Week 9 Part B

 Let's be honest, when people need knowledge fast, they tend to turn to Google. For  the business owner, there's no two ways around it: Having a claimed and well-managed Google Business Profile should be a top priority (and pretty much is the definition of low-hanging fruit). With a few clicks and some minimal interacting with the interface, you can not set your hours of operation and integrate features such as photos and promotional tools that help keep customers informed.

If you have a physical store, you can't beat Google when it comes to helping customers locate you. You provide your address, and map steers likely customers right to the front door. Even better, your customers can update your Google page by posting their own photos and reviews of your business. Keeping the page fresh, responding to reviews, and interacting with the likely-to-leave-some-reviews crowd can make a big difference in the business's performance in Google's rankings.

Google offers so much more than mere listings. For those who have their own sites, adding Google's analytical scripts can provide deep insight into who your visitors are and what they're doing with your site. Even without a site, Google's built-in analytics can offer insights into just how powerful (or not) your cause is—tools to measure the effectiveness of your outreach and improve the experiences of your customers.

Google Workspace elevates things further, providing business-oriented Gmail accounts, powerful cloud storage, collaborative tools, and shared calendars. For team meetings, content coordination, or planning promotional events, Google's integrated ecosystem is set up to streamline and increase your productivity. On top of everything else, the suite contains a number of bonus tools like AI that make working in the cloud even easier.

Google often gets overlooked when we talk about social media, but for small businesses, it can be a real game changer. Local searches performed on Google too often drive more traffic and conversions than some of the oldest and most popular social platforms. I looked at a number of local businesses, and the most successful of all the ones I checked regularly update their Google profiles, have a back-and-forth dialogue with reviewers, and are plainly using analytics to drive their decision-making.