Is your online listing up to date?

Three years ago, I wrote about being sure your utility is listed in Google Places. You can read that article here.

Get Your Business Online

Google has introduced a new program called “Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map” to help facilitate getting small businesses online. As part of this project, they have created an online tool to see how your utility shows up in Google Search and Google Maps. You can access it at gybo.com/business.

This will prompt for the name of your utility and then will display one of two results pages, depending on how complete your information is.

You’re on the map

If your information is complete, you will see a screen that says “Nice Job. You’re on the Map.” Then, as you scroll down, it will show a preview of how your listing appears.

Your business info is incomplete

On the other hand, if your information is incomplete, all you have to do is click the “Complete your information” button. The tool will take you through the steps to update your listing.

Of the handful of utilities, I checked while researching this article, the most common reason for an incomplete listing was not having their hours listed, followed by no picture (logo). According to Google, the number one thing people look for online is hours, so be sure yours are up to date!