Promotion Tip:
Ten Ways To Promote Your Local Business

by Larisa Thomason,
Senior Web Analyst,
NetMechanic, Inc.

Word-of-mouth advertising is a powerful promotion tool for local businesses: a neighbor recommends a good lawn service or hairdresser and you try it out. But perhaps you need a service and your neighbor can't help you. Or maybe you just don't want to ask for advice about divorce attorneys or bail bondsmen. So you look online for information - and hope you find something.

Your job as a webmaster for a small business is to make sure customers can find the site and get the information they need.

Here's 10 easy ways to do it.

1. Write A Good TITLE Tag

Spend some time writing an effective TITLE tag for every page in your site. It's an important component of every site's success. The TITLE tag can increase a page's search engine rank and make the page look more interesting in the search results listing.

Local businesses should always note their location in the TITLE text to give searchers more targeted results. If someone is looking for a house in Dallas, they aren't going to be interested in working with real estate agencies in Indiana.

A Dallas agency might use this TITLE tag:

That listing tells the searcher that the Dallas realtor handles both residential and commercial property. It's better than this more generic listing:

2. Add Your Phone Number

Personal service is important to local customers. Make it easy for them to contact you by including your phone number inside your META description tag. People often do research online for services that have to be delivered in person. They'll feel more comfortable talking to your directly.

A listing for a child care center might read:

Special thanks to Fredrick Marckini. We got this helpful tip from his excellent "Search Engine Positioning" book.

Search Engine Power Pack's META Tag Generator can help you write descriptive, error-free META tags for every page in your site.

3. Use Specific Keywords In Your Text

Select your keywords carefully because they're the terms you expect visitors to type into the search engine to locate your site. Keep them simple but specific: remember that approximately 81% of searchers type in a search phrase of just 1-3 words.

Your street address gives your location, but only once. Try to sprinkle some local references throughout your text if possible.

A vegetarian restaurant in Philadelphia wouldn't want to target just the generic keyword "vegetarian" or keyword phrase "vegetarian restaurant" because they return too many results.

Note how the more targeted phrases get the searchers closer to what they really want. Also note how the addition of quotation marks changes the search:

Of course, you can't control what search terms your visitors enter, but you CAN research keyword popularity using Search Engine Power Pack and make sure that you're targeting the best keywords for your business and your customers' interests.

4. Target specific keywords on pay per click engines.

Specificity is also key if you're advertising on a Pay Per Click engine like Overture or LookSmart. These engines charge your account each time a visitor clicks on your link in the search results page. It's important to make sure you target search terms that will bring you interested traffic that's ready to buy.

Broad category terms are often quite expensive. Don't try for top placement under the "bed and breakfast" keyword phrase (where top billing is $.74) when you could be a top listing for less as an "Annapolis bed and breakfast" for only $.13!

You'll get better traffic and save money because visitors looking for a B&B in Anchorage or Paris won't bother clicking on your listing.

5. Submit to regional sections of search directories

Need to get listed quickly in a major search directory like the Open Directory Project (ODP) or Yahoo? Submit to your state or local city category instead of going for the top-level categories. The big categories are already choked with listings and the editors are swamped trying to sort through all the new submissions.

In contrast, the editors for the smaller, more sparsely populated categories are usually eager to add new quality sites. Good category management and listing growth help those editors get moved up to larger, more complex categories.

In Yahoo's directory, look at the category totals for these two categories:

Directory > Regional > U.S. States > New York > Counties and Regions > New York City > Business and Shopping > Shopping and Services > Photography > Photographers - 155 listings

Directory > Regional > U.S. States > New York > Cities > Staten Island > Business and Shopping > Shopping and Services > Photography - 3 listings

Which category do you think is more interested in accepting new submissions?

Where you are in the directory doesn't matter since most people search using the main search box instead of drilling down through the categories anyway. It's far more important just to be in the directory. You'll get in more quickly and easily by submitting to the narrowest possible category.

6. Get Listed And/Or Advertise In Local Online Directories

Don't ignore the smaller city and state directories in favor of the big guys like Yahoo. These smaller directories are usually tightly focused on your particular area and customer base.

They're often popular with local residents because they carry information about local news and entertainment events. The state site AL.com targets the entire state of Alabama through its partnership with local city newspapers and television stations.

Cities have similar city resource sites. Local businesses and organizations in Denver, Colorado can get listed (for free) in the "Virtual Denver" portion of the Mile High City Web site. It contains links to community groups, auto repair shops, and other local service providers.

7. Trade Links With Local Businesses

Link popularity is an important criteria in most search engine ranking algorithms. Google uses it almost exclusively. Fortunately, it's easy for many local businesses to improve their link popularity score by trading links with related businesses. That also helps bring targeted traffic to the linked Web sites.

For instance, a wedding consultant might provide links to local wedding-related resources like florists, dressmakers, photographers, and reception halls. Hopefully, those businesses would return the favor and everyone would benefit.

Harried brides who could use the links to do much of their wedding planning and research online would be particularly grateful.

These last three steps deal with offline site promotion. Get even more information about free and offline site promotion strategies in our June 2002 Webmaster Tip: Promote Your Site Without Going Broke.

8. Appear In Yellow Page Listings And Print Ads

Always include the Web site address of your business in your phone directory and print ads. Space is really at a premium in that type of advertising and it gets expensive quickly. So create some interesting copy for the ads that summarize your service and then point potential customers to your Web site for more complete information.

9. Distribute Promotional Merchandise

Does your business sponsor local ball teams, do buyout nights at ball games, give away t-shirts, or hats? If so, be sure to add your Web site address to all promotional merchandise related to that activity.

Remember the "Tree of Life Childcare Center" we mentioned earlier in the article. One great promotional tool would be to give all the kids at the center t-shirts with the business name and Web site address.

10. Remember Business Correspondence

Finally, remember to add your Web site address to all your regular business correspondence, from stationery to business cards. Even add a brief description of your business to your email signature line and a link to the Web site.

Your business Web site can only increase your customer base if your customers know about it and can find it easily.

A good online strategy helps you get and retain local customers. It can also help attract new ones. Many people carefully research an area online before they visit on vacation or relocate. You accomplish two things when you promote your local business online:

How often do you get the chance to help your community prosper and increase your business at the same time?