How local businesses are turning to the internet for increased visibility and sales.

Nowadays, people just do not find businesses and services the way that it was done 50 or even 10 years ago.  The internet has changed all that with instant comparisons, maps, community review sites, videos, photos and search engines.  How is a local business supposed to compete with national and international companies?  They too must learn to leverage the internet and local searches through search engine optimization and social network marketing and bookmarking. 

Traditionally people would do "Searches" for businesses by looking in their phone books, newspaper,  magazines, mail and home circulars. Radio and Television advertising were the biggest winners in the advertising market even a few years ago.  Almost all of those businesses have seen a dramatic fall in revenue.  Whereas the classified ad was one of the main source of revenue for newspapers, today most are seeing miniscule traffic when compared with an internet giant like Craigslist.com.

Internet Must Do’s for Local Businesses:

• Local listings in Search engines. The 3 big search engine companies, Google Local, Microsoft’s new Bing Local listings and Yahoo Local Features, allow businesses to add their business address, phone number, hours of operation, coupons, photos and even videos.  It’s a great way to attract local customers and helps visibility immensely in local searches.  Your business can appear at the top of page one in the maps area like the following for Ashland Web Design.
• Community Review Sites.  People do like to take the advice of others when looking for online shops, but they do it just as much for local businesses. Yelp and citysearch are the 2 biggest sites out there for this, but you can even create your own by creating a local community site at Ning.com or some of the other network sites.  Looking for the perfect dentist in Ashland or a good Ashland Oregon plumber?  Searching the internet and looking to the review sites is definitely the way to go.

To find out how you can get your company to page 1 in the search engines and increase local traffic as well as online sales contact me at Bey 12 Consulting – or reach me by skype at roosterweb.

The good news for internet marketers and especially those utilizing social and social media sites as vital tools with SEO, is that these tactics are now seen as one of the most valuable marketing tools alongside video.  Sites like twitter, facebook, squidoo and wordpress.com have consistently shown that organic top results can be had with the proper strategic approach.

Just a little thought for the new year – may your skies be filled with rainbows and your coffers filled with the gold of old from the pot at the end of the rainbow.

The landscape of Southern Oregon is truly beautiful as you can see in these pictures by Sean Bagshaw, one of the most talented professional photographers in Ashland.  It is the combination of beauty and sustainability that keeps me in awe of the beauty of this land.