Early this week Google announced that Google Local Business Center is now Google Places.  There are lots of changes associated with this announcement and you can read all about them through the link above.

The biggest factors I see for small businesses are that you no longer have to have a physical office to add your company to their directory.  With these changes Google will allow you to identify a service area and if you work from home or you travel around and don’t really have an office you have the ability to make your address private.

That is going to really open things up for the freelancer and work at home professional.

Recently WebProNews shared a short video interview with Brian Combs, Founder and Principal of ionadas.com.  In this short video Brian shares three things you need to do to get your company found in Google Maps.

One we have talked about here before and that is to claim your business listing in Google.  The second is to optimize your web site.  Huh! Imagine that.  And third is to integrate citation building, which is essentially having your company address information listed on your website and other internet properties such as directory listings and local business profiles.

With maps showing up in more and more searches and pushing down the top 10 natural organic results, its more important than ever for you to show up in these maps if you serve a local market.

Here’s the original video on the WebProNews site.

If you have trouble figuring this out on your own, give me a call.  I’d be glad to help you out.