Google Places

It’s now more or less expected that a business have a presence online.

Even businesses that rely solely on foot traffic should have a website, or at the very least, a way for customers to find more information about them online. One of the easiest ways to do this is to have a Google Places for Business page. In an effort to make managing this page easier and more convenient, Google has recently released the Places for Business app.

Here is an overview of the Places for Business app.

What is the Places for Business app?

It is becoming increasingly apparent that users are conducting more business on their mobile devices. One function of business that has been slow to adopt the mobile platform is marketing. Sure, there are mobile specific ads and most apps come with advertising, but many marketing platforms lack mobile centric apps.

Take for example Google Places for Business. If you needed to change something or manage your Places page, you would have to either do so on a desktop or in your device’s browser which can render a full desktop page, which is usually a bit of a chore.

Because Google Places for Business is an important part of the Google platform – it gives businesses a centralized way to manage their business’s presence on Google’s services – many marketers and business owners usually pay close attention to this. As such, they needed an easy way to access and manage their information from a mobile device.

Google has recently answered that request by launching the Google Places for Business Android app. With this app users can control and update their Places listings from their Android device. You can also change your business’s hours, description, contact information, add photos and even post updates on Google+.

However, the most important feature of this app is that it allows you to view business related metrics, such as the effectiveness of your Ad campaigns and changes. While this is a feature rich app, it currently doesn’t have all the functionality of the desktop app. For example, you can’t respond to user reviews or create new listings from the app. It is also only available for businesses in the US, but should be available worldwide soon.

If you are looking to learn more about this app, or how you can establish a presence on Google Places for Business, please contact us today.