Month: October 2013

  • How Google Maps Helps Small Businesses

    Google Places Helps Level the Playing Field for Small Businesses

    Austin is very well known for its local businesses, including restaurants. Today I want to show how a small restaurant owner in Austin can benefit from utilizing Google Places to maximize its online presence. This goes to what we are always saying at Austin Webpages – Your small business is ALREADY ONLINE. Having a website and managing the various online tools should be in the short term goals of your online marketing strategy.

    Google also can make any small business look just as great an option as a big business or chain. In our restaurant example, lets say that a hungry person is near the South I-35 area, when they bring up their mobile device and look at their Google Maps app. Let’s also pretend they are looking for Mexican Food.

    Disclaimer: both of these places are great and I am not advocating for either of them in terms of quality of food or services. 

    How Google Maps helps small businesses

    Our example on the left is of a local Mexican food restaurant, while our restaurant on the right is one of many restaurant chain locations. The example on the left is a typical result of a small business that has not taken advantage of the various tools out there to help small businesses, in this case Google Places. The example on the right is more or less the goal of what each small business can easily become with some online marketing management. Let’s look at a handful that are easy to see from the side by side comparison.

    1. Custom Description

    The example on the left shows a generic description  “Mexican Restaurant”. On the right, you can see that this restaurant has chosen “Large menu of Tex-Mex staples & faves”. Not only do you get to customize the description, but with so many eyes looking at these apps and tools, you want your small business to stand out. The custom description can be part of a marketing campaign or simply your company’s tagline.

    2. Business Hours

    Pretty self explanatory – you want your customers to know when and where they can find you. Both of these examples have the store hours listed, although the example on the right had a chance to review it for accuracy since they are controlling their Google Places account.

    3. Photos

    Let’s face it – why read when you can just look at pictures! Photo’s of menu selections helps the chain stand out. From an online marketing point of view, it gives the restaurant chain more credibility. They are showing their customers what they can look forward to eating. Fast Food commercials show giant burgers as their visual for a reason!

    4. Small Business Website

    As we always tell our Austin clients – a website gives your business more legitimacy. A website allows your business to run 24/7 and expand your customer base. It also gives a central point of information about your small business, no matter if customers found you via google maps, twitter or were handed a flyer. . Now, they can go to your small business website and get more information and start interacting with your product and services. A restaurant could use a website to show even more pictures of their location, information about private events or book a reservation.

    5. Menu

    A great perk that Google Places offers small businesses like restaurants is being able to list direct access to your menu. A restaurant’s menu is something that customers are going to be interested about right away, so it gives you quick access. The example on the right has both their website listed and then a direct link to their menu – whereas the example on the left has neither. Customers looking for a specific plate are going to have to call the restaurant, be possibly put on hold, just to ask about menu choices.

    6. Reviews of Your Small Business

    Reviews are a huge part of the online world today. With the rise in online shopping, people are depending on each other for advice of where to spend their money. Google Places allows anyone on the internet to have reviews about a place of business. Managing your online profiles should include being aware of your reviews. A bad review is going to stick out, but the example on the right has the ability to respond to a review. They can address any issues, in front of all readers and hungry Mexican food lovers, showing that their customers come first.

    The example on the left even has a great review – but with no online profile…the small business will not be able to respond and thank that customer for their business.

    Let Great Products Speak for Itself!

    As in our previous blog posts, managing your online profiles requires a lot of time and some knowledge, that is why many small businesses do not do it or put it off for a long time. But taking advantage of these online tools levels the playing field. If the restaurant on the left managed their profile – their listing will look as great as the restaurant chain on the right. That is what small businesses want to do – level the playing field, so that their great products will speak for itself.

  • ¿Por qué deberías tener un blog para tu negocio?

    El blog ayuda a atraer a los clientes

    Como un dueño de una pequeña empresa en Austin, ¿cómo se puede destacar por tener un gran producto o servicio? Mostrar al cliente de que se es un experto en su producto es una forma de ganar la confianza de los clientes. Es por eso que el blogging es una gran manera de compartir tus conocimientos con tus clientes. El blog no sólo le permite crear una gran colección de contenido acerca de su producto o servicios. Como un beneficio adicional, los blogs, sin duda, contribuirá a que prevalecen en Google.

    El blog Enfoque

    Cada pequeña empresa en un sitio web generalmente tiene un puñado de secciones, la página de inicio, una manera de comunicarse con ellos y con páginas sobre sus negocios. Estas son páginas muy amplias de temas. Un blog debe ser sobre algo determinado y se puede entrar en más detalles. Usted debe escribir para los lectores de la misma manera que habla con ellos en persona. Recuerde, el objetivo es enseñar a sus lectores en primer lugar, por lo que tenemos de ser capaces de entender lo que usted está diciendo.

