If your market is local, it’s crucial to be listed in Google Places. Places results show up at the top of local  listings.

However, one of my clients recently became a case study on how easy it is to get de-listed from Google Places. When updating their address, they left old addresses in their profile and one of the addresses was a post office box. They were quickly dropped from Places and are now working hard at getting reinstated.

So what do you need to know to guard your listing?

• Keep your listing up to date – be sure to delete any old information as well as adding new.
• Give the physical address of your business, not a post office box. A UPS box (with a street address instead of a P.O. box number) does not count – change it to your real address.
• For your business name, put in only the name of your business – no keywords, no location information. That used to be acceptable (or at least ignored) in Google Places, but now it’s an infraction. In fact, be careful not to stuff keywords or location into any part of your listing.
• Stay informed! Google makes changes fairly frequently.

Guidelines: http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528&ctx=checklist.