If you’re a small business owner it makes sense to claim your free Google Places listing as it can propel you to the head of the listings for certain keywords and phrases related to your business. Below are our top 10 tips for making the most of your Google Places business listing.Link it to your websiteA Google Places listing is not just to show the location of your business but it can also serve as a valuable source of traffic to your website. It’s crucial that you add details of your website to your listing so people can click through to it.Complete your listing as fully as possibleIt makes sense to provide as much information for people on your listing as possible. This will not only let others know more about your business but can also help boost your rankings within the Google Places listings.Write a keyword rich descriptionThe description of your business in your listing should include the main keywords or phrases that you want to be found for online.Don’t spamYour Google Places listing should be your actual business name. Don’t be tempted to add extra keywords or phrases to it to try and ‘cheat’ the system. The same applies to your description, just use keywords and phrases as they occur naturally and don’t be tempted to repeat keywords and phrases multiple times.Add images and video to your listingIt’s a good idea to add some images and video to your Google Places listing as well as text to make it more interesting for people viewing it.Ask customers to add their reviewsAnother way you can optimise your Google Places listing is to get reviews from your customers added to it. Some customers may do this off their own backs but you can also ask happy customers if they’d be happy to add a review for you.Use coupons to win new customersGoogle Places allows you to add promotional coupons to your listing which can help you attract new customers through offering discounts. You can add a unique code to the coupon so you can track the effectiveness of it when people call you or order online.Keep it localGoogle Places is intended for local business listings. So for example if your business is based in a town just outside London, you need to use your correct address rather than trying to get a listing in London through using a P.O. Box number or registered office address.Create one Google Places listing onlyIf you have a service based business such as a plumber and cover lots of different areas, you should still only complete one Google Places listing based on your business address. Trying to outsmart the system by creating a listing for each area you cover won’t work.Monitor your listingWith Google Places you can receive regular emails telling you how many times your listing has been displayed and how many times people have used it to click through to your website. If these stats are a bit lower than you expected then you could try changing your description or adding more information to your listing.