If you have a local business, one thing you must consider is how to advertise you business or draw the public’s attention to your products or services.  You may have spent hundreds, or even thousands of dollars to get your business listed in as many directories as you can.  Here is one solution that will save you money, time and effort.

Surely you’ve heard of Google, but it’s much more than just a search engine.  There is also an application called Google Maps that provides web mapping services.  It allows your business to be listed and published so that it will be visible to the local community and even worldwide.  Having a free listing makes it easy for people to locate your business using their personal computers or web-enabled mobile phones.

Use Google Places to create your listing.  Before getting started, you have to check your country availability as Google Places is available in certain countries only for businesses.  This service is totally free.  All you need to have is a mailing address.  Make sure that you only have one listing; however, if you offer many services, you can enumerate that in your business description and category.  If you do not already have a Google account, you’ll need to create one before adding your business to Google Places.

If you want the public to locate you, make sure you enter the correct information such as your business name using standard capitalization and punctuation, address and contact numbers.  You can then provide additional information including your business email, website, description of the services you offer, operating hours as well as methods of payment that you accept.  After verifying your listing, you can further enhance your page by adding photos, videos, reviews, special offers and latest updates.

Another cool feature of this application is that it allows you to embed your Google Map site into your business website using the Google Maps API.  In addition, there is also a Java application called Google Maps for Mobile that enables people to locate your business through their mobile devices.

Google Maps offers a great help for local businesses.  With this advanced technology, you will have the opportunity to connect to the people without going through the tiring efforts of traditional advertising.  Unlike the Yellow Pages or other directory providers, Google Maps enables you to have a more friendly approach by sharing more than just the basic information.  Also, you can edit your listing quickly & easily and the updated listing will appear within Google’s search results fairly quickly.  What more could you ask for?  Google Maps enables you to provide real-time updates to the public, increases your visibility, and is absolutely free!