google places for business (stage 1)

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Google Places For Business Setup


Contents Page

1. Executive Summary (Page 1)

2. Stages (Pages 2 - 3)

3. Creating Your Listing (Pages 3 - 8)

4. Optimising Your Google Places for Businesses (Page 8 - 15)

4.1. Adding Photos (Pages 9 - 11)

4.2. Adding Description To Listing (Pages 11 - 12)

4.3. On Page Optimisation (Page 12)

4.4. Optimisation Of NAP (Page 12)

4.5. Optimisation Of Meta Title (Page 13)

4.6. Google Plus Optimisation (Page 14)

4.7. Back-links + Social Signals (Page 15)

4.8. Future Documentation (Page 15)

5. Products & Services (Page 16)

5.1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) (Page 16)

5.2. LinkedIn (Page 16)

5.3. Google Accounts (Page 16)

5.4. Facebook (Page 16)


Who We Are

iLove Marketing is an online marketing company based in Nottingham specialising in Search Engine

Optimisation (SEO), Pay Per Click services (PPC) and Social Media.

Chris Cooke and Lee Evans are joint owners driving a passionate and innovative team of marketer’s

dedicated to the success of their customers.

The name "iLove" came from the concept of what Social media is all about, being social and choosing to be

social. People in the main choose to follow communities as opposed to businesses; they also share their life

stories with friends, family and acquaintances, which is the very reason Social Media is an extremely

powerful marketing tool, especially if unique marketing spaces are created. iLove Marketing offer services

for the many types of Social Media available today.

Mission Statement

To be acknowledged as the online marketing company to work with.

To connect our customers and your customers together, via the iLove network placing iLove marketing at

the very heart of each and every business.

Values

“Treat each business as if it is our own business”

Strive to achieve the very best results at all times. Our customer’s results are as important as our own

“Respect the responsibility of our services”

Be aware of the message we communicate on behalf of our customers

“Love the RESULTS we achieve”

Let the customer KNOW what is coming and enjoy the journey with them

E x e c u t i v e S u m m a r y P a g e | 1


This report outlines the phased introduction of Google Places For Business pages for each business coach in

the UK, making use of the ActionCOACH.com website in its application. It is suggested that Google Places

For Business accounts are set up for every coach using their ActionCOACH.com individual category page

within the Google Places listing.

It is possible to have many different Places For Business listings from the same domain so long as they

appear for different pages and each page has its own identity including own NAP (Name, Address, Phone

Number – regional specific). As most of these category pages already have addresses of the coach on them,

they make ideal pages to link the Google Places For Business to.

It has been noted that certain coaches already have Google Places For Business setup, however this report

also suggests ways to optimise coach profiles so that they appear in the search engine results for certain

highly searched for phrases such as ‘Business Coach (Area)’ in order to generate more leads.

Using the collective strength of all coaches and areas this will allow the entire UK ActionCOACH brand to

generate more leads as a whole but primarily will generate more leads of individual coaches through

occupying a prime space on the Google rankings for very important phrases.

Time is of the essence with this project due to the fact that a Google Places For Business listing can take up

to 6-7 months to become live in the search results from the time it has been submitted to the time it is

verified.

The end goal of this report is to achieve two page 1 positions for local ‘Business Coach (Area)’ searches for

every coach. These will be present in the form of an organic Google listing coming from the

ActionCOACH.com website and also a Google Places For Business listing position. This is turn with other

online marketing efforts will help to increase leads and conversions for coaches online whilst allowing

individual coaches the opportunity to capitalise on their own local potential leads.

The report is completely flexible to coaches needs and is merely presented as a guideline to follow for the

best possible creation and optimisation of Google Places For Business accounts.

S t a g e s P a g e | 2


The first step to setting up your Google Places For Business account is to setup an email with Google

(Gmail). This email address does not have to be shown on your Google Places For Business listing, however

it is necessary to start up your account. If you already have a Google email account then you can use that

one for your Places For Business.

