Getting found online these days is a “must” for any business – large or small.

One of the relatively simple things you can do is make sure that your business is listed on Google places.

If you’re not already listed you can start the signup process online here.

You will need to validate your business address before you can publish your listing on the Google places site.

Once your account and listing is validated you’ll be able to publish a listing including:

  • Office location (doh! It’s not called places for nothing!)
  • Opening hours
  • methods of payment accepted
  • services offered
  • overview of your services
  • Other information

To make your “place” stand out a little from the crowd you can also upload photos and link to videos on Youtube.

We’ve added a few to ours in the last couple of days and I think it looks a lot better 🙂 (click to enlarge)

Blacknight on Google places

Where it gets really interesting, however, is with reviews and other user content.

Have a look at some of the results that I got earlier today while searching for “restaurants in Pisa” and “solicitors in Carlow”:

A search for "carlow solicitors"

A search for "carlow solicitors"

 

search for "restaurants pisa"

search for "restaurants pisa"

Google seems to be using Google Places to influence their search results, particularly when you look for “local” products or services.

Getting a Google Places listing won’t take you long to setup and it doesn’t cost you anything, so it seems like the logical thing to do 🙂

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