How Google Places Will Help Grow Your Business

Are you the owner of a relatively small business, and are looking to expand your business? If that's so, then you're no doubt already doing your best with your online efforts; search engine optimising your site and keeping it up to date with relevant, informative content.

Whilst a good online presence is important for any business, if you run a small, local business then your efforts should be more concentrated on local search marketing (see - localsearchmarketing.co.uk). It's local search marketing that will put your products and services directly before your local market.

Google Places can be vital for this.

What is Google Places?

Google Places lets you list your business's location and information with the search engine. This means that when someone looks for your services or products in the search engines, your business will be shown on Google Maps.

This makes it much easier for consumers to find your business.

The advantages of having a listing with Google Places are pretty obvious. For instance, it is able to put your business directly before targeted search users looking for your services and products. Moreover, having a place on a respected listing like Google Places helps your business to appear more trustworthy - especially when you're listed among some of the biggest competitors in the area. A good presence on the social networking sites, such as Facebook (see - Facebook business page design services), will also help you to achieve this.

Why Do You Need Google Places?

If you're not on Google Places, then you are putting yourself at a serious disadvantage. This is because a vast number of companies - possibly you competitors - already are listed with the search engine. This means that any search users looking in the local area for your services or products, will bypass you and go straight to the first business they see on Google Places.

As a small company you'll no doubt rely on local custom to bring in profit. So, in order to grow your business you need to dominate your local market by making it easy for customers to find you. Google Places makes this possible by providing your exact geographic location.

What Are You Waiting For?

Google Places is a totally free service - so what's stopping you? A free, online tool like this could do wonders to help grow your local business - so what are you waiting for?

For more information and help with local search marketing for your business, see - Google places business listing.