Business exposure is important especially if your business is small. Now Google is helping small businesses with another kind of listing through its new service called Google Places. The geo-location service literally allowed you to put your business on the map, Google Maps that is.
If you are used to promoting your URL in the forum, blog comments, backlink and so on, Google Places presents you with another avenue to leave your URL in their maps, in addition to your company name, address, contact and short description about your physical business.
Four million businesses have already claimed their Place Page on Google through the Local Business Center, which enables them to verify and supplement their business information to include hours of operation, photos, videos, coupons, product offerings and more. It also lets them communicate with customers and get insights that help them make smart business decisions.
Google Places will continue to offer these same tools, but the new name will simplify the connection with Place Pages. This reflects their ongoing commitment to providing business owners with powerful yet easy-to-use tools.
Google is also introducing several new features:
* Service areas: If you travel to serve customers, you can now show which geographic areas you serve. And if you run a business without a storefront or office location, you can now make your address private.
* A new, simple way to advertise: For just $25 per month, businesses in select cities can make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps with Tags. As of today, we’re rolling out Tags to three new cities — Austin, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. — in addition to ongoing availability in Houston and San Jose, CA. In the coming weeks we'll also be introducing Tags in Chicago, San Diego, Seattle, Boulder and San Francisco.
* Business photo shoots: In addition to uploading their own photos, businesses in select cities can now request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business which we'll use to supplement existing photos of businesses on Place Pages. We've been experimenting with this over the past few months, and now have created a site for businesses to learn more and express their interest in participating.
* Customized QR codes: From the dashboard page of Google Places, businesses in the U.S. can download a QR code that’s unique to their business, directly from their dashboard page. QR codes can be placed on business cards or other marketing materials, and customers can scan them with certain smartphones to be taken directly to the mobile version of the Place Page for that business.
* Favorite Places: We're doing a second round of our Favorite Places program, and are mailing window decals to 50,000 businesses around the U.S. These decals include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to directly view the mobile Place Page for the business to learn more about their great offerings.
On thing for certain is that TechCrunch think that with Google Places, concerns rise that Google just wants to link to its own content. As usual, Google does want to monopoly their searches and monopoly do reduces innovation.
With 20 percent of all Google searches having a local intent, there’s a huge opportunity there for the small business owner. But before you can be found, you have to be listed. Add your business today to Google Places.