Guest Blog: Claiming Your Google+ Local Page

Learn how to claim your Google+ Local Page. Guest blog from Artsy Geek a local web-design and social media company.

Claiming Your Google+Local Page – The First Step

You need an email account to claim your place page. It is best to use an email address which includes the business name. We suggest creating a special gmail account you can share with others who might work on the page.

Go to www.google.com/places
Choose “Get Started” and you will need to log in using the email account you created.
You will be asked to enter the phone number of the business. This should be the public, local phone number of your business.

You may then be presented an existing listing for your business. Select “Edit” if you see a listing for your business. If you do NOT see a listing for your business, select “Add a listing”.
Inputting Basic Info on Your Page – Things to Know:

Company/Organization: Use the exact, public, and legal name of your organization.
Street Address: You MUST provide your local address to Google. You will be given the option later to hide your address from the public.
Phone number: It is very important that this be a local phone number. You can put any 800 numbers elsewhere on the page (like under “Additional Details”).
Email address: You don’t need one, but we recommend you have an email address that customers can reach you at and include it on your page.
Website address: You don’t need a website to have your page rank well on Google Search in a less competitive market. It does help you rank better in any market.
Description: Give a clear description of your business. Think of who your customers are and write a description so that if a potential customer reads your description, they will know they have found what they are looking for with you.
Categories: You must choose at least one category from the existing list. Think of what words you expect people would type into google search to find you. You can have up to five categories total.
Service Area: If you go out to people where they are to conduct your business rather than have them come to you, then you can declare a Service Area. You can choose a radius (in miles) or a neighborhood. Whatever you enter, a map will show you the area defined so you can evaluate it.

Photos If you don’t put photos on your page, it will look drab, so you definitely want to add photos that represent your business.
Additional Details: You could include information like parking options, special offerings, awards, provide urls to things like menus or reservations, etc…

Verification: You will be asked how you want to receive your PIN. You may only have the option to have it mailed or you may also have the option to receive it by phone. If you choose the phone option, you will receive a phone call instantly by an automated system and it will tell you a pin, so you should be prepared to write it down right away.

Enter the pin when you receive it and now you can come back anytime to make updates, create coupons, and you will also have access to a “dashboard” which allows you to access information like how often people see your page and how many click on it.

Learn more at Artsy Geek