Now that you have your Google Places account created, the first thing I want you to do is finish up your basic information on your first listing. You need your company name, address information, email, webiste, make sure you use the http:// for your website. Here’s the cool part, if you don’t have a website, you can still do a listing here and have a pretty decent web presence without it. On the other hand, the idea is to get you rated as high as you can too. Having a website of your own here is important in the long run. You need a good description. Here is where you might put a tag or slogan and maybe some kind of discount or free item you are giving away. Be careful with using the word free though.
You can add up to five categories for your site. Use keywords you have been using, but keep it to a local sense. In other words, “make money online” is probably not a good word and may not get you anything. Remember, this is a local search service. If you offer advertising, say advertising, see what comes up in the suggestions. If you offer products like health drinks, use health and see what comes up. Make sure you add ALL five. As far as service area and location, you have an option here, select whether you go to their sites or not. Probably not in most cases, but if you want to get better coverage, select no and start entering cities and towns near you. Watch the areas on the right in the map so you can cover the largest area around you you’d be willing to drive to meet someone if you had to. Keep in mind, you probably will never have to for most online businesses.
For an on-line business, you can select 24 hours a day, but realize since this is a local listing, you may get phone calls you don’t want at all hours of the day or night. Enter your payment options. If you have a paypal account, you can select paypal. If you convert your paypal account to a verified business account, you can take credit cards too.
Now here’s where you need to be creative. You’ll need 2-4 tiny little pictures of something. Makes your ad stand out.
Under that is video. Google Places only accepts YouTube Videos. If you have one, add it. It will help quite a bit. Just remember, if you load a sales ad on YouTube, make it private, only people with the link can view it and it must be your own video. If you are using a video for some other thing you are promoting that’s already on YouTube, cool, use that.
The last thing is brands. List 8 to 10 different things you carry. They may be specific brands, they may be categories. Like Air Conditioner is not a brand, but that will work.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST – at the very bottom is a submit button, don’t forget it.
That’s it, next installment, we’ll get to talking about how to get yourself plastered all over Google Places.
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