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A Business Owner's Guide To Google's New Street View

 

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Pastry-Shop

Looking for a pastry shop in Boston? Or how about a late-night sushi cafe in Cambridge? Just whip out Google Maps and it will return a list of related locations with directions, photos, and even reviews of the destination.

With location-based sites like Yelp, Foursquare, Twitter, and others on the rise, Google decided to enter the "location war" with Google Places, a tool that enables business owners to build a directory page in Google Maps. However, Google has taken it up a notch. People can now browse local business in Google Street View and find nearby listings right on the map.

Local Businesses in Google Street View 

In a seemingly virtual reality world, users can "walk" down a street and explore nearby locations. Each location has a company name as well as an icon indicating the type of business. If you hover over a local business name, its information (address, phone number, ratings, etc.) will appear in a pop-out box. These are the same business annotations that were viewable zoomed out, but they are now available as you explore around town.

Google-Street-View

What Should Business Owners Do?

  1. Set up Google Places page. People are already searching for you online, so make sure they are finding the right information. Set up your business listing on Google Places and include information such as your address, website, phone number, photos, business hours, etc.

  2. Ramp up your online presence. Create coupons for customers who find you online or offer special deals to draw people in from Google Street View. If you sell products online, a 15% discount will certainly attract users who are just passing by online. Be sure to offer great customer service to receive good ratings on your business listing.

  3. Analyze your online traffic. Use Google's data to learn more about your customers' activity, behavior, and trends. Find out who's searching for you and where they are coming from, and accordingly adjust your online strategy. Don't forget to check that your business is in the right place!

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comments Comments

Posted by Roshni Mirchandani on Thu, Apr 29, 2010 @ 09:00 AM

COMMENTS

Google places is part of Google maps if you will. Google places is place where business can add their profile withing Google maps as well as build their virtual info station so when people are browsing Google maps can see that info or in case search triggers map it will show there as well. Hope this helps. :)

posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 11:08 AM by Vancouver Search Engine Marketing

Google is adding local features by the week. it will be interesting to see how google, yelp, foursquare all duke it out of over local.

posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 11:14 AM by JohnnyD

@Vipul: Yes! If you have already set up a business listing on Google Local, it will automatically carry over to Google Places. But now you can view more in-depth analytics! 
 
@Vancouver Search Engine Marketing: Exactly! 
 
@JohnnyD: The location-based sites are growing rapidly, but Google has really stepped up its game with Google Places, new Street View, and now 3D Earth View in Google Maps. The competition is getting intense!

posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 11:20 AM by Roshni Mirchandani

The explosion in popularity of location-based sites is proof that customers want to engage your business on a more meaningful level than what current websites and services offer. It's great to see mainstream adoption beginning to take hold! 
 
We built TurnSocial (our social toolbar) to help businesses promote their content that's found on location apps like Yelp, Foursquare, WalkScore, and Rentwiki, along with other favorites. We've seen great adoption and feedback from apartment companies, restaurants, and other local businesses with brick and mortar addresses who want to showcase specific information that's not only relevant to their business, but also the neighborhood around them. 
 
It will be great to see the market continue to evolve!

posted on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 12:01 PM by Matt Hendrick

Streetview has ruined my business!! I used to get loads from google maps untill the added a streetview link under the map on my listing..It shows the derelict building next door instead of my hotel!! I have tried to get help even having our story in the paper but google wont move it!!

posted on Friday, May 28, 2010 at 8:39 AM by Donna

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