Go to Local Business Center: http://google.com/lbc | Create a Local Business Center listing to help customers find your business on Google and Google Maps
Wanted to bump this up.. a lot of people are making big bucks charging local businesses for this when they could easily do it for free.. is your business listed?
I had trouble claiming an already created local listing on Google Places. Think I got it figured out. Also good to have local listings on Bing and Yahoo, all major search engines.
A quick update to this post, the most imporatant thing you can do for yourself (other than claiming you Places page and completing the information) is to list yourself exactly the same (including punctuation) on Axciom, LocalEaze, and InfoUSA. These are the data repositories that feed all the other directories on the internet and will give your business more credibility with Google, proping up your places page.
I totally agree in that completing the input data on Google Places is a huge step in giving your business a face on searches. I'm amazed at the number of businesses that still have not claimed their business and completed the information!
Terra add to this by encouraging anyone to investigate Specialty Directories - If you find one focused in your field or a particular product, this can be very powerful.
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