I’ve realised that most businesses (even small kiosks) are seen on Google maps. Where and how do they get that information?
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These days most businesses enter themselves into google maps. It’s really simple and it drives traffic to the store.
Back in the day, these kinds of things were community sourced. If you turn on the option, even today google maps will ask you a bunch of questions about places that you’ve been.
People add them. I’ve added and removed over 250 places in the past 5 years. You can also edit stuff in google maps
places.google.com lets you add your company. This is also where you add your phone number and opening hours. It is really a missed opportunity if companies do not fill this in, it doesn’t take long and it’s free.
Feel free to edit hours of businesses if you ever see they’re wrong! Anyone can make edit suggestions that then get reviewed.
I once moved a google location after a job interview because the location sent me to the wrong place and no one knew how to fix it in the building.
If you open a business, you’re screwing yourself over if you don’t add it to Google maps, almost every businesses add themselves to it so people can find them.
Google has a platform called Google My Business that allows businesses to claim and update info about their business — what they do/sell, hours, location, website URL, photos / logos, etc. It’s SEO 101 for a small business.
I work for a library system and we get calls from Google about once or twice a month to verify our hours and whatnot.
I once received a call while working at blockbuster, it was from Google asking if we were still a blockbuster and if “blah blah Blvd” was still the address; so apparently they sometimes just straight up call to check.
Most businesses enter their locations themselves; It quite literally puts them on the map, so people can find the shop.
It’s easy to do too, you just input your business’ address, hours, services, etc. online, they send you a postcard to verify, and they take care of the rest.
It’s a braindead decision on the companies part, helps people find them, helps google maps in being useful, and it’s basically free for all parties involved.
Consumers can also add info, or suggest that information be renewed, so sometimes the business might not even think about it until Google says “hey, is this you?”
In a past career I worked in the county clerk/recorders office. When a business files fictitious business name paperwork or a business license, these documents get indexed and loaded into public records databases. Some companies actually pay the offices for weekly or monthly listings of changes to ownership.
But basically… as a new business owner, you’re filing public paperwork that gets digitized. Companies then grab that info to keep their databases current.
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