Will the Real Google Places Page, Please Stand Up, Please Stand Up?

January 7th, 2010 by Search Influence Alumni

Your Google listing and its Google Place page is a great central depository for all information about your business.  It is the compilation of business owner provided data as well as user-generated reviews. The Place page is an incredibly valuable tool for a small or medium size business owner.  The Places page URL is friendly to users, easy to share, and easy to find …

You will want to search for your company + geo modifier.

For example, “Search Influence, New Orleans, LA” will get me here:

When I click on “More information,” I land on the business’ Google map listing with all manner of data that consumers love:

Click on “Link” in the upper right corner – it’s small, but it’s there – and the popup box indicates the Place page link:

Did all of that and still don’t find your Places link?

If you followed the steps above, and your Places link is not a friendly URL, your listing likely is not yet the authoritative one.  It should look like the model – http://maps.google.com/places/us/city/name-st/#/-full-business-name –

The first thing you need to do, is look for other listings in your business name.  These can be …

1)   another business squatting on your company name (dirty dogs!)

2)   forgotten listings that are simply duplications:

Either way the least authoritative listing needs to be suspended in the Google Local Business Center to make the real listing stand up.  To paraphrase the immortal word of Eminem, “Will the real Google listing, please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?”

simpsons-slim-shady

If you don’t have duplicate listings on any variation of the name or duplicates on address, you should try to manually create the Places page using the standardized format per Mike Blumenthall:

http://maps.google.com/places/us/city/name-st/#/-full-business-name

Watch for derivatives of Street, St, Lane, Ln, etc.

It may take a little of your time to get it straight in Google Local Business Center, but to be the authority on your Google map listing and to own your friendly Places page URL is invaluable to a small business, and well worth a little effort.