2 Easy Steps to Get Found in Google Local Search

If you've ever searched for something specifically in your area by including your location in the search, you've undoubtedly come across a Google Map with a list of business in your area related to your search.  But how do you get on that list?

Step 1:  Set up your Google Places page

Google Places (previously called Local Business Center) is a Google application that gains a bit more exposure for your business.  Whether you already have a website or not, you need to set this page up.

Before you set up this page, there are two very important things to decide on how to format.  The first is your address.  Google recognizes "123 Anystreet Suite C" as a different location than "123 Anystreet" and "123 Anystreet Blvd".  If you already have a website that has your address, then use the format that is there.  If you do not have a website, now is a good time to decide how to format your address.  Just remember that your address needs to read the same way everywhere you can control across the web.

Your phone number is also very important.  Just like your address, you want your phone number to be uniform across the web.  You also want to use your local number for that particular location.  If you have multiple locations for your business, stay tuned and we'll go over that in a separate post.

Step 2:  Submit or Claim Your Listings

Especially if you don't have a website, you may have noticed that a search for your business results in a list of sites that appear to scrap your information from the phonebooks.  Some of these websites allow you to control that listing if you confirm that you are the owner of the business.

Now, you don't need to go to every last one of them to make your changes propagate across the web.  A lot of these sites scrape their information from other sites.  The following are the websites you need to claim your listing on:

• MerchantCircle
  
• Superpages
  
• Yelp
  
• Local.com
  
• CitySearch
  
• Yahoo! Local
  
• Bing Local
  

On each of those websites, the free option is good enough.  Some of them might call you later asking if you want to purchase a premium account, but you really don't need to.  However, Google trusts these listings and many other sites scrape from them.

So there you have it - two easy steps to get your business listed on the map for Google Local Search.  Of course, if you are in a competitive market you will need to do more to rank on the front page, but this should be a good start for most.