| These are exciting times for small businesses. The | | | | engines push you onto people's screens has never |
| rush is on to find the best way of using the web to | | | | been easier. And it doesn't have to cost you an arm |
| propel your product to a larger audience and reach the | | | | and a leg via a short term pay-per-click ad campaign. |
| global marketplace. But before you start dreaming of | | | | PPC is fine if you know your conversion percentage. |
| exotic holidays and fast cars you have to first ensure | | | | But for smaller businesses, just looking to capture |
| you are already covering your own backyard. After all, | | | | more targeted visitors in your local area, it's probably |
| The Beatles would never have cracked America if | | | | not the most cost effective solution. |
| they had failed to sell any records back home. | | | | Posting to your blog once a week with relevant |
| Business models are changing fast. But you should | | | | material will not only develop the sales process but will |
| never underestimate the importance of reaching your | | | | 'organically' optimise your website for search. |
| local consumers. The fact is that the majority of | | | | Depending on the competitiveness of your keywords, |
| businesses conduct most of their trade within a 50 mile | | | | you could be hitting the top of Google and Yahoo for |
| radius. Ensuring that people in your vicinity can find you | | | | local search terms in less than two months. |
| as easily as possible is crucial. | | | | The advantage we have in the UK is that business |
| The latest research from the US suggests that more | | | | blogging is still in its infancy. This is largely due to lack of |
| and more people are searching for, and finding, local | | | | awareness and reluctance to invest time and money |
| businesses and services online. Global exposure can | | | | in a new marketing technique with no obvious, |
| still be your long-term goal and dream. But reaching | | | | immediate ROI. This simply means that the early |
| local consumers should be your priority - and is a lot | | | | adopters will find it easier to push their website to the |
| easier to achieve. | | | | top of their local search terms - and capture the most |
| Research by Comscore networks showed that in the | | | | targeted traffic as a result. |
| US 63% of interviewed net users conducted a local | | | | Research by Fasthosts (a web hosting company) |
| search in July 2006 compared to only 43% the | | | | revealed that although half of UK SME businesses |
| previous year. These searches were for local | | | | think they should be blogging only 3% actually plan to |
| restaurants, entertainment and businesses. The most | | | | start. When you consider the growing importance of |
| promising stat is that this in turn led to 41% making | | | | local search, ensuring your website is as easy to find |
| contact online. | | | | as possible should be regarded as mission critical. |
| The Yellow Pages is now being left to gather dust in a | | | | Marketing is no longer simply a case of carpet |
| cupboard, whilst the days of ringing costly directory | | | | bombing your area with leaflets and placing an ad in |
| enquiry lines might be coming to an end. The Internet is | | | | the local paper. Maximising the optimisation of your |
| a resource for information and is increasingly the | | | | web presence for search is essential for reaching an |
| medium on which people will find your business. | | | | increasingly web savvy population. |
| Developing your web presence so that the search | | | | |