Understanding Google Business Listings

| Online marketing

Understanding Google Business Listings

Google Local, Google Places, Google Maps and Google Plus, you probably have your business listed somewhere across these Google products but do you know what they are used for?

We are here to explain what’s going on with your Google listings and how to make sense of them:

Your page

What type of page do you have? If you haven’t created a new Google business listing in the last year you are likely to have a Google Places page.

If you have created your business listing in the last year then you will have a Google+ Local page.

What’s the difference?

Google+ Local page is similar to your Facebook company page. It is a page that represents your business within Google Plus. Individual users can follow your page and the content you post will be visible on their newsfeeds.

Google Places is a listing of your business used in Google Maps and Google’s organic search results. It displays a map, reviews and details about your business such as open hours, contact info and your address.

Google Maps update relies on Google Plus

The new changes to Google Maps will affect how your business ranks in local search. Google Maps listings will become personalised for the user, taking into account their location, ratings and reviews from their social circles on Google Plus.

As an estate agent you will need to have good reviews and ratings from customers through your Google Plus page in order to improve your rankings in Google Local listings.

How to get a Google+ Local page?

If you don’t already have a Google listing then you can create a Google+ Local page from scratch, www.google.com/+/learnmore/local/.

If you already have a Google Places page you can create a new Google+ Local page and merge it with your existing Places page. By doing this you won’t lose out on any of the reviews you may have already got.

Merging Google Places with Google+ local gives you the best of both worlds. Users can find all your info in just one places including content, photos, maps, general business information, customers reviews and anything else that you have uploaded to your Google+ business page.

Once merged this page will replace your old Google Places listings and will appear in both Google Maps and Google’s organic search results.

Luke Stanley