Google Rolls Out Google+ Pages to Businesses

When Google rolled out its "life sharing" service Google+ a while back, it restricted its use to private individuals only (around 40 million of them so far apparently), and the few enterprising internet marketing brands that jumped in quickly found their profiles deleted and received a polite note that business pages were coming "soon".

Well it seems that that "soon" is now "imminent" after an announcement on the official Google blog.

The search engine has announced the introduction of "Google+ Your Business", something it is calling "a collection of tools and products to help you get closer to your customer". Brands can now set their own Google+ Page, somewhat akin to a Facebook page, which allows the brand to communicate with consumers, build circles of friends/customers etc.

Google+ pages will be included in search results to make it easier for your brands' fans to find you, and a new feature called Direct Connect will enable users to connect to a Google+ page directly through the search box. If a user searches for "+Yourbrand" they will be taken to your Google+ page directly (bypassing the search page) and, if they choose, added automatically to your circles. Apparently this works for a "limited" numbers of brands now (including Toyota and of course Google itself) but will be more fully rolled out soon.

Examples of businesses that already have pages include such varied brands as Pepsi, The Muppets, and Barcelona Football Club. Small businesses are being advised to maintain their existing Google Places page, in order to retain the maps, phone, address, and hours details, but there is nothing stopping them opening a Google+ Page too.