The Importance of Google Places for Small Businesses

Thanks to internet marketing, finding a product or service you want today is easier than ever. More and more businesses – both big and small – are ensuring their presence online and are vying for the top slots in Google search result pages, so that their potential customers can find them easily. According to Google, one out of every five searches is related to a location and Google Places is an improved search facility that focuses on this aspect. If you are a small business targeting local customers rather than a global audience, using Google Places is one of the best things you could do for the growth of your business. If you aren’t already using this service from Google, it is high-time you considered it for your business.

Understanding Google Places

Google Places is a service that allows you to be listed on Google Maps, so that your clients or customers can easily locate you. Business owners, who are listed with Google, can use Google Places to manage the information regarding the physical location of their business. This means when a potential customer searches for the service or product you offer, your business would be listed under the organic web listings as well as in Places. Considering the fact that Google usually blends the Google Places’ page and Maps along with the organic results for location specific searches, listing yourself in Google Places can be an excellent way to create brand awareness.
Getting your business listed on Google Places is easy and can be done in just three steps. The first step is to set up an account and submit the relevant information like the address, phone number, email, hours of operation, payment method, mode of service, images and even videos to Google. Once you verify your listing through phone or mail, you would receive a PIN from Google that allows you to claim the specified listing. Once this process is complete, your listing would get accepted by Google and can be viewed on the site.
The best part of it all is that Google Places is a free service and it is upto you as a business owner to make the best of it.

Why every small business needs Google Places

Google Places is a straightforward service from Google to help small business make themselves visible and searchable on the internet, by people from a particular locality they cater to. Google Places is free and allows businesses to put themselves on the web with little effort, which makes the service and excellent marketing option for small business owners.
Google Places is the local Yellow Pages – With the internet at hand, there are very few people who still search for a service using the traditional Yellow Pages directories. So besides being listed in the traditional Yellow Pages, businesses should also consider getting listed in online directories and in Google Places, especially if the business caters to a local audience. The advantage of using Google Places is that all the relevant information about your business is available and can be accessed by your potential customers through the internet, even when you don’t have a website. So if you are a small business owner and cannot afford maintaining a website, Google Places is the viable solution for you.
Improved search engine page ranking – Google Places focuses on local searches, which means that the competition for a local business o Google Places would be restricted to the other business only within the locality and not the entire region, city or state. This means that there are better chances of your business being at the top of the search engine page results for your category and location.
For example, a search with key terms – ‘Italian restaurants in Somerset, NJ” would only get results for Italian restaurants within the region and not the entire state of New Jersey. So, the possibility of your Italian restaurant being found is much better in Google Places.
Your business is easily found on Google Maps – Another advantage of getting listed in Google Places is that your business would also be marked in Google Maps, giving the exact location of your business to a potential customer. When you allow your business listing to be found through relevant keywords used in Google Maps, which also works on mobile phones, customers on the move, who are looking for your service, would be able to find you without much hassle.
Cost-effective local marketing – The obvious reason for a small business to use Google Places is that it is a free service. Spending huge amounts of money on billboards, television, radio or print ads is not a practical option for small businesses. Google Places on the other hand allows small businesses to advertise to their potential customers in a given locality and costs much lesser than traditional advertising options.

Making the best use of Google Places

Now that you know about the benefits of Google Places, here are a few tips on how you can make the best use of this service.
Use keywords – Use relevant keywords properly to create an impressive product or service description that appeals to the customers. But avoid overusing or stuffing of keywords, otherwise your search engine page ranking could go down drastically.
Add Images and videos – Business owners listed in Google Places are allowed to add upto 10 images and 5 videos for free. Make the best use of this and upload images of your business establishment, so that it becomes much more easier for customers to find and identify you.
A Google Places page for every location – If your business has different branches at different locations, make sure that each branch has a separate Google Places page with the location’s address and phone number. In case you have just one branch but offer services in different locations, you can create a single page and list down the areas in it.
Encourage reviews – Ask your pleased customers to review and rate your services on Google Places. The higher your ratings, the more number of customers you can get. Try to get as many reviews as possible, but only from genuine sources. However, avoid having too many just for ranking as this can cause Google to push your listing down.

Top 5 advantages of website for a business

Whether your business is selling handicraft products, providing consultancies, distributing high-tech products or a florist; having an attractive and well-design website for your business will help you to generate more sales. The following short and simple facts are the top 5 advantages of website for a business.

1. Your market is worldwide:

   You can publicize your products and services to millions of potential customers over the world. Your business then is worldwide visible.

2. Save your money and time:

   With website you can update information for your business (prices, new products, promotion, etc.) far cheaper and much faster than print advertising materials.

3. Everything about your business is 24/7 available:

   People (prospects or clients) can easily learn in details about your products and services options, get their questions answered by just logging into your business website without having to disturb you.

4. Increase your credibility:

   Your website is an opportunity for you to tell your prospects about who you are, what you are doing and why they should trust you. Because so many people search the internet for information to support their purchasing decision. Having a website is a perfect opportunity to influence their mindset and generate sales.

