SEO help - number 1, how to succeed in google local

Google local is the place to be when someone is trying to find your business.  They put you on the map for the customer, they can see instantly how close you are to them.  They put your number of reviews there, your phone number, and your website.  This all feeds from your "Google Places" profile.

This graphic is the anatomy of a search, you can see the elements here and show you how much they all matter:

RED: search query, if its a business category google will try to put a map result there for you.

YELLOW: Paid results, you bid on these terms, "Google Adwords" - called PPC or CPC in the biz

AQUA: 10 pack, Google Local, Google Places - Business profile that you can design and change

PURPLE: Organic result, natural result, free to you - must be the most relevant in Google's algorithm.

There are some easy things you can do to optimize your google maps presense, and some difficult things you can do. 

We DO offer this as a service to everyone, your competitors have thought about this, some are already doing this.  You must stay one step ahead.

1. Put a good keyword in the business location TITLE rather than 'just' your business name.
2. Use coupons and the extra fields to describe services you offer, or your keywords.
3. Get your customers to write real reviews of your business via Google or other services like yelp.
4. Get your business in as many other directories as you can: Yelp, Citysearch, Dex, many many others.