Use Local Online Profiles to Promote Your Business
Even though as a Virtual Assistant I am not geographically limited to who I can assist with various virtual services that I offer it’s still beneficial to have profiles set up and most of them are free.
Benefits of Creating a Local Profile for Your Business
- Local consumers can find your business more easily as often local businesses are shown at the top of the search page
- Consumers and clients can leave feedback that others can see
- Some sites allow you to include a special offer or videos on your listing
Basically at the end of the day anything, big or small, that we can do as a business to increase our exposure at little or no cost should be considered (really, it should be a no-brainer)
Not sure how to get started – here are links to just a few of the many out there:
- Google Local Business Center
- Yahoo Local
- Bing Local
- Yelp!
- Merchant Circle
- SuperPages
- InsiderPages (tip: after signing up search your company name, if not found, click the “add business” button at the bottom of the page)
Tip: If you are already using Google Local Business Center click here to read a new feature that has recently been released that you should certainly take advantage of.
This is also a perfect task to give to your Virtual Assistant if you find you do not have the time to set up all of these profiles.
This article makes a whole lot of sense. Thank you for sharing. Arlene
Thanks for those links Michelle. This would really help me a lot. You’ve got great post regarding how to promote businesses locally.
Impressive and you’ve got a thorough research on this post. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Michelle ~ This is a great list to get me going. I knew about some of the obvious big ones but some of the others hadn’t occurred to me. And you’re absolutely right – free promotion is a no brainer! Added to my to do file.
Liz
.-= Elizabeth Bolton@Homes in Cambridge´s last blog ..321 Harvard Street Cambridge – Stone Chapel Condos =-.
Elizabeth – glad I could help and made you aware of a few that you didn’t already have in your arsenal.
Michelle,
As an internet marketing professional myself I can vouch for this recommendation. It is a very important part of promoting a small business locally. Some business owners shy away from it, but it’s also critical for being informed and staying on top of protecting their online reputation and being able to respond to feedback good and bad.
Thanks for letting people know about this!
Hi Michelle – Indeed a nice list and tips. However, i am wondering if they directly help in improving traffic? Especially sites like superpages and InsiderPages? However listing in search engine local site may definitely help since for local keyword search they may often send traffic.
Joel – since Google will show you actions, number of impressions and visitors in their Business Local Reporting options I can say that I have indeed gotten traffic as a result. However, I am not sure I’ve actually gotten clients as a result. However, many small actions can have a great impact and since it’s free to do – may as well take the time and effort to do it, right?