Part 2: Tell Us What You Wish for Your Business Online in 2011

Last week on the Google Small Business blog, we kicked off our conversation about your wishes for your small business in 2011. We received some great responses about your general business needs and we really appreciate learning about your thoughtful and heartfelt wishes. Your optimistic entrepreneurial spirit came through -- from increasing revenue and sales to banding together to help fellow business owners and following your passions.

Now, we’d like to focus the conversation more specifically on your business’ online presence. So we’re asking you: If you had one wish for improving your business’ online presence 2011, what would it be? Think big and creative. It doesn’t have to be related to Google products.

This is all part of a project we’re working on to help small businesses succeed in 2011, and understanding your aspirations for the coming year will inform this project. We are studying your responses and will share the common themes with you.

Just complete the form below. Or, tell us on Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag #Wish2011. We will be publishing some of the specific wishes so If you'd like us to share your wish (not anonymously) on our blog, provide us your email, We’ll be in touch If your wish is chosen to be featured.

Spread the word and tell your friends -- the more we hear from you, the better we can plan for helping small businesses in 2011.

Tell us...

The one wish I have for improving my business’ online presence in 2011 is…

Email addressPlease provide your email address if you're willing to share your specific wish publicly.

Powered by Google DocsReport Abuse - Terms of Service - Additional TermsOur online conversation about your wishes is intended to be viral with shared responses. Your response in this blog form will be used anonymously and will be kept anonymous. We may share your publicly posted Tweets and Facebook updates by re-tweeting or sharing your update. In those cases, the public usernames on your Twitter and Facebook posts will be included in our retweets and status updates, however, we are only looking at responses to identify common themes to share with everyone. Let’s keep the conversation focused on your 2011 wish for your business.We would like to share some of the specific wishes that we hear from businesses. If you'd like us to share your wish (not anonymously) on our blog, please provide us your email and we'll be in touch. We will only use your data as indicated above - please see our privacy policy for more information.Posted by Leslie Hernandez, Product Marketing Manager, Google Small Businesses Team

New tools to grow your business globally

Imagine you’re a men’s tailor in Bangkok, and you sell custom suits to travelers passing through Thailand. You start a website to sell your suits online and begin to notice that the majority of your website traffic comes from overseas. How do you respond to this international demand?

Businesses of all sizes face a number of obstacles when they want to expand internationally. First, they must identify the right market to sell their products or services, such as custom men’s suits. Then they have to create versions of their website and ad campaigns in the language of the market they want to reach. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they need to reach new customers who may be interested in their products and services.

Starting today, businesses can access a number of new resources from Google to help them overcome these obstacles and start growing internationally. We’re launching a new website, called Google Ads for Global Advertisers, which will serve as a central hub for Google’s tools and tips for businesses looking to expand to foreign markets. This website pulls together resources for businesses to find the right market for their products and services, translate their websites and ad text, find new customers with relevant online ads, and understand options for international payment, shipping and customer service.

We’re also introducing Global Market Finder, a new free tool to help businesses identify markets with high demand for their products or services. The Global Market Finder automatically translates your keyword — for example, business suit — into 56 languages and then uses Google search trends data to see where in the world people search for your product or service. It helps businesses evaluate new markets by showing the volume of local searches, estimated price for keywords and competition for each keyword in each market. With this tool, businesses can answer questions like “how competitive is this market?”, “how does demand in one country compare to demand elsewhere in the world?” and “how much would it cost to start advertising in this new market?” You can read more about these new tools on the Inside AdWords blog.

Google has already helped hundreds of thousands of businesses reach customers in foreign markets. From a mosaic company in Lebanon to a bespoke shoe retailer in Sydney, a tech support company in India and a bed and breakfast in Poland, tools like AdWords have helped businesses reach new customers and drive traffic to their websites. We think our new website and tools will encourage even more businesses to expand internationally, whether you’re a small business testing a single market for the first time or a mid-size company advertising your products to an entire region.

After all, there are more than 1.9 billion consumers online. Wouldn’t you like to add some of them as customers?

Posted by Michael Galvez and Srinidhi Viswanatha, Global Advertisers team

Now available with Google Apps: Google Places

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.



Welcome to Google Places
You already know that Google Apps is a great way to run your business and ensure that your employees can collaborate and work effectively. But are you also taking advantage of Google’s other online tools that can help your company build a strong external presence and customer base? Our recent infrastructure upgrade has made doing so much easier: now you can access Google Places with your existing Google Apps account.

Google Places offers business owners a free and easy way to make sure that potential customers can find their business when searching online at Google.com and in Google Maps, both from desktops and mobile devices. With your free Google Places account, you can:

• Be found: Verify your business’s information to make sure people can find you on Google.


• Stand out: Engage customers with photos, coupons, custom posts, and more on your Place page.


• Get insight: Use feedback about your listing to make smarter business decisions.

Claiming your business listing with Google Places is easy and verification methods are in place to make sure data is accurate. Once you’ve claimed your listing, you can update it through Google Places at any time using your Google Apps account by signing in at google.com/places. In addition to creating your listing, you can also enhance it by highlighting special offers with coupons, sharing photos and videos of your location or products, marking your service areas, and responding to reviews from customers.

Once your business listing is up and running, you can use the Places dashboard to gain valuable insights about your listing’s performance. For example, you can view top search terms for your business, which can help you set up a more targeted AdWords campaign. Or, you can view an interactive map showing the origin of customers who request driving directions to your current location, which could help you decide where to open up a new location.

Learn more and get started
Google Places can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

Share your story
Have you already started using Google Places at your organization, or plan to now that it’s available? Please share your story and your organization could be featured in the next Gone Google ad campaign!


Posted by Brianna Brekke, Google Places team

Note: Google Places may not be available in all areas