Enhance Your Church’s Google Map Listing with These New Features

While doing some research on an article I’m writing for a trade magazine, I noticed that Google had added four new features to its Local Business Center product. If you’re not familiar with Google Local Business Center, take some time to check it out. After you register as the business owner, you can edit the description of your church including hours of operation, and an overview of your ministry. You can see what Cory has entered on the overview information tab for Quail Springs Baptist Church.

Now with the new features you can do so much more.

1. Enhance Your Listing with Photos
You can add up to 10 photos to your church’s listing. Now potential visitors searching for churches in their area on Google maps can see what is shown in the example I found for the Granger Community Church.

The other pictures will appear on a tab labeled “Photo” when the visitor clicks on the “more info” link. I’m sure you’re already thinking of all the photos that you would add to present a sneak preview of your church and ministries.

2. Custom Attributes
You now have the ability to add custom attributes to your listing. The description section of the listing is set at a maximum of 200 characters, just about enough for a couple of sentences. Now with custom attributes, you can add informations such as ministries, affiliations, or other locations.

3. Map Editing
The business owner now can change the location of the push pin on the map. Think about that, Google is letting you edit their maps. Actually, they are asking you to make their maps more accurate. If you zoomed into the map shown above, you would see that the pin is smack dab in the middle of E. University Drive. Now you can drag and drop the pin to more accurately show your church’s location. Here’s a hint for this little feature. When you move the pin, switch from the default map mode to the satellite view, it’s much easier to see the exact location of the building.

4. Visitor Statistics
A very simple count of how many times the listing has been viewed in the last 30 days. You’ll need to log in to Google’s Local Business Center to see this stat.

Head on over to http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter to get started with Google’s Local Business Center.

About the writer: Mark Anderson has over12 years in the sales and marketing field and has spent the last several years focusing on projects involving web design, email marketing, and graphic design. He’s part of the Visual Arts team at Evangelical Free Church of Naperville in Naperville IL. You can drop him a line at churchmarketing@yahoo.com.