Earlier this year Google rolled out a new feature St. Augustine small businesses can use to promote timely news: Google Posts.

Google Posts isn’t exactly a new tool. It’s an evolution to a tool Google provided political candidates to post up-to-date information. The search engine thought so much about the benefits of the tool they polished it up and handed it over to businesses.

Google Posts allows you to publish content through your Google My Business account on topics such as events, products and services.

The content will appear in Google search and your Google Maps results. You can add images, text (up to 300 words) and event titles with start and end dates. Additionally, you can add call-to-action buttons.

Content goes live almost immediately. However, in an effort to promote the timeliness of the feature, Google will remove it from default view after seven days.

This could be a wonderful tool to use to make announcements about your small business.

This new feature also got us to thinking about other Google tools small businesses could use for their company.

Online Presence Tools

As a search engine, Google offers a number of tools you can use to enhance your website and online presence.

Google My Business: We mentioned Google My Business above and it should be the first Google feature for every small business.

Consider GMB the hub of your Google online search presence. It’s a business listing that provides searchers with your:

  • Business Address
  • Contact Phone Number
  • Website Link
  • Business Hours
  • Business Photos
  • Client Reviews

You can leverage your GMB content to make a simple Google Website plus enhance your Google Maps presence.

Google Mobile-Friendly Test: With a mobile online presence being a vital component for Google searches, they’ve provided a valuable tool that measures your website’s mobile friendliness. It’s easy to use and will give you a checklist of issues you might need to address.

Google Search Console: This tool allows you to monitor and maintain your website’s presence in Google’s search results. It provides a report about search queries, and what information from your site is easily available to searchers.

Google PageSpeed Insights: Not only is mobile friendliness important to Google, but so is the speed your website loads for its users. PageSpead Insights will score your website for both mobile and desktop uses plus offer a list of items you can use to make your site faster.

Research Tools

Google Trends: If you’ve ever wanted to gain insights into the search trends of your potential customers, check out Google Trends. This tool allows you to see trending topics in your industry, where searchers come from and a number other fascinating insights. Check out this trend result for “St. Augustine.”

Google Shopping Insights: Similar to Google Trends, Shopping Insights will give you a snapshot of current product popularity and trends. This could be an invaluable tool you can use to make product purchase decisions.

Google Forms: This tool allows you to create surveys to get feedback from your clients. You can also use the tool to send out invites to events.

Google Alerts: Get email notifications on any topic you’re interested in keeping up-to-date with. Set up an alert for your business name to see who is talking about you. Keep tabs on your competitors. Follow news about your industry.

Google is an everyday presence for pretty much everyone in the world. The suite of tools they provide business is robust and useful. Take a few moments this week to explore what they have to offer. Best of all, most of what they offer is free to use.

We’re always available to help your business leverage its online presence. Give us a call at (904) 429-4588.