The positive feedback has led to overwhelming excitement about helping even more business owners connect with local customers. So to spread the word about Google Tags, we’re offering every business across the country the chance to try Google Tags free for 30 days!

Again, to take advantage of this offer and to try out Google Places / Google Tag advertising, just log in to your Google Places accounts and follow the instructions there. For any company that depends on local search, this is a great, free, opportunity to try it out! Let us know if you like it.