Yesterday, Google published a blog post containing five easy ways that retail businesses can spruce up their Google presence to connect with holiday shoppers — wherever they may be. Thanks to Google for letting us share a version of this post by Rajas Moonka, director, product management, local shopping.

The holidays can be the most hectic — and the most important — time of the year for business owners. And this year shoppers have found ways locally for online shopping and curbside pickups.

To make the most of this season and connect with shoppers wherever they are, use Google Maps and Google Business Profile.

1. Claim your free Business Profile to put your best face forward on Google Maps and Search. Make sure your Business Profile is updated with helpful information about your store—like updated hours, a description and photos, shopping options, and all the safety measures you’re taking during the pandemic. Pro tip: Double check if your phone number is correct and turn on messaging so you can quickly connect with customers who have questions.

2. Share the gift of updated in-store inventory (online!):  Unsurprisingly, 77 percent of holiday shoppers in the U.S. said they will browse for gift ideas online this year instead of in-store. Thanks to Pointy from Google, you can easily show your products online so shoppers can see what you carry before they head to the store to make a purchase. Pointy connects to your point-of-sale system and automatically adds your in-store products to your Business Profile on Google. This helps you to appear in search results when shoppers are looking for items you carry.

3. Help them order ahead, still tucked in their beds: Searches for “curbside pickup” have grown more than 3,000 percent globally since last year. Let customers know how they can shop with you—whether you’re offering curbside pickup, in-store pickup or delivery options.

4. Oh, what fun it is to buy online for pickup and delivery: Add ordering link(s) for pickup or delivery to your profile. If you’re a verified retail merchant in the U.S., you can now add a link to your online store directly to your Business Profile on Google. This helps shoppers easily place a pickup or delivery order from you with a few simple taps!

5. ‘Tis the season to share more about your business: Shoppers are looking to purchase from  local businesses that they feel good about supporting. Spruce up your Business Profile and connect with your community by showing whether you’re LGBTQ-friendly or women-led, or in the U.S. and identify as Black-owned or veteran-led.

For more ways to deck out your Google presence, watch Grow with Google’s Quick Help YouTube videos. The short videos will help answer a variety of small business questions, from how to make the most of digital tools to how to start a live stream. We know the holiday season can be overwhelming, but with this checklist in hand there will be no need to get your tinsel in a tangle. 

Each month, 15 million edits are made to Google Business Profiles, the information a business can use to update their customer information. Last week, Google announced it is making it easier for a business owner to post updated information at one location — and have the information appear on several locations. (For instance, a post on Google Maps will also update information on a Profile Page.)

“Today, we’re making it easier to update a company’s Business Profile directly from Google products you already use,” says Tom Pritchard, product lead, Google My Business. “Now you can create posts, reply to reviews, add photos and update business information right from Google Search and Maps.”

Here is how it works.

1. To start, make sure you are signed in with the Google account used to verify your business.’
2. On Google Maps, tap your profile picture on the top right corner of the mobile app and select “Your Business Profile” to access these tools.
3. On Google Search, you can look up your business by name or search for “my business” to update your profile.
4. Business owners can continue to use the Google My Business website and mobile app to update business information and connect with customers.

New or Updated Features.

• The ability to update a business listing not just from Search, but also from the Google Maps app 
• Two new ways a verified user can access their Business Profile
  (On Search, merchants can look up their business by name or simply search for “my business. On the Maps app, they can click on their profile picture and then on “Your Business Profile” to access and make updates)
• A new Performance Page that lets merchants see their customer interactions directly in Search or Maps.
• A simplified menu on Search and Maps, with 3 sections: Edit your profile, Promote your business and connect with customers

“All of these new features are free for verified business owners and will continue to evolve over the coming months to give business access to even more helpful tools,” says Pritchard. “As more business owners rely on digital tools to connect with customers and keep business operations running, we’ll continue to update our offerings to be as helpful as possible”.

Image via Google

Local Services Ads

Why the focus on local small businesses?

In the past few months, Google has seen an increase of 50 percent in searches for such service related terms as “carpet cleaning” and “air conditioning repair,” according to Dischler. “We’re now making it easier to book appointments online directly to local businesses, said Dischler.”

Later this month, Google is launching a new mobile site for the U.S. and Canada, “to help more people find, compare and book nearby service providers faster,” he said.

Customers are seeking services they urgently want while limiting their in-person store interactions, according to Google. “They’re looking for real-time updates on product availability at local stores,” according to Dischler.

• Searches for “curbside pickup” and “in stock” have surged by more than 70 percent in recent months.
  
• Goole says its goal is to help service seekers find and buy the things they need, quickly and easily.

Starting earlier this week (June 17, 2020) Google’s Shopping Tab will display local store information, including product availability, locations, and fulfillment options like delivery and curbside pickup. This information will show up in all countries where the Shopping tab is available.

For many small businesses around the world, digital tools have become a lifeline this year, according to Google. One in three small business owners say that without digital tools, they would have needed to close all or part of their business. With businesses at various stages of digital transformation, we’re committed to helping businesses get online and grow with easy-to-use tools, according to Dischler.

