Get more customers in 2012 by using Google Places

Google Places - the new way for potential customers to search for local businesses using the Internet. Yellow Pages, adverts in the local press, online directories and even your company website are now much less effective.

• Google has already created outline Place Pages for most local businesses. A Place Page is really a small website that is unique to a particular business. The problem is that these outline pages are very likely to do your business more harm than good. Click here to find yours. (Of course, If you do not already have a Page, we can create it for you.)
  
  
• Your Place Page is the first thing your local potential customers are going to see. It's vital that it gives all the necessary information about your business and is well presented, with photos and other items, so that they are persuaded to choose you.
  
  
• Google is putting customer reviews on your Page. Your potential customers are
  going to see what existing customers are saying about you. A prominent negative review will hurt your business. Your reputation on Google Places needs to be managed. Click here to see our guidelines on this.
  
  
• Google produces many pages of results for every search. It's important that your business appears at or near the top of the first results page. Your Place Page needs to be optimised to ensure this happens. In order to get to the top of the results, you need a page that is completed with all the features that Google allows; here's a good example. In addition to positive reviews, you need to have lots of relevant 'citations' - see more on this here.
  
  
• Depending on the nature of your business, you can use your Page as a means of displaying special offers of linking to moneysaving vouchers.

EVC are the local experts in Google Places and offer a range of tailored services. Let us develop your Page to ensure that it wins you new business - call us today (01525 220960) or email us at info@eaglevector.com

Google is putting a lot of effort into making Google Places accessible to users of smartphone such as the iPhone, Blackberry and Android-based phones. There are some examples here of how Places appear on these phones.

In addition to making your Google Places Page work effectively for you, we can link it to the use of further effective marketing approaches using new Internet and mobile phone technology - see here for an overview.

(By the way, click here to see Google's cool video on Places. With EVC, you might just get to be that cool - though we can't guarantee that bit!)