Local search is poised for a huge increase in revenues, services such as Google Maps, Yahoo maps, Bing maps have suddenly seen a high volume of traffic due to the growth of smart phones like Apple iPhones, BlackBerry and Android.
A user with a smart phone has different usage patterns to search the web, they may not go to Google.com to search for a nearby restaurant but may use Google maps, most of the smart phone’s today have built-in GPS feature that works very well to show the users search location via Google maps.
If you are hungry and want to eat a pizza in Toronto, Canada all you need to do is type “Pizza” into Google Maps, which automatically shows you the nearest pizza restaurants or show you all Pizza restaurants located in a particular area in Toronto. You don’t need to know the address or any other details of the restaurant, the search shows up on the bases of the location – a very powerful feature.
You can use the below steps to claim and promote your local business or service on Google Maps
1 ) Go to Google Maps and type in your business (ie. Pizza Toronto ), check the listings featured on Google Maps. If you already have your listing on Google Maps, then click on the more info link to check the details about the listing. It will take you to a page in Google’s Local Center about your business.
2 ) Google is looking for owners of these pages so that the listing and other particulars about your business are accurate.
3 ) You need to click on business owner link and login with your Gmail account to claim the page, once you have claimed your page, you can add / edit the details on the page (ie. address, phone number, email ids, photos, upload video and more ). Click on submit once you have validated the information.
4 ) If you don’t find your listing then go to Google Local and click the link on the left hand side that says ‘Put your business on Google Maps’, enter the necessary information about your business in terms of appropriate tags, (ie. Pizza Toronto, Pizza Restaurant Toronto ) the search tags are what prospective customers would look when searching for information about your product or service. Fill in the appropriate business details (ie. address, email, phone number etc. ) and click submit
5 ) Once you click on submit, Google will want to validate that you are the actual owner of the listing. They will send you the PIN code activation details to the address in the listing. Once you get the PIN code, follow the instructions to claim your listing. You can either do this via postcard or telephone.
6 ) Once you have claimed your listing you can update or edit your listing on Google Maps as often as you want. You may also want to check back on Google (local search) for your listing based on the tags that you selected. You results should show up in a few hours. If you have any other business you can use the same process to verify and claim additional listings.
A well optimized website may take anywhere between 6 – 8 months to get featured on Google, by using the above steps your business or service can get featured very quickly under local searches on Google maps. Google maps is going to be a big revenue generator for Google in the coming years. You may just have to pay a premium to be listed on Google maps in a few years.
Do you have a local business ? Have you listed yourself on Google maps ?
27 comments
Comments are closed.
Add Comment