More Local Google Tools

Grow My Store

Grow My Store | Expanding into retailers in the U.S. In Europe, Grow My Store has been an effective way for many small retailers to get quick tips on how to improve their online store and understand how they are doing compared to peers in the industry. Businesses just need to enter their website URL into the tool and within minutes they will get a custom report. 

Local Market Finder

Local Market Finder | The merchant or company enters the name of its business and Google will provide personalized suggestions on how to make improvements to it Business Profile on Google. For example, ensuring your opening hours are current, adding curbside pick up information, or uploading a photo that represents your business.

Smart Campaigns

Smart campaigns | You can start using Smart campaigns to display a prominent, square-shaped Google Maps pin with your business category logo, highlighting specific services that you offer, like curbside pickup or delivery. 

(Google: Local Services Help)

The initiative includes:

Personalized plans|Answer a few questions about your business, and select a goal. You’ll then receive a step-by-step, tailored plan of recommended products to help you stand out online, reach more customers, and work more efficiently. The recommendations will include products to help with all three, but with a special focus on the goal that’s most important to you.

In-person workshops | Grow with Google workshops that take place across the U.S.

Latest news | Stay updated on Google’s small business-focused tools and services.

More information can be found as  google.com/smallbusiness. 

(Updated | November 13, 2018)

One of the handiest features of services like Yelp or Google’s business listings is their display of a company’s hours of operation. Seeing that a shop is “about to close” has stopped me from driving across town on several occasions. But what about those days when a cafe may be closed because of a private party? Or perhaps it may have different hours related to the seasons of the year? There are times when the owner of the business needs to change the time of operation for one day only. Some small restaurants close on the weekend, or perhaps on Mondays. In some countries, shops and cafes close during mid-afternoon hours. On some official U.S. holidays, nearly all American businesses close (Thanksgiving, for example). However, there are certain days that aren’t actually holidays, but on which many businesses close (the day after Thanksgiving, for example). Most confusing are the closing times during the end-of-year shopping holidays, (including the Small Business Saturday).

Here’s how to manage special days and times on Yelp and Google’s listings pages. (Tip: You also should also update your website.)

How to change information related to a special date or time on your company’s Google business listings

Before Starting | If you haven’t already claimed your Google Business listing, start with our tutorial on “How to Start Using Google My Business.” If you’d like to learn a lot about using Google My Business, visit the SmallBusiness.com Guide to Managing a Listing on Google Search and Maps.

Start | Sign in to Google My Business

1. For a single location:
   1. From card view, choose the listing you’d like to set special hours for and click Manage location. If you’re viewing your locations as a list instead of cards, switch to card view by clicking the cards icon  on the right side above your locations.
   2. Click Info from the menu on the left side of the page.
2. For multiple locations:
   1. From list view, select the locations you’d like to set special hours for. If you’re viewing your locations as cards instead of a list, switch to list view by clicking the list icon  on the right side above your locations.
   2. Click the pencil icon  in the top-right corner of the page.

Click the  Special hours section | (You’ll only see this section if you’ve already provided regular hours.)

• • Click Confirm hours next to an upcoming holiday. Or click Add new date to choose a different date.

• • Enter the opening and closing times for that day.

• • Slide the circle to “Closed” to indicate that the location is closed all day.

• • If you’re open 24 hours, click Opens at and select 24 hours from the drop-down menu that appears.

• • If you enter closing hours past midnight, make sure to set them properly.

• When you’ve finished entering all of your special hours, click Apply.

Your special hours will appear to customers on Google only for the designated days.

How to set a special date or time on your Yelp business listing

First things first | If you haven’t done so already, find and claim your Yelp Business Page. (More information about claiming your business.) After you have claimed your Yelp Business Page and have been verified by Yelp, do the following.

Log-in at biz.yelp.com. (You may also want to download the Yelp for Business Owners app for mobile access.)

Log into the Yelp for Business Owners admin page on either the app or your Yelp listings page.

• On “Business Information” select “Special Hours.”
• Mark your business as being closed or opened during a specific window of time.
• Special hours are set on a day-by-day basis, so add each day where your operating hours will be different from the hours regularly listed on Yelp.

Once your hours are set, customers will see a banner highlighting your special hours on your Yelp Business Page as well as call outs in the hours’ section.

istock, yelp.com

In March, Google engineers discovered a bug that could have given developers private data to hundreds of thousands of users of the Google+ social media network. The company chose not to disclose its discovery of the bug at the time. Reporters from the Wall Street Journal published a memo prepared by Google’s legal and policy staff and shared with senior executives warning that disclosing the incident would likely trigger “immediate regulatory interest” and invite comparisons to Facebook’s leak of user information to data firm Cambridge Analytica. In a blog post yesterday, Ben Smith, Google Fellow and vice president of engineering, announced that Google had “found no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API, and we found no evidence that any Profile data was misused.”

via GIPHY

Google is shutting down the consumer version of Google+ 

As part of the post, Smith announced that Google is shutting down the consumer version of Google+, the beleaguered social network that was supposed to be Google’s answer to Facebook. However, users stayed away from it in droves.

