Small businesses make up the large majority of businesses and employers in both the US and globally; however, they have been historically underrepresented online. Google My Business is Google's latest initiative to entice more businesses to build their online presence.
Google My Business is meant to make the process of creating and managing a business's presence on Google easier by bringing the different services together under one umbrella with the primary piece being a Google+ Page. In order to make it as easy as possible, the team has added My Business to the Google+ navigation draw for Google+ Pages (as seen below).
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| Google My Business on desktop |
It allows for easy access to sharing content on Google+, checking your Google+ Page analytics with Insights, and managing your reviews (only if Google+ Page is a Google+ Local Page). In addition, it will show your statistics from other Google services such as YouTube, AdWords Express, and Google Analytics once you've connected them. It acts as a one-stop shop for a business's presence on Google.
When visiting Google My Business for the first time, users will be welcomed to the new experience with some quick information about it and a introduction tour, as seen below.
As part of the new service, Google is also rolling out Insights which gives Google+ Page managers a look at the analytics of their Page and individual posts. It also allows them to see their follower growth and the demographics of their followers. Google+ Page managers have been asking for Insights for a while, and it's great to see their wishes come true!
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| Insights gives Google+ Page managers the analytics they've always wanted |
In addition to the desktop version, Google has released an
Android app so that businesses can manage their presence on Google while they are on mobile. The app doesn't have all of the functionality yet; however, it does allow for easy posting to their Google+ Page, viewing the page managers and Insights (most importantly of all). It seems to have some bugs right now: it's showing that none of our posts have +1s when that certainly is not the case.
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| Google My Business Android app |
Google My Business is certainly something that Google will look to continue to grow and expand upon. Small businesses are going to be a large part of the growth of Google's business and the Internet as a whole, so Google will not stop making things easier for them in hopes they choose to build their business with Google and not Facebook or Bing.
If you're a Google+ Page manager, what do you think about Insights? Which part are you most excited about?
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