Marketing Your Small Business On The Internet

By Casey Brander

HOW TO USE THE INTERNET TO ATTRACT CUSTOMERS TO YOUR BUSINESS

Search engines are the most popular online method for gathering information, doing research and finding local businesses to supply goods and services.  This is the first place many consumers start when they have a problem to solve or a need to satisfy because the need or desire can be fulfilled quickly, many times in the same day.

When crafting a local search engine marketing plan, it is usually best to begin by spending time and attention on Google first, as the majority of searches begin there.  Fortunately, many of the same techniques can be applied to Yahoo and Bing.com.

GETTING INTO GOOGLE, YAHOO AND BING

There are three methods to establish your local search engine presence.  While it is advantageous to pursue all three, speed and cost are considerations.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

Appearing in the natural (left side of results page) search engine results is great but will take the longest to achieve.  However, you can speed up this process by targeting specific search terms with geographic modifiers.  For example, a dentist in Grayslake will rise faster in organic rankings by optimizing for the term “Grayslake Dentist” rather than "dentist". 

LOCAL BUSINESS LISTINGS

Google allows a local business to set up a Google Places Business Listing at no cost.  These listings can help your small business obtain customers.  For many local business terms, Google shows the visitor a set of local business listings (3 to 7) with a map of those locations push-pinned in the map.  Google shows these listings based on the location of the searcher without the use of geographic modifiers.  This is a huge boost to local, small businesses because it increases the exposure of the local business listing tremendously – many users will not enter a geographic modifier (location) and simply start their search with the product or service description.  For example "house painter" rather than "Lake Villa house painter".  

To make the most out of your online marketing strategy, start with a local business listing in Google, Yahoo and Bing.  Next, begin a pay-per-click campaign utilizing one or more of these strategies.  This will result in an immediate local presence for your business.  Once you have both of these pieces in place, it's time for your search engine optimization campaign.  Added together, these strategies will attract targeted customers specifically looking for your products or services.