How to Optimize a Google Places Listing

With the increasing use of internet over the years, most of the business owners are turning to the search engine giant to attract people. Google Placesis a great way to get business found as it is used by millions of netizens everyday to drive traffic to their websites.
If you want to target customers in your local area, a free listing on Google places makes it very easy for customers to find you. People spending great deal of money on SEO and PPC’s can easily take advantage of this free

Google tool to drive traffic. To get started, you just need to submit the basic info like business name, website URL, telephone numbers, payment options, hours of operation, address and a photo and a video that highlights your business. One you submit all the relevant information,

Google send you a verification pin within 2-3 weeks which needs to be entered in the Google places listing to verify the same. Getting a Google places listing helps your business to get maximum local exposure. Google places listing are getting priority in local searches.

Tips on How to Optimize a Google Places Listing

Below mentioned are a few ways to optimize your Google Places listings:
• Content – Adding relevant content is the most important step. The more accurate and complete are your details, the easier it is for Google to decide your relevance to local searches. Use keywords where they are required to convert customers.
• Address – Specifying your location and physical address is of great importance to optimize your Google places listings.
• Images and Videos – placing images and videos prove to be very helpful.
• Customer’s Reviews – An important part of a local SEO strategy includes pushing as many customers as possible to write reviews. The more reviews you have, the more will be the possibility to claim one of the 7 place markers as Google places only lists 7 places per search.
• Placing Offers – You can place offers that relate to the keywords that are being targeted to increase your relevance in the searches.

Once your Google places page is verified, it becomes a bit easier for the potential customers to find you. You can use directories, review pages and local resources and event pages to build citations. Optimizing Goole places help increase traffic and reduce bounce rates.

Optimize a Google Places Listing | Benefits

Here are some of the benefits that that an optimized Google Places Page offers:
• It provides detailed information regarding product and services which helps prospects to find what they are searching for.
• Reviews and testimonials by the customers can help you stand out as well as make your business better.
• Posting videos and images give credibility to your business as many prospects prefer listing with images.
• You can also list cities, countries and region if you wish to open another establishment in the meantime.
• It can help you serve your customers better as you can mention your hours of operation or which day the store will be closed and likewise.

Understanding how to optimize a Google Places listing is benefitting a lot of businesses – don’t get left behind.

About the Guest Blogger: Abhishek Khandelwal is a SEO consultant. He is presently doing SEO for a number of physician recruiters and psychiatry recruitment firms.

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