The American economy seems to be just pulling out of recession as we enter the fourth quarter, which, thanks to the holidays, is the saving grace for many retailers. We know that for many businesses this has been a difficult year and that last year was not an easy one. We’d like to help. We know that it’s challenging to close the sale once someone is in your store, but it’s even more challenging if they never make it there in the first place. Starting today, we’re launching Get Found Friday. We’re going to help one local business per day get listed in the Google Local Business Center for free until Black Friday, Friday, Nov. 27th (although we can’t be held responsible if people participate in Buy Nothing Day). Sign up now!

Here are the criteria:

• Your business must be independently owned and located in Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County.
• Your business cannot have more than two locations.
• Your business cannot have more than 50 full-time employees.

Our focus in this promotion is helping small, locally owned business that are building their brand get found. Being listed in Google Local Business Center is one of many important steps a business—particularly in retail or restaurants—can take to get found by potential customers. And it improves the search experience, too. A customer might find out that you exist, and might even learn your address. But are you making your hours of business easily available to them? Are you learning how people found you? You should be.

Search and search engines (including variants from the general purpose heavyweights, like Twitter Search) are the Yellow Pages of the 21st century, and we want you to be listed.

And before you know-it-alls protest, yes we know that Google Local Business Center is a free service that anyone can sign up for. But we also know that some businesses are just getting their online presence off the ground and might not be as familiar with the Web and how to leverage it as you are, smartypants. We want them to get found, too, okay? And we want to ensure they put their best foot (and information) forward as they get started. And if more local businesses sign up on their own and discover how to leverage the dashboard, then more the better!

We look forward to supporting our independent and local business community. Sign up today!

Even if you don’t qualify or if you’re already listed in Google Local Business Center but want to learn more about the process of getting found, please contact us. We offer services that aren’t free, too.