Are you using Google Places properly? At the very least you should have a Google Maps listing, but if you listed yourself, then the chances are you could be missing a golden opportunity.

Google Places is the indented listing of businesses that appears when you use a local / geographically specific search and is linked to Google Maps, with the map appearing to the right of the screen.

Having an optimised Google Places listing is vital if you benefit from local trade. With over a third of all internet searches in the UK now including a geographic keyword (driven by the use of mobile internet), doing everything you can to ensure your listing is visible is essential – you will be losing out to your competitors if not. And, when accessed via smartphone, your Places result will also feature ‘tap to call’ allowing the searcher to easily contact you, this feature makes having a strong Places listing even more necessary.

In Google world a geographic key phrase is a term that will include a town, city or county and the searchers machine is visible to Google ie their location is defined. If optimised correctly your Places results can also show up based on the searchers IP address location, even when  specific geographic modifiers are not included in the search query.

Google Places is completely free, but that doesn’t mean that you should just create a listing and expect it to work for you. Having an optimised Places listing will mean that you show up more of the time and will help you to generate greater volumes of free long-term traffic, similar to the way SEO benefits a website.

Places Optimisation requires a specific skill-set and forms part of any good digital marketing agencies repertoire for helping clients to generate more traffic. Ethical digital marketing agencies will provide an exclusive service; this means they will only work for one business in any area for the same keywords, ensuring they have your best interests at heart when they commission the project.

Like all digital marketing, Places optimisation involves deep level keyword research to ensure that the keywords targeted are going to deliver relevant traffic to your website and when combined with good analytics helps us to develop the strategy with you to ensure continued success. Similar to SEO, Places optimisation also includes volumes of geo-tagging – that is building external linking strategies targeted specifically at your location and Places advert via many mediums including video, images and articles

Your business address will be listed in Places whether you like it or not and if you don’t claim or verify your listing then the position could be stolen or deleted by your competition using ghost numbers and other tactics – for this reason alone you should be taking Google Places very seriously.

Our service includes full optimisation of:

  • Business address
  • Business phone number
  • Categories
  • Images
  • Videos
  • KML file
  • Plus many more features

If you have not yet listed on Google Places or your listing never seems to show up, speak to Ascensor to find out how we can help you to get a fantastic return on investment with our Google Places optimisation packages.

 

 

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