Savory Cafe: One of Google's Favorite Places

Savory Cafe: One of Google's Favorite Places

Google users have named one of our clients, Savory Cafe & Pizzeria, as one of their favorite places in Newport, Oregon. Google recently sent out over 100,000 decals to top performing local businesses based on their popularity with Google users, and we’re proud to have helped Savory Cafe earn theirs.

Google has been distributing window decals (shown on the left) to the most popular businesses in the Google Local Business Center database, complete with a QR code, which can be easily scanned with a mobile phone to find out more information about that business. In other words, window shopping has gone online. When you see one of these decals in the window of a business, simply pull out your mobile phone and scan the QR code, which is the funny bar code looking thing at the bottom right, and you will instantly have access to comments, reviews and other information about that business from the Google Local Business Center.

While Google Favorite Places is still relatively new, it represents how important it is to be aware of your company’s local search profile. Showing up in the major search engines, whether it be paid or organic results, is not enough anymore. You also need to be sure as a business owner that your company is listed in the major local business search indexes, such as:

Business owners will want to register with each of these services to ensure that they are being found when people do searches for local results, such as (in the case of Savory Cafe) “pizza newport oregon”. The process is relatively straightforward, at least until you get to the verification stage. Each of these directories verify that your business is where you say it is, and that you are the owner or authorized representative of the business. In most cases, this is accomplished by telephone, where the system will automatically call your phone number to deliver a PIN number to you. That PIN number must be entered into your local business account in order to verify your ownership and correct phone number of the business. If the phone option isn’t available, each service mails the PIN verification to the business, which can sometimes take a few weeks.

In other words, if you are looking to perform well this summer in the local search results, as Savory Cafe & Pizzeria has, then it would be good to get started with managing your local search profile, since there is a possibility that it may take a few weeks to verify your listing. With regard to the future, every business owner should be aware of the changes being made, and of the potential of QR codes and scanners. If you have ever been to Japan, you will recognize them –– they’re everywhere over there, allowing people to accomplish all kinds of daily tasks using their mobile phones. Consumers will embrace this change, and business owners should be sure that they are not playing catch-up after the fact.

Some QR code reader applications can be found for most smartphones, and here are a couple of free suggestions:

Brian Getting

Published by Brian Getting on Thursday, June 10, 2010.
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