Step 1 – Get Your Company Online

Blog•on April 1st, 2010•1 Comment

One of the first items I have most of my clients do is to submit their information to Google Local Business Center.  In doing so, Google finds out the important information about your business.  That information then shows up in the “Local Business Results” section of a Google Search Result, just like this image:

So, without having anything else online, you could hypothetically get in the top placement in Google for your local business without spending any time on Search Engine Optimization.

Here are the steps on how to do that:

  1. Go to http://www.google.com/local/add/
  2. If you already have a Google account, enter your email & password.  If not, no problem, just click ‘Sign up now >>’
  3. If you don’t have an account, the first page will be setting up your account.
  4. If you do have an account, click “Add a New Business” after you have signed in.
  5. After doing that, you will be asked specific questions about your company.
  6. Be sure to add all 5 allotted fields to Category.  Just start typing aspects of your business and Google will give you good ideas.  This is important as it will determine what search terms your business shows up for.
  7. Click next and add all additional information.
  8. Google will then ask to confirm that you who you say you are by calling your telephone or mailing a letter to your company address.  Through the call or letter, you will receive a PIN # that you will then need to type in.
  9. After that, you are done.  Google should have your listing up within 24 hours.
  10. You can then sign back in to your account to see how many times your listing has shown and how many times people have clicked on it.

The best news is that this is completely free to do.  I also recommend doing the same thing for Yahoo’s Local Business section.  The link to do that is – http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php