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Google Places Tutorial - How to Claim a Google Places (Google Local) Listing
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Estimates from Google are that 20% of search is local. If you are a local business, say a plumber in Dallas, a hypnotherapist in Los Angeles, or a personal injury attorney in Milwaukee - you need to know how to claim your free Google Places listing. Once claimed, you then need to beef up your listing and optimize your Google Places (Google Local) listing for best SEO results. Here's how to claim a listing.
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By Jason McDonald
Senior SEO Instructor - JM Internet Group.
Posted: September 17, 2011
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Contents:
Google Places: Basics
Local search is huge on the Internet! Upwards of 20% of all searches are allegedly local in character - searches for Pizza, Roofing Company, Personal Injury Attorney, Bail Bond... - the list goes on and on. For many local businesses, Google Places (formerly known as Google Local) is a new advertising and promotion opportunity. Best of all, Google Places is FREE! If you haven't already, you want to find your listing and claim it. Claiming your business on Google Places lets you manage your categories, your company description, and respond to reviews (good or bad).
Before we learn how to claim our listing, let's understand the basics of how Google Places works. There are two possibilities -
- A search such as 'Pizza' or 'Personal Injury Attorney' - Google 'understands' your location, and provides local Pizza Restaurants or Personal Injury Attorneys EVEN IF you do NOT enter a city name. Google looks at your IP address and guesses your location.
- A search such as 'Pizza New York City' or 'Personal Injury Attorney Chicago' - Google looks at the search keywords plus the city name and gives local results for that city. It overrides your geolocation.
Google Places is a huge, free opportunity for you to be found by local customers. How do you claim your free listing?
Finding Your Google Places Listing
Before you even find your listing, I recommend that you first set up a free Gmail account. Why? Gmail is a Google Product and once you sign up for a free Gmail account, you can then easily use this Gmail to manage all of your Google products - Google Places, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics, and even Google AdWords or Google AdWords express. Also, here's a huge gotcha about Google Places -
- Listings can NOT be transferred!
What does this mean? If your web guy or gal, claims your Google Listing under their Google Account, it stays with them. They can't first claim it, optimize it, and then transfer it to you. There are no transfer possibilities in Google Places (stupidly). Some day Google will fix this... But not yet.
So first set up a Gmail account and then use this Gmail as your universal account to claim / manage all your Google products. You can share this password with other employees and what not; just keep it safe, as it is a critical business asset.
OK, now that you have set up your Google Gmail account. You are ready to claim your places account.
First, sign in to your Gmail account (be signed in). Second, go to Google Maps maps.google.com (click on the MAP tab on Google). Enter your company name, plus address or at least city / state. You should then find it on the left column. Click on the business name, and it will open up the listing in the right panel. You are now ready to claim your listing.
What do you do if your business is not listed? First and foremost, search very hard for it! If it is anywhere in the Google system, it is much better to claim the listing than to create a brand new one. If it is NOT in the system, then go to http://www.google.com/places. Be sure to first sign in via your free gmail account. Then, enter your phone number. After a couple tries, it will let you create a new, free listing, and will verify your listing by sending you a physical postcard.
Claiming Your Free Listing on Google Places (Google Local)
OK, let's move forward with scenario #1 - your listing EXISTS in Google places. Click on 'business owner' on the far right. Then select edit my business information. Update your business information as needed, and be sure to put your major keywords into the listing. Select categories that describe your business, and make sure that you use Google's own categories at least for the first couple of categories.
When you are done with that, click SUBMIT at the bottom, and Google will then verify your listing by phone or by postcard. If it is a phone verification, it is INSTANT. Be sure there is someone to answer that phone and get the verification code.
If you are in scenario #2, a brand new Google Places listing, then you'll have to wait for your Google post card, which will have a PIN. When you receive your post card, go back to http://www.google.com/places, resign into your account, and input the PIN you received on the postcard. You have now claimed your Google Places listing!
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