Brentwood among Google’s top online business communities

While Nashville may be able to consider itself the next “it” city, Brentwood can bask in the glow of being named a Google eCity.

Google teamed up with an independent research firm to determine which city in each state has the strongest online business community. Officials with the online search engine giant today announced that Brentwood is the recipient of the 2014 Google eCity Award for Tennessee.

The research found that the businesses in these communities are embracing the Web to find new customers, connect with existing clients and fuel their local economies. Brentwood is among the nation’s leading cities in the digital economy.

“Local entrepreneurs and seasoned corporate business partners in our city recognize the power of delivering their message to current and potential customers” said Brentwood Mayor Betsy Crossley. “Many of our local businesses have chosen to augment traditional direct contacts by additionally harnessing access to the global economy. Through digital innovation, they have facilitated the continuation of the robust competitive economy we enjoy in Brentwood.”

Emma Ogiemwanye, a representative from Google, said, “Brentwood serves as a prime example of how innovation and growth in e-commerce can successfully contribute to bolstering economic progress and competitiveness.”

A look at the process

Google and independent research firm Ipsos analyzed the online strength of local small businesses across all 50 states. They weighed a variety of factors to determine the leading cities and towns across the U.S., including the likelihood of small businesses to have a website, use a blog, promote themselves on a social network, sell goods directly from their webpages and whether they had a mobile-friendly website.

The top cities exhibited strong engagement and potential for growth within the digital economy. This is the second year Google has announced a list of eCities.

To develop the eCities shortlist, Ipsos assembled a list of U.S cities, broken down by population size. Google then added AdWords data for each city to determine the five cities in each state with the highest AdWords penetration relative to population size.

Ipsos identified a random sample of 51 small and medium businesses (1-50 employees) in each of the top 5 cities from each state. The 51 businesses were divided according to company size.

Each business was then evaluated according to several criteria, including:

• Was it listed in an online directory, such as Yellowpages.com?

• Did it have its own website?

• Did it have a social network presence?

• Did its website allow ecommerce directly within the site?

• Did it have a blog?

Each answer was given a score and the scores from each business were aggregated to provide the city with a total score. The city with the highest score in each region was then awarded eCity status.