What is a Place Page?

Place Pages help users find the best sources for information across the entire web, including business listing details, reviews, photos, nearby public transit, and more. We have Place Pages for a very broad range of “places” – whether a business, a park, a point of interest, a transit stop, or even an entire city.

Is there a fee to use Google Places, the dashboard, or any of the features?

There is no charge for a business owner to use Google Places or any of its features. Business owners have the option to authorize a professional to add, claim, or manage their listing on their behalf. That’s where we come in. Mercury will act as your agent, securing your Google Places listing on your behalf. After that, it’s all yours, will no other requirements or obligations to us. If you’d like, however, to continue to have Mercury manage your Google Places, we have options for that as well.

How does Google Places differ from a Place Page?

Google Places offers business owners the ability to verify and extend their business information to include things such as hours of operation, photos, videos, coupons and products offered, to communicate with customers, and to get insights that help them make smart business decisions. A Place Page is the way that consumers see and interact with this information. Place Pages are accessed by clicking the “more info” button when looking at business listings on Google Maps or Google.com. Business owners can use Google Places, available at www.google.com/places, to manage information contained on their public Place Page.

Does using Google Places improve your position in search results?

Using Google Places does not automatically guarantee you a higher placement in search results, but by using Google Places you are able to add a wide variety of rich information to your listing that can help improve its performance and help it be matched to the most relevant queries.

Looking to attract more qualified visitors to your website? Check out Standard Search Engine Visibility, starting at $60/yr if you want to use a self-serve tool. If you don’t currently have a website or you want to show up prominently on Google right away, and want one of our professionals to create your ad and business page, then optimize results then the Premium Search Engine Visibility is for you.

Starting at only $95/mo, the Premium product includes Google Adwords, phone call tracking, optimized landing page. If you want a larger geo-target or have lots of local competition, you may want to increase the advertising monthly investment, usually in increments of $25/mo. Call us at 434-515-1573 to learn more.

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When it comes to marketing there are many business owners who literally cringe. Are you cringing now? There is a good chance that you are because many advertising methods cost money. As a business owner you want to make money not spend it, correct? Unfortunately, if you believe that all forms of advertising cost money, you are sadly mistaken. Although you may have to spend money to make your business what you want it to be, there are ways to promote your business and the products or services that you sell without having to spend any money at all.

Is your curiosity peaked yet? There is a good chance that it is, rightfully so. One of the ways that you can advertise your online business, without having to spend any money, is by using a service that is readily available online. That thing is an online social networking website. A large number of internet users, in fact millions of them, belong to at least one social networking group.

When it comes to social networking, there are many people who think of online friendships or online relationships. While these types of relationships are the most common, did you know that social networking is also used for businesses? In fact, that was originally how social networking got started. If you are a small business owner, especially one that operates an online business, there is a way that you can use social networking sites to your advantage.

Although social networking websites are traditionally focused on those who want to make online friends or develop online relationships, there are also networking sites that are designed for business owners. These websites will not only allow you to share your business information with other business owners, but it will also allow you to develop close relationships with those that share an interest that is similar to yours. Essentially, this means that you could not only learn valuable business information, but you could also walk away with a new business colleague or a new friend.

As previously mentioned, social networking websites with a focus on businesses, are a great way to promote your business. However, this does not mean that you should completely disregard the other online social networking websites, the ones that are designed to create online friendships. Although you may not learn any valuable business tips by joining Yahoo! 360 or MySpace, you may be able to get new customers and new customers are exactly what your business should want and need.

If you are looking to become part of an online community, you will need to create your own profile or profile page. If you are planning to join a traditional social networking website, to gain access to millions of potential new customers, you are urged to be careful when making your online webpage or profile. One thing that internet users hate is being solicited for business. This does not mean that you cannot use social networking to your advantage; it just means that you need to be cautious with how you do it. Instead of creating a MySpace page or a Yahoo! 360 page for your business, you are advised to make one for yourself, but, of course, you will want to include information on your business.

By joining a social networking website, especially one that is popular and has a lot of members, you should be able to generate interest in your business, including the products or services that you sell. Who knows, but that interest generated could turn into sales; thus making your social networking experience more than worth it.

Customer appreciation gifts

One of the most common uses for promotional products in retail is as a customer appreciation or thank you gift. The variety of promotional merchandise that fit a hardware retailer is enormous, and easily adaptable to fit various special promotions. You might include a printed wooden stirrer with a purchase of house paint, or drop complimentary promotional tape measures printed with your store name into the bag with every purchase. If you duplicate keys as part of your business, include promotional keyrings with a completed order. For larger orders or to entice business from contractors and other high-volume buyers, you might woo company representatives with gifts like tool sets, bike repair kits and promotional torches.

