I have been working my behind off learning SEO.  I’ve been reading as much as I possibly can about best practices, trends, and black vs grey vs white hat methodology..and a lot of rather technical stuff in between.

I’m no expert and I do not claim to be.

However, I am learning some really cool ways to make a difference for your small business.  Im not talking about the gal that wants to sell things online.  I’m talking about the gal that runs a small business on Main St. and wants to take advantage of the internet as a lead source.

I can hear my father now..”Why on earth would you boot up the computer, log on to the internet, bring up a google screen and search for a hardware store? When you can just look it up in the yellow pages..”

There ain’t no helping him.

But for the rest of us, that love simply recycling, trying to tear, and using their fresh Yellow Pages as a target, we know that the internet, specifically Google, is the place to find relavant information.  And its not only searching amongst e-businesses like Itunes and Amazon, but also where to find the best place to eat or where to fix your car or the address of the hardware store.

I think about my parents and my grandparents.  How did they find a business to patronize? They looked in a directory or yellow pages and they asked a friend for a referral.

Yellow Pages and newspaper classified ads are dying to more relevant and more easily changed web based directories and Craigslist has all but killed the classified revenue stream for the Papers.  In the digital age we live in, it is easier to find a dozen or so reviews on Yelp and Urbanspoon on what is hot and what is not, that easily take the place of the referral from many a moon ago.

So what does all of this mean and why am I talking about it?

It means that if you run a small business, whether a plumbing company or a lingerie shop, in Garner or London, claiming your land online is paramount to your success and longevity.  And you wanna know what’s so cool about it..its damn near free!  (more on that later when I spell out exactly how to do it).

If you own a business or work for one that falls within this sort of criteria, feel free to reach out to me.  I would like to speak with you about how you might be able to rank higher within the search engines.  My advice is free, however I may ask to use your success as a case study in a product I am developing.