How to get my Business on Google Search?

[Lola Bird]

If I type in the business name it shows up. My question is if someone where to type in "Colorado springs photographer" how do I get my photography business to show up in the list with all the other Colorado springs photographers?

[california]

There is a place to register your business within google search.

[Peter Nikolow]

Ok - first you must register on "Google Places for Business" to get your location on map.

Second - you need to run "Google AdWords" for specific keywords to get temporary boost.

[Jake]

Local listing is a special case, as mentioned Google has a separate system that shows you on a map and marks results with A-G labeled stick pin symbols, the submission form is at http:/google.com/placesforbusiness/ you must have a physical business address to qualify for such listings, PO Box service addresses don't seem to rank easily.

Having your address on a contact us page is important for geo search matches, probably having articles that mention local venues may help a bit, naming surrounding cities in articles may help, don't just list a bunch of cities, this is seen as SEO spam. There are a number of free business directory sites like yellowpages, angieslist, Yelp that you would want to submit the business to, use the exact same address to make these citations reinforce your local ranking.

Here's a Search Engine Optimization guide by an SEO authority, teaching the more legit ways to boost your ranking.
http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

[squarewater471]

There are a number of things which could be affecting your search results -

1 - Are you listed in Google Places for Business(I believe it used to be called Local)?

2) - Is your website optimized for the words Colorado Springs Photographer, my guess is its not. Ensure your meta tags in the header have keywords for those words and those words are contained in the description tag. Also ensure those words are mentioned in the first paragraph on the page which should mostly be your H1 tag. This helps all search engines figure out who and what your website is about.

3) Add yourself to Bing Local this is similar to Google but is used for Bing and other search engine results.

4) Check local search sites like yellow pages etc and see if you are listed there, you can add free listings on most of them.

If you have any questions or need advice please feel free to contact us.