Getting Your Business Listed on Google Local /Google Maps Webinar

Today we are doing a one hour webinar on “How To Get Your Business Listed on Google Local / Google Maps”. There has been a fantastic response and people are still signing up. You can get more details here – Google Local Webinar

Some interesting points that came up as I was doing the research for this webinar:

1. How Google has lowered the effectiveness of SEO for local businesses by essentially driving them off the first page. Although this is not technically true as they do still appear, for many searches they were “below the fold” meaning I had to scroll down to see them!
2. This is only going to get worse with the addition of Google Local Listing ads
3. The importance of CONSISTENCY with your business Internet data. Make sure you use the same Business Name, Address, Phone etc.
4. How a whole new realm and set of rules has emerged for Local Business Listings
5. How quickly these rules are changing – virtaully on a weekly basis.

My Google Local Citation Experiment

As part of the webinar I am going to be doing a bit of an experiment. I will be requesting people to post comments and include their Business Name, Address and Business Telephone to see if they show up as a “Citation” on Google Maps.

Please feel free to join this experiment. If you are not comfortable leaving a phone number that is fine – the Business Name and Address will probably also work. Please report back after a few weeks and report back if this shows up in your “web pages” section of your Google Local Listing.

Thanks.