The “Google Blogoscoped” site reports - Google Maps UK Adds Traffic Information
“Google Maps UK has finally added live traffic data to the major roads in England. As with other areas in Google Maps that have traffic data enabled, you can also let Google predict what the traffic situation will be like on any day at a specific time.”
Information outside London seems to be limited at the moment. We searched for “beauty salon” in Sheffield, Birmingham and Leeds and only major routes like ring roads had traffic information. It also seemed to suggest that traffic flow was roughly equal at 12 noon, and 5.00pm (the middle of the rush hour!). So the functionality is fairly limited at the moment, but expect it to get better fairly quickly as Google improves the service.
All very interesting, but what does this mean for a salon owner thinking about their salon marketing plan? Well, as Google continues to add more features, and improve its existing features, more and more people will be using it as their “first stop” to find local services like beauty salons and hair salons (from their home computer, or their mobile phone). This could be bad news for the publishers of Yellow Pages, but good news for you!
It can cost a lot of money to get a large salon advert in Yellow Pages, but listing well in Google’s local search and maps results can be achieved with a little time and knowledge, applied in the right ways. And as the Credit Crunch deepens, that’s good news for the salon owner looking to squeeze maximum returns from their salon marketing budget.
Related articles on the Beauty Salon Marketing website -
- Salon Internet Marketing - Where does Google find reviews?
- Salon Websites - ranking factors for Google UK
- Salon Internet Marketing - Why Google rankings matter
- Your Salon Website - Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) basics
- Salon Websites - A salon website for under $60?
- Salon Internet Marketing - should you advertise your salon online
- Salon Marketing - Should you advertise in Yellow Pages?
- Internet Salon Advertising - have you tried Brownbook?
- Beauty Salons in top 10 Internet Yellow Pages searches
- Salon Websites - 3 steps to protect your domain name
"Without doubt the best business decision I have ever made. Just one example, I bought a new machine for my salon costing £20,000 - just using the 
"After 20 years in the beauty trade I applied just one of the ideas in the 
"Since buying 
"I've now been using the material for two-and-half weeks... I have already taken £1403 worth of extra business - and not just bookings - already over £1000 of this is in the bank!!!! ...been completely booked solid all this week and the weekend is looking much the same! This is certainly the best business investment I have made to date."
- Tracy Norton, Diva Health & Beauty At LA Fitness, Sale & Dragons Health Club, Brooklands, UK
"Totally reformed the way I now market my salon. I went from getting very mediocre results where I've been lucky to break even - to spectacular results! The traffic to my salons has increased significantly, and I'm now really confident with
One Trackback
[...] Internet Salon Marketing - Google Maps UK adds traffic information Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]