5. Enhance your business brand image to public:

   Your website is an effective way to build your brand image. Not just your logo, the way your content is arranged, your layouts are setup will influence the professionalism of your business.

Why is Higher Education Important?

Higher education. What is it? Why do you need it? What do the statistics show? How should you, as a homeschooler, begin approaching higher education? And, most importantly, what is God's plan for your life?
What is it?
I often read articles, hear people speak, and wonder, am I the only one who doesn't know what that term is that they are using? Usually my question pertains to a commonly used term that I should clearly know the definition of, but just don't. Therefore, I'm going to start by defining higher education. Specifically, higher education is education provided by universities, colleges, and other institutions that award academic degrees. Higher education includes both the undergraduate (i.e., college) and the graduate (or postgraduate) levels. Higher education includes most professional education and is strongly vocationally or professionally oriented. Higher education differs from other forms of post-secondary (after high school) education such as vocational education. Vocational education is a form of secondary or postsecondary education but is considered non-academic as compared to higher education. The figure below is an attempt to visually show these levels of education and just where higher education fits in.
Levels of Education

Stages	Approx. Age	Level
Primary	4-10 yrs.	Elementary School
Secondary	11-18 yrs.	High School
Tertiary *	19-22 yrs.	College
Quaternary *	23 yrs +	Graduate School

* Higher Education
Why do you need it?
Given that we have a basic definition of higher education, why do you need it? According to many sources I've studied, higher education offers graduates more jobs to choose from than are open to those who don't pursue education beyond high school, and graduates typically earn more than nongraduates. Specifically, the US Census Bureau reported in 2004 that, on average, a college graduate earns $54,704, significantly more than the $30,056 earned annually by someone with a high school diploma, or the $22,100 earned by a high school dropout. Another way of looking at these numbers is that, according to the Postsecondary Education Opportunity Research Letter (PEORL), the lifetime income of families headed by individuals with a bachelor's degree will be about $1.6 million more than the incomes of families headed by those with a high school diploma. The PEORL goes on to state that every dollar spent on a college education produces $34.85 in increased lifetime income--not a bad return on an investment.
Higher education improves an individual's quality of life. Studies show that, compared to high school graduates, college graduates have longer life spans, better access to health care, better dietary and health practices, greater economic stability and security, more prestigious employment and greater job satisfaction, less dependency on government assistance, greater knowledge of government, greater community service and leadership, more volunteer work, more self-confidence, and less criminal activity and incarceration. In addition, college graduates supposedly have greater use of seatbelts, more continuing education, greater Internet access, greater attendance at live performances, greater participation in leisure and artistic activities, more book purchases, and higher voting rates. As an aside, I have to admit that I was amazed at some of these items--not that I found them, but that someone actually researched this stuff and thought some of the items were enviable.

7 Great Advantages Of Facebook

Looking for list of Facebook advantages? You are on the right page. Facebook has many advantages to youth, adult as well as to the businesses. Here are top advantages of Facebook that you might not aware of:

1. Sharing Of Information

The website allows us to share with others what you desire to share, ask public opinion, ask question etc. You can share your pictures, videos and what you have been up to with your

friends. You can control how much information you want to share with whom and similarly other people share their information with you.

2. Chatting

Facebook is a social networking website but you can use it to chat with your friends, too. Facebook provides a simple, small chatting application that you can use to chat with your friends who are on Facebook and of course online. So why install Yahoo, MSN or any other messenger when you can chat with your all friends using Facebook, which I am sure on which you spend much time of your day.
Many people specially students use Facebook chat for group discussions, while some businesses use it for short meetings.

3. Mobile Facebook

Whatever you can do on facebook.com you can do from your mobile phone facebook app, on the go. Most new smart phones come with Facebook app. So you can update status, comment and do a lot things even from your mobile phone.

4. Find School, College Friendship or Colleague

Today almost every internet user uses Facebook. Using Facebook you can find your old friends and colleagues whom you have lost contact and connect with them online again. Facebook’s friend finder feature allows you to find your friends with their names or email addresses. Many people I know found their very old friends they never knew they will ever contact again. Now they have connected again through Facebook.

5. Business Promotion

Through Facebook Ads and Fans page you can advertise your business. Facebook offers a very customisable ads placement service, which is also very easy to use and cost effective.
Facebook Ads allows you to target people of specific age, geographic location, interests, etc, making your ads most useful and effective.

6. Entertainment

Facebook provides tons of gaming and other applications. Some people open Facebook only to play games.
Besides games, there are tons of Facebook apps that you can use and enjoy. Apps on Facebook are of variety of type such as photo editing, horoscope, stock analysis etc.

7. Boredom Killer

Facebook is a boredom killer, specially for students during vacations and even elderly people who are retired from their job.

So Why Use Facebook – In Final Words

As we have learnt above, Facebook is a “one-stop shop” for entertainment, communication, and sharing of information with others. It’s a place where you chat with others, share your ideas, ask questions, comment on people’s status, add your status, make friends, market your business, advertise and much more. You will not find any one-stop shop of this kind on the internet.