Google local business listings are excellent FREE advertisement for businesses!
A local business listing appears when you search for something and include a city and state in your search. (Example: Chiropractor, Dallas GA) You will see a map with markers of those types of businesses. You will also see where other people have left reviews about the individual businesses.
So how do you get your business on the map?
All of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) have local business listings. But, since Google is still the most used, I would suggest creating your listing with them first. They call their service ”Google places”
To create a local business listing for your company, you will first have to create an account with Google. When you create your account, you do not have to sign up for a Google email account (.gmail). Just use your primary email address to create the account. To create a Google account, go to:
Once you’ve created your Google account, you can then create the Local Business Listing for your company. Search for “Google places” or go to:
When you are entering your company information, use a telephone number that you can answer immediately, if possible. At the end of the process of creating your listing, you will be asked to verify it. Google will either call you instantly with a numeric code or they will send a post card to the address you listed. The post card verification takes several days, if not weeks. If you use a phone number that you can answer at the time you’re creating your listing, you can verify the listing instantly.
That’s it! After about 24 hours, go to Google and search for your company (be sure to include the city and state). You should come up on a map with a marker just for you!
After you have listed your business with Google, you may want to go through the process again with Yahoo, Bing and other search engines. You will have to set up accounts with each of these companies in order to create your listing, but the FREE advertising is well worth the time and effort!