Google is brilliant, or at least most of the things they do are. Search for example, I still find that Googles search results more often that not and certainly much more than any other search engine reflect what I was actually looking for. E-mail is another example, when Google launched GMail it eventually revolutionised webmail systems. It started as a trickle that turned into a torrent, as is Google’s way. We’ve got a lot to thank Google for. So when Google offers your company a way of advertising or marketing on one of their services then I think it’s best to take it, what might be a “small” Google project at the moment could be ground breakingly huge next year. I’ll ask again, is your company on the Google map?
The map I’m talking about is the information map that is featured as part of Google Earth and more recently as it’s own service at Google.com (Maps) If you look closely at that page, underneath the search banner there are 3 options:-
- Search the map
- Find A Business
- Get Directions
The one we are primarily interested in here is Find A Business. Clicking on it splits the search box into 2, allowing us to search for a business type in a certain area. For example a search for a SEO company in the Isle of Man should find Search Visible, complete with contact details. Now try searching for your company, are you there? If you’re not it’s because unlike Google’s search product, businesses are not found automatically and added to the map, if you want to feature on the Google map then you need to let Google know about your company and here’s how, it’s free to do, all you’ll need is a Google account.
- Visit the Google Local business centre
- Enter your standard business address and contact details, including the forms of payment that you accept.
- Choose a category
- Choose an address verification method, either postcard or phone. I tried the phone method first but if your landline is ex-directory then you will need to use the postcard method. Anyway, it’s nice to get a postcard from Google and it only took a few days to arrive.
- Follow the instructions to confirm your address
- Your business listing should be live on Google maps within 6 weeks, although mine took 2 months.
I’m not going to pretend that you’ll get thousands of customers at the moment from this, but with Google you can never be sure. Who is to say that Google Maps wont become the next big thing? Besides I’ve already had 1 local customer find me on the Google Map so for the 5 minutes of time it took and zero fee it was well worth the effort.