Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on March 15, 2011

Introduced as a way for Google to help users pinpoint location and information for local consumer, commercial and industrial businesses and services, Google Places continues to be updated with many great features that can be used effectively for industrial marketing.

The first thing you have to do is claim your listing or ‘verify your Place page.’ It is a simple process that requires you verify an assigned PIN number you’ll receive at your business address by mail or by a call to your business phone number. Once your listing has been verified you can start enhancing your Place page using all the great features. And you can also associate multiple Place pages with your Google Account for each of your businesses as long as they are located at different addresses with different phone numbers.

Start with a well-written descriptive profile that contains the keywords and phrases related to the products, services, and information you offer. It is advisable to maintain search engine optimization consistency across all your collateral online marketing for the content about your business you present because it will collectively serve to boost your ‘authority score’ and affect your rankings.

Upload Photos and Videos with optimized titles (remember to maintain seo consistency!).  The tool also allows you to add more phone numbers, operating hours, methods of payment, and any Additional Details such as the products you sell or the services you offer. To keep your content fresh and inviting, compose and Share an update, such as a sale or promotion, using the integrated ‘Share’ tool.  Be sure to include the Coupon under the Offers tab. The information posted to the Share box expires after 30 days, which is perfect for Limited Time offers of 30 days or less. To complete your listing, select Categories that identify what your business is (Industrial Plumbing Supply) not what it does or sells (faucets).  Use the Additional Details tool to list your individual products and services.

Once your Place page is all set up you have the option to take advantage of promotional tools, some free and others paid, that help you to attract your targeted audience groups. The first is free and is called a QR code. This is a bar code that you can include on your Place page and your collateral marketing materials. With the right application installed on their mobile device, users can scan the bar code with their device’s camera to be taken directly to your Place page.

Paid options include AdWords, Tags, and Boost. As most of you are probably already aware, AdWords is Google’s pay per click search engine marketing program that allows you to create targeted text Ads and keyword/phrase lists to attract targeted customers. Your Places listing is added to your AdWords campaign as a location extension. It will appear prominently for a relevant search on Google search, Google Maps (including Mobile), and the Google Display Network (including Mobile). You will be charged based on clicks and bid amounts you set up in your campaign.

Google Tags look like little yellow Post-It arrows and appear next to the red tear-drop marker that identifies your business location on Google Maps as well as next to your listing in Google Maps and Google search. You can use them to announce sales, promotions, new products, new services, an award you received, or any other item you feel could be used to persuade targeted users to visit your Places page or contact your business.  For a limited time Google is offering the service for free for 30 days, after which it is a flat monthly fee of $25.

Google Boost is a form of pay per click search engine marketing that delivers an enhanced version of your Places listing in relevant search results Sponsored listings on Google search and Google Maps (including Mobile). The ad content includes:

• Name of your business
• Address and phone number of your business as specified in your Google Places account
• Short description of your business (Google will automatically generate an editable description based on your Google Places listing description)
• Snippet from the Place Page detailing the average star rating and the number of reviews
• Link to your business’ Place Page

Once again, Google is offering a free Boost trial period of 30 days, after which you select one of several monthly budget options.

Local search in Google accounts for 20% of total searches per month, which equals on average approximately 2.5 billion local monthly searches (see comScore search engine rankings monthly results). Numbers like that deserve consideration. Take advantage of Google Places and start reaching that percentage of the 2.5 billion who are looking for what you offer.

If you need help, give Industrial Web Solutions a call at (800) 399-9859.

Categories: industrial marketing
Tags: adwords, Google Boost, Google Places, Google Tags, industrial marketing, Industrial Web Talk, local marketing, local search