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Webmaster Tips n Tools | How do you market your business website on the LOCAL web?
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How to market your website biz on the local web . . .
Just what am I talking about?
Most people think of the internet as the big www ie the "world wide web" and that is true. Yet for local "brick and mortar" stores and local professionals and services industries their best and sometimes ONLY web customer market is LOCAL ie in the city, county, state regions around their physical location and service areas.
How to target and reach a specific regional group . . .
Here are some methods you can typically find in almost every area of the country you may be in. I recommend you review and use the valid free ones for sure first and then later experiment to find out which ones of the "pay for services" fit your objectives and work best for your web biz objectives.
Local area "free" web directory listings . . .
As distinguished from those sort of scammie / messy / hard to find anything you really want in / with pop-ups and flash banner ads jumping all over the page trying to confuse you to click on them / national (out of your area) directories that are just ridiculously trying to add in every city in the whole country. Often these are just after the revenue they earn from the PPV (pay per view) ads and the PPC (pay per click) ads they load all over the page where you are trying to find what you thought your were looking for!
An easy way to help you distinguish the difference visually is that the local web directories often have the look and feel that they are really local. They are not pretending to bigger than what they are. They are not trying to get rich off loading too many ads or by trying to be too many things at once. They often have a regional visual appeal and most definitely maintain a local service program and focus. Their click banner ads will be local businesses and most all their content and listings will be local too. They serve YOUR region and typically even choose a name for their Web Directory or Business Listing Service to make that clear.
Here is an example of a FREE local listing website directory . . .
Prescotts eDirectory.
I designed, developed, created and manage this local website directory specifically for our local businesses and communitty resources of the Prescott, Arizona regional area to be easily found in one resource place.
This is a classic web directory service where the basic business listing is offered for FREE and then if you want to enhance the listing with photos, coupons and more information you will only pay a nominal fee for that service.
You can also purchase what are called "click through" or banner ads that appear on the search return page(s) or other internal pages that will visually communicate your message / special offer / website and then when clicked on will take that person directly to your website.
The Prescotts eDirectory is found in the major search engine returns for this area and a "local search" bar can even be placed on other local websites as an added value service to their local customers.
SEO content, meta tags, search engine GEO listings and more . . .
There are also many more methods I typically will take advantage of to help my clients show up in the SERP within their geographic region that fall in the area of "white hat" site design, web management and SE webmaster tools. These are too complex to list and explain here - could take a book!
Local web advertisements, article submissions and banner ads . . .
Your local newspapers, magazines, community organizations, clubs, sports groups, hobbyists, specialty websites and many more often offer the opportunity for one or more of the listed media. I highly recommend you look around you for the better more popular resources and experiment with them to find the ones that may work well for you.
Next . . . how to submit your website to FREE Web Directories.
Just what am I talking about?
Most people think of the internet as the big www ie the "world wide web" and that is true. Yet for local "brick and mortar" stores and local professionals and services industries their best and sometimes ONLY web customer market is LOCAL ie in the city, county, state regions around their physical location and service areas.
How to target and reach a specific regional group . . .
Here are some methods you can typically find in almost every area of the country you may be in. I recommend you review and use the valid free ones for sure first and then later experiment to find out which ones of the "pay for services" fit your objectives and work best for your web biz objectives.
Local area "free" web directory listings . . .
As distinguished from those sort of scammie / messy / hard to find anything you really want in / with pop-ups and flash banner ads jumping all over the page trying to confuse you to click on them / national (out of your area) directories that are just ridiculously trying to add in every city in the whole country. Often these are just after the revenue they earn from the PPV (pay per view) ads and the PPC (pay per click) ads they load all over the page where you are trying to find what you thought your were looking for!
An easy way to help you distinguish the difference visually is that the local web directories often have the look and feel that they are really local. They are not pretending to bigger than what they are. They are not trying to get rich off loading too many ads or by trying to be too many things at once. They often have a regional visual appeal and most definitely maintain a local service program and focus. Their click banner ads will be local businesses and most all their content and listings will be local too. They serve YOUR region and typically even choose a name for their Web Directory or Business Listing Service to make that clear.
Here is an example of a FREE local listing website directory . . .
Prescotts eDirectory.
I designed, developed, created and manage this local website directory specifically for our local businesses and communitty resources of the Prescott, Arizona regional area to be easily found in one resource place.
This is a classic web directory service where the basic business listing is offered for FREE and then if you want to enhance the listing with photos, coupons and more information you will only pay a nominal fee for that service.
You can also purchase what are called "click through" or banner ads that appear on the search return page(s) or other internal pages that will visually communicate your message / special offer / website and then when clicked on will take that person directly to your website.
The Prescotts eDirectory is found in the major search engine returns for this area and a "local search" bar can even be placed on other local websites as an added value service to their local customers.
SEO content, meta tags, search engine GEO listings and more . . .
There are also many more methods I typically will take advantage of to help my clients show up in the SERP within their geographic region that fall in the area of "white hat" site design, web management and SE webmaster tools. These are too complex to list and explain here - could take a book!
Local web advertisements, article submissions and banner ads . . .
Your local newspapers, magazines, community organizations, clubs, sports groups, hobbyists, specialty websites and many more often offer the opportunity for one or more of the listed media. I highly recommend you look around you for the better more popular resources and experiment with them to find the ones that may work well for you.
Next . . . how to submit your website to FREE Web Directories.
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