It is very important that if you already have a Google + Profile account, then you use that account to create

your Google Places For Business listing, as this enables you to attach your Google Profile with your Google

Places For Business listing using methods as explained later on in this document.

Stages:

Start off by typing in the URL www.google.co.uk/business/placesforbusiness into the address bar shown in

Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Google Places For Business

If you don’t already have a Google Places For Business account then click the option that states ‘Get Started

For Free’ shown in Figure 2. If you already have a Google Account you can skip this section by signing in and

going directly to the ‘Creating Your Listing’ section.

Figure 2 – Get Started For Free

Then click on the sign up icon to set up your new Google account shown in Figure 3, this will take you to a

new page where you simply fill in your details (but remember this is the email you will be using for Google

Places).

http://www.google.co.uk/business/placesforbusiness

C r e a t i n g Y o u r L i s t i n g P a g e | 3


Figure 3 – Signing Up For A Google account

After creating your Google account you will then be able to go back to Google Places as shown below:

Go Back To Google Places

Creating Your Listing The wizard for creating your Google Places For Business listing is simple and is mainly just a case of

following the steps shown in the top left hand corner and the first step includes accepting Google’s terms

and conditions shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 – Accepting Google’s Terms

The second step includes searching for your business in the top left hand corner shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 – Search for a Business



At this stage simply type in ‘ActionCOACH’ and click the magnification icon shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 – Searching for ‘ActionCOACH’ Then Clicking Search

Google will then bring up a list of ActionCOACH businesses but if you don’t already have a Google Places

listing none of these should relate to your ActionCOACH business and therefore at this stage you will need

to click ‘No, these are not my businesses’ this is illustrated in Figure 8.

Figure 8 – No These Are Not My Businesses

After you have clicked ‘No, these are not my business’ you will be taken to a new screen, whereby you can

enter your business details manually including business name and address. These details must be the same

details that are listed on your individual coach’s category page on ActionCOACH.com i.e.

http://www.actioncoach.com/andyhemming. If these details are somehow too different this will severely

affect the listings ability to rank or even be listed on Google’s search engine, consistency it the key here.

Therefore with this in mind we only suggest minor tweaks listed below to your name and address which will

not affect this.

Here, the business name is very important when it comes to ranking for specific keywords and that is why it

is important to place the area within it. Based purely on the number of searches coaches should be looking

to rank for phrases such as ‘business coach (area)’ with their Places page but it is not wise to place to place

http://www.actioncoach.com/andyhemming



obvious keywords or to veer off the brand name too much. If this is done then it could have a negative

effect and Google could suspend the page believing you are trying to game the system.

It is suggested therefore that ‘business coaching’ is added to the end of ‘ActionCOACH’ as this still makes

sense as a company name and could pull through both ‘coach’ and ‘coaching’ phrases. By adding ‘(Area)’ in

there i.e. ‘Nottingham’ will give the listing added priority for local searches.

A maximum of 40 characters are allowed in the business name section, so there will be little space to add

anything else after this i.e. a personal name. In terms of area it is highly recommended that a city is used

rather than a county as after analysing local searches it is clear that people search by city rather than

county in this instance.

The business address is also a ranking factor and it is recommended that ‘ActionCOACH Business Coaching’

is placed just before your business street address to help with rankings.

An example of a suggested Google Places For Business name is:

‘ActionCOACH Business Coaching (Area)’

An example of a suggested Google Places For Business Address is:

‘ActionCOACH Business Coaching, (Street Address), (City), (County), (Postcode), (Telephone)’

An example of the business name and business address is shown below in Figure 9 below

Figure 9 – Suggested Style For Business Name & Address

The other part of this stage which is very important is the category section shown below in Figure 10 and

this is where you type what sector you are in.



Figure 10 – Category Section

The problem here is that you need to have a category that Google can find through predictive text, we have

identified a few options but the strongest we found for this section which best matches the ActionCOACH

business is ‘Training Provider’. In the category section therefore we recommend you start typing ‘Training

Provider’ and Google should automatically provide a drop down of this option for you to click. If you put in

your own category then you run the risk of your listing not being activated.

