Google ranks sites based on how valuable they think the site is to the person searching…naturally, they rank themselves pretty highly. So if you register your Place on Google (a free and easy process) and include a link to your website, you are almost guaranteeing that people who search for your store will find your site without any problem. This is how you do that…
Go to www.google.com/places where you will be presented with two options; below “Get your business found on Google” on the right side of the screen, click the “Get started” button. If you aren’t already signed into your Google account you will be asked to sign in. If you don’t have a Google account, you can create one by clicking the link in the top right corner of your browser.
Once you are logged in you’ll be prompted to enter your business’s phone number. Google searches its database to see if they already have any sort of listing for your business that you can claim. If they do, click edit next to your listing. If there is no listing yet, click “Add a new listing.” Enter the information you would like to appear on your Google Place page. This will likely be the first result when people search for your business’s name, so the more information the better, but make sure that you add a link to your website. Not only will that give customers an easy route to your website, but when big websites like Google have verified links to your site, search engines trust it more and will rank it higher across the board.
After you’ve finished editing the details of your Google Place, click submit. To ensure that you are who you say you are (an official representative of the establishment you’re claiming) Google will have to call the business’s official land-line. Be prepared to answer the phone immediately after you click Finish. A recording will present you with a pin number. After entering the pin number into the proper field and confirming the listing, you should have ownership over that Google place, and in just a few minutes it should be a top result in Google searches for your business name.
Now that you have an official Google Place, you can use it to post information, special offers, and photos; you can even respond to customer comments and reviews publicly as the owner.
Similar processes exist for other referral/review websites like Yelp, YellowPages, MerchantCircle, Bing, and Yahoo. It’s highly recommended that you claim as many of these pages as possible. This gives you maximum control of your image online, and including a link to your website on each referral page will dramatically increase your chances of being found in search engines.
Claim your business on Yelp
Claim your business on Yahoo!
Claim your business on Bing
Claim your business on MerchantCircle