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Local Internet Marketing for Small Business

Why Local Internet Marketing is Important For Small Businesses

Posted on | October 10, 2009 | 3 Comments

If you have a small business that depends on local customers you need to get a website ASAP.

Why?

Because more and more people are using the Internet to find local merchants. According to the Kelsey Group over 70% of U.S. households use the Internet to shop for local products and services. If you don’t have a presence online you are losing customers every single day to your competitors.

In fact, it’s a safe bet if you don’t start creating an online presence now, you risk being left behind…

Listen, gone are the days where having a website was a fad, something you could dabble with, or something that wasn’t really necessary for your business survival. You must take the Internet marketing channel seriously or risk losing customers at a frightening rate.

The good news is it’s not that difficult to establish an online presence. Depending on your business, you may be able to get by with a simple 4 to 5 page website and some specialized landing pages for Local Search Engine Optimization (LSEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns.

Putting up a website is easy these days. I would bet you have an employee that could do it for you in an afternoon. If not, you can easily outsource the work, or simply hire an employee  experienced with internet technology to take advantage of the amazing opportunity.

Amazing?

Yes it is. Because with a small budget you can dominate the local online marketplace for your goods and services. Even better, as a small business owner, you can out-market your largest competitors.

You see, search engines like Google don’t care how big you are, they care about the content you provide and how relevant you are when someone searches for specific keywords. Their business depends on providing a quality search experience. If you help them provide this you become a valuable partner to them and they reward you with better page rankings and lower PPC bid costs.

Another important factor is how long you’ve had a presence online. An aged domain name is an important factor for search engines like Google. And you need to establish links to your site which is a huge factor for a high search engine results page (SERP). When you have a high SERP you will get more “natural” or “organic” traffic from search engines. This traffic is free and converts at a higher rate.

Sure this all takes time. The nice thing is with the Internet and PPC is you can start driving traffic in less than an hour. You can test and track every campaign for results and conversions. You can start profiting from this advertising medium right away.

And while you’re doing this you can work on your SEO. With an organized, systematic approach you can be dominant in your SERP’s in less than 6 months. For those who would like to get started right away, The Small Business Guide to Internet Marketing for 2009 gives you a comprehensive step-by-step approach. Get your guide now while it is still free.

Here’s the BIG question: Do you want to take advantage of this opportunity right now when the going is much easier, or miss the boat entirely and let your competitors gain all the new customers and the advantage?

The answer is obvious. You cannot ignore local internet marketing any more. It’s here to stay and it’s only growing stronger every day. My advice to all small business owners is to get started right away.

Category: PPC, SEO

Comments

3 Responses to “Why Local Internet Marketing is Important For Small Businesses”

  1. Shawn
    October 28th, 2009 @ 2:10 pm

    Those are some good points, what do you think about local internet marketing towards the cell phone market? Is it the new web3.0? I think that we need to start with the local internet marketing on cell phones, check out my blog http://elmstreetdesign.net and read more on my thoughts for local internet marketing and cell phones

  2. Mike
    October 28th, 2009 @ 9:29 pm

    I think I read somewhere that there are over 3 billion cell phones out there and growing. This means more than half of your local market (probably more) in the USA is carrying a cell phone. Quite simply, the potential is enormous. Get your customers on a special SMS notification list and the possibilities for creating sales is mind boggling.

  3. Local Internet Marketing
    November 9th, 2009 @ 3:54 am

    Thanks for this information. I am actually looking for some more to search on local internet marketing. This really helps me with my search. I have added this to my bookmarks already. However, I am still open for any suggestions on thos related topics for me to search for to find out more information.

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