EPR Creations LLC

The Website as the Hub

There are so many choices out there for promoting your company online. You can now have a Facebook fan page, multiple company Twitter feeds, a Linkedin profile, a Google places account, etc. Which ones should you choose for your company?

Are they all necessary?

No, they are not. There is no one size fits all answer for which option to choose. It really depends on your industry and where your potential clients are located.

Another important question is, with all of these additional options, how important is your website?

For some companies, a simple Facebook Fan page may do the trick. You actually might not need a full-blown website. You can now add a store to your Facebook fan page to sell your products, music, or services on your Facebook page. That may eliminate your need of setting up an Ecommerce website. I bought horse riding lessons for my wife a few weeks back and the time slot sign up calendar was on the horse farm’s Facebook page instead of their website.

However, Facebook is the only option from the list above that at this point could really take the place of your website. And even with the benefits of a Facebook fan page, it is still a good idea to have a website be the hub for your company. Use the profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to do what they do best – connect you to people and potential clients. But use your website to do the following:

• Your website should be the place where people interested in going deep into your company information should be able to search and find everything they want. Most users will not require that level of information, but make it available for those who do.
• Your website should connect to a database so that any information that users choose to provide are collected in your records forever.
• Your website should point to all ways that users can connect to you. Some users prefer Facebook others twitter, and some may just want to follow your rss feed. But give them a way to connect and stay in touch.

Hide Address in Google Places

As a small business owner, you may be running your business out of your house. If you have set up a Google Places account, you likely don’t want to list that home address for security reasons.

Luckily, Google Places allows you to enter your address for location purposes, but hide it to the general viewing public. That way, you can tell Google Places that you would like your page to show within a 50 mile radius of your address without showing your exact address.

The way to do this is to sign into your Google Places account. Click to edit that account. Under ‘Service Areas and Location Settings, there is a box in the grey area that looks like the image below.  Make sure to check that box and click submit. That’s it!

Google Local Changes to Google Places

Google has just made some important changes to how your local listing shows in the search results.  Please read below to find out what these changes are and what you can do as a small business owner to stay on top of these changes.

Until just a few days ago, when you searched for Atlanta Pizza Delivery, Google’s organic search results would show a list of 7 or so Local companies serving in your area or the area you specified (Atlanta). From a marketing point of view, the great thing about this was that you didn’t have to be ranked high within Google’s organic rankings to still show up on the 1st page of Google results. You could just set up a free Google Local page and your information would show up.

Now, these local results no longer show up within the organic results. They have been pushed to the right side of the screen above the Sponsored Links. As you can see from the photo to your right, a map pops up with arrows designating different pizza delivery options.

In the center of the page, the organic results have changed as well. Although the old way of showing the local results all together has been removed, the local results still show under the organic results if that company has a Google Pages account set up. Here, users can see how many reviews you have, what your average rating is, and other quick info about your company.

Finally, on the left side of the page, the user is presented with another search option called “Places.” If the user clicks on that, only the Google Places page results show up. This is where you can still rank high for just having the Google Pages/Local page set up for your business. The key item to watch here will be to see if users actually utilize the places page within Google as opposed to sticking with the organic results.

So, what do you need to do as a small business owner in response to these changes?

Here is a list of important steps to take:

1. If you don’t have a Google Pages/Local account set up, do it right now.  Drop every other to do item and do this now. I outlined instructions in a previous blog.
2. Fill in every imaginable box where Google asks for information.  If they ask for images, include images.  If they ask for video, use a video that describes your product or service, or get a video made that you can add.  Most importantly, when they ask for categories to describe your business, add as many categories as you can, which as of now is 5.
3. Start asking people to leave reviews on your page.  Testimonials are great on your website, but match the amount of testimonials you have with reviews for your services on your Google Places page.
4. Google Places allows you to create coupons.  Come up with coupons for your product or service and change them out often.
5. Google Places also allows you to add Google Tags to your listing.  These are paid advertisements for little tidbits about your company, product, or service.  It could be as simple as a link to your website or an announcement that you just launched a new widget.
6. There is a Places Posting feature that is similar to a Facebook Update.  Add new information about your company, a note about a job you just completed, or any noteworthy event associated with your business, product, or service.
7. And finally, don’t forget about your website.  This does not let you off the hook for continuing to optimize your website to show up for high rankings within organic Google searches.  Google Places is becoming more of an important accessory to your website, but not a replacement.

Here is Google’s Official Announcement.

If you have any questions, please use the comment boxes below and I will do my best to answer your inquiry.