According to the 2008 Nielsen Online Custom Survey and WebVisible, Inc. studies that were compared to the 2006 studies, the use for yellow pages is down 23% and the use of the local newspaper is 41% less.

What does this mean for you? You need to make sure that you are registered on all the “local sites” on the internet.

Why?

More and more potential clients are using the search engines and search directories (such as Google, Yahoo!, Bing, MSN, etc.) on  internet to find local business to provide services and products they are looking for.

Tips for your profile:

1. The search will use your zip code to map you but you can give yourself a little “punch” by adding zip codes to your profile – stats show that people search what they are looking for and the zip code “real estate marketing” and “89131″ (see image below)
2. Ensure that your profile has all the keywords people will use to find you (real estate, bank owned, short sale, foreclosure, agent, etc.)
3. Add a reminder to your calendar to make sure that profile is current every 6 months to a year

Google Business Locator

Is your competition #1 on Google?

Do you wonder what their marketing methods are?

Let’s try to figure it out! My favorite site to use it www.HubSpot.com – they have a site called WebSiteGrader.com that measures the marketing effectiveness of your site…AND your competition’s site!

They use all types of factors to figure your website “score” and gives you a great baseline to see if you are improving your site with your SEO efforts. (AND how your competition is doing too!) Now how to REALLY scope out the competition – it’s easy! Use these sites to set up “alerts” that are emailed to you as frequently as you want them delivered:

1. Alerts.Live.com
2. Alerts.Yahoo.com
3. Google.com/alerts

What are you looking for?

To see how often they are submitting eZines, press releases and more on the internet and what they are writing about and how often. These types of alerts will show you want you need to be doing to keep up with them.

Miscellaneous Tips:

1. Make sure your blog is hosted on the same domain as your website so you get the credit for it.
2. Optimize your blog with SEO, alt tag and other plug-ins that will give your blog a boost Bookmarks will help your site be considered more relevant (del.icio.us, etc.)
3. Register and claim your blog with popular sites (technorati, etc.) Questions? Let me know!