You can now achieve, a full listing including page title and description, an image to represent your business, address & phone number as well as positive reviews from your clients. How awesome is that? That is surely a massive win for local businesses courtesy of Google.

1. Google Places Offers Exciting Times For
Small Business With SEO
©2009, Oracle Digital

2. I must say, I have been really excited lately
when I sit and research Google Trends and
think about the various changes that
Google has been making over the past
year. For many reasons, the one particular change that has got my blood running the
most is the introduction of Google Places into the geo-targeted search results.
In my role as Head of Business Development at Oracle Digital I am always taking the
time to absorb my existing strategies and trying to find new ways of increasing business
for the company. Like many are aware, Oracle Digital is a boutique Digital Marketing
company and we provide cost effective strategies and digital marketing products but by
no means are we the cheapest going around (we sit in the middle – A good place to
be!).
We position our marketing to be in front of potential clients right in what I would call
the mid stream of small to medium business. Our likely clients we will entertain are
probably small business to medium businesses, with an annual turnover of between 1-3
million per year and those businesses which are actively seeking to improve their online
business and overall lead generation strategies. So over the course of my week, I am
constantly faced with the frustrating task of turning clients away. Stupid you say? Well
the reality is, if I don’t feel like Oracle Digital can offer their business a healthy return
on investment then we simply won’t take them on.
This usually happens because their business exists in a particular industry niche, were
search volumes are low and our products and pricing cannot offer them a healthy
return. They leave disappointed!
Well all that has changed!
For months in advance of the recent Google Places changes in Australia (we
watched it play out in the USA prior), my Co-Founder in crime and Head of Research at
Oracle Digital, Clint Maher was furiously working with our team to create a budget
priced, cutting edge product that would finally give me the chance to offer up
something to all these small businesses that I have previously been forced to turn
away!
Well, let’s just say he certainly delivered and delivered well. Within days of Google
implementing the changes here in Australia, Oracle Digital had a Google Places product
ready to offer our clients. These products are powerful in positioning and optimising
your Google Places listing for your business (for various search terms) and also include
a degree of SEO so it’s a double win for our smaller clients.
©2009, Oracle Digital Page | 1

3. While it might not be the
most powerful strategy for
larger businesses who are
targeting more aggressive
and competitive search
terms, it certainly is an
amazing products for the
small businesses in largely
non competitive industries
who cannot afford high
priced SEO campaigns.
The Challenge for
Small businesses
before Google Places
Previously Google Places
was known as Google Map
Listings. You certainly
wanted your business to
be in those map listings at
the time, but the overall benefits was questionable. Sure, you had a one line title and
link to your website but that was about it. As it turns out, the punters using the search
engines would scroll down some and look towards the organic listings to get a more
detailed explanation of your website or business offerings.
In the organic listing they would see a title of your business, then also a page
description that would talk more about your exact offerings. Well the ultimate challenge
here was, fending off all the internet marketing experts who know SEO like the back of
their hands and they would dominate the first page of listings for all the search terms
related to your business. Without a healthy budget, and a very efficient SEO company
many of you could not realise first page results in Google because of this very problem.
The Reasoning behind Google Places
Read this small snippet from Larry Page, one of Google’s Co-Founders, explaining the
mission or maybe the ethics of Google -
©2009, Oracle Digital Page | 2

4. “The perfect search engine,” says co–founder Larry Page, “would understand exactly
what you mean and give back exactly what you want.” When Google began, you would
have been pleasantly surprised to enter a search query and immediately find the right
answer. Google became successful precisely because we were better and faster at
finding the right answer than other search engines at the time.
Google is all about delivering you the most relevant responses every time you use their
search engine. And for some time, they have been caught in a cross fire of delivering
relevant content as opposed to relevant websites.
As I described above, many of these internet marketing gurus have previously been
swallowing up the first page of the search results, simply by building and optimising a
website. Have they been delivering relevant content? Often yes, but Google has now
gone a step further, and finally identified that when a user is searching for a local geo-
targeted business they do not want to see a directory style website. But instead they
are now looking for relevant websites (bricks and mortar businesses that actually offer
up the products and services people want to buy). Welcome the introduction of Google
Places which has taken over a significant portion of the front page real estate in the
Local Search Results.
The Benefits for Small Businesses
The Way Search Results are Being Displayed
I think somewhere in my rant earlier, I spoke about how formerly Google Map Listings
displayed the map and a few links beside. Well now, with Google Places as the
replacement, the first page of the search results is being largely dominated by a more
detailed display of those local businesses who have a well optimised Google Places
listing displayed.
You can now achieve, a full listing including page title and description, an image to
represent your business, address & phone number as well as positive reviews from your
clients. How awesome is that? That is surely a massive win for local businesses courtesy
of Google.
©2009, Oracle Digital Page | 3

5. Cost Effective way to get Maximum exposure
While SEO is an amazing marketing strategy for some businesses it can be costly. And I
mentioned before how a lot of small businesses simply cannot afford the investment of
a large scale, prolonged SEO campaign. Well our Google Places product is quite the
opposite.
For the very affordable price of $880 you can pay Oracle Digital a once off fee for your
Google Places Setup, which claims and optimises your listing and also includes one
month of SEO to your Google Places listing. And further to that, we offer monthly
Google Places SEO campaigns which start from just $440 per/month.
For detailed information or to purchase these red hot products contact James on 0400
998 208.
©2009, Oracle Digital Page | 4