Sioux Falls has been named the 2013 Google eCity for the State of South Dakota.

The award goes to the strongest online business community in each state, cities that are embracing the web to find new customers, connect with existing clients and fuel their local economies.

In a press release, Scott Levitan, Director of Small Business Engagement at Google, said:

Sioux Falls’ growth and innovation in e-commerce is an example that other cities across the state can strive to replicate.

Google is proud to recognize this growing entrepreneurial spirit and the role it plays in creating jobs and sustaining local economies.

Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether is proud of the recognition:

Sioux Falls has been incredibly successful because we use all of the tools in our arsenal to create economic development opportunities, and of course, online strategies and tools have remarkable firepower.

Hey America, in Sioux Falls we are creating jobs, building businesses and executing quality of life investments like never before and are proud that Google, as well as many others are recognizing the good things happening.

Google and independent research firm, Ipsos, used a two-stage, 11-point process to determine the winning cities; analyzing the online strength of local small businesses,  weighing a variety of factors, 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 winning cities exhibited strong engagement and potential for growth within the digital economy.

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