Search Engine Forums, SEO Forum

The popularity of Google Places is increasing rapidly. More Google users are looking for services near their areas & hence Google is providing related local information to the users. For example, if you're looking for a lawyer near New York, Google will show lawyers near to New York as well as reviews & direction to that places.

So the importance of optimization for Google places is increasing. Only submitting the business information to Google places is not enough. The factors that you should follow are:
1- Give correct information while submitting about your business in Google Places.
2- Use correct address & phone numbers, you should use the data which are in the contact us page of your website.
3- Try to get some reviews on Google Places page from friends or other customers.
4- Try to promote your site in other local directories like Yellowpages, hotfrog, citysearch etc.
5- While submitting information on other local directories, use the same data that are being submitted on Google Places.

Please add more relevant information to this thread. Thanks.

Yes it is really important for a business to have an account on Google places because when user visit a website then he/she will leave their experience by writing a review about the website which really helpful for ranking.

Most legitimate companies with physical existence benefit much on this Google services.

Fill the all information about your business in Google place and submit in other local directories.