Promote your Business on Google Maps
Pay Per Click isn’t the only relatively quick and easy way to get your business listed on Google. Google Maps offers every local business the opportunity to rank on Google without the cost of PPC and a search engine optimisation strategy.
The best thing about adding your site is that it’s absolutely free. Compared to a listing in Yell that recently cost £300 + VAT or an enhanced listing in 4NI it’s a must for any local Northern Ireland business so why not take advantage.
With the Google Maps listings and PPC increasingly taking up a lot more of the screen real estate the organic listings are being forced down the page somewhat.
The image below shows the results returned for a wedding photographer in Belfast. The screenshot only shows 1 organic listing in the browser window.
You can sign up here, add your listing (if it’s already listed you can claim it). Enter your company details, including your address, telephone, description, opening hours, payment terms and a few other things. You can also add accompanying relevant images and video that can be hosted on www.youtube.com.
You can then enter the categories associated with your business, if Google’s suggestion don’t fit your business then you enter your own.
You’ll have to verify your listing either by mail, text or phone using a pin number that Google supplies.
That’s it in a nutshell, with a day or two you might be sitting right at the top of Google for a number of different local searches.
Google may have a longer-term policy of charging for the local business listings but it’s currently free and well worth it judging by the amount of traffic it sends some of the sites that I’ve look after.
November 27th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Michael,
There are also a few other listings worth doing if you are after some local traffic.
Good article below on other offerings.
http://www.yourseoplan.com/local-search.html
November 28th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Hi Paul,
Most of them are targetted at the US, there’s plenty of other ways to target local traffic but Google Maps is a great opportunity for local businesses.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
[...] submission for SEO is a bit of a yesterday tactic. Michael has a good post on submitting to Google maps local search [...]