Google Goes Local with Google Places

Did you know that 1 out of every 5 searches on Google is now location related? Meaning millions of people use Google every day to find real businesses and places based purely on their location.

Here’s a personal example of exactly what is happening every single day. My wife and I was going out for a date night last weekend and was interested in eating at a restaurant that we’ve never been to before. Instead of hopping in the car and driving around searching, I just searched google for “restaurants avon indiana”.

Here’s a screenshot of what Google thought we wanted to see:

As you can see, it shows Local Business Results for “restaurants” near Avon, IN along with a map with pin points corresponding to the listing of restaurants to the right of the map.

Google Places was originally named “Local Business Center” but on April 10, 2010 Google renamed it Google Places and released some great new features as well including local search and map listings, realtime updates, custom QR codes and coupons, and even photo shoots for businesses.

Google Places allows business owners to add a brand new listing to Google’s local database and to edit the content of their existing listing, or to add a brand new listing to Google’s local database. Business owners can stand out on the map to attract more customers by ensuring that basic information is up-to-date and by providing additional details like photos, hours, and coupons.

In total, over 4 million businesses have already claimed their Google Places pages and now enjoy being listed at the top of google search results for local searches.

If you haven’t claimed your place, it’s relatively easy and quick.

Watch this short video to learn more about Google Places and how to get your business listed there for free.

By the way, we chose The Mediterranean Grill and it was amazing.