With the recent launch of Place Search by Google, businesses that market to a specific and local geographic base are now more than ever having to pay attention to how and what they do on the Internet for marketing. This change by Google provides a variation on local search results that organizes information around specific locations, with the idea of making it easier to make comparisons and decide where to go.  Because of this change it is absolutely critical that local businesses have optimized local listings with Google.

On a Google Search Results Page the local search results are now significantly more prominent on the page, pushing content that is more general down the results page.  If your business has both a strong organic and local rankings you will enjoy a competitive advantage over your competitors.  If you see a decrease in your local rankings, you should quickly take a look at your search strategies to see what needs to be updated.

What actions should you take to remain relevant? A good place to start is to follow these guidelines for your Google Places listing:

• Make sure you select relevant Place categories
• Use long and short tail keywords and avoid duplication
• Create customized fields and complete business descriptions using relevant keywords
• Integrate photos and videos into your listing
• Fill out every applicable field possible, including hours of operation, payment methods and your service area
• Use Google Places Posts to keep information current
• Encourage online customer reviews
• Respond to reviews through Google Places
• Make sure your Google Places flag is in the correct spot on the map
• Add coupons and experiment with Google Tags

After all that work has been done, it’s important to make sure you get a return from that investment, and to update your strategy from time to time based on results.  Google has a Dashboard for businesses (that you can see when you log into your account) that displays information about the number of impressions you are receiving and how often people are actually clicking on your listing for more information.

To see more about the Google Places changes, view this Local Search webinar.