Best Online Marketing Option For Small Business

When I started my small business years ago, I had little money for advertising. I used word of mouth and referrals. The Internet was not what it is today. The Internet today gives small businesses a huge variety of ways to advertise and get the word out about ones' business or service.

Probably the best option available today is what is referred to as local search marketing. Most everyone is familiar with using search engines, such as Google or Yahoo to "search" or look up information on a particular topic, event, etc. Well local search is the same thing but focuses on a specific geographic area based on the location criteria provided by the searcher. Search based on location!

The search engines are constantly working to make their results more relevant to the user, so adding a geographic component to searches makes total sense. Local search has been growing in popularity over the last few years and it quickly becoming a major force in search engine marketing. Estimates vary about how much local search is being done or what is spent, but Greg Sterling, recently said in his blog that 35% or even 40% of search is local related.

Marketing one's small business via local search allows the business owner to put the pertinent information about his business online: location, hours, services provided, years in business, and contact info (phone, email, fax, web site). In addition to the basics, there is the ability to have online reviews, coupons, and maps.

Local search is allowing the small businesses to really take advantage of Internet to promote their business. Did I mention you do NOT even need a web site to promote locally online?! Local search will provide the best return on investment (ROI) on your advertising dollars.

Now that you know about this powerful new way to marketing your business online, the question is how or where do you start?

The search engines do provide the local business owner the ability to do some of the marketing work themselves, but we would recommend they don't. Local search is still in its early days and there are some "growing pains" and some "kinks" that need to be worked out by the search providers. There are the big search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, but there are litany of other valuable search engines and directories that small business need to take into account. There is power in numbers; the more you get your business information online, the greater the potential folks searching online will find your business.

When working with a company to provide your local search marketing, make sure they explain how they do it, who they submit to, how long it will take, and finally what other options are available for local businesses to promote themselves online. (There are numerous other local marketing techniques not discussed here.)

Over the years, we have worked with many small businesses who were hesitant to market their web site or services online. With the power and influence of the Internet growing daily, in order to survive, small business will need to be online. Local search marketing represents the most feasible and easiest way to allow small businesses to be found online.

About the author:

Larry Sullivan, of LRSxpress Web Services (http://www.lrsxpress.com), provides local search marketing to small business (http://local.lrsxpress.com). With over 6 years online web experience, LRSxpress provides numerous other web related services (design, hosting, search engine optimization, link building, online promotions) for small businesses to help them get online quickly and affordably.

Check out his new blog Local Biz Bits (http://www.localbizbits.com).

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