Seven Tips For Getting Your Business on the First Page of Google

A  client  of mine recently achieved a 1.750.00% increase in
traffic to their site through simply optimising their Google
Places listing.
Google  have  recently  changed  the  way  that they display
search results; greatly favouring local results i.e Places
listings.
Below  are  the  7 easy steps that will allow you to achieve
similar results.

1. Check if you already have a Google Places page

Easy to do. Just go to Google and type in your company name.
You  will see whether you have a google places page straight
away .  If you do have one and you haven’t
verified it that’s the next step

2. Verify your account.

This  step  is  essential  as  it  mean  sthat Google checks
whether  you  are  authorised  to  make  any changes to this
listing.  Essentially  you  fill  in your details and Google
will  send  you  a  postcard or possibly call you with a PIN
number.  I  can’t  say definitely which it will be as Google
does seem to change its mind regularly!
But even if you have to wait for the postcard to verify your
account  there’s  a  lot  you  can  do  in  the  meantime in
preparation for when your listing goes live.

3. Check Contact Details

The first thing you need to do is make sure that the contact
details  are  correct.  As  Google  have created these pages
automatically  it’s  not  unknown  for old phone numbers or,
even  ,  in  one  case  completely  the  wrong website to be
showing. This could obviously be losing you prospective
customers.

4. Check location details (Google street view)

If  you  have  a  location dependent business i.e. a shop or
office  that  customers may visit, make sure that the street
view  is  showing  the correct image. Again this can vary as
Google have calculated it from postcodes and as we know from
using sat navs these are not always entirely accurate. There
is therefore an option to move the pin.
The  other  reason you need to check this is if you run your
business  from  home  as  inevitably street view will show a
picture  of the front of your house. You may not want people
visiting your house… One of my associates also pointed out
that  in  his  business  he has a lot of expensive audio and
video  equipment  and  wouldn’t  want people to know exactly
where he keeps it!
So  what  do  you  do if you don’t want your house featured?
There are two options:
1.  If  your business uses a PO box use that on your profile
and Street View will show the sorting office
2.  Move the pin to the end of the road so that it is in the
general  area  just  not pointing directly at your premises.
You should also change your address by omitting the number of
your house and just using the postcode.

5. Add Keywords

Adding   categories  to  your  listing  gives  you  a  great
opportunity  to  add  relevant  keywords. You can and should
also  add  keywords  to  the  description  of your business.
Adding  appropriate  keywords  is yet another way of gaining
importance for your listing.

6. Add Images and Videos

Google  places  gives  you  a  great chance to showcase your
work.  You  are  allowed  to  add up to 10 images as well as
videos.  Use  these  wisely  as  they  need  to give a great
impression of you and your business.

7. Gain and display reviews

The  number  of  reviews that are added to your listing will
dictate  in part how high up the page you rank. In addition,
potential  customers  will  be  looking  to use a service or
product  that  other  people  have  rated  highly. Send your
customers  your  Google places link and ask them to rate you
on there.

If you have plenty of visitors to your site, if you have too much
work  for  you to cope with, then don’t bother with a Google
place  listing.  If  however,  you  could  use  a  few  more
customers or clients then I strongly suggest that you invest
a  little  time  or  money  in optimising your Google places
listing; It is the easiest, quickest and cheapest way to get
your  business  listed  in the front page of Google results.