Google Places: Verify Your Yoga Studio Listing

Manage, Tools/Resources, featured — By Lyndi Thompson on March 21, 2011 at 11:21 am

Make it easy for students looking for your studio to find out what they need quickly and for free with Google Places. You might be surprised to hear your yoga studio already has a listing, most importantly you may also find the information on the listing is incorrect, out of date or missing all together.

Students Are Looking For Your Studio

Recently, I was looking for a yoga studio closer to my sister’s house. I typed “Yoga Studio Olympia, Wa” and scanned through the listings looking for one that was close to my sister’s house. I was surprised that only one studio had verified their listing and added in information to help my search. Here is what I was looking for:

Yoga Studio Parking sign A: Displayed hours of operation: I was looking for a studio that offered morning Saturday classes.

B: Had information about parking: Wondering if I should pick my sister and niece up or if we should all carpool due to limited parking of the studio.

C: Had photos of the studio: Looking for a studio that would appeal to my 16 year old first-time-yoga-going niece. Photos also help find the studio easier. One studio listing even had a video! A bonus to hear the owner’s voice and get what felt like a private tour of the studio.

D. Had a website link: I wanted to check to see if the studio had mats available or if we needed to bring our own.

Luckily, I had some extra time to drive into town to make sure my Saturday yoga adventure went smoothly. I relied on my phone’s Google Maps application to navigate the busy streets. The first studio I was really excited about as it was only two miles away from my sister’s house had great parking, and they even offer a teens class! However, they had moved and the address on their Google Places account was incorrect! Good thing I was able to do a trial run.

Your Studio Listing:

Now you, like many yoga studio owners might have just had a light turn on above your head. “Oh… we moved last summer and I don’t think we have updated Google Places…. or we hired two more instructors and we have longer hours and classes on the weekend… hummm.” A quick search reveals you have a listing that is out of date, or missing some important information and it’s time to polish that listing up; in any case, you’ll need to verify your Google Places listing.

Edit & Verify Your Listing

To begin editing your studio listing go to google.com/places, click the link at the bottom for “Places for Businesses,” go to “List your business,” and search for your business phone number.

On your Places page, you’ll see a link toward the top that says, “Business Owner?” Clicking that link will yield options to edit the listing, suspend it, or add your business if this listing isn’t you. The option you’re looking to choose is to edit the listing. Once you’re in the edit pane, take the time to ensure that all of your business information is correct and up to date – especially your name, address, and business phone number. After you’ve added the details of your business, such as hours of operation, payment options, and business categories, Google will let you preview your listing and then ask you to choose how you’d like to verify your listing.

After verifying you are the owner of that business listing changes can take a little time to appear. Ta da! You have an updated Google Place listing to help students find and learn about your yoga studio easier than ever.

Tips From Google:

Get started: Benefits of Google Places

Reach millions of Google users, quickly and for free, with Google Places
More people search for businesses online than anywhere else, so it’s important to make sure your business listing can be easily found on Google.com and Google Maps. With Google Places, creating a great listing takes just a few minutes and doesn’t cost a thing.

Edit your listing and speak for yourself
Your business probably already shows up on Google, but you should still verify your listing and make sure its details are accurate and thorough. Your improvements will start appearing as soon as you verify them through Google Places. Also, you can add notifications

Practical and easy to manage
Your Google listing is an easy way to maintain an online presence even if you don’t have a website. You can visit Google Places anytime to edit your information or see how many people have seen and clicked on your listing.

Premium options, all for free
Make your listing really shine with photos and videos; custom categories like your service area, brands you sell and how to find parking; and coupons to encourage customers to make a first-time or repeat purchase.

Create your listing today using Google Places by following the walkthrough below.

Signing up for Google Places is simple
If you own a business, you probably know the basics. You can add extras like photos and descriptions if you have them handy, or come back to add them later.

At the end of the sign-up, we’ll ask you to verify your submission by phone or postcard. We do this to make sure that only the right people are able to change any public data about your business.

Learn more about getting started on Google Places!

BizeeBee's Marketing Buzz Bee. She loves working with yoga, fitness and small business professionals to help find simple solutions to managing their business. Find Lyndi tweeting at @BizeeBee. For more information about BizeeBee visit BizeeBee.com.