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Over the past couple of years, Google Places has been evolving from something that was nice to have into an indispensible necessity for your small business.

More and more, Google is including local web searches in its results and you can’t afford to miss out.  Getting listed now can be a real chance to give your business a leg up on the competition.

You need to act soon though, because that competition won’t take long to catch up.

Before social media and social networking we had the Yellow Pages.  Advertising in them was very costly and you could not alter your business details or descriptions for at least a year when the new edition would come out.

People used that very thick book at home or at work, but if they wanted to know where to find a special shop for high heels and handbags while they were actually out shopping, they were out of luck.

Now the possibilities are virtually unlimited. Carrying your smart phone with you, you can search for special items, places, deals, prices, and much more with just a tap of your finger.

This is where Google Places comes in.  At first glance it trumps the Yellow Pages because you can list your business for free. Once you’ve been verified you will be able to enter the exponentially expanding arena of mobile marketing without paying a dime – and if you do it right, your website will benefit with improved rankings, more visitors and fresh leads.

Why should you consider listing your business on Google Places?

There are actually two main reasons, as described by Rita Auta here:

[...]it gives searchers the opportunity to make a judgement of your business based on what others are saying about your business and it can also boost your search engine rankings.[…]

What this means is that people will be able to write reviews of your products on your Google Places listing, so that others who may be interested in what you have to offer will be able to decide for themselves if they want to visit your business as well.

The only catch with reviews is that not every customer will leave one and people are more likely to leave negative reviews and complaints.

The solution for avoiding bad reviews is offering high quality products and services with exceptional customer care. (Find Google’s answer on criteria for removing reviews here.)

The more positive reviews your business gets, the more people will start wanting to try it out.  And the more they spread the word about you and your business on their preferred social networks the more “social triggers” or signals will pop up mentioning your business.  Google and other search engines reward this kind of social activity with prioritised rankings.

[...]Google prioritizes well optimised, relevant Google Places listings in their search results, so the more people search for a business that matches what you offer, the more times your Google Places listing will be displayed in the results.[...] Read full article.

This can be an awesome benefit for your business, as many searchers will never go beyond the first page of the search results, or scroll much below the folds of their screens.

Optimisation of a Google Places listing means using carefully researched keywords that fit your products or services in the description of your listing.  Over time you can then accrue a whole list of positive judgements from real customers, which will help to boost your rankings in the search results.

Another thing to remember is that Google is the most used search engine by smart phone users, as it is there by default.  Putting yourself in Google Places therefore increases your ability to reach the widest possible audience.

One New Rule To Keep In Mind

The Google Places Quality Guidelines clearly delineate which businesses need to hide the business address within the Google Places listing, and which do not.

[...]If you don’t receive customers at your location, you must select the “Do not show my business address on my Maps listing” option within your dashboard. If you don’t hide your address, your listing may be removed from Google Maps.[...]

This rule, translated into simple English, means that if your business is home-based, but you do not serve any clients in your home, then you need to hide your business address.  So for example, if you are a tutor and you work with students in your home office, then you can show your address in your Google Places listing.  However, if you are an online consultant who doesn’t meet his/her clients at home, you need to keep your address hidden.

Be sure that you are clear about which category your business falls into and follow the guidelines accordingly.

Arachneproductions.com offers the done-for-you service for the most advantageous listing of your business in Google Places.

Plowing through the search results on “Setting up a website for your home based business or small business” can be a time consuming and very disappointing task, especially when you don’t really know exactly what you’re doing or what you need.

Everyone and his dog seems to be an expert on building web sites – even kids are using web development tools on a daily basis in their schools and colleges. Why then, should you not believe all the hype? Why should you not believe that it’s as easy as pie?

How to build a website - where to start?

Think about it – If it really were that easy to set up a business web site and start earning overnight, wouldn’t everyone be doing it? Wouldn’t new millionaires be popping up like weeds?

It is of course possible to build a successful business web site, but the fact is that setting up a website that is truly functional takes time and effort – Just like anything else that is really worth doing.

So where should you start? Better yet – Where should you NOT start?

There are of course, millions of articles, blog posts and videos on the step-by-step approach to building your own website. Once you get into these, you will often find that it is more complex than you have been lead to believe.

Suddenly you are hit with lots of technical language like: domain name, hosting account, cPanel, DNS nameserver, content management system, premium themes, SEO and backlinking. Suddenly you find that it is in fact, not quite as straightforward as it seems.

While these technical terms may seem daunting, don’t let it put you off. Yes, all that stuff is necessary, and yes it is possible to pay a reasonable cost for someone who will do it properly for you.

Be aware though, that most of the “free” or “affordable” and “instant website packages” are only selling you the first and more technical steps in the process, plus of course, the potential of unimaginable dream-earnings for a fee that looks at first glance very reasonable.

What They Don’t Tell You…

…is setting up a website is only step #1 in the whole process. As a business owner, your web site is part of your business and must be maintained and tended to regularly – just like any other aspect of your business.

So, if you’ve been reading those long, red-headlined sales letters that tell you it only costs $37, $47 or maybe $97 bucks to get a web site up and going and make money instantly, then please think carefully before you spend that money – That low cost is likely to be only the tip of a very expensive iceberg.

The tip of the iceberg

Remember that once a web site is up and running there will always be costs associated with maintaining it. If you are dealing with an honest web master, then ALL the costs will be explained to you upfront and will be reasonable.

Unfortunately, many people still pay a lot of money to web designers who take their money, don’t explain the costs, and then start demanding ridiculous fees to maintain the site and add new content.

A good web designer will set up the site and then provide you with an easy interface that you can use to manage your own content for a reasonable monthly fee.

