Local Search: Online Profits
Small Businesses Move Online
More and more business owners are moving away from the expensive local directories like all the various yellow pages, simply because of cost vs effectiveness. When was the last time you used the physical phone book to search out information? I personally recycle mine as soon as I get them.
More and more people are looking for information Online ~ researching products, services, and companies ~ then choosing to buy local. With statistics like:
- 97% of Internet users in the U.S. gather shopping information online, and of those consumers 51% explicitly characterize their behavior as “Shop Online, Purchase Offline” (NPD Group)
- New Research by The Kelsey Group and ConStat Indicates 70% of U.S. Households Now Use the Internet When Shopping Locally for Products and Services.
Findings also suggest the Internet is poised to surpass newspapers as a local shopping information resource. - 60% of activity online is one way or another “related to local content” (Google 5/03)- For every one dollar U.S. consumers spend online, another five or six are going to offline purchases that are influenced by online research
(MIT Technology Review, April 2005, “E-Commerce Gets Smarter“)
Do you want your business to gain from Local Search?
Ways to capitalize on the Local Search Trend for your business
There are basically 2 ways to get your company listed locally ~ pay to have a company do it for you or do it yourself. For the DIY business owners out there ~ here are a few ideas and strategies that can help you get your business listed locally and start to gain more local clients and sales.
1) Do a search for your main keyword followed by your city and state. Make sure your business is listed in any online directories that come up in the search.
2) Get a Google Local account, Local Bing account, and Local Yahoo account. Make sure your site is listed in local versions of all search engines.
3) Participate in local directories that offer consumer ratings or reviews. Ask good clients to give a positive review at the different Online review sites. A few examples are:
- Yelp.com
- MerchantCircle.com
- CitySearch.com
- InsiderPages.com
- YahooLocal
- Google Local
Online review sites are becoming very popular and users are checking up on businesses before deciding who to buy from. This is a must for a local business that is wanting to pull in more Online business.
4) Local events ~ if your business hosts local events then get them listed online at sites for local events in your area.
These are a starting point for getting your business recognized online locally. As all search engine efforts – this is an ongoing process that needs ongoing attention. Some effort each month will build to quite a large Online presence over time.
For more strategies for marketing your business online visit: Internet Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Internet Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses
How Can Effective Internet Marketing Skills Benefit Your Business?
What stops most small business owners from marketing their business is knowledge, a plan and a vision of the newest Internet Marketing techniques.
Internet Marketing, as I teach it, is where you as an owner discover there is a need to include new principles of
marketing to supplement your current plan. These skills will draw people to you and your business on a daily basis, rather than having to spend a lot of money on marketing and advertising expenses.
Evaluate Your Internet Marketing Strategy
Review your current marketing plans and ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have a business Website?
- Do you have a business Blog?
- Is there an Email Address on your Contact Pages?
- Do you have an online Contact List System?
- Do you offer an E-Commerce Shopping Cart?
- Is your website registered on Google and other search engines?
- How much do you spend a month on Advertising?
If you don’t have an Internet Marketing Strategy and don’t know how to get one, here are some strategies to use and methods you could use for your marketing. There is no need to do all of them.
Online Marketing Strategies:
- Social networking sites – setting up your Facebook, Twitter, and Ning profiles
- Pay per click advertising, Google Adwords
- SEO (search engine optimization), anchor text, keywords, and linking strategies
- Monthly and/or weekly newsletters
- Article marketing and writing content on Squidoo, Hub Pages, and EzineArticles
- Hire freelance writers to create content for you
- Set up your own SEO optimized WordPress Blog
- Email marketing and autoresponders
- Create Landing pages
- Social Bookmarking such as Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, Technorati, etc.
- Create, market, and share Videos and Podcasts
- Are you open to learning skills that would help bring prospects to you and your business?
Are you ready to make money Internet Marketing?
Now that you are in a position for your income to increase, take time to consider what you will do with the growth and
prosperity from your business.
Marketing Traditional Businesses website is here to help you get your questions answered as you develop your business with Internet Marketing strategies. You can go as far as you desire and gain customers and profits as you learn with step-by-step video training.
Internet Marketing: Get More With Less Effort
Getting More Mileage Out Of Your Efforts
People often ask, “What do you do once you created your content?“ Creating content and posting to your Blog/Website is just the beginning of a whole process. After publishing the content people need to know you have posted your next words of wisdom or helpful article. Here is the process that I use to get traffic to my new content.
After publishing my new article I copy the link to that post directly. I go to HelloTxt.com which I have preset up to connect to all my other Social Media Sites. I create a short update and paste the link into the provided box. Then hit UpDate. This populates my entire network of Social Sites with my new status update and the link to my new content. Now all my Friends/Followers simply click a link and get to my new information.
This is very simple in concept – but it does take some setting up. However once it is set up then using the “system” is very easy. Let’s take a look at Hellotxt.com -
As you can see HelloTxt connects Continue reading
Niche Marketing: Where The Gold Can Be Found
Simple Steps to Success in Niche Marketing
Define your niche and there needs.- Talk the language of your niche
- “Hang out” where your niche is on the Internet
- Create Content targeted towards your niche
- Post content on the Internet and link it to your services, products, website
- Be consistent and as your content grows so will your traffic
Here is an in depth explanation of a few of these steps.
Step 3
Discover where your niche market likes to socialize on the Internet and then join those sites. This is important since it will do no good to be somewhere that your target market never goes. Example: my niche is Small Business Owners so I use LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Twitter. Every industry has social sites on the Internet.
Internet Marketing: Take Your Business To The Next Level
Take Advantage of Free Marketing Opportunities
Learn how to make the Internet Work FOR you – Add Online Advertising/ Marketing and watch your visitor numbers explode.
Here are some forms of Online Marketing that you can do yourself – or have a professional do for you. You do need a website first!
- Directory Listings – many are free and some are paid
- Search Engine Optimization – On-Sight and Off-Sight
- Paid link from a high traffic relevant site
- Blogging
- Micro Blogs – Twitter
- Video Marketing
- Article Marketing
- Social Media Profiles
- Micro Sites – HubPages, Squidoo
For more training on Online Marketing…
Dotty



When I first joined LinkedIn – I was like most average business owners – registered because someone invited me and then never completed the profile and never participated. Guess what – I never got anything out if it either! After reevaluating online networking sites I discovered a potential huge pool of people that can help my business grow in one way or another.