Many small businesses do not know that you can get some FREE advertising on Google, using Google Local or Google Maps. Google is looking to increase the value of their local search and their mapping application, so they have a simple way for you to tell them some information about your business, and now they are infusing those results into their main search engine. This will help you show up in searches and get more traffic, leads and customers. For example, a nonprofit volunteer organization I work with called the Boston Scholars Program is now listed at the TOP of the Google search results for searches like "volunteer in boston", "volunteer boston ma", and "volunteer boston, ma". See the image below.
To get listed on Google Local for free, just follow these easy steps.
Things you will need before you start:
- A description of your business
- Your phone number, address and any other contact info you want to advertise
- A logo or image that represents your business (some people use a picture of their office, store or restaurant)
- A coupon or special offer you want to advertise (Google also lets you add a coupon for FREE if you want)
Step 1) Go to www.google.com/local and search for your business to verify it is not yet listed.
Step 2) Go back to www.google.com/local and click on Add/Edit Your Business at the bottom left part of the page. (See image below.)
Step 3) Follow the steps provided by Google. They are pretty simple and straightforward. As part of the process you will need to verify your business either by phone or mail.
Step 4) Check back in a few weeks and verify your listing. If you want to update it, you can use the same process outlined here to update your listing. See image below of the listing for the Boston Scholars Program including details and logo.
Have you found any free Internet marketing tricks? Have you listed your business on Google? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Posted by Mike Volpe
http://blog.hubspot.com
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