I know I sound like George Costanza when I say that, but I’m excited to announce the return of the Places “Descriptions” that went missing from everybody’s Places page a few weeks ago.
Here are a few of my clients whose Descriptions are back in all their glory. After all this time, I assume you’d have to see it to believe it:
(Click on any picture to enlarge)
My clients are awesome, so the reappearance of their Descriptions is particularly deserved :), but I’ve seen a few others reappear as well.
The only way in which the Descriptions are not totally “back” is that there seems to be a processing delay on Google’s end when you try to update one. Some of my newest clients’ Descriptions aren’t showing up on their Places pages just yet. Linda Buquet has reported that there’s a 6-10 week delay in updates (ouch) on Google’s end. This appears to be right on the money.
What kind of shape is your Google Places “Description” in at this point? Make my day and leave me a comment!
The problem: you’re not visible in Google Places and are considering one of two things: rolling up your sleeves to try to get visible yourself, or paying someone else to help you do it.
Researching your local market. Before you try to get visible in Google Places, you need to find out whether the search terms you want to get visible for actually trigger the local search results, see how many local competitors you have, use the Google Keyword Tool to find the most relevant and searched-for terms, etc. Look before you leap.
Creating Google Places page/ Tweaking Places info. This is actually the quick part. If you spend a significant amount of time messing with your Google Places listing, you’re doing something wrong. Google doesn’t like frequent changes.
Gathering citations. The tedious process of listing your business on third-party sites. Crucial.
Producing content. It’s smart to get some in-depth, informative articles for your site or blog. Good content can win you quality links without your even having to pester anyone. Or you can put together some short, purely informative, non-promotional videos that a potential customer would find helpful (see “Creating videos,” below).
Data control. You need be on a constant crusade to remove duplicate listings, and to remove or fix any listings with incorrect info on your business. To do this you need to keep an eye on the listings that show up in your Google Places “Dashboard,” and you also routinely need to check your listings on third-party directories (like Yelp) and on major data-providers (like InfoUSA) .
Website tweaks. Optimizing title tags, description tags, H1s, etc. Business owners often hurt themselves by spending time trying to stuff keywords, or by constantly fiddling with these on-page factors. Use a real light touch on the search terms you include, write them with your customers in mind (not Google), and for God’s sake don’t keep changing them around.
Asking for reviews. Customer reviews have become more and more important to your ranking—especially ones written through customers’ Google accounts. There are a number of ways you can drum up reviews, but whatever method(s) you choose, you need to keep at it for the long haul.
Uploading pictures. It’s worth taking the time to put a few good ones on your Places page. It’s not worth constantly changing them or laboring over them to death.
Searching for links. It’s a big Google Places ranking-booster to have links to your site from sites that are relevant to your industry and/or city. To get good ones requires some poking-around, even once you’ve created the good content that you’ll need to be able to offer in exchange for the links.
Adding coupons and/or “Posts.” Coupons are always good, but extremely quick to create on your Places page. Same with the tiny, 160-character Posts—aka “real-time updates”—that you can add to your page (you can do this from the top-right area of your Places “Dashboard”). Still, neither of these is worth getting OCD over.
Social media. Good in small doses, but not worth too much of your time, especially if your goal is to attract customers through Google Places.
Scouting competitors. See where their customers write them reviews, see the videos they’re adding to their Places pages, see what content they’re adding to their sites and providing for other sites, etc. Constantly type their names into Google, keep an eye on the Google Places and organic rankings, and above all see what you can learn from them.
Creating video. Short videos that serve as little nuggets of helpful info, not little infomercials. They don’t need to be pretty, but they do need to be informative. Upload them to YouTube, then to your Google Places listing and your site.
Pursuing publicity. I’m talking about keeping your peepers open for chances to write a short article for your local paper, do an interview in which you’re the “expert,” participate in a local charity event—anything. Good publicity can win you links and/or citations, both of which can help your ranking big-time. This needs to be an ongoing habit.
Running tests. Test coupons. Test different ways to ask your customers for reviews. Try other 
Running SEO analyses. You need to keep your site ship-shape. 
Responding to reviews. You can log in to your Google Places listing and respond to reviews that customers have written through their Google accounts. Reply to the positive ones, too, not just the duds.
Ready for your daily Google Places pop-quiz?
Are there even more track & field events worth clobbering your competition in? Yes: you’ve got the 800m run, the 5000m run…and many others. Likewise, there are even more elements of getting visible in Google Places.