We have been taught by the media and those around us that bigger is usually better. Instilled in us from a young age is the notion that the best always more expensive. We see it when we shop for everything from a new car to a pair of shoes. We think that name brand is better because that what we've learned throughout life.
When it comes to internet advertising there are thousands of choices to be made. Those of us who find internet advertising to be a worthwhile investment must consider our internet presence to be an integral part of our overall marketing program. We must carefully evaluate each decision we make and analyze the ROI (Return on Investment) of every dollar spent.
Because we feel that more is better and better cost more money, too often business owners are sucked in to advertising campaigns that prove cost prohibitive or offer a poor ROI. Take for example some well-known business directories that charge anywhere from $500 to $1500 a month for premium placement. While these directories may receive thousands of visitors a month, how many are looking for the widgets you have for sell? And, how many calls or click-throughs must you receive to justify the monthly charge? While business directories are important and may result in a margin that strongly supports the monthly costs, other less expensive alternatives do exist.
Many of the well-known business directories and their business listings rarely show up in organic search listings. The only way anyone benefits from the information you pay to display is if he or she visits the directory and searches for your products or services. Again, this may result in a lot of business for some companies, while not so much for others.
I highly recommend business owners follow these simple steps to improve upon their internet "footprint". These steps are easy to do and cost very little.
- Find websites that allow you to write articles. When writing an article about your business it should contain no less than 250 words. Within the article use keywords and keyword phrases that are beneficial to your business or industry. For example, if you are a lawyer your article should include keywords about your area of expertise and location (e.g. Seattle personal injury attorney). A well written article should be indexed by search engines.
- Find websites that allow for free or inexpensive business listings. Ideally the listing will permit you to write paragraphs about your business, which should contain keywords and keyword phrases. A well written business listing should be indexed by search engines.
- Create a blog about your business or interests. Search engines love blogs because the information is usually updated on a regular basis. Individual blog posts are often indexed quickly by search engines and rank fairly high in the search engine results page (SERP).
Don't get hung up on the big three search engines: Yahoo, Bing and Google. It can take months to see your business listing, article or blog in any one of these search engines. There are hundreds of other search engines out there that may index your information in a more timely manner. Either way, spending time on free and inexpensive directories will generally result in more exposure than that offered by some of the larger directory services. Part of the reason this is true is the small directories often give you 24/7 access and allow for more information to be uploaded and displayed. Good Luck!
Take advantage of all of the free and/or cost effective advertising resources found at http://www.FactSnap.com and http://www.LawyersInDefense.com. Both of these directories allow members to have complete control over their directory listings with 24/7 access. While LawyersInDefense.com was just recently launched, FactSnap.com has received over 150,000 visitors since its launch. After having recently received some major updates to improve its search engine visibility, both directories are expected to see a marked improvement in their placement in organic search results.
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