If You’re Not On Google Places, You Should Be
Remember when you had to find a phone book and flip through hundreds of pages in order to find a local business? The use of Yellow Pages has declined drastically over the last five years. People now make quick searches on one of the many popular online directories or social media outlets. Since Internet search is the primary tool to finding businesses today, it’s crucial to make sure your business is listed on a relevant online directory like Google Places.
“Mobile Googling alone will exceed over 27 billion search queries by 2016 globally.” (Source: http://ctt.ec/01747+)
Google Places is a local business directory paired up with Google Search. It gives a business a landing page where it can describe its services, additional contact information, highlight products through photos and video, and also allows customers to leave reviews.
“75% of search engine users never scroll past the first page of search results.” (Source: http://ctt.ec/kbetU+)
Google Places is very important to businesses because Google Search relies heavily on Google Places when someone is searching for a local product or service. For example, if someone was searching for a “Quad City bakery” a large percentage of the Google results will be some type of Google Places data. Google Places offers geolocation to companies that want to connect and convey messages to their consumers no matter where they may be in the world. Local businesses have one of the largest online directories that can help put businesses in top rankings on a search engine results page.
Google Places is also cost effective. This local search listing can become one of the greatest tools used to help businesses get high rankings. With attention on website description, keywords, title, and key phrases, Google Places listings are where you want to optimize.