Google Places SEO has become a pretty popular topic for local business owners, and for very good reason. Reaching the top placement for a search for your type of business in your local area means very targeted traffic, and ultimately, increased sales.
Before concerning yourself with the SEO part of Google Places SEO, first concentrate on what Google Places actually is. You have likely already looked at search results in Google with the little red pin next to them. This is something that happens when you are looking for a particular kind of local business.
Google has already gone around the internet to gather business information for millions of local businesses. If you are the owner of a small business, you has probably already gotten a Google Places listing unless you do not have a physical location.
Google Places listings have information on where the business is and include a map, a link to their website, address and other relevant information that a potential customer would need. There are often also reviews.
For the Places page to have more information on it or to have its information corrected and updated, it must be claimed by the owner. If you are business owner, you need to begin the local SEO and Google Places SEO process by claiming your listing.
Even if a page has not been claimed it is possible for it to rank high in the search engine listings. However, a listing that has not been optimized can be topped very easily by competitors who are working on their listings. This is why Google Places SEO is important.
Google Places SEO will be a bit different than the SEO strategies that you use for your website normally. With your website you have more control over your content, how it looks and the way it is optimized. With Google Places, you can only control particular parts of the page.
How you go adding content to your Google Places listing will have a great impact on your search engine placement. For Google Places SEO you will have to research the keyword phrases that will be best for your business for local search and use within your content, naturally of course.
In addition to completing your Google Places page for Google Places SEO, you will have to get citations to your website. Citations are just mentions of your business within other online directories that catalog local businesses, including YellowPages.com, or Yelp.
Once you have completed your page in a way that is best for Google Places SEO, and you have received some citations and reviews, what else is there to do? Many SEO services providers then go to work getting back links for your Places page just as you would for other types of SEO.