You have no doubt been seeing a lot of marketing from consulting and search engine optimization services telling you how important it is to get active with Google Places to improve your local search results ranking for when someone does a search for a chiropractor in your area.
Claiming your Place Page is considered one of the most important online marketing steps you can make to give your business a boost within the Google search engine rankings. It can literally improve your local search rankings overnight and the best part is that it is very easy to do and it won’t cost you a penny. While it may be important to use a service for some online marketing strategies such as optimizing your website, claiming your place page is something that you or a staff member can easily do in a matter of minutes.
(Rather see the video of me claiming a place page instead, check out my short YouTube Vid)
A Google ‘Place Page’ is essentially a business listing that gives information about your services, hours, payments accepted, location and much more. A lot of people get confused between Google Maps and Google Places. Google Maps has been around for a while and essentially just a way for customers to determine your clinic’s physical location. Google Places was created more recently and specifically for local business searches so that when someone looks for a chiropractor in their hometown it will display clinics that are near them along with the location and information about each clinic…all in one convenient location.
As an example, I did a search for a ‘Chiropractor in Phoenix’ and pasted the screen shot below. I circled the ‘Place Page’ link next a search result which is actually one of my clinics.
If the person doing the search were to click on the link, they would be taken to this page (below) which is of course the Place Page for my clinic.
Another common question I get about Place Pages is if they are intended to replace your website. The answer simply is no it is not and as you see in the screen shot above, your website will actually be listed on your Place Page so that anyone looking for more information can click the link and go have a look.
Think of Google Places as a directory listing where prospective patients can not only find and learn a little about your clinic but where they can also compare and contrast it to your competitors – and do it all at one spot.
One of the biggest benefits to claiming ownership of and editing your Place Page is so that Google will use it as its recourse for information about your business. You see, Google gets information about your business from multiple sources on the web such as directories like yellow pages for example. However, when you have a Google Place Page for your business that you claim and verify you are the owner of, Google is now going to use that information as their reference about your clinic above information they might get from any place else on the web. This gives you a great advantage of ensuring you are in control of the information and keywords that Google will use to find your business when someone searches for a chiropractor in your area.
How to Claim your Page
To get started you will first sign into your Google account or create a new account if needed. You can do that at https://www.google.com/accounts/CreateAccount or do a Google search for ‘create google account.’
Now, there’s a couple of ways you can claim your Place Page. I will review one of ways which is simply to go to Google and search for your business. You will likely find it unless you just opened recently – in which case you will need to ‘add your business’ rather than claim it. You business will probably pop up next to a Google map. Once you locate it, click on the ‘place page’ link that you should see somewhere near your listing.
Once you are at the Place Page for your business, it’s time to claim it as your own. You will see either ‘Business Owner?’ or something similar on the page. If you don’t then you may have to click the ‘Edit’ link and find the ‘Business Owner?’ link from there.
Make sure the business listed is yours and then select the ‘Edit my business information’ option and click the ‘Continue’ button. From there you can populate your page with your information including hours of operation, website, phone number, payment options, photos, videos and of course a description of your clinic in 200 characters or less. anything else it will allow you to enter. When describing your business, make sure you use the keywords that people in your community might use when searching for services you offer. For example if you are located in Downtown Tampa then make sure that Downtown is part of your description text. Building a complete profile helps your rankings as much or more than the claiming of your business.
You will now submit that information and Google will now need to verify that you are indeed the owner. The easiest way to handle this is to select the option of having them call your office number listed on your page to verify it. Once you are verified, you are in the loop.
You will want to repeat this same process for Yahoo and Bing Local listings and that should help give you a nice boost in your Search Engine Optimization marketing endeavors.
Hope that helps and don’t forget to leave me a comment below! Thanks, Daron
