As I am want to say, the internet is big….really big.
So big that many small businesses have believed that their presence is neither necessary or effective because they are just little guys and no-one will notice them against those slick websites the huge mega corps use. In 2010 it will become apparent to even the smallest business that being on the internet is not only essential, all other forms of advertising is rapidly becoming redundant (in fact some already are).
Owning your local keyword real estate is the next Klondike.The SEO shyster is on the way out as the “average Joe” starts to use the internet as the tool it is. Shopkeepers will come to realise that how their customers search is not globally but locally for a great deal of services. It has been easy for SEO sales people in the past to start talking to their mark about trying to get #1 in Google. Yet we you and I know the average Joe has cottoned on to that fact that even if you are the world’s number 1 site for “candy pink buttons”, the woman who wants to buy them is actually searching Google for “buttons Liverpool”.
The iPhone, and other handheld internet devices, have been the brick to smash the barrier restricting local retail/services making their mark on the web. People who want something “now” or “close to now” are using their data phones to pinpoint where to get what they want locally. Around gift giving time this is especially so.
Not only that, authority for things/service comes from where they rank in Google. Buying something you have never bought before like …chiropractic services. You don’t know anyone who uses a chiropractor locally but all your friends swear that it works, so what do you do? You look for “chiropractor your town” and bingo a nice looking site pops up with Your Town Chiropractor dot com as top Google listing, with a nice video of Bob in his white coat talking about spinal alignment …well he HAS to be good, Google says so.
Nano-marketing is picking up momentum. The great thing about this shift is there are so many products and so many locations that rather than selling one site attempting to top a million keywords, having a million sites with one keyword each and one location is also quite viable The internet has infinite space, unlike the Yellow Pages, and so is able to chunk down to the tiniest market requirement.
Once you have successfully completed and sold a local website(s) it is not hard to then duplicate the process and move on to another location. Conquered “Buttons Liverpool”? Head to “Buttons Newcastle” etc etc etc. Build the site and find the businesses who need that listing, let them all make offers and sell to the highest bidder after setting a minimum amount, or set a buyout price and let the first business to pay it, get the goods.
Of course I am biased about all of this, it is how I have set up my business, banking on the details above coming to mainstream fruition.
Planned and executed my exit from the corporate world. Walked away with a 6 figure payment to boot.
It’s the first time I have read an article on this subject, what a great concept, going to build a small business website and do exactly what you describe. I have a number of old domains with page rank 3, and are appearing high for search terms, I think youve helped me decide what to do with them, thanks
let me speak about my experience:
I have own Internet shop. little, local. At the beginning it was just a simple design and common CMS. I had never thought before my little local business became so big nowadays. For me Google’s or others top positions were not important, I have never pay for anvangement – just write necessary content and my policy is working. Internet is really huge! it means there are a lot of chances to improve your business
Thanks for dropping by and commenting Ron. Good luck with the site development
I’d love to know how profitable and how risky doing this can be (it has obviously been profitable to you). It sounds like a lot of work getting a website’s page rank up. Do you always get the bids that you expected to get for the website? How do you know whether businesses will want to bid on your website? Thanks.
Emma if you take a look at the Thirty Day Challenge you will see that getting a site ranked isn’t that hard if you know what you are doing.
As for the rest, that is where your salesmanship comes in, and that is where people balk because it means talking to real people and possibly be rejected.
Alison, this is the point where the big becomes small, the global becomes the local. You make some good observations about the changing way that people are interacting with the web, from their attitude/perspective of searching to the tools that they use. Good post. ~ Daryl