Internet and Businesses Online

A recent report from Borrell Associates indicates that spending on printed Yellow Pages advertising is about to go down by $5 BILLION (yes that billion) in revenue over the next 5 years.

The reasoning behind it is very simply the effectiveness of printed Yellow Pages is just diminishing. People no longer reach for the Yellow Pages, in fact more and more people reach for their mouse when they need a plumber, baker, mechanic, spa, hat store or whatever.

So if you are advertising in the Yellow Pages and its effectiveness is going down what are you going to do to insure you keep business coming in?

Well one obvious answer is make sure people find you when they go online to look for a product or service. The problem is ten years ago that was a piece of cake. Throw up a website and 30 minutes later you had a torrent of visitors. Those days are long gone. It takes work and skill to make sure you are found.

The main way people find you is through Search Engines - Google, Yahoo, Ask etc. Now these search engines have been playing a cat and mouse game with website owners to make sure they are providing the best results when somebody searches for say "Pizza restaurant, Freehold". If you have a Pizza Restaurant in Freehold (and I happen to LOVE Solo's) then you would want to be one of the first results that Google returns.?

How do you make sure your site is first (or at least near the top)? This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

This is a fancy name for the skills & techniques needed to make sure the search engines find your site and rank it appropriately. It is 70% hard work, 20% skill and 10% magic! Fortunately there are many firms around who can help you achieve a better ranking in the search engines. It is not an overnight event it can and does take several weeks and/or months to achieve it. You also need to maintain it - if you neglect it, you can find your rank slipping.

The good news is that it is VERY possible to DOMINATE your local search engine results. The window of opportunity is still open and the majority of small businesses have NOT taken advantage of this goldmine.

The bottom line is people are no longer reaching for the Yellow Pages - they are reaching for their mouse. Are you going to be there when they do?

So where are you going to do to find new customers if the Yellow Pages is dying? The answer is simple - make sure you can be found where your customers are looking - ONLINE.