Google Local Business Center
Google's Local Business Center (including Google Places) is a valuable FREE tool to help you market your business locally. It's easy to use and offers you:
Free listing Local customers already search Google for the products and services you offer. Create a business listing to be sure they find you. You'll be listed on Google's free business 411 service, 1-800-GOOG-411.
Free updates Keep your address, phone number, hours of operation, and more up-to-date. Even display photos and videos, all for free.
Holding a special event today? Want to post a coupon for 5-7pm tonight? Have a new product in stock? You can now get the word out by posting to your Place Page directly from your Local Business Center dashboard. Once you've logged in and are on your business' dashboard, post an update and it will go live on your Place Page in just a few minutes.
Free insights Use the power of Google's data to learn where your customers come from and what they search for to find you.
Add coupons to your Local Business Listing With more and more people using their mobile devices to find local businesses, Google's option for Local Business Center users in the US to display their coupons on mobile devices is a great feature. And, of course, people can print out coupons from your listing on their printers as well.
Visit the Google Local Business Center.
1-800-GOOG-411
GOOG-411 is another way to help customers find your business. And it's free, whether you're a business that wants to be found or an individual looking for local business information. Users can access 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone, anywhere, at anytime.
GOOG-411 uses listing information provided by a variety of providers, but says that "the basic information that you submit through Google Places is the information that we trust the most. This means that it will appear instead of any basic information that we get from anywhere else."
If you're not using Google Places already, that's where you want to start. Visit the Google Places User Guide for information about how to get started.