December shoppers search for a product plus near me and choose in seconds. Fill in your Google My Business products and posts, set December hours, and say on your website what is in stock.

The search in the parking lot

On the last Saturday before Christmas, someone will sit in a parking lot with a list and a phone. Halfway down the list is a jigsaw puzzle for a niece.

They will not search for your shop's name. They will type jigsaw puzzles near me, or puzzle store, and look at the map that appears.

Three pins, three names, three sets of hours. The choice takes a few seconds, and it goes to whichever listing shows, before anyone taps, that the shop sells puzzles and is open.

Searches like this pick up as Christmas gets closer, because the people making them have run out of time to order online. They want the thing today, from somewhere close.

What the searcher sees before choosing

The map shows a short card for each business, and a tap opens the full listing. Nearly everything on it comes from Google My Business, and most of it is yours to fill in.

The second is the one most shops leave empty. It is also the one that answers the searcher's question directly: yes, they have puzzles, and here are some.

Products on the listing

Google My Business has been gradually adding a products section to listings, edited from the dashboard. Not every listing has it yet, so check yours.

Each product gets a name, a photograph, a price or price range, a short description and a category.

A product can also link to the matching page on your website, so a searcher can go from the map to the item in two taps.

You do not need the whole catalogue. Ten to twenty products chosen for the season will do: the things people ask for at the counter in December, grouped into a few categories.

Name each one the way a customer would describe it. A 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle tells the searcher and Google far more than a range name only the supplier uses.

A post every week until Christmas

Posts on the listing show what is new, and after about a week they stop being shown, unless they are events or offers with dates. Through December, that makes them a weekly job.

Each week has an obvious subject. New arrivals, then a late shopping evening, then the gifts still in stock, and finally the last days and hours before the shop closes.

A photograph of the actual shelf beats a supplier's product shot. It shows a real shop with real stock, which is what someone deciding where to drive wants to see.

Hours a searcher can rely on

Searchers can filter the map to businesses open now, and many December searches are made in a hurry. A listing with the wrong hours either hides the shop or sends someone to a locked door.

Late evenings, early closing on Christmas Eve and the days you close entirely belong in special hours, which change the listing for those dates and leave the regular week alone.

Set them all at once, and make the website and the phone message say the same thing.

A worked example

An independent toy and puzzle shop on the main street of a small town set up its listing years ago, with the category gift shop and three photographs of the storefront.

Last December, staff kept hearing the same remark at the till: customers had driven to a big-box store first, because they had not known the shop carried board games.

Searching for board games near me from the shop's own doorway explained it. The map showed the big-box store and a comic shop across town, but not the shop itself.

Nothing on the listing or the website mentioned board games. Google could only match the search to what it had been told, and it had been told gift shop.

This autumn the shop changed its primary category to toy store, added a secondary category for games, put fifteen products on the listing and began a weekly post of new arrivals.

Its website gained a page listing what is on the shelves, updated every Monday. The listing now describes what the shop actually sells, which is all Google had been missing.

Questions asked on the listing

Listings also have a questions and answers section, and in December it fills with things people would otherwise phone about: do you sell this, are you open late, do you wrap gifts.

Anyone can answer them, including strangers guessing. A wrong answer from a passer-by stays there until somebody corrects it.

Check the section from a phone once a week, answer what is waiting, and add the two or three questions you hear most often, with your own answers.

A website that says what is in stock

The listing gets the searcher's attention. The tap through to the website is where they check before getting back in the car.

A shop that does not sell online can still say what it carries: a page for each main category, with photographs and price ranges, and a short list of what arrived this week.

Avoid making call to check the only answer. Many of these searches happen in the evening, when nobody can take the call.

And keep the list honest. A product still listed after it sold out costs somebody a wasted trip, and they remember whose page it was.

The counter-case

Not every business gets searched this way. A service booked by appointment, or a shop whose customers always know exactly where they are going, gains less from products and weekly posts.

And a shop that cannot keep an in-stock page current should list categories rather than items, since categories stay true for months.

But any shop selling things people give as presents should make its listing and its website say what it sells, before the searching starts.

This week

  1. Search for your best seller from the shop's doorway.
  2. Check your primary category matches what you sell.
  3. Add ten seasonal products with photographs and prices.
  4. Set December's special hours in one sitting.
  5. Plan a post for each week until Christmas.
  6. Answer the questions waiting on the listing.
  7. Put an in-stock page on the website.

Step one is the one that shows you the problem. Most owners only ever search for their own shop's name, which finds the shop every time and says nothing about the searches December brings.

Getting every December date onto the listing in one sitting is covered in setting special hours for every holiday at once.

Frequently asked questions

What do near me searchers look at first?

The map listing: category, products, posts, hours and photographs. The choice takes seconds and goes to the shop that visibly sells the thing and is open.

How many products should the listing show?

Ten to twenty chosen for the season is enough: the things people ask for at the counter in December, named the way customers describe them.

How often should I post in December?

Weekly. A post stops being shown after about a week unless it is an event or an offer with dates, so each week needs a new one.

Why does the category matter so much?

It tells Google what kind of shop you are. A toy shop listed only as a gift shop may not appear for board game searches at all.

What if my shop does not sell online?

Say what it carries anyway: a page for each category with photographs and price ranges, and a short list of new arrivals updated on a set day.

Who answers questions on my listing?

Anyone can, including strangers guessing. Check from a phone weekly, answer what is waiting, and add the common questions with your own answers.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Listing shows a sign and no products?

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