Internet Sales Manager's Guide to Optimized Google Maps

In order to set up a Google Maps listing for your dealership your must sign into your Google Account or create a Google account.

Once logged into your Google account, click on Maps in the upper left hand corner. In the search box type in the name of your dealership, your city, and state abbreviation, then click ‘Search Maps’. Scroll down the left hand side to find your dealerships listing. When you find it click on the ‘more info>>’ link. A window will pop up on the map with your listing and all of the information Google currently has about your business. To add or edit the information currently showing, click on ‘Add or edit your business’.

You will then be taken to the Local Business Center page, where you will be asked to choose from one of the following three options: Edit my business information, Suspend this listing, or This isn’t my listing. If the listing showing on the right hand side is indeed yours, select ‘Edit my business information’ and then click ‘Continue’. If however the listing displayed is not yours, then of course you would select ‘This isn’t my listing’, and click ‘Continue’. Selecting either one of these two options will take you to the same form, the only difference being with the ‘Edit my business information’ option is that the information that Google currently has for your business will already have populated into the appropriate categories and fields.

Once on the form page, you will see several categories listed. These categories include: Basic Information, Categories, Hours of Operation, Payment Options, Photos, Videos, and Additional Details.

The following are suggestions and recommendations to give your dealership’s listing the best opportunity to show up in the local search results. Let’s get started.

1) Basic Information

Country: Select your country from the drop down menu.
Company/Organization: This is extremely important! What you decide to put here will largely determine what searches your listing will show up for. We recommend including your main make followed by the number one keyword that you are targeting. If you only carry one make, that will be pretty straight forward. For those with multiple makes you’ll want to include your main one or two makes. So for example: Courtesy Chevrolet – San Francisco Used Cars or Courtesy Chevrolet – Bay Area Corvettes. Be sure to capitalize each word (except for words like ‘the’ or ‘and’). Also keep in mind there is a limit on the number of characters for this field, so you might need to adjust accordingly.
Street Address: Enter in your exact street address including the suite number if applicable.
City/Town: Enter in the name of your city.
State: Select your state from the drop down menu.
ZIP: Enter in your 5 digit zip code.
Main phone: Use the main phone number here; if possible keep it consistent with the main number listed on your website. If you have a tracking 800 number that can be assigned exclusively to this listing, be sure to use that number here.
Email Address: If your dealership has a customer service or a general email address, be sure to include this here. It is not advised to give your direct or any other associates direct email address in this field.
Website: This is also extremely important! Be sure to include your full website address in this field. You can only link to the homepage of your website, so if you copy and paste the link, make sure you’re on the home page. Also be sure to include the http and www (i.e. http://www.honda.com).
Description: Also very important. Be sure to include the main two or three keywords that you’re targeting, and if possible all the makes that you sell. Be sure to include the same keyword(s) you used in the Company/Organization field (e.g. San Francisco Used Cars as well. Compelling copy is key, however for this description you also want to try to write the copy around the keywords. There is a 200 character count limit for this field, so be sure to make every word count.

2) Categories

In this section you are allowed to enter up to 5 categories, so be sure to choose only the most relevant to your dealership. Once you start to type a word or phrase in this field, an auto suggest will pop up below the field which you can use as a guide. For example, type in the phrase ‘Car Dealer’. The auto suggest will then give you approximately 9 suggestions including Used Car Dealer, Truck Dealer, Mazda Dealer, etc. So for example if you sell Mazda’s your 5 categories could be: Car Dealer, Mazda Dealer, Truck Dealer, Used Car Dealer, and Used Truck Dealer.

Hours of Operation: You can choose not to display your operating hours if you want (although this is not recommended) or you can give a day-by-day break down of your hours of operation. This section is pretty straight forward. Select your opening and closing hours for each day, and for any day you are closed, just click on the box next to ‘Closed’.
Payment Options: Also pretty straight forward, just select the type of payment options that your dealership accepts.
Photos: In this section you can upload a maximum of 10 photos to be included in your listing. You can either upload them from your computer or from anywhere on the web. If uploading from your computer click ‘Browse…’ and then select the photo from the appropriate file on your computer. If adding a photo from the web, just enter in the full URL where the photo is located, and click ‘Add Photo’. You can add a maximum of 10 photos.
Videos: You can add up to 5 video about your business, the only catch being that they all have to currently be on YouTube. If you have a video on YouTube that you want to include, simply open up a new window or tab in your browser and find your video on YouTube. From here copy the exact URL and then paste it into the field box and click ‘Add Video’.

Additional Details: This section allows you to enter in any other details that you feel would be pertinent to potential customers. It’s laid out in a question and answer style format, with two fields for you to enter your information in. So for example in the first field you could enter ‘Makes carried’ and in the second field ‘Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC’. This would be displayed as: Makes carried : Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC. Add as many as you feel would be relevant to help answer any additional question that you feel your customer might have.

3) Completion:

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, along the right hand side your listing has been updating as you have been entering your dealership information. Be sure to give your listing one final glance, looking over all the information you have entered, double checking for accuracy as well as any spelling errors. If everything looks good, click ‘Submit’.

4) Verification:

Google has a verification process to help ensure there is no false or malicious information being included in any of their business listings. There are two methods of verification that you can choose. By phone (recommended) or by postcard. We recommend verifying by phone, since the postcards have frequently been lost in the mail, or seemingly never sent out.

When verifying by phone, the process is fairly simple. Select the ‘By phone’ option, then click finish. You will then be given a four digit PIN code. Be sure to either write this four digit number down or print up a copy of the page displaying the number. Double check to make sure the phone number that will be called is correct. Be sure to instruct the associate in charge of answering the number given in the listing, that they will be receiving an automated call. Also be sure to give them the four digit PIN code. Once everything is set and everybody is ready, go ahead and click ‘Call Me Now’. The call will be made within approximately 15-20 seconds after clicking ‘Call Me Now’.

If the verification is successful a page will be displayed saying that the verification was completed. From this point it can take anywhere from two to four weeks for your listing to be updated.