Google.com has started to let businesses respond to user reviews on the Google Places/Local Business Centre/Maps/whatever they’re calling it nowadays section.

They even offer advice as to how to respond to complaints, here’s the link.

Useful for maintaining customer service and relations as well as allowing businesses to respond to especially harsh or undeserved criticism.

It’s only a matter of time before this is added to Google.co.uk.

This isn’t going to change SEO but responding or monitoring the reviews may become a task for some SEO companies. Or it may make filling in the listings accurately an absolute necessity otherwise customers may pick up on any mistakes and have the perfect place to vent their disappointment/frustration or it may hamper the position of the business in the listings.

It will be interesting to see if Google will take anything from a company’s response, so if a company consistently answers its customers will Google give it a higher position on the map listings?

Google Maps, in my opinion, can be a great tool for SEO and your business but I find that the location takes precedence in your search. If you’re searching for a shop or a business that is static then it can be really useful, but if you’re searching for someone who covers an area or region it can’t give you all the options. So if you search for electricians Leicester you see all the electricians who have listed their address as Leicester, even though electricians, plumbers, builders and other services are provided across counties and regions.

I know Google Places lets you add a service area now to your listing but the map/search function doesn’t appear to have caught on.

Maybe Google will (or should) create a league style ranking system for businesses on the Local Business Centre where regions covered is accounted for and acknowledged, and also how positive the reviews are.

How internet marketing can use Google Maps to improve local SEO.

Local businesses who want to generate more business to their website with internet marketing, will see the impact that a Google Map will have for getting your business noticed online.

Spending some time to work on your Google map will bring you page 1 benefits even if page 1 hasn’t yet been achieved organically with your SEO . If your site is already on page 1 then being up there with the map listing can  make your business profile look stronger to potential customers.

Google maps produces a map with single line business listings which often comes above the first page 1 position 1 organic listing.

Build your business listing with Google maps by going to Google Places (formally known as Local Business Centre) and create an account.

• http://www.google.co.uk/places

Take action and complete all the sections within this, adding a keyword rich (but not spammy) description, opening hours, images and payment methods. Ensure that you complete all 5 category options to maximise your listing potential. The more accurate you can be with your categories the better your success will be. Using categories from the list of suggestions is recommended but its OK to add one of your own if they don’t suggest an appropriate one. Try to make sure your profile here is 100% complete.

Ensure you complete the Google Maps listing to contain the same business name, address and telephone numbers as what appears on the website itself.

Google wont allow you to create a different listing for different locations that your business serves so ensure that your add these in using the list of area’s served selection. As you can see from the image below this maximises the area of the map Google will connect your business with but don’t abuse this option, keep it realistic for it to work properly.

Make sure you enhance your place page by adding as many of the available media options such as images and video as possible and if applicable, create coupons or add weekly specials. The more information you can give google the better they can list you.

Filling this information in is just the start. If your industry is not very competitive then you may be lucky enough to be amongst the listings right from filling in this listing alone but more competitive industries and areas will require a little more work. ( Although this is actually also recommended to keep your listing on the search engine maps and strengthen your listing).

There are many other ways you can improve the position of your google map and one of these ways is getting happy clients / customers to write testimonial style reviews for you in the review section of your listing, as these boost your map profile.

Listing yourself with local directories for the town of your Google map address will increase your location profile, reinforcing the strength of your listing. You can find these in Google by simply typing into the search “Nottingham directories” for example.

All directories that enable you to verify your location with a Google map within them are an excellent way to promote your google map.

These listings are often different to your standard link building and more like the Google places listings, as many of these sites don’t produce a quality SEO link as such but they produce citations of your business that usually come high in the search engines.

These citations result in the directories themselves coming up in the listing of Google but with your business information. Although these don’t produce great SEO benefits to your sites set keyword organic rankings, it does have the benefits of increasing your Google map position and helps it to get it with the top few we see in the search engine lists.

A selection of good places to build these citations is:

• http://www.Qype.co.uk
• http://www.hotfrog.co.uk
• http://www.brownbook.net

These are just to get you started, there are many more across the internet.

This integrated with your local internet marketing campaign is a way to ensure that you utilise all the most productive methods available to make your website and business a success.