Optimizing Google Places Part 1: Starting a Business

If you are lucky enough to be starting a new business and have the foresight to consider your website search engine optimization, here are a couple tips to help you get started on the right foot. Google Places ranking (formerly Google Local Business) is more important than organic search rankings for local businesses. These tips will help you get the first-page top-ten ranking that you need.

Tip 1: Name your business using the keywords that customers would use to search for your services

If your business is named RoachBlaster LLC and you provide pest control services, you will not rank as high in Google Places as a business called Pest Control LLC. Better yet, if you own a pest control business in Grand Rapids, MI, call it Grand Rapids Pest Control LLC.

If your business name uses the terms that people will use to search for your business, you will rank higher than your competition and capture those coveted top positions in Google Places. Don’t know what keywords users would use to locate you? Try using the Google Keyword Tool to find the most search keywords closest to your business.

Tip 2: Open your business as close to the city center as possible

Google Places puts a lot of importance on your business location in relation to the city center. Using the pest control example above, a company with an address within Grand Rapids will rank higher than a company in Wyoming, even though Wyoming is a suburb of Grand Rapids.

In addition, a company located on the outskirts of the city of Grand Rapids will not rank as high as a company with offices located downtown near the city center.

Tip 3: Buy a domain name that contains the keywords that customers would use to search for your services

If you are the owner of RoachBlaster LLC, and you own RoachBlaster.com, you may think you are all set – but you are missing out on a huge chunk of almost free search engine optimization. Sure, customers could find you if they searched for “roachblaster”, but that doesn’t help you if they don’t know your business name, and it won’t help your ranking in Google Places.

Instead, buy grandrapidspestcontrol.com, or grandrapids-pestcontrol.com, or any variation with hyphens to ensure that your keywords are in your domain name. This tells Google Places that your website is about pest control in Grand Rapids, and your website content will confirm this, ultimately leading to a higher search engine rank.

Tip 4: Use a phone number with a local area code

There is still some discussion about whether this matters, but if you have the option to list your local phone number or your toll-free number, opt to list your local phone number and area code as your main number, and then you can add your toll-free number as an additional number.

The entire goal of this process is to prove to Google Places that your business really does exist and is located in the city that you say it is, and anything information that you have to give to Google Places in this effort will help your business rank higher in the long run.

There are many other aspects of Google Places ranking that we will discuss in later articles, but all things being equal, these tips will give you the edge over your competition in search engine rankings. In Optimizing Google Places Part 2, we will discuss the techniques used on your website to increase your Google Places ranking ahead of the local competition in your area.

If you need professional search engine optimization services, call McFarlan Enterprises at (616) 717-5805 now!