A couple of weeks ago I posted a list of the Top 10 Free Places To List Your Business. This post is the first in a series describing my experiences adding a business to each of these sites.

A friend of mine recently lost his architecture job due to the recession. He’s decided to take this as an opportunity to start his own business. His name is Kelton Osborn and his business is QUICK-BEND design. He is a brilliant designer, but I’ll let his pictures speak for themselves. This is his website. Since he’s not in any directories, and he is looking to get exposure for his business, he is a perfect test candidate for my project.

Google is on top of my top 10 list, so I started with them. My first step was to follow the link on my top 10 post to the Google Local Business Center. I clicked on the “Add A New Business” link, and filled out address, phone number and description text – piece of cake. On the next screen, I could add photos and a video. I added some photos from the QUICK-BEND site. Google allows you to point to a picture URL, which makes it very easy. You can get the URL of a web photo by right-clicking and selecting “properties”, or control-clicking and selecting “copy image address” on a Mac. I strongly recommend adding photos to a business listing. Don’t assume people will click through to your web site to see pictures. They might, but you have to capture their interest first, and pictures are a good way to do that. Video is a great idea too, and Google is one of the only places where you can add a video to a listing for free. On most other sites this is a “premium” option that you only get if you pay. Once I finished filling out the business information, I was given the option for how I wanted to validate the listing. The two choices are by phone and by postcard.

I selected “by phone” and got this:

Google called right away. I got the PIN, entered it, and about 10 hours later voila:

And you can see the full Google Local Listing for QUICK-BEND design here. I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty exciting! The whole thing took less than an hour to do, including finding photos and getting the PIN. Next up: Facebook Fan Page.
A couple of related posts: why Google Maps is so important and why it would be good to get some customer reviews on this listing.