Google has a great feature called Places which allows consumers to find local businesses in their area. With Google Places, consumers can search for businesses and the results will be featured on a map that is in your surrounding geographic location. Setting up an account for your business is easy and free! Google automatically makes accounts for some companies so check to make sure yours hasn’t been created yet. If they have, you can contact Google to claim the page and make changes to it. Understanding your buyer personas will help in designing the page by catering to their needs. Once you create an account, your business will appear on Google’s organic search and map.
You can add information about your company onto the page such as:
- Address
- URL
- Phone number
- Hours of operation
- Directions
- Pictures
- Reviews (by customers)
This feature is great for consumers on the go who want to quickly look up information about your business. Users on their cell phone will be able to call your business directly without having to deal with loading a webpage. When optimized properly, your page will appear on the top of Google. This will definitely expand your reach to new customers making searches related to your business. People tend to trust online reviews, so if your company reviews are positive, it will greatly benefit you. With high rating reviews your page will quickly climb up in Google’s page rank. You can even include coupons that customers can cut out and bring to your store.
Google offers both free and premium services depending on what your business is looking to gain from places.
Features from the free service include:
- Being found across Google
- Improving your company information
- Responding to local reviews by customers
Premium Features
Adwords Express: Allows you to reach customers searching on their mobile phone for companies like yours. Your ads will only reach people who are nearby your business so they are more willing to call or travel to your office or store. This feature is similar to Google ads words for computers
Google Offers
This feature allows you to connect with users on their mobile phone by offering discounts and promoting your business. We have seen a shift in recent years with a drastic increase in the number of smart phone users. With people spending more time on cell phones it is important for your business to be where your customers are at all times.
Having a Google Places account is essential in today’s technically advanced world. Places works on both computers and cell phones so you will always be available to customers wherever they are. We will now leave you with some of the main reasons why your company should use Google Places:
- Your Customers are using Google Places
- You can monitor reviews from customers
- Google Places Allows you to expand your reach
- Consumers tend to trust word of mouth reviews
- Helps increase Page Rank
- Easy and Free!
If you have any questions about Google Places please comment below and Mittcom will gladly help out!