Have you taken the time to put yourself on Google Maps? Go to Google Maps. Select your default location. You will see a link to "Put Your Business on Google Maps." If you have an account, sign in and just do it. If you don't have a (free) account, create one and just do it. It will take you five minutes or less and local people will be able to see you instantly. The next thing you can do will take you maybe 10 or 15 minutes a week. Or every 2 weeks, just do it on a regular basis. Find a forum that concerns your business. Hats? Construction? Life Skills? Whatever. Join the forum. Regularly add useful information to the discussion. Forums allow you to create a profile and a link to your website next to your name. Be a part of your business community and build inbound links. What about a blog? Easy as pie to set up and attach to your site. If you can’t do it, your webmaster should have done it by now. Again, regularity is important. Write something. Write anything that is useful about your business. Trends or new products or improvements to old products. Ideas you have to improve on old services. Make it real and make it useful and helpful. Every time the browser bots come by they will think, “Hey, new and interesting content! Let’s up the page rank for this one!” There are quite a few directories that will accept links for free to your website. www.dmoz.com and www.jayde.com are two. Find your section, sign yourself up. Directories are not as important as they used to be, but every big in-bound link helps. Do not do reciprocal links to your friends and pals if they are not in the same business as you are. If you have a medical advice website, keep your links to medical resources and information. Having a link to your buddy’s motel down the road will do you no good and in fact, maybe the opposite. At the very least, it will make your site appear unprofessional. Do NOT under any circumstances sign up for anything that will "submit your site to thousands of search engines." The only search engine that really matters is Google. Yahoo is good and so is MSN, but Google is still Queen. And you do not have to submit your site to them. In fact some people say it is a bad idea. They will find you. McAfee Site Advisor is used by millions of people all over the world. If your site has not been checked, it will show a gray bar at the bottom of their browser. If you have been checked and you are "good" it will show green to go! If you are a bad person, it will show red or yellow and people will avoid your site like the plague. It is free. Sign up or get your webmaster to do it for you. Do you have a Facebook Page? Do you Twitter? Myspace? Social marketing is here. I am not suggesting you spend hours and hours to the point where your business suffers, but a little effort can yield big results. Don’t lose out on opportunity just because you don’t understand it or don’t have the time. Hire someone who does. Give that person clear direction and let her or him do what they know the best. Good luck in your future business!!
Article Source: http://bizymoms.com/business
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