Google putting offline marketers out of business?

I agree with Manny, if anything, this will offer more opportunities to suggest other local marketing techniques to not only get your client on the first page but also keep them there. This is definitely where a good consultant can demonstrate creative ways in which to accomplish this.

Hey Manny,

do you charge a reccuring fee for places optimization like you do with seo? and you say within a package... what else is in the package?

Virginia Get Your Business Online!

This will be what you're talking about I imagine - since it's intuit.

It does give them a free website with free hosting for a year.

But, once again we are internet marketers - not web designers.. we are generally targeting people that have websites in the first place.

I took a look through the tips & tricks PDF they supply. It does mention SEO and Paid Advertising to drive traffic to your site. It says your options are are either DIY or to hire a pro. Mentioning that if you take the DIY approach you will have to stay on top of the latest trends to stay relevant in Google etc.

The positive side of that is Google isn't automatically going to give them authority it appears.

Google also has a free mobile website builder which hasn't appeared to take off - and some warriors even used the builder and found that Google brands itself on the site. Which makes it look less the ideal..

You have to think that we go out on our own dime and bring people online - which is essentially bringing customers to Google. We are a benefit to them!!

I think whether you're offering Places assistance or Web Design, these ads by Google and Intuit are probably going to help you more than hurt you. They're basically advertising your services and giving what's called "third party credibility" to a product and service that's needed, and you're making yourself available to provide.

Let's not forget that free website services have been around for years, with templates, hosting and the whole bit. But also remember that there's also a whole population of business owners and managers that want nothing to do with "designing" a website either because they don't think they have the time, or even the know-how... even if we recognize these systems as simple as cut and paste.

As far as the Places goes, you can look through listing after listing and see there's still a tremendous number of businesses who haven't even gone so far as claiming their Place, let alone maxing it out with everything available and optimizing it as much as possible.

Offline Marketers have NOTHING to fear at this point. There is plenty of work to be done and if you have any of these skills, the unemployment rate in this industry should be 0% for a long time coming.