SmallBusinessNewz

More Businesses Get Shot at Getting Google's Barcode Stickers

Late last year, Google started sending brick and mortar businesses decals to put on their windows. These had barcodes that people could scan with their phones, which would bring up business listings. The businesses that received these were deemed "favorite places" by Google.

What if Customers Could Virtually Walk Through Your Store?

File this one under rumors, but it's an interesting rumor nonetheless. Popular search writer Barry Schwartz says he's heard from a New York retailer called Oh Nuts, that Google went to their store and took pictures of the inside for a new product called "Google Store Views". This would be like Google Maps Street View, but inside stores.

Google Putting Local Business Hours in Universal Search Results

Google continually makes enhancements to not just its search algorithm in general, but to local search elements. We have discussed quite a few of these recently, because frankly, Google seems to be doing a lot more with local search lately. To review, here are some other recently discussed topics related to local search, specifically through Google:

Google Favorite Places Could Complicate the Local Search Game

A little over a month ago, Google announced that it was sending brick and mortar businesses decals to put on their windows, with barcodes that people can scan with their phones to bring up business listings. These were made available to the businesses Google deemed "favorite places". Over 10,000 businesses in the US got them right off the bat, and Google will most likely expand that number in the future.

Promote Your Social Media Presence Through Signage

It has been proven time and time again that social networks can help businesses spread brand awareness, increase customer engagement, and ultimately bring in more customers and sales. While there are tremendous benefits to online businesses, social media can be particularly useful for local brick and mortars as well.  Do you promote your social media presence in the offline world?

Which One: Brick and Mortar or Online Store?

How do decide between shopping at a physical location and shopping online? For some, the decision is based on convenience and for others it is based on getting a good deal. Whatever the reason may be, it results in a difficult decision for entrepreneurs planning to open a retail store.

Google Gives Your Business its Own Page

Last week Google launched a new Google Maps feature called Place Pages. The purpose of these pages is to include as much information about places (which can be businesses or cities) in one spot. So for example (the example Google used upon announcement), if I search for "Burdick Chocolate Cafe" on Google Maps, and I go to the more info link for its listing (it's a place in Cambridge, MA), I will get reviews, photos, the map listing, directions, street view, and more.

Business Puts a Value on Twitter Marketing Success

We've explored different ways to use Twitter for business repeatedly. There are still many doubters out there however. It is often hard to put a real value on it, but AdAge is talking about a pizza place in New Orleans, which has done just that. It is worth noting that the pizza place is backed by Uber-Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, so I would imagine that helps a lot, but isn't that just more motivation to push your branding efforts harder with Twitter?

Local Search Growing More Rapidly Than Regular Online Search

Research from comScore indicates that growth in local search is outpacing overall online search. In 2008, the practice of using online search tools to find local businesses, products or services grew by 58%, reaching a total of 15.7 billion searches for the year. While total online searches for the year reached 137 billion, the growth rate there was only 21% on a year-over-year basis. Local searches make up 12% of core searches on the top 5 online portals, comScore reports.

Brick and Mortars - Do Customers Know Your Hours?

For brick and mortar businesses, business hours are a key piece of information that customers want/need to know. I've discussed having reasonable business hours in the past.