When consumers are making a purchasing decision about goods and services, Google statistics show that 97 percent of them go online to make that choice.

For those consumers living in Alabama, buying something local is sometimes difficult as only 54 percent of Alabama’s small businesses do not have a web presence. This means that if someone searches online for “Barbeque in Selma Alabama,” maybe one of two barbeque restaurants in town will be visible to consumers, leaving them “invisible.”

Google spokesperson and Alabama native, Davis White, said that is why Google is pushing small businesses to get online and they are helping them for free.

“This is a national and global program. We’ve been to 27 countries and we have gotten more than 275,000 [businesses] from offline to online,” White said about Getting America’s Businesses Online, a Google program. “But basically the goal is to take the 54 percent of businesses in Alabama that do not have a website, mostly small businesses, and give them the tools and training to give them a website.”

Last week, Google held a free workshop in Birmingham to encourage and help the businesses get online. They offered free intuit website set-up as well as free customized domain names and even free web hosting for one whole year.

But White said that these opportunities and tools are available to those who didn’t make it to the workshop.

“Got to www.gybo.com/alabama and look at registration information and see some testimonials about people’s business growth after they got online. Businesses grow 40 percent faster if you have a website,” White said. “Its unfortunate these small businesses that are invisible online.”

He said the first step is to take advantage of the free tools on the website and after one year of free services expire it will only cost $6 to keep the site up.

“Take that first step, get a website and then you can populate it with the basics like what are the services you provide, maybe some testimonials from customers,” White said. “Maybe then take a step back and add where you are located, office hours and contact information.”

This is a low-barrier entry to get online that is cheaper and easier, White said.

“Getting online is easier than people think, and that is what we are trying to get the word out about,” White said.