Local search, social media, content creation… how are you supposed to learn and do all of these things and still run a business?
Like anything worthwhile, you have to just chip away at it, one step at a time. That’s one of the concepts of marketing on the internet that is frustrating to small business operators. In the good old days you just bought as much Yellow Pages space as you could afford, maybe run some newspaper ads, and life was good.
Now, not only do you need a website to market your business, but you have to work to get traffic to it, and then figure out how to
get them to take some action once they get there. There are at least two things that will make you feel a little better about all the work it takes to market your local business on the internet.
First, although it’s painstaking to get things up and running to the point where you see results, once it starts working, your site develops sort of an inertia. That means the web site keeps working for you 24/7, no sick days, no excuses. Got anyone else on your staff that does that for you?
Second, understand that Google rewards long term, patient efforts. You see, Google’s biggest problem is controlling all the spammers out there who are just after a quick traffic spike so they can scam some money from someone. When they see a site that’s been around for a while and has a slow consistent pattern of increased content, they breathe a sigh of relief of sorts. The site appears to Google to be a legitimate business, exactly what they want.
It’s all about the user experience to Google. If someone comes to your site and they stop searching because they found what they were looking for, Google feels they have done their job. You want your site and marketing effort to find and deliver these kind of visitors to your site. The longer your site survives and is properly maintained and nurtured, the better off you bottom line will be! Why? Because Google will reward you with better placement in organic search and better prices for Adwords visits.
The more cheap traffic you get, the more money you make, that’s the game, like it or not. So chip away, be patient, and of course if you get stuck, give me a call. I can assess you site and marketing efforts in 15 minutes and tell you what needs to be done next. No charge!