In the lower section of this stage you have the option to state whether you deliver your products and

services to people at their location. We recommend that you do not tick this option even though it may be

true as we have always found that it is easier for Google to figure out your proximity to certain locations

rather than stating them yourselves. It is likely if you tick this box you may alter one of the proximity

algorithms associated with Google Places accounts.

Figure 11 – Don’t Tick The Box

Once you have completed this section you are then sent to a page where it will ask you to verify your listing

via postcard, at this stage you need to click ‘verify by postcard’ shown in Figure 12, Google will then send a

postcard to the address you entered on the previous form in order to verify you have access to that

particular location thus proving you are a legitimate business.

This postcard will take 1-2 weeks to arrive and when it does you will need to log into your Places For

Business account at http://www.google.co.uk/business/placesforbusiness/ to enter a unique pin number,

which is listed on the back of the postcard.

http://www.google.co.uk/business/placesforbusiness/



Figure 12 – Verify By Postcard

This postcard will look very similar to the one shown below in Figure 13

Figure 13 – Postcard Example

Optimising Your Google Places For Business P a g e | 8


The listing won’t be activated or be listed in result in the search results until you verify the listing via

postcard, so it is crucial this stage is undertaken in its entirety.

Figure 14 – Unverified Until Pin Entered

Optimising Your Google Places For Business Proximity to certain locations is just one of the ranking factors considered when it comes to ranking in

Google local. As shown by Moz.com in Figure 15 there can be up to 8 ranking factors and these all need to

be optimised to help beat competitor listings.

Figure 15 – Google Places For Business Ranking Factors

Once you have setup your Google Places For Business listing you can then begin to further optimise it for

Google search terms by clicking ‘Edit Information’ shown in Figure 16.



Figure 16 – Optimising Your Listing

Adding Photos

One of the ranking factors that Google looks for is ‘personalisation’ and this can be done through simply

adding a selection of photos to your listing using the tool shown below in Figure 17. These photos also help

the chances of a click through on the listing. To add photos simply click on the ‘edit’ tab or the + icon with a

camera.

Figure 17 – Adding Photos

Then, either drag photos from your computer into the box or click on ‘select photos from your computer’

shown in Figure 18.

Figure 18 – Selecting Photos

It is recommended that you have a professional headshot as the primary photo you upload in order to

attract clients, an example of this is shown in Figure 19.



Figure 19 – Professional Photo

It is then suggested that you add more pictures (the more the better here), these can be pictures of offices,

seminars etc.

It is important to bear in mind that the pictures you decide to upload are originally saved to your computer

with keywords in them. For example it is a good example to save a picture with the keyword ‘business

coach’ inside it such as ‘business coach’, ‘business coach photo’, ‘business coach seminar’ or other related

phrases shown in Figure 20. This will further help the listing rank in Google searches for such terms.

Figure 20 – Making Sure Photo File Names Include Keywords

You can change which picture is set to be your primary photo at any point simply through clicking ‘edit’ on

the photos section and then hovering over the photo you would like to be your primary one and then

clicking the text ‘Set as your profile photo’ displayed in Figure 21 below.



Figure 21 – Setting Profile Picture

Adding Description To Listing

A very important part of the Google Places optimisation process is the description section and this forms

part of the ‘place page signals’ section, shown in the pie chart shown earlier. It is very important that this

section makes the very best use of keywords such as ‘business coach’ and ‘business coaching’ to appear top

for ‘business coach’ type phrases. It is also a good idea to include other relevant phrases such as ‘executive’

and ‘management training’ within the context of the description. The description can be edited by clicking

the pencil shown in Figure 22.

Figure 22 – Editing The Description

A suggested description is shown below in Figure 23.

