How to Create your Listing on Google Places (Google Maps)

1. Go to Google.com/local/add
You will be asked to login.  If you have a Google account for your business use this, if not, create one and login.  Once you login, you will see the following form to enter in your new listing:


2. Add New Listing
Start adding your listing by filling out the information about your company. Use your physical business location, not a corporate headquarters or PO box.

* Your phone number should match the phone number on your website contact page, as well as the company/organization name. Google likes to see consistency between your listing and website to prove that you are not spam.

3. Fill out your description.
Be sure that you take the time to fill out your company description using the allotted 200 characters. You should use your keywords and location specific words like your city and primary category.

4. Add Categories.
The categories are one of the most important things for your Google Places listings. Be sure to include your main business profession and keywords in the primary category. Custom categories can be created in the additional 4 category allotments from Google Places.  Be sure to use them all.

What are some examples of categories?
For a Daytona Beach restaurant, the primary category should be "Restaurants" and other categories should be "Daytona Beach restaurants", "Daytona Beach steakhouse", "Daytona Beach seafood restaurants", and "Daytona Beach wine bars", etc.  This allows my listing to show up if people are searching for those keywords. Make sure that your primary keyword is your most general keyword, in this case "Restaurants".

Click submit once your information has been filled out.

Verify your listing.
Google will now check to make sure that there are no other listings available for your business. If there is, you have the choice to claim the listing and make edits to the existing listing. Your changes will be saved over the current listing. Your other choice is to make a new listing in addition to the one Google already has in it's database for your address. This is not recommended if you already have a listing because Google discredits multiple listings. Edit your existing listing and you will be asked to verify that you are the business employee by entering in a PIN number given via telephone to your listed business phone number, or via mail. A postcard will be sent in about 4 weeks to the Google Places address. This postcard will have a PIN number that you need to verify your listing.  The telephone verification process is much faster and can be completed within a few minutes.

5. Adding Extras to your listing.
Google Places gives you the choice to add pictures, videos and other extras to your listings. We recommend adding as much as you can to give your listing a greater amount of information. Google also ranks listings higher that have more pictures and positive user reviews. Ask your favorite customers to write a Google review of your business and add this testimonial to your website as well.

Read our blog post about How to Rank Higher on Google Places for more information on optimizing your website for Google Places.   Alternate Image SEO Clients have their Google Places listings created and optimized as part of their SEO service package.

Categories: Search Engine Optimization