I used to say if Google didn’t index my page and then if it isn’t found by customers my business would be dead. Once upon a time several years ago Google took my services out of their index for many months during the spring which is prime time for getting mowing customers. Consequently my business almost folded. Those fears are fast becoming a reality for all businesses.
I see no or little future for most small businesses in the not too distant future because of the rush to move to online and Google.
I see Google as a national economic security risk because even if they aren’t a real monopoly, they are the prime player in search results which = customers which = income.
My business name changed for legal reasons. Google indexed the new change in their business listings as well as the SERP web pages. Then the Google index went back to using the old name and old pages.
There are other opportunities where businesses might be able to be found online such as Craigs list.
Most of the advertising on Craigs List and other such places is free money wise but will eat up time keeping track of the ads.
Plus one of the wonderful things about Craigs List is that anyone can flag your ad and have you driven off the service.
Once again in the olden days ads were placed in a newspaper that covered an area a business operated. Today people don’t search for local stuff. They use generic terms like “lawn mowing” which won’t help a local business. If they do have the brains to figure out to search for something like “lawn mowing Seattle” they “might” eventually find a service provider. You see, Seattle is a huge city. People that provide lawn mowing and other services and sell products aren’t going to drive all over Seattle, unless they are desperate. If they aren’t desperate today, they will be soon because corporations, Google and the Internet in general is going make them hop when they shoot at their feet like in a cartoon.
Today a business needs to expand the geographical areas to include larger and larger amounts of turf, pardon the pun.
In other words to make ends meet lawn mowing that used to be in a 2-6 mile area now has to cover hundreds of square miles. Today it’s more about driving around than mowing.
The online presence now has to say things like “Lawn mowing Marysville”, Lawn Mowing Everett”, “Lawn mowing Mill Creek”, “Lawn mowing Edmonds”, “Lawn mowing Shoreline”, “Lawn mowing Seattle”, “Lawn mowing Kenmore” “Lawn mowing Bothell” , “Lawn mowing Kirkland” and so on all at $4 or more a gallon and horrendous traffic.
If anyone has read this far and can’t see the warnings signs of the canary in the Internet, you must be brain dead.
The rush to online hasn’t been well thought out. OK maybe it has been well thought out by giant corporations that will end up destroying the core of the economy across the Earth.
The example of “Lawn Mowing Seattle” is one of many possibly scenarios and or ways to check the past, present and lack of any future for most people interested in working for themselves.
The Internet and the way it is controlled by BIG money is going to wipe the American dream of independent small business off the map.
If most businesses don’t get online and then not found online, they will go out of business in the future.
The Catch 22 here is even if they get online they will not be found because there is only so much room on an SERP and a small business can only afford what a $100 a click? 
