Jefferson’s small businesses are missing out on potential customers without a local business listing on a search engine. Google is even the term people use when searching on the internet.
Jefferson Matters: Main Street was contacted to hold a free workshop presented by Pam Johnson, a Google facilitator from Fort Dodge. All area businesses are invited to this session on Monday, May 9, at 7 pm at the Greene County High School computer lab.
Jefferson Matters: Main Street has teamed up with several teachers at the high school to provide for a stress-free way to use this technology. Mavis Sawhill teaches an entrepreneurial class and Teresa Green works with students in the Interact Club. Their students will be available to assist businesses one on one to claim their business and enter important information to get them “on the map.” The computers in the lab will be available for use but businesses may bring their own mobile devices.
Many small businesses are missing out on sales. Google concludes that just 37 percent of small businesses have a local listing on any search engine. Those numbers mean that four in five people who search the Web to find a business’s operating hours, phone number, or other vital data, aren’t getting that information on a majority of local small businesses.
So, Google has introduced a program it’s calling “Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map” that aims to get small businesses listed on search engines. This free workshop will be called, “Let’s Get Jefferson on the Map”.
To back the importance of getting local small businesses listed online, Google says its new data shows that people are 38 percent more likely to visit a small business that’s listed online. And further, 29 percent of people asked said they are more likely to consider buying something from those businesses listed online.
Google has created a custom website for each city it is targeting and Jefferson’s website will be utilized at the workshop. Johnson will take participating businesses through step by step to find how they need to get listed online. That includes a diagnostic tool that shows businesses how they currently appear online.
The goal is to have at least 30 businesses involved at the May 9 workshop. An RSVP for this free workshop is requested to Peg Raney at director@jeffersonmatters.org or call 515-386-3585 by Friday, May 6.
