SEO helps businesses of all kinds optimize their websites to have a presence online. It helps them gain visibility, traffic, and generate leads through business websites that act as a storefront on the web. But what about small businesses? The businesses so small they don’t even need a website?
For some small businesses, having a website is more work than it’s worth. For example, a local mom and pop shop that sells liquor or local groceries doesn’t have a need for a multi-page website. They don’t sell products online, so there’s no need to develop ecommerce functions, and they don’t run a blog, so there’s no need for content pages. So, if they don’t have need for a website but don’t want to miss out on the business that comes from online traffic, what are these small businesses to do?
This is exactly what Google’s new tool for small businesses aims to address.
What’s the New Tool and Who is it For?
According to Google’s announcement:
“One of the most common actions people take when exploring a Google listing is to go to the web site, but we know that getting a website can still be a challenge for a lot of small business owners around the world: too complex, too expensive, too time consuming. Millions of small businesses (60 percent of small businesses globally) don’t yet have a website.”
In response to this problem, Google has developed an exciting single-page website builder designed with small businesses in mind. In keeping with the simple and easy nature of this tool, it is simply called “Website.” Through it, small business owners can easily create a single-page website in minutes from either any device from desktop to mobile phone.
How Do You Do It?
For small business owners to create a website, they have to have a completely filled out Google My Business listing (Website is an extension of GMB). This is because Google pulls the information from a business’s GMB listing to create the website. From there, business owners have the option of customizing the theme, photos, and text on the website.
Updating the website is as user-friendly and simple as updating your GMB listing is. This, of course, brings certain limitations in terms of how creative business owners can be with the design, but overall it’s a great option for small businesses.
Why This is Good News
This is exciting for small business owners because it presents a way for them to have an online presence without creating a resource they don’t actually need. Best of all, Website is free to use, which makes it an easy and uncomplicated step for a small business owner to quickly take to enhance their business.
Republished by permission. Original here.
Google Photo via Shutterstock
