Local Businesses Might Lose with Google’s New Small Biz Initiative

Local Businesses Might Lose with Google’s New Small Biz Initiative

Google’s announcement of the launch of an aggressive new initiative that will “help small businesses get found online” this week might sound altruistic, but deeper analysis shows it could really be a move to better compete against big rivals, influence local market share, and gives Google even more control over which small businesses actually “get found” in online search.

What Google's “Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map” Really Does

Google is arguably already helping to put local small businesses 'on the map' with its approach to local listings and reviews. They have been encouraging and even proactively reaching out to small business owners for several years to ensure that they get their business listings online, keep them updated, add consumer-interest items like hours and even solicit reviews and ratings that influence buying.

So what does Google’s “Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map” initiative do?

The initiative will give cities (not small business owners) custom websites; effectively creating local mini-business directory sites - content hubs if you will - where local businesses can all ‘create, establish and manage their presence online.’ Presumably, these new city sites will be given preferential treatment by Google in online search, pushing well-optimized business web sites further down in results. Furthermore, how does listing their small business on the same city site with competitors help a small business gain market share?

What these content hubs will do is help Google win the web traffic war on several fronts. It has the potential to move Google into a much better position to compete with a variety of online retail giants like Amazon, online review sites like Yelp, Angie’s List, Home Advisor, and local deal promoters including AmazonLocal, Groupon, LivingSocial, et al.

It also gives Google more ability to control which local listings get served up in online search.,That means that “Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map” could be just as (or even more) beneficial to any one small business’ competitors as it is to their own business.

Why Google’s Small Business Initiative Makes Them As Much Small Business Competitors as Champions

Think about it.

If you own a small business and you have invested resources in building an optimized website to get web traffic from people in your target audiences, this type of platform could level the playing field not for you – but for competitors who haven’t built out customer acquisition and customer educational web marketing platforms, based on their level of participation in the programs that Google is able to tie back to this initiative. If and when the game becomes “pay to play,” the business owners with the deepest pockets usually win.

I’m not saying that Google will do this, but imagine that as next steps they build or buy platforms that make them third party e-commerce retailers, reservation-takers, appointment bookers (spas, salons, doctors, dentists, etc.), go deeper into the business of controlling business-booked through the influence of online reviews, offer up their own daily deals, etc. Assume that these city-on-the-map sites also feature ads from local companies. Small businesses (with small marketing budgets) will find it hard to win on a pay to play platform.

Google has already demonstrated their willingness and ability to dominate the field in search, and that goes for paid search revenue, too. If you think they aren’t strategic and serious, read this Wall Street Journal (WSJ.com) article, “Google Makes Most of Close Ties to White House” which points out that not only has Google been to the White House 230 times over the past year (compared to just 20 or so visits from rival Comcast), they've also outspent most of their competitors when it comes to lobbying over the past year.

3 Ways to Put Your Small Business In a Better Position to Compete Online

Don’t rely on third parties to grow your business.

No third party – be it Google, Amazon, Groupon, Living Social, Yelp, Angie’s List, Home Advisor, or any other third party site – exists primarily to help you build your business.

None of them exist out of pure altruism, even though some have altruistic values. Just like your business – these organizations must produce sustainable revenue, please a variety of shareholders, stock owners, investors, and creditors. Like you, they all want their businesses to grow and they want to gain market share. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Third party marketing sites will nearly always benefit big players over small business, because those organizations are willing and able to spend more. They can pay for featured spots. They will run ads on the site. They will pay to have their listings or content show up more frequently in feeds and on front pages of results.

Don’t ignore third parties, integrate them.

Too much reliance on third parties puts your business at a competitive disadvantage, but ignoring them altogether may be just as bad. As with any other marketing strategy, inclusion of third party marketing platforms and programs should be an integrated, purpose-driven, ROI-analyzed, and continually adjusted marketing tactic as part of your overall plan.

No third party marketing program can replace a solid digital marketing plan for small business. If you want to get found by shoppers online more often, without having to compete with competitor’s listings, a well-optimized, content-rich website must become the hub of your digital marketing plan. Community-building social marketing efforts, contact subscriber attraction, email marketing, and other marketing tactics (including any third party marketing programs) should also all be helping to drive traffic back to the website hub you created, if not driving business in the door.

Build Your Marketing Plan Around the Customer Journey

Consumers don’t shop for salon services the same way the shop for stock pots. Before you buy in to any third party platform, make sure that it’s aligned with the way that your ideal buyer types usually discover businesses like yours, including the specific factors that might influence them to choose your business over those of your competitors.

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My 2015 Small Business Marketing Calendar is available on amazon.com, and it’s packed with marketing inspiration and a working digital marketing calendar that you can use to attract – engage – retain and motivate your customers in the coming year by carving out your own digital real estate.

Robbin Block

Creative Marketing Strategist | Giving You the Confidence to Make the Right Marketing Decisions

8y

I couldn't agree more that small businesses shouldn't rely on others for their survival, and they definitely need a well thought out digital strategy for acquiring customers. Content can be a way to drive traffic, but it can take more time than a small business owner has (or cost quite a bit to have someone do it for them). There's more to the story. First, small businesses should position their product/service to compete with the big guys by taking advantage of being small. That is your ability to be nimble and to serve customers in a more personal way, for example. And it can pay to think outside digital; don't lose site of traditional methods for acquiring customers. If you're in retail, consider signage, participation in neighborhood events and hosting open houses. For those with service businesses, consider networking events, public speaking and partnering with complementary local businesses.

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Amy Kniss

Marketing, Ecommerce, Paid Media & Optimization Consultant

9y

Interesting.

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