As business owners reaching users in your local market it is vital to your online presence that you have, claim, and optimize your Google Places (GP) profile. About two weeks ago Google introduced the larger map portion to the GP page, so now you will see a fairly good size map on your address above all the other content on the page. Very important you have this. An example is here.

Not having a GP listing for your local searchers will mean you won’t ever be found in the top portion of the first page of the Google search results. Statistically, this is where local searchers are clicking to find local businesses to call and purchase from. Don’t miss out on all the traffic for your industry.