Google Maps Local Business Center is Do or Die Site for Many Local Small Businesses

Page1Listings.com has created a new group of blogs to help small businesses get better positioning on Google searches for key words important to them. The most critical of these blogs is for Google Maps Local Business Center. You are no doubt familiar with the little map that pops up when you go searching for a local business. For instance if you were to search for auto insurance Marina Del Rey, you would find what we call a "single." The map appears with just a single company listed. (This happens to be our client, Jaffe Insurance.)

Or you might search for Bike Shop Norwalk, and you would see the map with 10 shops listed to the right. (Pat's 605 Cyclery is ours, nicely situated at the top of the listings.)

For many companies, failure to be listed on Google Maps Local Business Center is the kiss of death. For some, a listing isn't enough. They need to be number 1 on the listing or business dries up.

Google Maps Local Business Center is called a "Local Search Engine" or LSE. It is only one of some 72 such LSE's. We have created a help site for Google Maps, one for Yelp.com, one for MerchantCircle.com, and one for HotFrog.com. These are the 4 most important at this time, and seem to be positioned to continue to out muscle the others such as CitySearch, InsiderPages, and even YellowPages.com.