What is Google Places?

Google Places may be the most powerful FREE Google marketing tool.

The Google Places Business Listing consists of a Free business listing appearing on Google and Google Maps. The Google Places Business listing includes basic company information, photos, videos, and reviews.

How Does Google Places Benefit My Practice?

1. Google Places Business Listings are optimized for smartphones. If your current website is not smartphone optimized then this is the perfect free tool for mobile visibility.
2. Google Places Business Listings are above the organic (non-sponsored) search results. Meaning that on an average computer screen a user will only see the Sponsored listings and Google Places Business Listings.
3. The Google Places Business Listing helps get your practice exposure- for FREE.

How Do I Claim My Business Listing?

There are two FREE options for claiming your Google Places Business Listing.

1. Go to http://places.lawinfo.com and fill out the form. LawInfo will create your basic listing for you! For FREE!
2. Go to http://www.google.com/places and click on ‘Places for Business’.

Tips for Optimizing Your Google Places Business Listing

To get the most possible exposure for your business listing follow these optimization tips:

1. Answer all Questions on the questionnaire, including hours of operation. Make sure to double check answers as any misspellings or incorrect information may affect your listing visibility.
2. Main Phone- should be a local number, try to avoid toll free numbers such as 800.
3. Description- Your business description should be keyword rich. It is better to have more keywords than for your description to be literarily pleasing. Example: John Doe Divorce Attorney in Miami, Florida. Highly respected lawyer in Miami. Florida Divorce attorney specializing in high profile divorce cases. John Doe has practiced law for 25 years in Miami. He is graduate from Chapman School of Law.
4. Choose Categories- based on your company’s keywords. Each business listing should utilize all five available category slots. An example of keywords: your company is John Doe Divorce Attorney, keyword recommendations would be- divorce attorney, attorney, divorce services, family law attorney, and general practice attorney.
5. Upload Images- Ideally you would upload all ten permitted. Make sure to optimize your photos. By optimizing your images you increase the value of your Business listing. LawInfo recommends naming your image using keywords. Example: A photo of John Doe would be named ‘Miami Divorce Attorney John Doe’.
6. Upload Videos- Ideally you would upload all five that are permitted. Make sure that the videos uploaded are high quality, watermarked and have inscribed meta data in the file. Meta data is a term that refers to the video details that are added when the video is created. These details would include a video title (keyword rich) and video tags or keywords.
7. Under Additional Details- Link to other directories such as Yellow Pages, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Localize, and Yelp. Another tip would be to enter your areas of service. Example: Legal Service: High profile divorce attorney. Add as many additional details as you are able.

Additional Tips For Success

The Google Places Business Listings are ranked according to many factors. One major factor that contributes to your success is your company’s website. By optimizing your website, Google and other search engines are better able to see what your company represents and thus may rank you higher on search results pages.

Here are 3 easy tips for optimizing for search engines:

1. Optimize your Website Name using keywords.

   Example: using John Doe Divorce attorney from above, an ideal website URL would be www.MiamiDivorceAttorney.com or www.DivorceAttorneyDoe.com

2. Make sure there is a Description listed in the source code of your website.
   Not sure, well there is an easy way to check. Go to your homepage and right click your mouse, select ‘view page source’, at the top of the new window you should see the term ‘Description’ and a proceeding description. Example: Miami Divorce Attorney John Doe has practiced law for the last 25 years. Florida lawyer with experience in high profile divorce cases.

3. Make sure there are keywords listed in the source code of your website.

   You can check this using the same method as Tip #2 above. This time you will look for the term ‘keywords’ and the proceeding list of terms related to your site. For John Doe’s keywords we would list- Miami divorce attorney, Miami lawyer, divorce lawyer, Florida attorney, attorney Doe, attorney John Doe, experienced divorce attorney, and high profile divorce attorney.