This is a must do for any business of any-size whether you have a website or not, and the best part it’s Free.
It requires you to have a Google account but don’t worry if you don’t as you can sign up from this page using an existing email account and making it a google account, so you don’t have to add on another email address to your ever growing list if your like myself.
Google walks you through each step of getting your business listed added and confirmed either by postcard or phone. I won’t repeat the steps here as you will already be on thier site with the directions in front of you, instead I will highlight the benefits.
When someone searches in google for your business or a general term/phrase for your type of business a map will show up at the top of the results displaying the local businesses. As an example you can search google for Saint John Bowling,
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=Saint+John+Bowling&btnG=Search&meta=
Here you can see the map, that shows the different businesses who have used Local Business Center to list their business and it shows them on the map so people can quickly see the location. In this example we did not search for a specific business but a general phrase but these business get prime placement for taking just a few minutes out of their day, and no on going cost.
This is a great way to reach your local audience for both specific and broad phrase searches.
Tags: Google Map, local business center, local listing, local search, promoting your website, search engine, seo