We have talked about Google Maps Local Business before. The feature I want to encourage many of you to use is not new. In fact, it has been around since 2007, but definitely is under-used. I am talking about offering online coupons in your Google Maps Local Business listing. I expect the “under-used” aspect is likely to change as now you can have mobile coupons. Yes, that’s what I said, “mobile coupons.” Google says, “This new form of coupon allows your customers to search for savings via phone. A customer can pull up the coupon on his or her smartphone device and present the device at checkout to redeem. It’s easy for everyone!”

With the proliferation of smartphones (I love my Droid Eris.), more of your customers and prospective customers are viewing your websites from a mobile device. Take advantage of it.

If you use coupons in print advertising, you certainly know their effectiveness. Google’s “mobile coupons” have all the same advantages with much less hassle. And, it’s not as likely that you’ll forget your phone as you do the paper coupons as you hurry out the door.

Simple to use, and another way to get customers in the door!

Merry Christmas from all of us here at WebWise! — John, Aimee, Mike, Chris, Larissa, Kit and Margaret

The WebWise Design & Marketing office will be closed December 24th through December 27th, so we may enjoy the time with our families.

Our Support Desk will be monitored for emergency tickets, and you may tweet us @webwisedesign.

Today, the importance of having (and using) a blog on many business websites, takes on new importance. Google’s blog post Relevance meets the real-time web says, “we’re introducing new features that bring your search results to life with a dynamic stream of real-time content from across the web. Now, immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. When they are relevant, we’ll rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search results page.”

What this means to you is your content, when presented properly, has a chance of being found in Google shortly after it is posted. Take another look at how well you are using your blog. If you are not using Twitter and or other social media, maybe now is the time to look at using those tools as part of your online presence.

As more and more users embrace the use of mobile devices for searching, this opens amazing opportunities for those delivering content wisely.

There will definitely more coming about this.