Google Local Business Center: Promoting MSPs?
Google’s made a little change to their Local Business Center that could potentially mean more business for some MSPs. Google Places, as its now called, lets businesses show potential customers their service area, advertise their listings locally for peanuts, and provide greater visibility into just how people are finding you. Here’s the scoop.
Apart from the service area demarcation I mentioned, the official blog entry indicates that Google Places lets MSPs pay $25 a month to make their Google and Google Maps listings stand apart from the rest. Right now, that’s only available in select cities Austin, Atlanta, and Washington, DC, but they say it’s hitting more major metropolitan areas sooner rather than later. Presumably the areas around them will be eligible some time after that.
One of the more interesting things Google Places adds to traditional business listings is the ability to generate a QR barcode, readable by any smartphone. Customers can snap a pic on your business card or in your window and be taken to your Place Page.
A lot of the other features are aimed more at traditional retail establishments more than a business like a services provider. But it’s important to note that Google Places lets you hide your address if you don’t actually have an office and still keep a business listing.
If you do use Google Places to promote your business, be sure to let us know how it’s working for you in the comments below.
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Matt – Great Information. I think Google is doing a good thing by promoting more local businesses. The Places offering is yet another revenue stream for them, which some may be dismayed at and some of the features are definitely geared more towards retail businesses such as the QR codes and and photo shoots – I often use that feature to “see” what a restaurant looks like before going….it was great to see they published the fact that 1 in 5 searches is local in context and I suspect a lot of this is coming from mobile search (for retail). I am seeing a similar local search trend from my own adwords campaign but it’s about a 70/30 split, only 30% using mobile devices. So I continually adjust apppropriately.
Matt, I had not heard about Google Places before but seeing how Google is all about different ways that they can generate advertising revenue that makes sense.
Please let us know when you hear more about Google Places being rolled out to more locations.
I love the new functionality of google places, I am just disappointed that tags aren’t available in Phoenix yet. Hopefully soon
Carmen@3: I must concede… I’ve yet to try Google Places but I do need to put aside some time for it. Let us know if/when you see Google Places support Phoenix, and how it works. Thanks.
Rick@2: We’ll keep you posted. Matt is watching Google like a hawk these days.
Shane: 30% of searches involve mobile devides? That’s a very, very interesting stat.
-jp