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Get your local tourism businesses online, quickly!

By Becky McCray

A Google+ Places page

This is the place to start to get your local businesses online. 

When promoting your small town tourism, one essential element is getting your local businesses online where your visitors can find them. But most of your small town businesses either have no website, or a website they don’t maintain, or a website that isn’t mobile-friendly. Rather than fight with all the local businesses about getting and updating a modern website, there is one place to focus your efforts for the most results:

Start with Google Places pages.

3 reasons to start with Google Places pages:

1. Your bricks and mortar businesses already have a Places Page, based off their phone records. It’s easy for businesses to add more details where they’ll reach the most potential visitors.

2. Most of your mobile visitors are already looking at Google Places pages on their smart phones and tablets. On any device, a Google search from the browser returns Google Places in the results. Android phones Maps searches also return Google Places pages.

3. Every Google search on a desktop for a local business returns Google Places results.

Now what you need is a simple step-by-step guide your businesses can use to improve their Google Places listing. I’ve got one for you. It’s a draft. So if you have suggestions or ideas, feel free to send them to me.

DRAFT Google Plus Local Guide

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
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August 13, 2013 Filed Under: marketing, rural, tourism

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