Do you want to attract local customers online?
If you want to attract local customers online, it’s important to be in control of your total online presence.
Your potential customers must be able to easily find YOU!
They need to be able to find information about you when they are looking for your products or services. And you must ensure the information they find is accurate.
If you’re not being found on the first page of Google, then you are pretty much invisible online!
One of the best (and might we add free) ways to get your business found easily on Google is with Google Places.
When properly optimised, a Google Places listing will appear at the very top of the organic search results, just underneath the paid sponsored listings. In Google terms, this is prime real estate and YOUR business needs to be there!
Let’s use a real life example. If someone was looking for a pool supplies shop in Gosford, they’d type something like “Pool Supplies Gosford” into google. This is what the Google Places results look like:
A Google Places listing will instantly tell someone everything they need to know about your business without them even having to click over to your website. From the Google search results, they’ll be able to see your location, contact details, and location on a map. If they click through to the actual listing, they can print a map and other information like parking availability, accessibility to public transport, hours of operation, a video, product images, customer reviews and even a street image of your premises.
And you can control and optimise this information when you claim or set up your Google Places listing.
Even if you work from home or operate a mobile business you can still utilise Google Places to tap into your local market by using your mailing address. You can adjust your settings to show only the information you wish to be visible, and you can also set up the area that your business covers.
If you are new to Google Places, it’s quite possible that Google already has a listing for your business and a photo of your premises that has not been claimed (thanks to images and information sourced by Google Earth). If that’s the case, get online now to claim and optimise your listing, and start easily attracting those local customers!
Three quick steps to get your Google Places listing:
1. Go here http://www.google.com/places
2. Click on the ‘get started now‘ button
3. Follow the steps to create a Google account or sign in to search for your business and claim the listing.
Being on Google Places helps people find, share, rate and recommend your business to their own friends and online connections. So, if you operate a business where local customers are important, then Google Places is one of the best ways to be found online!
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