Looking for something? Go Google My Business

At some point, not to long ago, Google went from being a proper noun to a verb. Has that ever happened before?

Google, googling and googled are also words that you can look up in the dictionary and they all refer to the action of searching for something online. It’s pretty amazing. Does anyone ever say I’m going to “Bing” it or “AltaVista” it? No but I digress, as I often do.

This post is all about the new “Google My Business” dashboard which will soon be taking the place of “Places for Business” and the “Google+ Dashboard.” If you were using either of those two services, your data will automatically migrate over to the new platform. If you weren’t using those services – why not? Go now and sign up for Google My Business – it’s free and it makes it really easy to keep your information up-to-date across multiple channels. (I can’t stand it when Google says a business is open until a certain time and I drive there only to find the place actually closes two hours earlier!)

Here’s all the things you can do from the new Google My Business:

• Update your business info on Search, Maps and Google+ from one place to make it easy for customers to get in touch


• Add beautiful photos of your business and a virtual tour of your business interior to help customers see what makes your business unique


• Connect directly with your fans and customers by sharing news, events and other important updates from your Google+ page


• Stay on top of reviews from across the web, and respond to Google reviews


• Understand how people find and interact with your business using custom insights and integration with AdWords Express


• Manage your information on-the-go with the Google My Business Android app and the iOS app (launching soon)

Yes, there’s even an app for that which is so important for the small business owner on the go. Now you can update your site and share your news via Google+ while you’re in line at Starbucks.

Here’s a preview of the dashboard:

There’s a lot of good information here and I like that you can update Google+ right from the top of the page. The worst thing about keeping up an online presence are the multiple logins and URLs. The more you can do from one place the better and at a quick glance, Google My Business looks like a whole lot of better. I’ll +1 that!

Looking for something? Go Google My Business