As a small business owner, a key component of your marketing campaign must be developing an online presence. It’s the best way to ensure your would-be customers can find you. How is Google helping SMB’s to do this? Google’s “Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map” initiative can help you with this. It’s all about creating a Google My Business listing. How can this service impact your business? How can you incorporate it into your social marketing?
What Is Google My Business Listings?
Earlier this year, Google created a custom website for just about every city in the country. This amounted to some 30,000 custom sites. At these sites, you’ll have information in a step by step format available to you to create a Google My Business listing. These custom sites also provide you with the ability to improve the information that shows up on Google search engine results pages, Google+, and Google Maps about your company. In short, this makes it easier for people to find you online and locally.
Why Use Google My Listing?
In many situations, small businesses struggle with time and investment to get their company online, and that can put them at a significant disadvantage. The company’s development of these tools helps to make it possible for your small business – from painting service to local retailer – to get online faster. And, Google states, the service also helps people find your business faster in the minutes that matter, such as when they are driving around town looking for a tasty restaurant or to make a specific purchase.
What Else Does It Offer?
The program provides small business owners with a number of diagnostic tools. These tools are very easy to use, but they provide a wealth of information including information about how your company shows up when people search for it in both Google Search and Google Maps. The service:
- Helps you to get verified for Google searches
- Verify and add photos
- Add location information
- Add your company hours easily
- And, it can help you to get a website and domain name through StartLogic, Google’s partner.
A quick visit to the site for the Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map shows some pretty interesting information. If you’ve never visited the page, do so. You’ll be able to learn about businesses already using the service, see how it works, and quickly get your company set up.
Google’s initiative also can help you to learn and grow your online presence. Perhaps one of the most important components for those establishing their own sites for the first time is the access to training content and workshop material. The company has also promised live events and additional tools and resources.
Why is Google doing this for small companies? A key component of small business marketing, creating an online presence is vitally important today. According to the BCG Report, as quoted by Google’s Lets Put Our Cities on the Map project, business that are online are capable of growing 40 percent faster than companies that are not. Don’t overlook the importance, and the sheer ease, of getting your business online with this tool. It’s a local, but important part of building your online marketing success.