Does Your Business Have a Google Places Listing?

With the intense competition of online marketing, every company needs to take advantage of every piece of free advertising that they can get a hold of.  There are many different forms of free advertising on the web, most do not really product any results, but one stands out as a clear leader.  Google, the world’s number one search engine, provides business owners with a free listing on Google Places.  This is really targeted to business owners that have a store front or an office, but really anyone can create a Google Places listing.  I would not recommend for any business to list their home address if that is what they are using as a business address.  You might end up finding customers coming to your home and that could be potentially disastrous.

If you have a Google account, then all you need to do is click on the Google Places in your account to get started, or you can create a new Google account to setup Google Places.  All you need to do is create your listing with the appropriate information like company name, address, website, hours, services, category, etc.  You want to be truthful with all of your information.  After entering the information, Google will provide you with two options for verifying your listing.  Either they will call you at the number included in your listing or they will send a postcard to the address provided.  Both forms are going to give you a PIN number that must be entered in order to activate the listing.  I would recommend just having Google call to provide the PIN.  This will give you the opportunity to list your business quickly without waiting.  The postcard option is slow and you will have to wait up to 2 weeks for the card.

Google Places now offers a new service with tagging that can provide your business listing with a little extra power.  The tagging ability provides business owners with the ability to highlight features that make your business unique.  This can be good for local competition and hopefully will bring more visitors to your listing.  Google charges $25/month for the service and I believe it is per tag.  Currently, Google is offering 30 days Free for this service when you sign up for Google Places.  Why not try it out to see if it is any better than the regular listing.  The free trial will tell you if it helps or not with no money wasted.  With this feature and the ability to provide your business with a free listing, you should take the time to create a Google Places listing.  Every company loves free advertising and Google is a great place to get it from.

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