Finding those citation sites that Google Local Places likes and going through the whole process of listing with them is a task not for the faint of heart. High quality citations and data are important for ranking high on Google.  Your business information needs to have  the maximum increased visibility on the web, and  the information must  be absolutely consistent. Otherwise Google will punish your website’s rankings.

Your business’s online visibility starts with your website. The information on your website must be easily found and read by the search engines, and it must be consistent with the information you provided to Google for your various Google accounts. The business address must be on your web site so that Google can read it.  Microformating should be used where appropriate  to insure pieces of data are easy to retrieve and use.

Doing all of this takes a strong attention to detail and an awareness of Google’s daily moods. I’ve helped many clients who thought they could do it all them selves, all of whom discovered they needed a Google Local Pro for their Local Business Profile.