Figure 23 – Suggested Description



On Page Optimisation

The page you are linking to from your Google Places For Listing account i.e. ActionCOACH.com/NealeLewis

is very important when it comes to the ranking of your places for business listing. There are a few different

ways to optimise the page for the listing and these are as follows:

Optimisation of NAP

NAP stands for Name Address and Phone Number and these items should be 100% consistent both on your

ActionCOACH.com individual coach page and your Google Places for business listing. If the address is not on

your ActionCOACH.com individual coach page then it must be added in order to increase optimisation of

the listing. Any other useful information should be included on both the listing and your webpage i.e. email

addresses, fax etc to maintain consistency.

Optimisation Of Meta Title

The Meta title of the page should be consistent with keywords mentioned within the Google Places for

business listing, especially the business name and description. An example of a Meta Title is shown below in

Figure 24.

Figure 24 – Example Of A Meta Title

It is recommended that the Meta Titles follow a similar format to that shown below

‘Business Coach (Area) – (Name), ActionCOACH’

A META title similar to this will be sufficient to help support the Google Places listing, whilst also enough to

bring through local traffic from the organic search results too. This will eventually lead to coaches being

able to control 2 positions on page one for ‘Business Coach (Area)’ phrases.

Optimisation Of Meta Description

Like the Meta Title the Meta Description on the webpage associated with the Google Places For Business

listing needs to be optimised in order to help the rankings.

The suggested Meta description format is shown below

‘Business coach in (Area), (Coaches Name) of ActionCOACH is an accredited executive and management

training provider to the (region) helping businesses to achieve success.’



Content On The Page

The keywords targeted in the Google Places For Business account also have to be listed on the webpage it is

associated with a few times, this is especially crucial in the first paragraph of the webpage.

Proximity

The address of the business and its proximity to certain towns can also affect your Google listing, although

this is often a factor that can’t be helped. If however you have two or more addresses it is important that

you pick the address closest to the area you would like to rank for.

Google Plus Optimisation

Google Places for Business listings can now be connected to Google + Profile accounts and this is why we

recommend that you use your Google Profile account (if you have one) when creating a Google Places for

Business listing. This will help with the ‘Social Signals’ part of the pie chart. To setup your Google Profile

simply go to http://profiles.google.com and follow the steps provided by the wizard.

To optimise your Google + profile so that it is completely aligned with the Google Places For Business Listing

click the user icon in the top right hand corner shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25 – Click User Icon

Then, click ‘view profile’ and you will be taken to your profile page displayed in Figure 26.

Figure 26 – Click View Profile

Now you need to edit your profile so click the ‘About’ section shown in Figure 27.

Figure 27 – Click About

http://profiles.google.com/



Clicking the ‘About’ section will bring up the following screen displayed in Figure 28. The most important

section of the profile to edit is the ‘story section’ circled, so click edit on this section.

Figure 28 – Editing Your Google Plus Profile

Once in this section make sure keywords such as ‘business coach’ and ‘coaching’ are included in both the

tagline and introduction sections. Make sure other sections of your Google profile are also in alignment

with your Google Places For Business listing, especially the ‘work’ section.

Back-links + Social Signals

One of the ranking factors for Google Places listings is high quality back-links from reputable and social

sources. A Google Places For Business account will not need too many high quality backlinks pointing to it

to rank well in Google. It is crucially important that these back-links are high quality and do not look like

they are trying to game the system in any way. They must look natural and be from a related resource at all

times. A simple backlink from your ActionCOACH.com individual coach’s page will be helpful towards your

listings rankings.

Future Documentation

This document has taken you through how to set up Google Places for Business. Future Google

documentation will cover Google Plus Profile Optimisation, Google Plus Building Circles, Google Plus

Authorship, Communities and Places Integration, and YouTube Channel Setup and Integration. The future

documentation will detail how to use Google for direct and indirect marketing campaigns with the primary

goal of generating leads to your business.

End of Document

Products & Services P a g e | 16


google places for business (stage 1)

Documents

page optimisation page

businesses page

google accounts page

business pages

facebook page

linkedin page

optimisation of nap

products services page