Google will still support the “corporate social network” version of Google+ that is part of its paid version of G-Suite. “Google+ is better suited as an enterprise product where co-workers can engage in internal discussions on a secure corporate social network,” said Smith. “We’ve decided to focus on our enterprise efforts and will be launching new features purpose-built for businesses.”

Google will be shutting the consumer version of Google+ during the next 10-month period. Over the coming months, Google will provide Google+ users related information, including ways they can download and migrate their data.

What NOT to do! Do not confuse your Google+ Profile page with your Google business listing

If you manage a Google+ profile page for your business, DO NOT CONFUSE your Google+ profile page (that’s being shuttered) with your company’s Google business listing.

Your Google business listing (also called Google My Business) is a very, very important way to keep your Google listing up to date on search results and Google Maps.

For more information about managing your Google listing see: The SmallBusiness.com Guide to Managing a Listing on Google Search and Maps.

One more time

Google business listing |  GOOD
Google+ profile | GOING AWAY

Are you impatient? Here’s how to delete your Google+ profile anytime

In a celebration of its 20th anniversary, Google announced its “next chapter” is driven by three fundamental shifts in how the company thinks about search. As most of us spend at least a part of every day using Google to find what we need, it’s worth looking at what these fundamental shifts will be. Each headline links to a more in-depth view of the shift. The quotes are from Ben Gomes, Google VP of Search, News, and Assistant.

A shift from answers to journeys

“To help you resume tasks where you left off and learn new interests and hobbies, we’re bringing new features to Search that help you with ongoing information needs.”

A shift from queries to providing a queryless way to get to information

“We can surface relevant information related to your interests, even when you don’t have a specific query in mind.”

A shift from text to a more visual way of finding information

“We’re bringing more visual content to Search and completely redesigning Google Images to help you find information more easily.”

“Providing greater access to information is fundamental to what we do, and there are always more ways we can help people access the information they need. That’s what pushes us forward to continue to make Search better for our users.”

Ben Gomes, Google VP of Search, News, and Assistant

20th-anniversary video provided by Google

Image via Google

As we’ve been saying since the launch of Google My Business, with more than 80% of people searching the web to find local information (1), it’s important to have a presence on the web that showcases what makes your business unique. Businesses with complete listings on Google are twice as likely to gain customer trust (2), 38% more likely to attract in-store visits, and 29% more likely to see a purchase.(3)

In addition to Google My Business (the administrative dashboard for keeping your business listing up-to-date), Google has announced you can now edit your business information right on the listing page. If this sounds familiar, it’s because we announced it back in January of this year.

But to make it official, Ranjith Jayaramyou, product manager of Google Local search, has announced on the Google Small Business blog that a business owner can now complete and enhance their listing in these ways:

• Add or correct business information, post updated hours, and more.
• Post on Google and stay engaged with your customers.
• Share photos that make your business stand out.
• See how many views your listing gets, and easily access detailed information about your listing’s performance.
• Know when users upload photos of your business.
• Quickly take the most important actions to complete and enhance your business listing.

How does it work?

1. Find your business on Google Search and you will see a new, simple menu right above the search results. If you’re not seeing the menu, make sure you’re logged in with your business account.
2. Click the edit button, and the fields you can edit will be highlighted. You can update your information and upload photos directly.

_{1 Consumer Barometer
2 Google/Oxera, The Benefits of Complete Business Listings, Dec 2014
3 Ipsos MORI, Impact of Search Listings for Local Businesses, Aug 2014}

VIA | Google | Used with permission

Your business listing on Google (the information displayed on searches and Google maps that you can manage with Google My Business) can now include additional URLs, allowing you to provide links to specific actions such as online orders or reservations. These links make it easier for customers to take actions directly from Google Search or Maps. This means your business listing can include links to actions such as placing online orders or reservations. Once again, thanks to our friend and Google My Business expert Mike Blumenthal for keeping us up-to-date on ways your business can take advantage of the stream of enhancements and features that help potential customers find you and your business. Here is Mike’s explanation of the new features.

Recently, Google started rolling out the ability to add a “make an appointment” URL to physician listings and other professions and industry verticals.

Some of the professions and industry verticals with the additional URL options:

• Lawyers
• Doctors
• Insurance agencies
• Consulting firms
• Psychologists
• Construction
• Computer repair
• Flooring
• Plumbing

According to a new Google My Business help page about “Local Business URLs,” the additional URLs can be used for linking customers or clients to such actions as:

• Booking an appointment
• Placing an order
• Reserving a table
• Searching for items
• Viewing the menu

As many restaurants and professionals already have online relationships with other reservation services or software (for example, OpenTable.com), Google notes that “In some cases, links to ‘certain third-party booking services’ will appear automatically on business listings.”

How to add additional URLs to your Google listings

1. Sign in to Google My Business.
2. Choose the listing you want to edit. (If you’re using card view , you’ll need to click Manage location, then click Info from the menu.)
3. Click into the  URLs section. Depending on your business category, you may see options to add additional URLs.
4. Enter your URLs in the appropriate fields.
5. Click Apply.

VIA | Blumenthals.com. “Google My Business expands optional URLs for appointments, reservations and ordering ahead”