This excerpt is from Lisa Barone’s article on Outspoken Media Claim Your Google Places Listing In April 2010 the world of local changed forever. It’s when Google made its local intentions clear with the release of Google Places. Just as Google had always prided itself in organizing the world’s information, Google Places looked to organize the world’s businesses. To date, more than 50 million places have been created. If yours isn’t one of them, you’re behind. This is something you can’t ignore. To claim your Google Place Page, head over and add your business if it’s not already there. Fill our your profile with your basic information, service areas, payment options, hours, videos, photos and any other additional information that you feel is relevant. It’s really important that you take the time to fill out each and every section, including the area of photos. On October 27, Google showed a serious change to the search engine results page with Place Search What it did was replace the old local 7-pack with comprehensive local listings that put related business images and reviews directly under your Web site listing in the SERP. Yeah, they’re right there for everyone to see. It’s massive. If you haven’t checked it out, do so now. You’ll start to see just how important your business’ Google Place page is. Some tips to help you optimize your Google Place Listing

• As I mentioned, fill out every field. Many sources have stressed the importance of having a score of 100 on your Google Place Listing. Yes, I know, no one likes filling these things out but it’s important. Don’t give me lip.
• Include relevant keywords that best describe your products and services. That means not only including keywords relevant to what you do, but also where you do it. This is local search after all.
• Make reviews a priority: Reviews are becoming increasingly important for a number of reasons (which we’ll cover in a bit), however, in the world of Place Search, reviews for your business are appearing directly underneath your Web site listing. There’s no avoiding them, especially now that Google has, itself, gotten into the online review world.