Get your business on the Google Maps & in Google Places
June 21, 2010 by Tech Jane
Filed under Google Map, Online marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Sometimes I feel like Google is taking over the world. Okay.. so they kind of are. Never is it felt more than with local businesses and the “Google Map” also called “Google Places” by Google.
The confusion over getting your company listed in the right map for the right keywords is endless. And right off I have a few key tips for you:
1) The Google Maps section has NOTHING to do with organic SEO. I will repeat this… being #1 in a keyword (say Austin Dentist) on the Map has NOTHING to do with the “organic search results” (remember organic search results – the stuff that shows up under the map).
2) Google Maps and Google Adwords (Pay Per Click) and Google Organic (the stuff at the bottom of the page) are 3 different departments in Google. They don’t talk. They don’t hang out. They are not friends. So putting an Ad in Google (PPC) or being #1 in Organic (bottom of the page stuff) has zip – zero – nada to do with your ranking on the Map.
3) Folks that do “SEO” – are not who you want to go to for “Google Maps’. I explain it like this.. would you ask a Chiniese resturant to cook you key lime pie? No. Then don’t go to your SEO person to work on something that really is very different than “organic SEO”. The Google Map, it’s rules, the functionality and more change almost weekly. And – what can be done is different in each location of the US! Frustrating – but one more reason to hire “Specialist’s” for this.
4) Your phone# is the most important thing on your map listing. Just an FYI.
Have you ever typed in your keywords in Google.com only to have this large map of everyone of your competitors pop up? Have you been struggling to figure out what that Map is and how you can get your business listed for your keywords.
This presentation below is designed to “help out”. Everything you need to know about Google Maps.
