A lot of businesses tend to assume that because they mostly serve people that walk in off the street and live in their local area, that web marketing is pointless. In fact, SEO can add quite a bit to that cash register at the end of the day, even if you only see people that live within a ten kilometer radius. Today we are looking at how to use web marketing to links from local business websites, and other direct ways to get visitors to your site that live close to your shop.
Get the people that matter to yoour business through your doors!
1. Join your chamber of commerce
There is one in most cities and suburbs – chambers of commerce are a place for all the shop owners in the area to meet and talk, well, shop. They usually have websites, and if you’re lucky they’ll be affiliaited with the local council, which gives you a .gov link. Great value in general business as well a s link building.
2. Check in with your local business partners
Send out an email, or make a few phone calls, to your local suppliers, agents, and other business partners asking if they would like to exchange links with you. There is a real possibility this will drive both foot traffic through your door, and net traffic through your home page.
3. Launch an affiliate program
Start an affiliate program where people are rewarded for recommending new customers to you. In many cases, they will do this via the internet … talking to people they know on Twitter and Facebook and Myspace. These links may have no Google juice, but the exposure they create could certainly lead to ordinary links.
4. Submit your site to relevant government resources
Government departments often create resource lists of businesses that can help people in an area do something. Take the time to look through your local and state government websites, seeing if your site fits into any of the categories. Write asking for inclusion if it does.