- Sign up to the Google and Truelocal business listings – they are free and will improve your local exposure no end!
- Use Wordpress as a Content Management System and Blog
- Make sure you blog on a regular basis – it is great for increasing unique content on your site.
- Add your web site url to relevant Business Directories
- Add your web site to DMOZ
- Add your Blog to Technorati
- Link your web site to and from your Linkedin account
- If you don’t have a Linkedin account, then get one!
- Tweet about your business and interests on a regular basis
- If you don’t have a Twitter account, then get one!
- Create a Facebook Page and link it to your personal Facebook account
- Don’t have a personal Facebook account? You guessed it, get one!
- If you are a single person business join the Flyingsolo forum and network with like minded people
- Place a free ad on Gumtree
- Create content that people will want to link to (such as lists on how to improve the ranking of your web site
) - Syndicate your Blog posts via an RSS service such as Feedburner
- Join forums within your industry (search Google ‘yourindustry + forum’ and make meaningful comments
- Make sure you include a signature box with a link to your web site when you post on forums
- Tell your friends about your web site – this is free!
- Tell your neighbours – you never know the contacts they might have!
- Tell your customers about your web site – this is also free!
- Offer free things – a Whitepaper, a widget, a Wordpress Theme, an eBook
- Offer multiple ways for your customers to contact you – email, mobile, landline, skype…
- Brand your business offline as well
- Don’t pay anyone to submit your site to Directories
- Don’t pay anyone to submit your site the search engines
- Send out a regular newsletter to your customers by email
- Find local complementary businesses and ask them for a link to your web site
- Link back to these local businesses – support each other!
- Become an authority in your chosen industry and help others to prosper as well – what goes around comes around!
- Donate to charity – in addition to feeling great about yourself you can also get a quality back-link
- Add a sitemap – this will help your visitors and the search engines
- Appear on 60 Minutes!
- Link to your eBay Store (if you have one)
- Link from your eBay store to your web site
- Ask friends to review your site and listen to what they have to say!
- Ask a 10 year old kid to review your site and really listen to what they have to say!
- Ask a granny to review your site and really listen to them as well – these guys are taking over the world!
- Promptly respond to your customers emails – don’t make them wait.
- Install Google Analytics and learn how people are using your site. Then make improvements
- Keep your site clean and simple. White space is the new black!
- Don’t pay for traffic – it is a waste of your time and money
- Upload a favicon
- Use pay per click (PPC) advertising for quick results
- If using PPC make sure you have appropriate landing pages set up
- Don’t create a passive web site
- Avoid the temptation to tweak your web site every 5 minutes – you’ll confuse everyone including yourself!
- Have fun with your web site
- Be unique in all that you do
- Have patience – your site will climb the rankings but it will take time.
If you would like help promoting your business web site then contact Gordon for an obligation-free assessment.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for the information you provide through this article, interesting and good content makes me want to visit your other articles.
I keep for getting to add my local business to google and true local! These are great for Australia small business.
Tom, you are correct both Google Local Business and Truelocal are very easy to set up and what’s more if done properly can very quickly put your business on the first results page for your local area map. Great Internet advertising for free!