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For the Love of Small Business

By Nancy Jeng

Google-For-The-Love-Of-Small-BusinessValentine’s Day is coming up, and for many businesses this means getting ready for the fourth-largest spending holiday of the year (National Retail Foundation). To help our fellow small business owners, we’ve prepared five tips for how you can get ahead during the season of love:

1. Capitalize on trending keywords. Google Trends shows the top terms relating to Valentine’s Day are ‘gifts for him,’ ‘valentine’s gifts,’ and ‘Valentine’s Day ideas.’ Build these and other relevant keywords into your site, content and social channels.

2. Make sure your customers can find you. Update your Google listing with your hours, location and relevant Valentine’s-themed photos. If you haven’t already, visit Google My Business to claim your business listing.

3. Go mobile. The day before Valentine’s Day, gift givers search on mobile more than on desktop. Give your business a mobile presence, whether it’s through a mobile-optimized site, an app or mobile-friendly content.

4. Think about the men. Valentine’s Day isn’t just about flowers and jewelry for the ladies. In fact, there were 3x as many searches for ‘gifts for boyfriend’ than ‘gifts for girlfriend’ in 2014.

5. Get creative. Valentine’s Day is not just for flower shops and restaurants. You can create a video with first date tips and ideas, or use Google Map Maker to create romantic date ideas featuring your small business.

Lastly, don’t forget to show some love to small businesses in your area. Visit gybo.com to create a custom #LoveSmallBiz postcard featuring your three favorite local businesses.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

BIO: Nancy is the content strategy and operations lead for the Google Small Business Community, whose mission it is to help small businesses succeed online by connecting them to experts and each other. For more about Google Small Business, follow us on Twitter @GoogleSmallBiz or join the Google Small Business Community at g.co/gsbc

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