EFFECTIVE KEYWORD SEARCH STRATEGY:

Maximizing Sales Through YourLocalMarketplace™

An easy, cost-effective way to maximize the potential of your listing to Enhance Your Sales and improve existing customer relationships is taking the time to choose your own most profitable keywords.

Increasingly, the Internet is used as a tool in the shopping process – over 60% of Canadian Internet users now use the net to search for a merchant, research a purchase, comparison shop or purchase products and services online. In fact, over a third (36%) of all search activity on the Internet is now shopping-based. Now, more than ever, you want to Be Found on the Internet. Online advertising is no longer a game for just large corporations; more and more people are going online looking for local product and service providers.

For the general public and business community looking for products and services available in your local region, YourLocalMarketplace™ is an improvement over paper-based directories, allowing searchers to find what they want faster and with greater accuracy. When local businesses update their listings with product and service information and details about what makes them special or unique, it enhances the system’s ability to perform intelligent searches for specific business attributes.

Be Found: in an Internet search

For the Internet to be used as a successful marketing tool, effective keyword search strategies are essential. Since all Internet search engines scan key words to match surfers to sites, your business can maximize its sales potential by wisely choosing the words to place in your listing to better connect to existing and potential customers.

What makes your business special? What words would buyers use when searching for your specific products and services? They may look for product or service specifics in a search, brand names you may carry, or particular attributes. A Bed and Breakfast, for example, may wish to list “sunset views”; a restaurant “Greek” or “delivery”. A toy store may list the latest hot toys they carry, a manufacturer its product line and a business offering professional services its credentials or specialties. Be sure to update your listing, using the most appropriate keywords.

To improve the chance of local businesses being found in any Internet search worldwide, YourLocalMarketplace™ also uses a number of strategies to enhance the value of individual listings. Search words associated with your particular industry codes will now draw searchers using those key words to your business.

Listings that are linked to others on the Internet tend to perform better. The more links by one site to other high-traffic sites, the higher the ranking in a search. YourLocalMarketplace™ maximizes linkages throughout your region, with your listing connected to all community regional partners. As a result, all businesses associated with the system have increased their individual search rankings. If you have a Platinum or Small Business Accelerator Enhanced Listing, you have the ability to invite additional web sites and their visitors, anywhere on the Internet, to link directly to you.

Stand Out: Your individual listing needs to draw attention

When we use a search engine, a list of matching sites to our query is generated. Usually listings near the top are the ones actually visited. A way to stand out from other businesses, and maximize your potential for sales success, is to choose to upgrade your listing. For example, experience in other communities shows that “Gold” listings, listed higher and including brand name and marketing description, attract more “visits” (the number of times your listing is looked at) by as much as 20 times compared to “Bronze” listings!

Enhance Your Sales: Provide better customer relationship value

Gold or higher listings give you the ability to offer e-coupons to draw more business and allow you to maintain an on-line calendar to showcase upcoming events. Platinum or Small Business Accelerator listings give you with 5 quick links to information that you can change yourself (such as additional product information, help desk answers and more), quickly and easily and in real time to allow you to serve your customers better online.

For those without a web site, the Micro Window in a Business Accelerator Listing provides you with a web address and enough information to profile your organization without the development challenges or hosting costs of moving to a stand-alone web site.

We hope your listing in YourLocalMarketplace™ will help you…

Be Found…Stand Out…AND Enhance Your Sales!

Harness the power of the Internet to do business locally…encourage friends and colleagues to use YourLocalMarketplace™.

For detailed information about enhanced listings, visit www.ylm.ca

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