Google recently changed its Local Business Center to Google Places to make it easier for businesses to manage their Google presence. It combines Google’s Place Pages – snapshots of over 50 million locations providing map, transit, business, hotel, dining, shopping and entertainment information – with the functionality of the Local Business Center (LBC). The LBC allows business owners to maximize their Google listings and post location information, directions, hours, promotions, events and updates.

Google Places will continue to provide those services, and also offers some new paid and free options. For $25/month you can get a Google Tag, a yellow marker appearing in your Google or Google Map listing that you can customize with promotions and advertising information. Free options include:

• Claiming your Google Places listing to add details about your services, hours, pricing, etc.
• Uploading photos and videos of your business or scheduling a free Google photo shoot
• Creating a printable Google coupon for customers with images, expiration date and offer code

The benefits of Google Places to businesses are significant. Aside from free exposure, its easy-to-use tools – such as the Google Places Dashboard that allows you to track stats including top 10 search queries, page impressions, click-through rate and clicks to your Google Tag – allow you to enhance your Google presence and also measure its success.

Need help adapting Google’s free and paid tools to your business? Cool Blue is a certified Google AdWords™ and Google Analytics™ partner. Contact us for smart strategies to help you get the most out of these and other Google campaigns.