As a brick and mortar store selling products and services you want to use Google to attract local customers. Not optimizing for local search results can waste you SEO budget. If 90% of your effort attracts website visitors from other parts of the country, but they can't enjoy your services without physically being at your premises, what have you gained? Here are 5 tips to help you appear on the first page of google for local search results.

If you've entered a search at Google.com.au, you've probably already seen a Google Places listing. You'll recognise this by the inclusion of a map, and a set of listings when you include a location such as a town, suburb or region within your search. These "Google Places" listings have been given priority in local searches, Pushing the “organic” listings down the page.

In this article we'll show you how to add a review of a local business to Google places. We'll use the East End Boxing Gym as a well deserved example. Google places listings appear when we search for a local business. Google search "East End Boxing Melbourne" and you'll see the following: