Greetings and Salutations -

I know many of us run businesses from our home, so this note is about an important way to help your home business thrive as we head into the holiday season. I want to highly encourage everyone to set up a Google+ page for your business, and make sure it gets a high ranking on Google Maps. Here is why.

Go to maps.google.com. On my computer it defaults to a view of “Massachusetts”. On your system it might show the center of your state or country. It all depends on what Google knows about you.

Now type “web design”. This is, interestingly, how a lot of people are looking for things nowadays. They go into google maps and look for a phrase.

See how that works? There are probably a number of unfeatured red dots, and then a few which are featured. If you don't see any dots, zoom out a bit. I'm sure you'll find them.

Now try this with a phrase that relates to your business. Maybe it's "holiday soaps". Maybe it's "book editing". Whatever it is, do a search and look at the results. Zoom in and out, and slide around a little to see how the results change.

I have a page on this topic with graphics, to help illustrate the issue a bit more clearly -

http://www.lisashea.com/workfromhome/marketing/socialnetworking/google/googlemaps.html

The key is you want to be 1) found, 2) featured, and 3) at the top of the featured list. Take it one step at a time!

I've started a thread in our forums for the topic here -

http://forums.bellaonline.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/794539

Post information about your business there - i.e. a major city/state you're near, and what phrases you want to be found for. There rest of us can help test and give ideas! Together we'll help you get more business!

Lisa Shea, owner
BellaOnline.com

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