Consumers Begin Their Search for Offline Businesses on Google

In decades past, brick and mortar businesses and entrepreneurs merely secured a spot in their local Yellow Pages so that when consumers “let their fingers do the walking,” they had a shot at being one of the ads that were stumbled upon to generate business.

These days, StumbleUpon (dot com), a social media network, is the more likely place people will go to find the resource they need – not something that happens when people hoist a heavy Yellow Pages book onto their lap to find what they’re looking for. It’s hard to find someone who routinely refers to the big yellow book anymore. It’s much faster (and easier) to just “Google it!”

Googling is something people of all ages do now – from kids just learning how to navigate the ‘net to baby boomers and beyond. You, as a business owner, want to be listed in Google’s index and you’re going to love the fact that it doesn’t have to cost you a single cent, unlike the Yellow Pages which charges a larger fee as your ad increases in size.

To secure a top spot in Google you want to work on planting seeds of information online within the various social media networks that discuss your business. You don’t have to have your own website to do this, but it helps. In fact, many of these social media pages can serve the same purpose as a website – giving people information about your business and providing contact information and directions to your location.

Take Squidoo, for example. This web 2.0 social media network has a zip code section known as “local.” You sign up for a free account and you can build a page about your business so that visitors or residents can find you on the Internet.

You can do this with many different types of social networking sites like Hub Pages, Google Knol, WetPaint, and more. You can get all of these accounts at no cost to you and you don’t need web design skills because each one has been set up to provide you with building tools like content sections, picture sections, and more. Say goodbye to Big Yellow. It’s time for your business to become reachable on the World Wide Web.