Google launches a new portal for small businesses

To celebrate International Small Business Day, Google today launched a new website that will suggest its products that seem like the best fit for a specific business.

The Google for Small Business portal was announced today at the Grow with Google Learning Center in New York City, where the company offers a variety of workshops and classes. During a break in the event, Kim Spalding, Google’s global product director for small business ads, told me that the website “gives everyone a place to start with Google products.”

After all, she said, “small business owners struggle with time” and particularly don’t have time to become experts on digital marketing.

So on the new site, they can enter their company name and website (assuming they have one), then answer a few questions about their business and their goals. Google will then create a customized, prioritized list of actions, which may involve launching ad campaigns, or building up their online presence, or installing Google Analytics.

Spalding suggested that this could be particularly useful for small businesses that are “just getting started,” as well as more established business that are starting to develop a digital strategy.

While Google for Small Business can recommend a wide range of products, Spalding pointed to two “hero tools” that are part of the lineup — Google my Business, which allows business owners to create their own profiles and websites, and is “a complete free product from start to finish,” as well as Smart Campaigns, which Google launched last year to automate the ad-buying process for small businesses.