Googling for business

I see Google has launched a small business search service. There will no doubt be a lot of people out there wanting to put a search box on their pages so that loggers-on will find them easier to use. The website I’ve cited queries the cost; no doubt this will sort itself out in time.

The difficulty is going to be when it comes to people who’re part of a larger umbrella organisation – or who might not even be part of something literally, but who are effectively part of big concern. Take franchises, for example. People operating franchises might not want the extra overheads but if it becomes standard practice, in cases where there’s a website for each of the franchisees, there won’t be much choice.

An even more fundamental issue is that most small businesses I know struggle hard enough to get their websites looking halfway up-to-date, never mind adding searches from a third party. I’ve been critical enough of larger organisations’ websites on this blog for people to appreciate that I may view the adding of a search box as not necessarily the best way to deliver clarity.

Tell you what: how about if everyone ignored the trimmings and went right back to basics – looking at how customers and other users relate to their sites, and how they want to find their way around, and re-wrote their sites accordingly? My guess is that we’d end up with  better sites than if we suddenly start expecting mini-Googles to navigate people’s way for them.

Guy Clapperton is a freelance journalist who specialises in small business issues and has written for the likes of The Guardian, the FT and the Daily Mirror. Guy has written about finance and franchising for SmallBizPod. http://www.guyclapperton.co.uk