Loudoun County businesses are missing a significant opportunity to reach their prospective customers through search engine submission. Small businesses in Loudoun County suburbs like Sterling, Ashburn, Leesburg, Chantilly, Dulles and others have as their neighbors many medium and large sized companies, and other small businesses who would be interested in buying their products or using their services.
Who is your next door business neighbor?
Local search has become increasing popular among all searches, even among many businesses selling to businesses. Yet, most small business websites are not optimized for local search engine submission. Google Local, Yahoo Local and MSN Live Local are investing more in developing their local search offering because they see it as an important part of search. So why aren't small businesses investing more in their websites for local search? I've spoken with local business owners who are satisfied with their website as brochure ware, and nothing more. Most businesses have no clearly defined goals for their website. A website goal could be as simple as getting 100 people to a website per month. An even better goal would be to have 100 people print a coupon from a website per month and bring it to the store. Small business owners who invest in the optimization of their websites will have a significant advantage over their competitors, especially in Northern Virginia where the demographic relies heavily on the Internet.
It all begins with Search.
Harris Interactive recently reported that 80% of all Internet activity begins with search! Wow! I should not be surprised by that figure, but I am. That's an incredible statistic. Recent comScore data (July 2006) asserted that 13% of overall web search is local, or approximately 849 million monthly searches vs. 6.5 billion in general web search. comScore also says that 63% of the US online population (roughly 109 million people) conducted a local search in July.
So what can a Loudoun County business do?
Invest in optimizing your website for the best search engine rankings for your keywords in your town or city, and surrounding towns. Invest more in your website. Invest in good content and people will return to your site as loyal customers. Build your brand. Offer them something or give something away for free. Give them a coupon to print from your website, or tell them they'll get 10% off their next purchase if they order from your website. They don't have to pay for it on your website, but they can order it. Poll your website visitors and ask them what they like about your site, and don't like.
Your website has the opportunity to be the best sales, marketing and consumer relations tool you could ever ask for. Take advantage of it.
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