COLUMBUS — As part of an ongoing effort to ensure Ohio is the preferred location of entrepreneurs to do business, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has announced that his office is partnering with Google to help new businesses get off the ground and achieve success in Ohio.

“By establishing Ohio as the best place in the nation for a business owner to succeed, we are throwing open the doors of our state to new industries and new job opportunities,” Husted said. “We’ve already taken steps to make starting your business simple and cost effective and through this partnership with Google, we’re now putting additional success tools into the hands of people who have just taken the first step in starting a new Ohio business.”

Google’s “Let’s Put Our Cities on the Map” program helps small businesses access various free tools and connect with community resources from the web giant in order to promote their new services and products. The new feature will give all new Ohio businesses information on how they can build a website, reserve a free domain name, have their office locations registered with Google’s map and search features and get advice from industry experts.

“The perception that getting online is complex, costly and time-consuming has prevented many Ohio small businesses from taking the first step,” said Rob Biederman, head of Google’s Government and Public Affairs for the Midwest region. “This program makes it fast, easy and free for businesses to get online.”