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The three most important reasons your business or service IS NOT online are these:

1. Your clientele or target market is mostly LOCAL. So why bother with a website aimed at reaching the entire world?

You know friends or colleagues who have websites that get no traffic. Or you've tried it in the past. It is just a big waste of time and money!

People don't use the web for local services. They use more "flexible" local media such as the local newspaper, and (especially) the Yellow Pages.

Let's look at each of these concerns one at a time.

Reason #1 - Your clientele is mostly local

Small business people often think many local people are either not online, or are not net-savvy. But there's no reason in principle this should matter. Local people are just as likely to look on the web for your information and services as are "non-local" people. The problem is, there may not be enough net-savvy local people to build a viable business on. And many of the locals who are not net-savvy will never find your business on the web.

This is all true. But as we know, things are changing rapidly. Within a very few years almost everyone will be net savvy, and virtually every business (local or not) will be online. That will make the web the default source of LOCAL information as well as non-local.

The most reasonable strategy is to build a website for the future that is inevitably and rapidly coming. And then optimize it to reach your local audience. This is easy and relatively cheap — much less expensive than running even a small Yellow Pages ad. And there will soon be services that can help you focus on the local market.

Reason #2 - Local websites don't get any traffic

Most websites don't get any traffic. There are two important reasons, and they are the same for any website, whether they're local or non-local.

First, NO CONTENT, NO TRAFFIC. The first rule for generating traffic is "Build valuable content that people want to look at." It doesn't have to be earth-shatteringly creative. It just has to be "stuff" that your target market is interested in. It could be information (like this article), or it could be products or services.

If you have a landscaping business, for instance, then you have a built-in source of "stuff" for your website — a description of your products and services. People will come to your website because they want to see what you do. And then you can throw in informational content to flesh out your presentation — the kinds of plants to use in various locations; the impact of soil types, drainage, etc. on growth; how to protect your plants for the winter; how to get rid of pests and insects without using pesticides, etc., etc., etc.

Much of this information is readily available from your suppliers, or is already in your head. All you have to do is make it available to your prospective clients.

Second, NO PROMOTION, NO TRAFFIC. If you don't promote your website, no one will know it exists, and, guess what? You won't have any traffic. If anybody tells you "Build it and they will come" ask them to show you an example where this has worked, and then copy their promotional methods.

The exciting news is that promoting a LOCAL website is much easier than promoting a non-local one. For more information on this, see my article called "Strategies for Reaching Local Markets." In a nutshell, the advantages to the local marketer boil down to these:

Creating a distinctive "Locally Focused Identity" (LFI) is relatively easy, because you can grab a very striking and distinctive locally-oriented domain name. Just take the snappiest one-word description of your product or service, and stick your location name behind it.

Voila! You have a distinctive LFI (locally focused identity). The chances of finding an available domain name like this are still very good because there are so few others interested in your specific geographical area...

plants-waterloo.com
pizza-houston.com
indian-food-denver.com
curry-orlando.com
banners-hongkong.com
video-buffalo.com

(And by the way, how long do you think names like these are going to be available?)

Getting good ranking in Google and other search engines for sites with domain names like these will be relatively easy. You don't have to compete with every Pizza place in the world — just with the ones in your local town or city. If you get a jump on the competition, chances are you will be able to easily dominate search categories such as "plants waterloo" or "fish markets salt lake".

Yes, it is true there are not a lot of searches done on terms like this yet. But imagine what will happen when the web becomes the default source of information for local business.

Turning your domain name into a locally-recognized brand is MUCH EASIER on a local level. Plaster your distinctive domain name on every vehicle, sign, promotional piece, business card, and ad you send out to the public . . Sponsor local events such as golf tournaments and prominently display your domain name every opportunity you get.

Reason #3 - People don't use the web to find local services

Generally it is true that most people use "traditional" sources such as the Yellow Pages to find local information, but things are changing rapidly.

The reasons people prefer looking up information in heavy, hard-to-read, environmentally-unfriendly books is that the alternatives are so inadequate. Since people don't use the web for local searches, local merchants and services often don't have websites. So when you look for "lawn maintenance Buffalo", your favorite lawn maintenance guy isn't there. You look in the Yellow Pages instead.

But two important things are changing.

First, Google and Yahoo — the two most heavily used search engines — are developing local search capabilities. What this means is that webmasters will start to build sites specifically for local services. And people will start to learn how to do local searches.

Eventually — within the next year or so — local searches will reach "critical mass", and every business wanting to reach a local market will NEED a website. The importance of local web searches will dramatically increase, and the use of clunky old Yellow Pages books will dramatically decrease.

And you can be sure that as soon as local people have a cheaper advertising alternative (the web), they will drop their overpriced Yellow Pages ads like hot potatoes. And as soon as the Yellow Pages people lose their cash cow, this service will disappear altogether.

If I'm wrong about this, I'll eat my clunky old (rarely used) Yellow Pages book.

All of these things should serve as tremendous incentives for local businesses to jump on board sooner rather than later.

Linknet Promotions provides online promotional opportunities.For the most current Linknet Promotions products see Linknet Promotions.

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