What Is Google Saying About Your Business?
Most people agree that Google is one of the most important and influential companies on the internet today
. From its market-leading search engine to its set of free web services like Gmail and Google Analytics, Google makes its presence known to millions of web users everyday. So with this kind of influence and reach, it definitely matters what Google "says" about you online. Although you cannot have complete control over what information Google publishes about your business, you can (and should!) take control of what Google shows on your Place Page in its search results.A Place Page is a Google Maps feature that provides a web page for every "place" in the world. Google's goal for Place Pages is to organize all the information available about a place, and display it all together in one spot. There are Place Pages for all types of places, like landmarks, cities, transit stations, points of interest, and yes businesses. To see a Place Page, just click on the "more info" link in a Google Maps search result, or click the "more info" link displayed in the info bubble on the map itself.
You Already Have a Place Page
Whether you know it or not, Google has already created a Place Page for your business, and is at this very moment displaying whatever information it has found about you on the web, including reviews and other user-generated content. This makes it especially important that you monitor your reputation on your Place Page, and address any untrue or reputation-tarnishing information that users may have added to it. But more importantly, you should "claim" your business' Place Page so you can add rich content like photos, videos, your business hours, the types of products and services you provide, online coupons, and links back to your website.
Another reason to claim your Place Page is because once verified, Google will display a link at the top of your page that says "owner-verified listing" with a checkmark beside it. This shows users that you are in control of your listing and they can rely on the information displayed there. And if your competitors already have verified listings, then you certainly don't want to show up in the search results with an incomplete Place Page that has not been verified by Google!
Improving Web Visibility
Your Place Page can also help your business become more visible on the web, and provides index-able content and inbound links for the search engine spiders and bots that crawl your page. Google has already started showing Place Pages in its organic search results, (outside of Google Maps), which is another reason an optimized Place Page is important to your business today. And as users continue to move toward accessing the web from their mobile devices, local business listings will become even more important to consumers searching the web from mobile phones and devices.
Showcasing Your Business in Google
Taking control of your Google Place Page is a great opportunity to directly provide Google with the most complete, updated, search-engine-optimized information about your business, and shows off your multi-media listing to Google users. It is also another avenue for monitoring your online reputation and managing unwanted or untrue information. But mostly, a content-rich, fully completed Place Page gives your business additional visibility in Google, which can help drive more traffic to your site and new customers to your business.
What Is Google Saying About Your Business?
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