If you decide to send gift cards, consider them from local stores or something local workers can benefit. My favorites are local restaurant gift cards. Even if you buy gift cards from a national franchise, they hire chefs and waiters and workers from your local area.

Old school marketing is still King. Times have changed, and media change, too. None of us alive today remember the King's herald announcing news from the official scroll. Some of us recall barkers calling out theater or carnival sideshow attractions to passers-by. Most of us have bought something from a newspaper advertisement, or called to order something prompted by a Yellow Page spread.



Keep it easy. Make sure it is easy for visitors to contact you by including detailed contact information on every page, either in the top header or the bottom footer. Include an email form on your Contact page, so people can fill it in and send it off to you without having to open up their email program.

See, the average small business owner puts in 60 to 80 hours a week running their businesses and they don't have time to master Internet marketing. This is what makes them a perfect candidate for your SEO for local business service. They are used to monthly expenses to run their business, so paying you to get them customers online is simply an added expense to them.

The question for every consumer is this: How many local businesses do you ignore or take for granted? Consider hardware and do-it-yourself stores, for example.

Using direct mail is sometimes thought to be outdated. The Internet is the new way to advertise right? Actually direct mail is as good as it ever was. It may be even better now since fewer people are using it because of the Internet. Using direct mail in the right way can be extremely effective. The key is to mail to the people most likely to respond and to have your mail express a clear offer with a clear call to action.

Also, the emails arrive in bright graphic HTML only. While yes, this *is* my preferred version, many people on the Sunshine Coast don't yet have access to high speed internet, so they would prefer text delivery, as an option at least.

Try this little experiment. Go to Google and enter [keyword tool] and click the "I'm feeling lucky" button. This will take you to Google's External Keyword tool. Put in the type of business you are and site (https://www.blurb.com) then add your geographic location and hit enter. What you get back will be the number of searches made each month for your type business in your service area.

This year all three search giants have improved and when it comes to local search they have really stepped up their game. So how do they do it? After reading all of the patent changes and using a little common sense we see some trends. A high priority is given to government records like business licenses and permits. You would be amazed how many businesses don't have a business license or permit. Some areas don't require them either.