You may have noticed that Google sometimes displays "local" businesses in its results pages for some search terms along with a map reference.  Have you ever wished that your company could appear in these results (right at the top of the page)?

Unlike most things with Google... the good news is that getting yourself displayed in this area is actually free!

Yep - no kidding.

Check out the Google blog on the subject at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/find-and-compare-local-businesses.html. 

But here are some simpler instructions on how this works and what to do:

1. Visit https://www.google.com/local/add/login and create a Google Maps account. Not only can you add address, telephone and other information, but you can include a link to your Website, include office hours, etc.
2. You will need to confirm your address to prevent any fraudulent listings, and so Google will send you a post card with a PIN to your physical mailing address.
3. When you receive the PIN in the post, log back into your Google Maps account and enter the PIN.
4. The next time Google updates the listings, you'll be included but be aware that it may take 3-4 weeks before you actually appear in the search engine results.

Naturally we do this ourselves for all of our Managed Search Engine Marketing clients - but there's no reason why you can't do it yourself in a jiffy.