Having an online presence for a business is considered the most important factor in success in the modern day. Whether searching for the solution to a mathematical problem or to finding the best clothes and restaurants in town, every single thing requires an online search. Having an online presence helps a business increase its visibility and accessibility, which is far more effective than traditional print advertisement. Online information is considered the most reliable source as it accumulates all the information and summarize it as best possible to make it more reliable and accessible. So why not list your business on Google Maps and use Google My Business to promote it?
I am a MBA student in an urban campus located in Oakland, California who also works as a Library Assistant. Our university library is few block away from main university building but I never realized that the location was not available in google maps, until one day when I was late for the work and trying to get Uber, but the maps didn’t find the location. I felt fortunate enough to contribute from my side to list the new place in google maps and update other information. After this incident, something triggered in my mind considering startups and small business, as these small scale business are initially busy in handling the operations of business, and are not much aware of google my business and google listings and all these free services which helps business generating traffics and providing information in global scale.
Following through, this is the lack of awareness about the importance of google maps or not considering it reliable in initial stage of business. In this part, local guides are doing the best that they can by adding detailed information about the business,opening hours, phone numbers, street address, special information and the link to main website (if there is any), photos about the business, menu and items the business offer. Also the recent follow feature added by google maps, helps to aware if there is any change in the business or any relevant information.
So, these are all the features and I hope there are many coming in near future which can be communicated for free and I believe every single entrepreneur must be aware to stand out and grab the opportunity as soon quick as possible.