Picture: dreamstime.com

You Get Out Of It What You Put Into It

The truth is that in order to get paying visitors and loyal customers for your online business it takes consistency and effort – the same as it does offline.

Targeted and engaged traffic is what you need, if you want your web business to pay off. And visitors will not come to you if you don’t tell them you are there – ready and waiting to help them.

Set up a Website and Maintenance

The big difference between a business on Main Street and a business on the web is that you have to keep rehanging your shingle – letting more and more potential customers know about you and your product or service. You will need to attract these visitors by providing written, visual and audible content that is helpful, entertains and gives convenient and immediate gratification. And you want to engage and be present where your audience is hanging out.

Look Before You Leap

So, if you are looking to put your business online, think first about what kind of valuable content you can provide: how-to articles and tutorials, a service that can be sold online, or other ways that you can enhance your offline business with an Internet presence. Be clear about what you want to accomplish, formulate a plan and stick to it. In the long run that will get you a lot farther than plunging headlong into some online scheme filled with empty promises.

So the next time you come across a red-headlined sales page you may look at it a bit differently. Setting up a website is a process that requires an investment of time and money, but which can ultimately create earnings for your business. Just don’t make the mistake of believing the wordy claims that making over-night heaps of cash takes only $37 and 5 minutes of your time to set up.

One of the best ways to fill your site with content is with private label rights (PLR) articles that you can modify to suit your sites specific needs with minimal effort. The problem with many of these articles though, is that they are very low quality.

Content is the king of the Internet. It is the most important factor in pleasing search engines and human visitors.

What are Smarticlz?

Our Smarticlz, or Smart Articles display their intelligence in a quality of writing that will show you off as highly knowledgeable and authoritative in your niche. Our editor in chief is a Harvard University trained, award-winning writer who has rigorously screened our staff. All articles are guaranteed to be written by native English speakers.

Defining Quality

You will find that the term “quality content” is used very freely by writers to describe their articles and writing services, but it is another matter altogether to figure out exactly how they measure that quality. At Arachne Productions, we use very clear and specific guidelines to define our high standards.

• Lead and Conclusion – Clear and succinct without meandering
• Structure – Articles have a generalized main idea that is supported by more specific ideas and clear examples
• Coherence – Ideas flow logically from one thought to the next so that readers can follow easily
• Substance – Articles are filled with useable information rather than fluff and filler
• Fluency, Variety and Rhythm – Article reads smoothly, sentence structures are varied and interesting, no “clunks”
• Voice – Articles maintain a consistent voice that is warm and friendly, inviting your visitors to read more

There are plenty of web marketers out there who think they can make a quick buck by slapping up scraped, poorly written, or badly spun articles, but the search engines inevitably find those pages and either devalue them or remove them from the index altogether.

If you are not putting up high quality content, then you are doomed to live in constant anxiety about the next algorithm roll-out and how it will affect your site. The great thing about quality content is that it holds its value even with new algorithms.

For many people, putting up high quality content can be an obstacle and there are any number of reasons for this. For some time is an issue, for others it is a lack of confidence about the quality of their writing. There are also many whose first language is not English, but who would like to put up English language web sites.

Whatever your reasons, your desire to put excellent articles on your site will pay off! Your high quality pages will rank well and hold their value while the lower quality sites fall away.

In the Before-Time

Back in ancient times before the Internet, businesses who wanted to market their products or services would purchase advertising on television, in magazines, or in other news media.

This style of advertising was like trying to kill a fly with a bazooka. Companies had to spend enormous amounts to target as wide an audience as possible with the hope that there would be enough people within that audience who would find the product or service useful to them.

The problem with this was that small businesses were unable to compete. They didn’t have enough money to pay for broad-sweeping ad campaigns and local advertising often didn’t reach enough people.

Niche Marketing and Small Business – Perfect Together

Then the Internet came along and gave small businesses the opportunity to reach beyond their localities and acquire new clients across the globe. No longer is there the need to worry about spreading the message far and wide in the hope of landing a sale. Now it is possible to target potential clients and customers, determine what they want, and tailor your services according to the demands of the niche.

The key to success with any niche marketing strategy is to utilize multiple avenues to target only those people who would be interested in your services. Through email lists, social media, forums and blogs (just to name a few), you can build relationships with clients and potential clients in your niche both locally and globally.

The Mobile Web – A Sample Scenario

The advent of mobile devices has increased opportunities for niche marketers ten-fold. We have only just begun to tap the potential of the mobile web, so as a business owner, now is a great time to jump in.

Let’s say for example, that you create and sell hand-crafted jewelry, and that you have a web site that is optimized for search, well-publicized, and aligned for use with mobile devices.

Now let’s suppose that someone living in your area, we’ll call her Susan, is doing a little shopping. She’s looking for a special necklace for her mother’s birthday. Taking her smart phone with her, she goes to a department store and sees a couple of necklaces that look nice, but aren’t really what she wants and are a little too pricey.

She takes out her smart phone and pulls up an app. She snaps a picture of one of the necklaces and the app goes to work, searching for local businesses that sell similar necklaces. In a couple of seconds, Susan has a list of results and suggestions as to where else she might look for necklaces in her locality.

Fortunately, Arachne Productions has helped you to create a beautiful site where your necklaces are well-displayed, and has insured that your Google Places and Google Maps profiles are top notch. Your site appears high up in the search results on Susan’s phone. She clicks through to your necklaces page and sees one that would be just perfect. Now Susan is happy and you have made a sale!

If this scenario sounds too far out to you, think again! It’s happening all the time and it’s just the beginning. Now is the perfect time to jump on the bandwagon and start taking advantage of all the web has to offer.

Need some help getting started? Take a look at our services for more information.