OMG! SEM for SMB's Requires SEO & LSE's for Google Places MAP ... LOL

June 20, 2010 - PRLog -- If you haven't heard of Google Places you will.  The little MAP that pops up when you search for the local nail spa or real estate agent is the winner among business directories and local search engines (LSE's) such as City Search, Yahoo Local, Yelp, Hot Frog, SuperPages and many others for how the folks will find local business information in the near future.  

The flip side is that Google Places is becoming the must have ad location for many restaurants, hotels, retailers, and emergency services providers.  For some, like emergency plumbers and locksmiths, if your not on the MAP, the phone doesn't ring.  

Ironically, there is no cost to appear on the MAP.   It is one more aspect of internet search engine marketing (SEM) that is free except for the cost of figuring out how to best your competition.  So small businesses (SMB's) are having to either learn and stay current on search engine optimization (SEO), or hire it done.  One that they commonly turn to is the owner of the largest blog and YouTube presence on the subject of Google Places, Randy Kirk.  His blogs at http://www.GooglePlacesHelp.blogspot.com and http://www.FreeSeoOptimizationTips.blogspot.com comprise a wealth of information on how to rank on the Google Places MAP.  

Kirk explains:  "For some companies, getting on the MAP is easy.  In fact thousands of companies are already listed on one of those maps and they don't even know it.  Google populated their directory with information purchased from other resources, so a business owner may not have to do a thing to have their business visible on Google Places.

"On the other hand, if a company is in a competitive industry or a competitive neighborhood, there is a great likelihood that unless the company is doing some SEO with regard to their listing, they will be relegated to the 'inside listing.'  What this means is that rather than showing as one of the 7 businesses on the outside MAP, they will only be visible if the searcher click on the link for 'more results near' under the listings on the outside MAP."

Kirk is cofounder of a company called Page1Listings.com.  They have posted a huge number of videos on that site that also give free help to business owners.  "We know there are folks who can't afford much right now, but have time on their hands.  So we have given away the store.  Between our blogs and videos there is little that can't be learned about optimizing a presence on Google Places.  But it is about the most complicated enterprise on the internet, so many owners find it easier to hire a pro.

New to the Google Places experience is the addition of Posts and Tags.  These are fully explained with details of how to use them at http://www.FreeSeoOptimizationTips.blogspot.com

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Page1Listings.com is a company dedicated to helping small businesses (SMB's) with their search engine optimization (SEO), so that they can have effective search engine marketing (SEM), using local search engine (LSE) listings. All of the above will help the business owner to become more visible in general, but Page1Listings.com is particularly interested in getting their clients on the outside of the Google Places MAP.

Now the company has also posted new information on their blogs that tell how to use the new Google Places Posts and Tags. These can be seen at http://www.FreeSeoOptimizationTips.blogspot.com