Take Full Advantage of Google Maps

If you are marketing your local business online, make sure you are taking advantage of one of the top local marketing tools available, Google Maps. The problem for some business owners is that Google Maps is providing dated or flat-out incorrect information about your business. This could be in the form of an incorrect phone number or having negative reviews of a company that previously occupied your address associated with your business. Either way, it isn’t good.

Avoiding the issues created by incorrect information is actually pretty easy to do with Google Maps. The key is to take control of your business’ listing. Visit the Google Local Business Center and create an account. Provide Google with your business name, address, and phone number and you will see a listing of businesses already listed in Google Maps with similar information. You will have the option of claiming one of these listings or you can add a new listing for your business.

Google won’t just let you claim any business that you want. You will be required to validate your ownership of the business that you are trying to claim. Google offers two ways to validate your listing. The first is to have a post-card mailed to your business address. The post-card will contain a PIN that you will enter in the Local Business Center and your account will be validated! The other option is to have a phone call made to the number in your business listing. The automated call will provide you with the PIN number to be entered as well.

Once you have claimed your listing, its time to make sure there isn’t any other inaccurate data in Google Maps for your business. If you find an incorrect address or phone number listed for your company name, you can contact Google’s digital map provider (Tele Atlas), to have it corrected. You can report errors through Tele Atlas’ Map Insight service. Unfortunately, it make take several weeks for the corrected information to start showing up in Google.

Now that you have claimed your listing and corrected any erroneous information, you should optimize your local business listing to help your business rank better in searches. The easiest place to start is with your business’s title. When entering your business name, try to use keywords in the title. For example, instead of using “Helping Hands”, use “Helping Hands Maid Service”. It is also helpful to include targeted keywords in your business description.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Google will associate reviews of your business from sites like Trip Advisor, CitySearch, Judy’s List, and others. Google will actually associate the full text of reviews with your listing, so having keywords show up in reviews of your business can really boost your rankings.

Following these tips and taking control of your Google Maps listing can really help boost leads for your business. While not every company can truly benefit from Google Maps, anyone with a brick-and-mortar location is crazy to not be taking advantage of this excellent (and free!) advertising opportunity.