More and more, buyers are looking online for products or services local to them,  a business that is just around the corner always somehow feels safer  than another in the next county and search engines, including Google, are enabling  the client to find local enterprises by including a map of local businesses in search results. Will your clients  find you? Whether you are selling online or off you need to be visible.

• 86% of consumers use the Internet to find local businesses. (Nielsen NetRatings)
• 74% of consumers use a search engine to find local retail or services. (Nielsen NetRatings)
• The use of search tools to find local businesses grew 58% in 2008 to 15.7 billion searches (comScore).

Basic search engine optimisation is still the best way to stake your claim to local markets.

Search Engine listings are probably the cheapest way to generate website traffic, by-passing the need for a pay for clicks campaign.  There are probably more web pages on the Internet than there are  people in the world and page population is growing at a faster rate  than the world’s population. Even the greatest designed website, advertising the greatest products or services around will not be  discovered if nobody knows it exists! It is written elsewhere that  over 90% of all Internet traffic is generated by Search Engines. To say that it is imperative to get your site listed in Search Engines is  an understatement, survival of your business relies on your website  being found by potential customers when they start searching for  products or services similar to yours.

To be effective, you must be able to find your web site based on  keywords or search terms – which prospective clients may enter into a search box on a Search Engine when looking for your product or service. It is vital Search Engines direct traffic to your website’s  content.