Establish Your Business Online Presence for Free
Having your business information online or not is not a matter to debate anymore. It is essential. People now expect to find your business online and if they don't they'll gladly contact your competitors who have their information posted on the web.
It is understandable that a website can be a daunting project for small business owners. Most folks are comfortable using a computer for minor tasks and maybe some advanced business applications but designing a website is out of the skill level of most users.
The other option is to have the website functions outsourced but this too can present some major challenges. The price for website design can reach $1000s and after the website is designed there are still the tasks of inserting content, managing visitors and getting traffic to the site. Add the new demand for mobile websites and you can understand why some business owners prefer to ignore the problem and hope a solution fall in their laps.
The last option is "Instant" website creation services where you sign up for a service and just upload your content to their website. The online process produces a out-of-the-box website almost instantly. The results are usually of poor quality and the business owner ends up over paying for the little value they are getting.
Google came up with an answer
Not too long ago Google created close to 50 million "websites" for local businesses by fetching individual business information from local directories and databases. Google are calling those "websites" Google Places. Most businesses in North America had a Google Places Page created for them, yet more than 95% of the business owners are not aware of it.
The Google Places Pages act much like a regular directory business listing where it displays the company's name address, phone number and other information, but it also includes other benefits like posting images and videos, offering coupons, sending out regular messages as well as providing other information prospects might require. The best part of it is that the Google Places Pages are free.
The other advantage of having a Google Places Page, is that the pages are mobile enabled by default. This means that local businesses have a mobile website that can be viewed on most mobile phones, tablets and even some in-car GPS devices.
Claiming your free website
Having and maintaining a Google Places Page for your business is the easiest and most affordable way to have an online presence for your local business. To start the process, enter your business phone number into the Google search engine box and if your business information was accessed by Google, they will have created a listing which you can claim.
If entering you phone number does not trigger a Google Places Page for your result, simply go to the Google Places Page webpage and start the process from there. The process is very simple and you can have your business online in matter of minutes.
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