What Is Google Places
In a nutshell, it's the quickest way we've found to get your business on Google's first page and start benefitting from the extra leads they provide.
In 2009 Google introduced Google Local, basically a directory of all the local businesses in the UK. They allowed businesses to claim their listing and then create a page about their business including contact details, opening hours, videos and images. In 2010 they renamed Local to Google Places and on 27th October 2010 make a huge shift in the way the results showed. If you make any kind of search on Google which they have deemed as a 'local' search, the first results you'll be presented with are Google Places/Map listings.
How Can Google Places Help My Business
Remember the Yellow Pages? Before the internet it was THE place to advertise local services. But now when people want to find something they turn to the search engines. Google have stated about 1 in 5 of all searches made have local intent (that's hundreds of millions of searches each month), and when you consider 89% of all searches start and end with Google's first page, you'll understand why a first page listing when someone searches for your type of business is a very valuable commodity.
Why Do I Need You If I Can Claim It Myself For Free?
Although Google does currently offer this service for free, there's work to be done. Google's job is to provide searchers with the very best results. If the results Google provide are all junky, then the visitor will just use another search engine and Google loses money from their main revenue stream, paid advertising.
There are only a few Google Places slots on the first page, and I'm sure you have more than 5 or 6 competitors locally, so how does Google determine which businesses to show? This is where we come in. We've been claiming Google Places listings for businesses since the very beginning in 2009, and in this time we've been able to work out what Google wants and doesn't want to see to rank a business on the first page.
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