Chances are, if you run a small business, you have at least a passing familiarity with search engine optimization (SEO) and how it can help your business by bringing traffic to your website. SEO is premised on the idea that you can increase the chances of a customer finding your site when they search, say, gardening, by having the best content possible. Of course, with SEO you’re constantly competing with other websites, and as computing and search technologies improve, SEO continues to adapt.
But if you’re new to the process or feel like you need a little more control over how your web-presence is going–or if website traffic isn’t an issue–there are some other options for bringing in business. Advertising locally is an obvious choice, but something you may not have thought of are business listings. There are a number of websites and services around the Internet that allow you to list your small business in places where people can find them.
Google and Bing, for example, let you set up information for your business so that people can search for it. Other, more dedicated sites include places like Kudzu, which hosts listings for home repair companies. Whitepages works not unlike the phone books you may occasionally still see around. There are plenty of other sites to take a look at, from narrow local sites to national sites.
And keeping local sites in mind is a good idea. Check out the websites for your city or for local news channels, for listing options. Maybe the local chamber of commerce has a site where you can list your business. Even if you don’t do business over the Internet, listing on nationally recognized sites can still help, because not every local is going to check the chamber of commerce website!