    Blogs siempre tendran muchos grandes resultados para su sitio web. Que muestre a sus clientes que sabe de lo que está hablando del blog a la vez. Antes de que usted espera, usted tendrá una pequeña biblioteca de información. Los lectores vendrán a usted si usted es capaz de explicar el tema de esa forma, que a menudo se denomina “alta calidad” en el mundo SEO. Puntos de Bonificación si nadie habla de lo que le está explicando en su blog.

    Google y el Blog

    Este mes la marca Google tiene su 15 aniversario en Austin, y si pequeñas empresas, quieren que sus clientes le encuentren su sitio web, se lo dire a continuación, el rendimiento de Google va a ser una de sus principales objetivos. La semana pasada hubo un anuncio importante acerca de Google, cambiara su algoritmo de búsqueda, y de hecho se había aplicado en silencio por un período de varias semanas, pero, ¿cómo va a afectar en Austin a pequeñas empresas?

    La verdad es que son clientes de Google, y su objetivo es crear el motor de búsqueda perfecta. Google quiere que sus usuarios al escribir lo que ellos están buscando y les muestre exactamente lo que estaban buscando, simple y llanamente. Independientemente de lo que cada uno le dice acerca de cómo se conocen los secretos de Google, la fórmula mágica, es una tontería. Esta versión de google, es un paso más para humanizar el proceso de búsqueda más y más. Ofrecer a los clientes lo que ellos necesitan saber, que es lo que Google quiere, eso es lo que desea.

    Su blog, escrito para que sus clientes lo comprendan, será lo que Google busca más. Tiene una pequeña biblioteca de conocimientos sobre su sitio web. Las personas en el mismo campo que se cita y el enlace a tu sitio web, blog de explicar temas. Este se basa sus backlinks y su credibilidad. Estos puntos son de vital importancia para alto ranking en Google. Y esa es la forma en la que los clientes lo encuentren.

  • Recent Google Changes Affect Small Businesses

    Google quietly changed their search algorithm and didn’t say anything for a month

    I believe that small business owners don’t have a website for two main reasons – either lack of time or lack of know how. As we mentioned in our previous blog, Google recently made a change in their formulas that handles the search results. This falls under both of the reasons why a small business owner hasn’t made the jump into employing a business website. The owner  has no time to keep up with these changes – obviously they have a business to run. On top of that they need to know how these changes affect their small business website and their marketing strategy.

    Quick History Lesson on Google

    Google changes affect small businesses and shows its direction - picture from google.comForget Panda, Penguin and other code named updates to Google’s algorithm. Instead lets look at the main ideas behind all of Google’s updates. In the early 2000’s, Google changed the game and stopped responding to keyword stuffing. An example of keyword stuffing is if “Google changed their algorithm” or some variation of that phrase, were repeated into every other line of this blog.

    A few years later, they got rid of the reciprocal links and began to address link farms. That mean’s that websites setup to show large amounts of similar category links made less of an impact on search rankings.

    Four years ago, Google started to incorporate social media. A couple of years ago social media was much more incorporated into search engine rankings when Google+ made its debut.

    A lot of this I am simplifying, and there were many more updates in addition to the ones I mentioned. Mainly I want to show small business owners the trend. Google used to be influenced by fancy code and loopholes. Today, Google is striving for a goal of being humanly compatible. It wants you to be able to ask it “Where do I pay my cable bill?” and instead of showing you your cable company’s home page, it will show you the exact page where you can pay your bill online. It wants you to ask “how do I cook a steak properly” and restaurants do not show up, but instead great articles showing you step by step instructions. Further, if you ask anything about location, it will take into consideration where you are, if you have set up Google to allow that. Such would be, if you were looking for a “website for your small business” and you were in the Austin area, you would (hopefully) arrive here. What is only going to matter, is if you truly match the intent and needs of the customer.

    The difference between today and back in the early 2000’s, is that more and more, the internet is much more of a level playing field. It’s not 100% there yet, but it is moving in that direction. If you are the right fit for the customer and you have the information, product and services, customers will find you.

    The Next Step

    Hummingbird, Google’s latest update, is also bringing in a slight curve ball. Don’t worry, it is still very much a part of the bigger picture that we believe Google is after. As mentioned earlier, location seems to be one of the bigger topics that Google is incorporating into its “knowledge graph”. The trend is showing that Google is going to continue to merge its social media via Google+ more and more to its search results. It won’t be long before you can ask Google “what do my friends want to eat tonight”, Google will check your friends and their likes on Google+, check their calendars and come back and give you a listing of local Chinese fast food restaurants.

    On the internet, it doesn’t matter if your business only has a few employees. Contact Austin Webpages today to get your Austin Small Business online. We know how Google changes affect small businesses. Call for your free quote and expand your customer base today!