Securing your Google Places listing and updating it with relevant and useful content is one of the easiest ways to direct local traffic to your practice. With nearly 50% of Google searches being based on location, you really can’t afford not to claim your listing. That means that most of the time people are trying to find a product or service they are searching for results in their city or neighborhood. Someone searching on Google for a chiropractor will be shown a map with local listings. Those listings are pulled from Google Places, and if you haven’t claimed yours then potential customers can’t find you as easily as they can find your competitors who do have Google Places listings.
Some of the benefits of having a Google Places listing include:
- Increased exposure in local search listings
- Advantage over businesses without listings
- A means of conveying important location, contact & hourly information
- Potential customers can get detailed driving directions to your practice
- The ability to add coupons to your listings to draw in new clientele
Your Google Places listing is the online version of the phone book, making it relevant and vital in today’s world. In this short and simple guide, I will take you through the steps to claim your listing and explain how to optimize it to everyone’s advantage.
Step 1: Go To Google Places for Business
Navigate to the Google Places page at http://www.google.com/places/ , and click on Get Started For Free. If you are not already logged in with your Google account, you will need to do that now.
Step 2: Find Your Business
Locate your business in the search bar. You might find that a basic Google Places profile has already been created for your business.
Step 3: Enter Basic Information
Now you will add all of the basic information for your business, including phone number, address, hours of operation, etc. The more information you fill in, the more relevant your listing becomes to potential customers.
Once you have filled it all out, go back and edit, then edit again. While you can request a change to your listing information, it can take time. You’re better off getting it right the first time around.
When you reach the photo and video portion, remember that people are drawn to visuals while searching the internet and adding photos and video can really make your listing stand out. If you don’t have a photo or video to include right now, at least add a logo for visual recognition.
Step 4: Enter Additional Information
Additional information is not as vital as the basic, but when you consider that Google Places is prime internet real estate available to you for free, why wouldn’t you want to take advantage? This is your chance to really shine!
Include information about what makes your practice desirable. This is the area to include any SEO content that will help your practice show up in relevant searches. Utilize as much of this space as possible, but keep it readable with short paragraphs and plenty of white space.
Step 5: Submit For Approval
When you have finished filling in your listing information, the next step in the process is review and confirmation.
If you miss Google’s initial confirmation call, they’ll mail a physical card to the business address in your listing which will have a confirmation code for you to enter. This ensures that nobody else can claim your Google Places listing.
Once you have confirmed receipt via the code, your listing is processed and local customers can begin finding you on the map!
In the next post, I will explain how to add coupons to your Google Places listing, and tips on how to manage multiple location listings.
QUESTION: Are you using Google Places for Business? If so, how has it helped your community discover chiropractic?
Let me know in the {comments} section below.
