Hey Robert Ramos here with a quick and easy to follow guide on claiming your Google Maps (places) page. Setting up your Google Places page is easy to do and the benefits are enormous.
This is going to be the first part of many more tutorials for you on optimizing you’re your local business directory listings, creating cool video commercials, social marketing, local mobile marketing and other awesome local business marketing strategies… So with that said, Let’s get your business claimed and verified…
The very first thing you want to do is to create a brand new www.gmail.com account. You want to create a new Gmail account because in the future you will be linking your YouTube, Google Webmaster, Google Analytics and other Google related accounts to this new Gmail account. This will help you with other important factors in the future.
Step 1 – Setting up a Gmail Account
So head on over to www.gmail.com and set up your new local business marketing email now. Make sure the email is relevant or as close to your business name as possible.
Example: BusinessName@gmail.com
Step 2 – Claiming your Google Places Account
Now we get to claim your local business listing. So make sure you are signed into your new business Gmail account that you created for all of your local business marketing efforts. Then head on over to www.google.com/places and click Get Started under Get Your Business Found On Google.
(See image below)
Next Google Will Ask you for your business phone to check and see if they have any information on your business. Go ahead and enter your phone number to perform this check with google. Be sure to enter your phone number in this format: (999) 999-9999… Then Click Find Business Information…
If google finds any business listings or information, they will display any listing matching that phone # as show in this image below…
From This page you will have two options:
- If this is in fact your business simply click Edit and continue through this guide
- If this is NOT your business, then simply click Add New Listing and continue through this guide.
Once you hit continue you will be brought to another page where you can edit all of your business details. Looks something like this (below)
This is where you get to tell Google all about your business. I recommend you try to use every available option and max out your content on Google Places. But before we get all hog-wild on your listing, we are going to want to think some of this through… So first, well get started with just the basic information and then we’ll move on to the other awesome stuff a bit later.
Here is a list of the sections and subsections we will be focusing on for now:
Country: Enter Your Country Here
Company/Organization: Enter Your Business Name Here. Do Not try and put keywords or anything else in this field. Strictly enter your business name only in this field. Anything else can be considered web spam and can and will hurt your visibility online or can result in your listing being suspended by google.
Street Address: Enter your precise street address here
City/Town: Enter Your City Here
State: Enter Your State Here
ZIP: Enter Your Zip Code Here
Main phone: Enter Your Official Business Main Phone Number Here. Not Your Cell Phone or anything Else… If you have additional Phone numbers you can click on the add more phone numbers link to expand and get more phone number options. (See Example image below)
Once You Click on Add more numbers you will get more options.
(See example image below)
Email address: Enter the New Gmail Email Address Here…
Website: Enter Your Website address here. If you do not have one, Google has a check box to mark if you do not have a website…
Description: Enter a brief description of your business here. If you have a company tagline or saying you can include that here too. Try to be as straight to the point as possible here as you only get up to 200 characters for this description. If you can, add a short call to action as well like (Call Today or Call & Save Big Today)… It’s always good to tell a prospect that found you online what to do next… J
Category: Here you get to add up to 5 categories to your business listing. Try to take advantage of all five if you can. It will only show one field at first. If you take a closer look you will find a blue link that says add another category that will expand each time you hit it until a maximum of five categories.
Google will allow you to make 3 custom categories if your category isn’t listed. But they do require you to at least use two of their pre-listed catagories…
To see if google has relevant categories for you, simply begin to type you main business type or words very related to your business and google will automatically give you a list of their pre-listed categories. Keep doing this until you set a category for all five spots.
Remember you only have to have two pre-listed catagories… So if you feel the need you can create up to three custom categories that better describe your business…
The point is to try and make your categories super relevant to your business…
Moving on To The Service Areas and Locations Settings… (see example below)
This Sections is pretty self explanatory. Basically if you check the No, All customers come to the business location. (all other location options will not show)… If you check the Yes, this business serves customers at their location… (you will get extra options to tell google how far your sevice area extends)
Next, Go ahead and set your business hours of operation… (see example image below)
Enter your business hours here. If your business closes for lunch and then re-opens after lunch or anything to that effect google gives you the option to set a split set of hours at the bottom of this section…
The last thing we want to do for now is to enter your customer payment options…
(see example below)
This part is also very self explanatory. Just check all payment options that you accept…
That’s it for now. Do not fill out anything else at this time. Scroll to the bottom of the page and hit Submit. You should now be sent to a page, that asks you to validate your listing by pin# sent to your business address in the mail. Make sure your info is correct and click finish… (see example below)
Once You Click Finish you will be brought to your google places dashboard Located here: http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter
Save this link, so you know how to access your Google Places dashboard in the future…
(See dashboard example below)
You should receive your postcard from google in the next 7-14 days. Once you receive the postcard from google, you will need to find the enclosed pin # and login to you google places dashboard to validate your listing information. If you do not receive it for any reason, google, has an option in the google places dashboard to have it sent to you again.
Step 3: Adding Images to your Google Places Page…
In the next section of this tutorial we will be going over the images section of your Google Places listing. Adding images easy and highly recommended. This helps your business place page really stand out and gives your potential customers the opportunity to see some pictures of you, your staff and the business in general…
So go ahead and take some pictures of yourself, any staff or employee’s, company vehicles, business building, Company Logo’s and any other relevant photo’s of your business…
Once you have taken all the pictures and gathered any digital logos you may have for your business, go on into your google places dashboard located here:
http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter?hl=en-US&gl=US
Click on Edit - (See image below)
Now scroll down to the images section where you can add images to your business listing. (see image below)
Just download the pictures from your camera to your computer and begin to add the here. As you can see, it is really easy to add the images. when your done just scroll to the bottom and hit submit to update your listing details.
Step 4: Adding Video’s to your Google Places Listing
Now were going to get you some fancy cool looking video’s on your listing. Don’t let the word video scare you, because I’ve got a really cool resource for to making killer looking video’s fast.
I personally use animoto to create simple video’s for use on places pages. you can access animoto for free here:
Just follow the directions in animoto, the system for creating awesome video’s is super easy to use and pretty much self-explanatory. If you have any trouble using the the animoto video creator, no worries. I will be creating a tutorial on their service soon.
Once you have created your video’s on animoto simply find the share it to youtube option and click on it. It should automatically walk you through the process of authorizing anmoto to your youtube account and upload the video for you.
Remember, that when you created your gmail account, it also set you up with the same user name for youtube as well…
Now log into youtube after the video uploaded and grab your video link from the my videos section of youtube… You can find it by your user name on the top right of youtube. you may need to click to expand the options.
Once you get into the my videos area, click on your new video and copy the video lick from the address bar. Then log into your google places dashboard and click edit. Now scroll down to the video section and paste the video link you copied from youtube and click add video.
Do this for how ever many video’s you would like to create and then scroll all the way down to submit your changes…
That’s it your done for now. Give yourself a pat on the back for taking the first step in setting yourself up for success online. I have many more tutorials and tips coming soon on my blog to increase your business visibility online. So stay tuned and check back often so you can take advantage of my free lessons and take your business to the next step…
Also Remember that You should receive your postcard from google in the next 7-14 days. Once you receive the postcard from google, you will need to find the enclosed pin # and login to you google places dashboard to validate your listing information. If you do not receive it for any reason, google, has an option in the google places dashboard to have it sent to you again.
Tags: claiming google places listing tutorial, how to claim google places listing
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