Google Maps is one important way your audience will find you. Whether they are navigating to your physical address or not, the Google Maps widget on search results pages is some valuable real estate that you can claim ownership of. Once you’ve verified your ownership of an address, you can edit the information that is shown, upload nice pictures, and respond to any reviews that might have been left (especially if they were negative).

Claiming an address is fairly straight-forward, but it may take one to two weeks because it involves receiving a postcard via snail mail. To start:

1. Go to https://www.google.com/business/
2. Log in with the Google Account you want to manage your business with
3. Enter the name of your business
4. Depending on whether your business is already list on Google or not, you can either select it from an existing entry, or elect to create a new one.
5. Enter all of the requested information from address to service area to contact information
6. Finish and request a verification

When the postcard arrives, you’ll need to enter the code in the same interface and the the ownership of the Google My Business address will be complete!