I’ve blogged previously about why it’s important for professional organizers to have a website, but to really reap the benefits of your website, you’ll want it to come up as high in the search engine results as possible. There are many strategies for enhancing your search engine positioning, some involving factors within your website, and others outside it. Today I’m going to share a tip that will, in many cases, put your site at the top of the first page of Google, and it won’t cost you a dime.

In the example above, my search on professional organizer new york yielded nearly half a million results, but before the regular search results, you can see a small section with the heading “Local business results for professional organizer near New York, NY” along with a small map. Beside the map are several relevant listings, complete with telephone number. Wouldn’t you love to have that kind of visibility?

It’s actually fairly simple. All you need to do is:

1.    Go to the Google Local Business Center.

2.    Log in, using the same user name and password that you use for Gmail, Google Alerts, or any other Google service you may already by using. If you don’t have a Google account, simply click on Sign Up Now, enter your desired user name, password, and location. After you read and agree to the terms of service, your account will be created.

3.    Click on Add new business.

4.    Enter your business details, including a description of up to 200 characters.

5.    Enter one or more categories that apply to your business.

6.    If desired, you may also:

• Specify your hours of operation and payment options.
• Upload your logo and/or other images.
• If you have one or more videos on YouTube that you’d like to be linked to your listing, enter the URL(s).
• Enter any additional details you want people to know about your business.

7.    Click on Submit.

8.    For your protection, Google will verify your information before publishing it. Indicate whether you prefer to be contacted by telephone, text message, or snail mail, then click on Finish.

Google will then contact you with a personal identification number which you must enter to validate your listing. Your listing will usually appear online the next day. That’s all there is to it!

I realize that many professional organizers work from home and might have concerns around publishing their personal address. If you live in an apartment or townhouse, you can simply leave off your unit number (not recommended if you’ve asked them to contact you by snail mail, of course). Otherwise, you may want to consider renting a mailbox, as there are quite a few online directories that require you to provide a mailing address in order to obtain a listing.

It might not be as critical to get that top spot if you’re in a smaller community where you have less competition, but it sure couldn’t hurt!

I’ve helped many professional organizers and other small business clients to appear in the first page of search results in Google and/or Yahoo! and would love to help you too. Just drop me a line any time to request a free 30 minute consultation.