Local Internet Marketing Helps Local Businesses

With the onset of the new internet age Local businesses are increasingly using Google Places optimization to reach and provide services to their local community to achieve better business returns. In the past local businesses relied of the trusted Yellow pages to reach local communities but the days of the Yellow pages and snail mail bulk mailings and flyers and newspaper advertisements are nearing the end and have been taken over by local internet marketing via search engines such as Google and Yahoo. To see this shift you only have to look at the size of your current yellow pages compared to the same yellow pages from a few years ago. The difference is undeniable. The Size of the Yellow pages book has reduced substantially and the thickness due to the number of pages has fallen dramatically. What has prompted this change, well its easy those same businesses who used to advertise in the Yellow pages have decided that their money is better spent developing and marketing a website instead.

In this modern age it is very important for local businesses owners to understand the importance of internet based marketing and the positive impact it can have on their business. Local business owners are using integrating Google places optimization into their local marketing and advertising campaign to strengthen their business and keep up to date with modern times. The internet today is essential as was yellow pages years before. Through Google places optimization you can boost your local business website to page 1 for services in your local area.

We are at a turning point in terms of Google and search engine advertising. In the past companies have focused on getting ranked onto page 1 for specific keywords all around the world, even though their businesses are small and only cater to a local community thinking that this was the only real way to succeed on the internet. However businesses are finally beginning to realise that local search engine advertising works even better than national advertising and marketing because it specifically targets their potential customers.

This is the perfect time to think about and start your local online marketing as this is the start, it is important for local business owners to take advantage of this limited window of opportunity. For example if your business is a Hair salon in the Edgbaston Birmingham area and there are another 50 other hair dressing salons locally. If you act now then you have a good chance of getting your website ranked onto page 1 for local searches for your product or service. Once you have achieved page 1 ranking it is easy to maintain. 

If on the other hand if you decide to start your internet marketing in year from now, then you will be making it a great deal more difficult for yourself onto page 1 because of all the work the other Hair salons have already done to get to and maintain their position onto page 1. You will potentially have to exceed all the internet marketing work they have done to date; an entire year's internet marketing in a small space of time to give yourself a good chance to compete with them and get your website onto page 1, so you can see the problem of procrastinating. Don't let this time pass you by.

To know more about Local Internet Marketing and please visit our website: Search Engine Marketing in Kelowna

Link Building Basics for Small Businesses

Despite all these changes, quality content and quality links are still at the heart of SEO and will be for a long time to come.

Not all links are beneficial. The difference between good links and bad links isn't black and white, but for now, let's keep things as simple as possible: good links come from relevant sites; bad links come from irrelevant sites.
 

General business directories - Check out our Business Directory Submission Service (currently available for US clients only). For international clients, find out which directory is most popular in your country. In some cases, this might be Yellowpages or Hotfrog. For Aussie clients, take a look at True Local and for those in the UK, check out Yell and Thomson Local.

Specialized directories - There are many directories for specific niches. Find yours and get listed! Are you a TalkSwitch reseller? There's a directory for that! Are you the best Linux consultant in North America? There's a directory for that! Does your pet store have the largest selection of catnip in your area? There's a directory for that!

Office Parks/Buildings - Does your office park or office building have a directory of tenants? Get listed!

Guest blogging - Find a blog based on your business niche. Contact the blog owner and offer to write a post with your expert knowledge in exchange for a link to your site. This item deserves more than just a bullet point. It's likely the most difficult and time consuming item on this list but it also has the potential for extremely valuable links. There is a lot that goes into finding the right blog, building a relationship with the owner and finally, getting that crucial link.

Leverage your existing blog posts - You have free reign over the blog posts provided by us. Feel free to post articles on another site - just make sure they link back to you!

Reach out to your network - I'm not talking about social networks here. I'm talking about real people that you have a real relationship with - friends, family members, clients, business partners, vendors, etc. If your new site has just gone live, this is a great opportunity to let all of your contacts know about it. Ask for a quick mention of your new site in their blog (with a link, of course!).

Local news outlets - If your business is based in Los Angeles, you're probably not going to make into the LA Times, but if you are in West LA, you stand a good chance of getting a link from the Argonaut. Find the local news source in your community. Is your company planning a big community service event? Invite a reporter! Did you just release an awesome new website?! Let them know how your business is growing. Get that link!

Look at your competitors - Run a report on your competitor's site in Open Site Explorer (a tool that will show you all inbound links to their site). Take a look at the links they have. Are there any included that you could get as well? If so, go get 'em!

To know more about Local Link Building and please visit our website.