Simply Social Series: Optimize your local business listing with Google Maps

The economic and cultural hub of Eastern Washington is Spokane, where I live and work alongside many talented people in industries like medicine, art and communications.  And let’s not forget the many hard working entrepreneurs and small business owners who run highly creative and successful operations with customers well beyond the borders of the Inland Northwest.

Most of my favorite local companies are having no trouble keeping up with the fast pace of Internet technology and social media. Spokane’s small businesses are smart about integrating services such Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Foursquare into their marketing strategy. Unfortunately, there are a few Spokane businesses I can think that are ignoring this opportunity.

This article kicks of my Simply Social series. Watch out for upcoming posts targeted at small businesses with an interest in learning about the benefits of social media for marketing and customer outreach. Topics will include Google maps, Google places, LaunchPad, Facebook pages and the new Twitter features available for non-profits.

At least cover the basics

Even if a company is totally against getting involved with Facebook and Twitter, there are some Internet services that require no money and very little effort. There is no good reason to ignore  them. If you have a few spare minutes, I recommend taking a look at all of the free tools Google has to offer. It’s quite fun!

I would like to begin with Google maps and places, which forms a powerful local business listing optimization tool.

Google Maps & Places

Are you aware that your business probably has a listing on Google already? This search engine has already scoured the internet for your company’s basic contact information, making Google Maps an amazing tool and potential gold mine for business leads.

Now, you should also know that businesses have the power to update and add to their own listing. This is very important! Especially since a major complaint I hear from Google Maps users is that finding business hours takes much longer than it should.

I have two assignments for you:

#1  ”Google” your business name in Google Maps. Find out what information your customers can find when they search for you. Estimated time: 1 minute.

#2  Update your business information, add office hours and maybe even publish a special coupon deal. (Take advantage of my latest Google places deal posted here.) Estimated time: 5-30 minutes, depending on how much information you want to share.

Check out this screen shot to learn more about accessing the settings area for your business listing:

To edit your listing, search for your business in Google Maps, click More > Edit Details. (Click to enlarge)

A special tip for freelancers and those with home offices, such as myself: You can choose to hide your home address. Instead, your listing will simply apear somewhere in the middle of the city you live in.

Wasn’t that easy?

The benefits of completing this simple Google places business profile may not be obvious right away, but think of Google maps as the new phonebook and business directory. I can tell you that your company’s marketers will appreciate the statistics feature of Google places, and your customers will be grateful for quick and easy access to your business hours. Sometimes it is the simplest things that can make the greatest impact.

If you liked updating your Google business profile, you should definitely check Bing, Yellow Pages, Facebook, Yelp and Foursquare for pre-existing business profiles that you didn’t know you had. There are dozens more local business listing optimization services out there, but these are a good place to start.