Your Google Maps listing will include full address and contact details. As Google trawls the web it discovers pages containing location details and this help Google to return relevant results for local search. Consider the following:
A search is made for luggage Bedfordview and Google discovers 2 pages about
luggage in Bedfordview then it would not be unreasonable to assume, all else
being equal, that the web page containing full address and contact details and
especially if the page had a link to the Google Maps listing would tend to be
more favoured by Google.
This means that every page of your website should include full contact details
consistent with your listing in Google Maps. This is how I show this information
on my own website:
You should aim to get this kind on information on as many other web sites as possible much like seeking links back to your web site for SEO purposes. By doing this you are essentially indicating to Google that your contact details are of importance and maybe more importantly other websites also suggest that your contact details are important.
I include my contact details on all my own blog pages as follows…
And on another website as follows:
Notice complete consistence between listings. Notice in the above I have also
included a couple of local landmarks which further reinforce my location. Google
knows that these landmarks are in Bedfordview.
It’s possible that use of the words longitude and latitude adjacent to GPS co-ordinates might be a useful indicator of relevant information.
Google allows you to place a coupon on your Place Page. To do this login to your local business centre account and instead of selecting Dashboard select the Coupons tab and just complete as required.
Add a Ad coupon to your Places Page easily. The coupon displays prominently on the page. Google will also generate a link to the coupon page allowing you to promote the coupon via a link in an email or on a web page. The image below shows the page that opens when the coupon link is clicked.
Using the link generated by Google after creating coupon and embedding link on a web page will result in this page being shown when the link is clicked. The coupon can be printed out (along with the map) to show it is genuine.
Notice the iGoogle Gadget link in the image above.. If you click this link the following page opens.
Now a searcher can add the gadget to their iGoogle home page. The gadget
means that at any time a searcher can do a search on the gadget for coupons
within a selected area for any advertiser offering coupons. This in time will
become amazingly powerful and customer useful. Can you imagine the day when a
customer types into a search box… who has the highest value coupon for product
ABC today?
Add the “Google Coupons” Gadget to your personalized iGoogle home page and look
for coupons in your area.
Neither of these options are available for South Africa at the time of writing. Here’s how Google describes the posting option:
“Holding a special event today? Want to post a coupon for 5-7pm tonight? Have a new product in stock? You can now get the word out by posting to your Place Page directly from your Local Business Center dashboard. Once you've logged in and are on your business' dashboard, post an update and it will go live on your Place Page in just a few minutes.”
It should be very obvious based upon the last few paragraphs that Google is determined to make its Place Pages to be easily accessible and useful to searchers.
In summary this chapter should have indicated to you that getting a listing on Google Maps is not just important, its mandatory, and that letting Google know that you exist by promoting your own contact details is also important. It is through these 2 mechanisms that Google is able to more probably consider your site to be a candidate for local search results. It’s important to create a listing consistent with good basic SEO practice. This really means appropriate use of keywords and category selections… avoid any inclination to stuff keywords.
It is not necessary to have a website in order to claim a Google Map’s listing. In facts it’s conceivable that this may be better for many small businesses than a website.
Later we’ll discuss the use of SEO tactics to increase the chances of your site being found in a local search environment but at this stage you just have to unequivocally tell Google that you do exist and where you exist. This is an essential starting point for potential success. However it is no guarantee that you will dominate the local search results.
Contact details for SEOza are: unit J6 Hingham Field Office Park, 79 Boeing Rd East, Bedfordview 2007. Tel 011 454 0105 Business Hours 09.00 - 17.00 Monday to Friday. See SEOza listing on Google Maps. ... GPS Locations: S 26.16582 E 28.14080 | Close to Gilhooley's Farm & Jeppe Quondam
© Copyright Tony Roocroft 2010 ... these articles may NOT be redistributed in any way or format whatsoever. If you do not agree to this please unsubscribe immediately. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all rights including those in copyright in the content of this website are owned by or controlled for these purposes by Tony Roocroft. Except as otherwise expressly permitted under copyright law or Tony Roocroft’s Terms of Use, the content of this site may not be copied, reproduced, republished, downloaded, posted, broadcast or transmitted in any way without first obtaining Tony Roocroft’s written permission.
You can subscribe to the full series of these Local Search and Google Maps articles by clicking this link