Part of the Google Places ranking algorithm is showing local geo signals, links and citations for instance from your local chamber of commerce in my opinion carries a very high authority as well as geo signal to Google that in fact your business is located in that particular city.

With a link and or citation from your local chamber of commerce out of the way, what other high authority geo signal citations can we think of?

What about a local court house, police, fire department or local charities? These types of links can be cultivated by donating time, money or other services and products.

These days and times when everybody is in a pinch donating to local causes not only helps your local economy but strengthens business relationships as well.

Another high authority geo signal citation that I am thinking of right now is companies that are listed on Google Maps as Markers, i.e. those places on Google Maps that are embedded in the graphics tiles themelves.

These types of links will be tough to get no dought but I can assure you are more than worth the effort.

Nowadays there is definitely an abundance of locations where your business can be listed not only in the common places such as newspapers and phone books but also websites such asGoogle Places, YellowPages and plenty of other business hosting websites. While having your business’ name listed in the standard places is always a great way to start, expanding your listing to only websites is just another force to add to your advertising and promotion arsenal. Since a lot of today’s business is done online, having your business listed on certain websites dedicated to business listings is extremely ideal. In fact, studies have shown that over 97% of consumers today search for businesses online. With this statistic in mind, you’ll surely want to become part of the online world. A question often asked is how do I go about getting listed on Google Places?

What Is Google Places?

Google Places is a website owned by Google that allows companies of all types, sizes, and locations to advertise and list their company name. The great part is that getting listed on Google Places is free of charge, which means that even small start-up businesses can reap the benefits of the website. With Google Places you can provide all sorts of information to consumers including your business name, location, contact numbers, website, and any other information you feel is necessary. The website allows a business owner to add videos, photos, live updates, and even provides for a place where businesses can advertise and highlight any special promotions that may be upcoming.

Not only can Google Places be used as a way to advertise your business and get your company’s name known, it’s also a place where you can shape your business’ reputation. With Google Places customers can search for your business’ page and write a review of the products and/or services that you provide. Customers can write how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with your company and with a Places account you can even respond to each review. Places is a great way to ensure that your company’s reputation is spot on. With positive reviews, your business is sure to stand out from the competition. Places even allows you to see what keywords customers are searching for in order to find your company. This can be helpful if your business is looking to get into keyword and PPC advertising.

Google Places – DIY

Getting listed on Google Places is pretty simple. Since the service is free all that is required is that the business owner creates a Places account where information can be provided, maintained, and updated. The account holder can add all sorts of media that will be helpful to consumers. Using Google Places is self-explanatory and the website offers a Help section where newcomers can find answers to some of the most commonly asked questions. The website even offers tips for those with at-home based companies and companies that have multiple locations.

Since the website itself is made for even the most beginner business owners, adding your business to Google Places can be easily done on your own. However, if you want to maximize your results and ensure that you get the most out of your Google Places page, you may want to consider having a company create the page for you, given that your budget allows for said services.

Professional Assistance

Working with a professional company to create your Google Places page makes beginning your online presence and reputation a lot easier. Your business will be in some of the best hands possible in order to ensure that your online presence is made, maintained, and boosted as much as possible. While a professional company will simply take the same steps as any normal Places user would, a company will have a lot more know-how and tips and tricks that can be used to bolster your company’s image. Getting listed on Google Places with the help of professionals can really take your business far.

The most important component of an online presence for small businesses is the exposure to potential customers – Just call it Getting Found.  Local search and local business listings are increasingly important for this.  Being the first in your local market to get found by customers searching for your products and services on the Internet can give you a huge advantage.  As local search grows it is imperative that you take the right steps to get your small business included in local business listings so it can be found online and more specifically in your local area.  One Comscore study showed that in 2008 36% of searchers were looking for businesses within a 15-mile radius of their location, and in 2009 that rose to 42%.  Below are some of the basic steps you should be taking to optimize your website for local search.  Later articles will address in greater depth some of the things you should be doing to get your business found locally.

First you need to optimize your website for local search. In addition to individuals performing specific geographic searches, Google also tries to present local results based on the geographic area from which the person is searching.  Therefore, it is important to get a high ranking in your local area.

Here are some things you should do in order to achieve a high ranking in local search:

•    Make sure that your location is listed in your title tag.  This is the short description of your business that appears at the top of your web browser.
•    Include your location in your meta-tag description as well. This is the description that no one sees expect the search engines when they are crawling your site. If you are not sure how to edit this yourself you can get your Webmaster to do it.
•    The meta-tag description is often the text used for the short snippet under the link to a site in the search engine results page, so make sure that it also describes what you do as well as your location.
•    Add your address and contact information to the bottom of multiple pages on your site.
•    Make sure your contact information is in crawlable text – that is make sure the search engines can read the text. Items are generally not crawlable if they are in flash, iframes or images.  If you are not sure whether its crawlable or not, a simple test should work: If can highlight the text and copy and paste it into Microsoft Word then the search engines can probably read it too.
•    Add suburb, area and neighborhood names into your website text as naturally as possible.
•    Research and include high-ranking local keywords in the text of your website. You can research keywords using a tool like Google.com/sktool.

Secondly, getting your site listed in the main local search engines, local business listings, directories and GPS navigations systems is another strategy you should employ to be found locally. It is important that you do not limit your entry to just one site because the sites reference each other in order to validate your information, and validated information will rank you higher in a local search.  Thus being included in as many local business listings as possible will not only help you get found in those directories, but also help you rank higher in local search engines like Google places & Yahoo local.  Here are some of the main places that you should make sure you include a listing:

•    Google local (Google Places)
•    Yahoo! local
•    Bing
•    Yellowpages
•    Superpages
•    Local.com
•    Info USA

You can go in and add your company to these sites on your own, or you can hire someone to do it for you.  Demandmart.com is one of the affordable options that will perform this task for you as a part of its basic services.  If you decide to do it on your own, here are a few things to keep in mind:

•    Include your product/service keywords in your title and description in your listing.
•    Make sure you correctly categorize your company.
•    List a phone number that has a local area code. Do not list a cell that is not from the area or an 800, or toll free, number as your primary number.

Here are a few other things that you can do to optimize for local search and get found online:

•    Create a blog. Talk about the company, the industry, community events, and where appropriate, use geographic specific keywords.
•    Create links back to your site either through link exchanges with other local companies or getting listed in places like your local chamber of commerce.
•    Signup for and monitor the primary review sites. These sites include Yelp, Citysearch and Angie’s List.  If you get a bad review you can reach out and try to resolve the issue.