Promoting your business through a web site - locally

Hundred’s of web sites are being developed every day as more and more companies are finding out all the benefits of advertising their businesses on the web. A web site allows businesses to have full interactive and colourful ads plus information about their products & services online available to anyone searching at anytime of the day/week. Sure it makes perfect sense for all businesses to have a web site, but how can a local business dealing with local clients benefit from a web site?

The secret is in how your web site is promoted. There are a number of important things that need to be considered even before you get started. Knowing your target audience and market boundaries can help you get the most out of your online involvement. If your business supplies products or services to the local area (Convenience Store, Architect…) then make sure that your web site is heavily promoted through the local target area and not as much throughout the world. Yes, the internet is a great global communication tool, and anyone’s web site can be viewed world-wide.

Having your own .ca or .on.ca domain name is a very easy way to promote your web site for all those people who are looking for web sites which are either local or at least located in the same province. There are numerous of search engines that now have the added function to only apply your search information to country specific domain names. The .on.ca & .ca domain names used to be free of charge, but there were many restrictions as who could qualify for a .ca domain name. Just recently they have changed the rules and now anyone can get a .ca for a small yearly fee.

The keywords & description incorporated into your web site will help local people find your site especially if you include such keywords as “Ontario, Canada, Alliston, Barrie, Toronto…”. Letting people know where you are located helps as well, instead of just listing an email address or toll free telephone number.

There are now many “local” search engines available with which your local target audience is easier to be reached instead of the yahoo’s and web crawlers. Sure, it is still important to be listed on the larger (world-wide) search pages as you never know what search sites people might use… but you can always concentrate on the main search engines such as “Canada.com, Yahoo.ca, Altavista.ca, Excite.ca, Aol.ca, Northernlight.com…” - the Canadian editions of the large search sites. As for local search engines there are many becoming available such as “simcoe.com, ontarioexplorer.com, ontario online…”.

Another great way to promote your local web site is by getting listed on a web site business directory. These directories usually either list web sites of a certain topic or in different categories. Some of these directories are run either by larger search engines, telephone directory web sites, government run sites, web site companies… These directories are usually easy to find as they should be in the top 10 search results when looking for your town or city on a major search engine. Not only will you be able to have a listing, but you can also usually have more exposure available through a banner ad - which can be a beneficial & effective way when executed correctly. Joining a local Chamber of Commerce or other business group will also usually get your web site promoted on their web site’s directory of members.

Now lets say that your business is a bit more specialized but still caters to the local audience, such us tourist based businesses. The internet allows anyone running a tourism spot to have a vast amount of promotional tools available to them. As many people use the internet everyday to plan trips, it just makes excellent sense to list your bed & breakfast, restaurant, antique store… on the net. Check out our resources & links section on this page for some interesting tourist based sites.

One last thing I wish to mention, is co-operative & cross promotion. This may not have to be strictly internet based - but involves more of a community networking effort. Take for example a local Apple Orchard which promotes their business on the net and brings tourists in from all over the province & even other countries. This Orchard offers different types of tours through their orchard & has products available for sale from different locally based artists, craft shops, and other shops. This allows all companies involved to benefit from each other by giving the tourists a great variety of products to take back with them from our area. This same example can be applied to Bed & Breakfast places, Antique Stores, Specialty Shops, Bus Tour Organizers…

If you have time while you are surfing (and I don’t mean surfing for mp3’s on Napster), do some searches for your local town or city and you might be surprised what you will find located in your neighbourhood. Happy Exploring!

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