Posted 12/9/2010
By Angie Kilbourne, AAM

Web Wise: Sprucing Up Your Google Places Listing

You've got your latest video or commercial on your site, and that's a great way to connect with customers and prospects. But how can you make that video work even harder for you? Your site is filled with great photos of your shop and your staff, but they can only be viewed by visitors to your site.

Add it to your Google Places business listing page.

In July, I wrote about the search engine's revamped free directory - Google Places - and how it can help boost your search engine results ranking. Now, you can add a multimedia aspect to your listing to help convince prospective customers they should be doing business with you, along with special offers, coupons, photos and other information to tell prospective customers all about your business before they even get to your website.

The latest feature offering, video, is easy to incorporate into your page. First, the videos must be loaded into YouTube. If you don't have an account there yet, create one and load your videos there. Then log into your Google Places account, and scroll down the details page for your listing until you get to "Additional Details." (see photo)

You can add up to five videos to your listing page. Simply paste the YouTube URLs for your videos into the entry field and click the "Add Video" button. Remember to save your changes before exiting; the additions won't be saved or made available to the public until you do.

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