Tips for Making the Most of Your Google Places Business Listing

Create a Places listing for your business.

Answer all Questions on the questionnaire – These include hours of operation and methods of payment. Make sure to double check answers as any misspellings or incorrect information may affect your listing visibility.
Main Phone – This should be a local number, do your best to avoid toll free numbers.
Business Address– This should be the actual location of your business. P.O. boxes are not acceptable.
Description – Your business description should have keywords relevant to your business. For extra help on keywords, click here. It’s better to use more keywords rather than having a more literarily pleasing description. Example: “Joe Smith Car Care in Dallas, Texas. Highly respected mechanic in Dallas. Car Care mechanic specializing in domestic and imports. Joe Smith has been in business for 25 years in Dallas.”
Categories – Based on your businesses keywords, select categories relevant to your industry. Simply start typing your keywords. Each business listing should use all five available categories. An example of keywords for a mechanic would be: mechanic, car repair, domestic import, transmission repair, engine repair, brake repair and Dallas repair shop.
Add Images – Try to upload 10 images, the max number allowed. Make sure to optimize your photos. By optimizing your images you increase the value of your business listing. Name your image using keywords. Example: A photo of Joe Smith would be named ‘Dallas Mechanic Shop Joe Smith.’
Add Videos – Add all five that are allowed if you can. Make sure the videos uploaded are high definition and have inscribed meta-data in the file. Meta-data is a term that refers to the video details that are added when the video is created. These details would include a video title (keyword rich) and video tags or keywords. Use keywords used with your images and in your description.
Additional Details – This is a good place to add details about your business that didn’t fit in other categories such as notable recognition or your business has received.

Additional Tips for Success

The Google Places Business Listings are ranked according to many factors. One major factor that contributes to your success is your company’s website. By optimizing your website, Google and other search engines are better able to see what your company represents and thus may rank you higher on search results pages.

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