Google Plus Pages for Small Businesses
Today, Google launched their first foray into social networking for businesses. We take a look at how it may affect how small businesses conduct business online, and how we can help.
Google is still the primary source of traffic on the Internet for small businesses, but increasingly websites are being found on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Google’s answer to this is their own social network called “Google+” which adds a social layer to most of Google’s services - simply put, this means you can share things with your friends incredibly easily.
When we meet with local companies, one of the first things we do is make sure they’re well integrated with Google Maps. The reason we do this is because when you’re searching for a local service, for example “plumber in Ashford”, Google will now display a map with what they consider the best companies before any website listings. Locality and relevance are incredibly important variables in Google’s calculations: the better you can serve the person who is searching, the higher you will be for that person.
With today’s announcement, it becomes clear that Google is planning on ranking even more heavily on things outside of the traditional website (although this is still the biggest piece of the puzzle). The idea of using Google Maps as a tool alongside your website is only the beginning - with Google+, they are able to find out which individuals are ‘taste-makers’ or industry leaders in specific fields and locations. They can do this by simply seeing how popular those people are, what the engagement of their audience is and how many people seek their help. At a simplistic level, if one of these taste-makers now follows your business on Google+, they can make a pretty good guess that you are a reputable and relevant company. You will rank higher. Likewise, if 5 people tell Google that they like your competitor (by pressing the +1 button) that may have a bit of an impact against you - if 500 people tell Google they prefer you, that will have a huge positive impact for you.
The problem that Google has always had is that their ‘master plan’ is seemingly constantly changing, and so they rarely finish their great ideas. Right now, Google Maps and Google+ Pages are separate things, but based on our past experiences it is a good bet that in the next 12 months these will merge. The potential here is incredibly exciting; in theory it would be possible for people to visit your bricks and mortar store - bring out their smart phones and tell Google “I like this place”. As soon as they do that, you have yet another tick against your name and you may rank higher in Google for your eCommerce store. At the same time, their friends would be told that their friend liked the place and they’ll be invited to check out your business. If they also like it, they press +1 and the ripple effect continues. It is important to remember that success on the web, just like in real-life, is often viral - this should be taken advantage of.
Google+ will in time converge the traditional web, social networking and physical locations - all things most small businesses can harness with relative ease. As a web designer it is very exciting - but as a small business owner it is simply powerful. Google+ Pages are free to create at http://plus.google.com/pages/create. If you’re an existing Red Carrot customer, please get in touch to see how we can help you with this.
Red Carrot is already on Google+ Pages, if you want more information like this - please take the moment to follow us. We’ll be posting more thoughts on Google+ as the service develops.