Google to Help Arizona Small Business Owners Create Websites

A recent review by Google found that only 44 percent of Arizona small businesses have a website or presence online despite the fact that 97 percent of Americans use the web to look for local products and services. To help small business owners increase their web presence, Google is hosting Arizona Get Your Business Online.

The free event will take place Friday, August 17 at monOrchid, 214 E. Roosevelt St. in Phoenix and is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. During the event small business owners will set up a free website through Intuit and receive training and other resources to help build their brand online.

Even though technology is becoming increasingly mobile and there’s a push to the web and the cloud, there are still many small businesses that are not online. For many, they view setting up a website as something they don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to.

“There are 15 million small businesses in the U.S. that don’t have a website,” said Scott Levitan, Google Marketing Director. “We want to get every business online but to enable that, we have to change that perception that getting online is hard, expensive and time-consuming.”

Google has already launched its Get Online initiative in 40 states and partnered with the Arizona Small Business Development Centers and the Phoenix chapter of SCORE to host the Phoenix event.

During the event, small business owners will build a professional three-page website and learn how to increase their web presence during the “Grow Your Business Online” session. Domain registration and a year of hosting services are free for businesses that attend the event. After the initial free period, it will cost $6.99 per month.