If you’ve ever done a local business search on Google, you know the great opportunity that can be found at the top of the search results when business listings come up.

People looking for local businesses are typically drawn to the local results because they aren’t necessarily looking for a website, a blog or an article – they’re simply looking for information about a business: phone number, address, hours, parking info and maybe a few other details to help them make a decision of some sort. From the local search results, they can choose to click through to a company’s website.

So if the opportunity is great for searchers, you know the opportunity is even greater when YOUR business listing comes up.

But, what about those businesses that aren’t on Google Local Search? Are they missing out on qualified local customers who are searching based on keywords and geography?

They are. Businesses that aren’t part of Google’s local business search results are missing out on a huge (and mostly free) search marketing opportunity.  Sometimes companies don’t know the service exists, sometimes they do know, but they aren’t sure how getting into the business results works.

So how does a company position itself to be part of these high-power Google results?

First of all, Google Local Search has recently changed its name to Google Places, and if it’s not part of your local search optimization efforts, it needs to be.

If you’re already familiar with Google’s local search capabilities, then you probably understand its importance and may even be part of their local business search services. Recently, Google has added some new features to the Google Places service. Here are a couple:

Service Areas – Got a business on wheels with no home base? Google allows this type of business to display the geographic area the business serves.

Ad Tags – Tag your local listing using ad tags to promotes coupons, and provide other beneficial information. (This is why I said “mostly free” above.)

Google has also taken the proactive step of letting you in on some traffic stats for your listing, including number of views, referring pages and keywords used to find your business.

If you’re uncertain about how to get yourself onto Google Places, there are businesses out there, like mine, who do this kind of thing for a living.  Being on Google Places is a ‘must’ for your local search optimization efforts, so if you have any questions about it, you know where to find me.