Increase Name Recognition

Increasing name recognition is another major goal when using promotional products. One of the easiest and most traditional ways to do this is to recognize all of your customers during the holiday season with promotional calendars. You can pair the calendar with a year long promotion by offering a different free gift with any purchase each month. The more often you bring your customers back, the more often they’ll buy and the higher your profits will climb.

Foster good will in your community

There are so many ways that a hardware store can foster good will for themselves with the community. How many of the non-profit organizations in your community offer transportation for their users? Why not put your name on display in every one of their vehicles by providing them with an emergency automobile tool kit for each vehicle? Sponsor a youth activity group and provide t-shirts for each child in the club – with your name on them, of course.

Purchase Incentives and Promotions

Increase sales of products with a high profit margin – or that have slow sales – by using promotional products as purchase incentives. When you’re competing with other retailers who can match or beat your price on an item, a promotional giveaway can give you an edge in marketing. You might even try installing a loyalty programme for regular customers where they can earn points toward promotional merchandise like MP3 players, complete tool sets, USB flash drives and gourmet travel and leisure gifts.

Take the time to sit down and evaluate your marketing strategy and find out how promotional products can kick your sales into overdrive.

For additional information on advertising gifts, corporate gifts or promotional items… contact Sally, owner of Clear Point Promo @ 434-525-7474

Speed

Try using Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Image Ready or Photoshop to optimize your graphics. Make the size of your graphic files as small as possible without compromising too much on image quality.

Optimize your code. There are several utilities that will eliminate extra data from HTML files to make a page smaller in size. Use them on every page on your site. Try Google’s Speed Tool – Page Speed is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.


Page Speed evaluates performance from the client point of view, typically measured as the page load time. This is the lapsed time between the moment a user requests a new page and the moment the page is fully rendered by the browser. The best practices cover many of the steps involved in page load time, including resolving DNS names, setting up TCP connections, transmitting HTTP requests, downloading resources, fetching resources from cache, parsing and executing scripts, and rendering objects on the page. Essentially Page Speed evaluates how well your pages either eliminate these steps altogether, parallelize them, and shorten the time they take to complete.

Reuse graphics. Avoid creating extra graphics when you can use an existing one. A different graphic might make the site look nicer, but the existing graphic will have loaded and be in the visitor’s cache. Your pages will load faster if a visitor’s browser only has to download the new HTML.

If you follow these basic tips, you will be well on your way to making your website faster.

If you are not design-savvy or artistically inclined, consider enlisting outside help with the artistic elements of your Website. Paying for graphics or hiring a professional designer is worth the investment if your goal is a Website that you’ll use as a serious business tool.

First, figure out what color scheme you want. Establish what colors represent you the best. Usually two colors are enough. You don’t want your colors to be too subtle, nor do you want them to be too vibrant.

Now sketch out your graphics/buttons. Try to keep the colors down. Lots of colors are not only distracting, they are also larger files. Keep your graphics clear and easy to decipher. If you plan to have any effects, such as rollovers, try to do it as subtly as possible.

Before you create graphics, lay out the site out without graphics. Use tables and table backgrounds to illustrate the color of the site. Create a rough draft of your home page. Show your draft to other members of the team or friends, and listen to their opinions. Sometimes the best feedback can come from people who aren’t Web-savvy.

If you aren’t satisfied with the draft, create another one and repeat the same process. Create as many as it takes and don’t work on anything else until you’ve settled on a final layout.

Once you’re satisfied with your layout, create the graphics and plug them in. You may find that what you had initially planned doesn’t work with the final layout. That’s okay. It’s inevitable that adjustments will be made during the creative process. Part Three

First, prepare a mission statement. A sentence or two should be plenty. Try to summarize exactly what you are trying to accomplish with the site. Once you’ve done that, the rest of the planning simply becomes a means towards arriving at your mission statement. If you begin to lose sight of your mission statement, write it on the top of all your outlines, or use it as the title of your template pages.

Now sit down with a notepad and a pen. Lay out a site map in a flow chart style. This chart should show all the pages you intend to create for your Website and how they fit together.

Once you have your site map drawn, outline your homepage on paper. Draw your tables and the names of the pages linked from the homepage. Sketch your graphics out and position them. Note where you want to place scripts or animations. Even if you aren’t the world’s greatest artist or your handwriting is tough to decipher, you’re on your way to painting that picture in your head.

Now, outline each individual page you link to from your homepage. As you begin each page, ask yourself the purpose of the page. Sometimes you’ll find there is little purpose in a page and delete it from the site map. That’s fine; it’s best to find your flaws before you’re too deep into the project.

Your vision will probably change to some degree during the creation process, forcing you to edit the map or redesign some of the pages. When that happens, get the same notepad out, and modify from there. Laying out a site on paper is faster than laying it out in code. Part Two