It’s Official !

Yes, it is official !!

Online sales are damaging
traditional retail outlets!

The government has announced an inquiry into the impact online sales are having on the retail industry, and how to deal with it.

For you the business owner – it’s A CLEAR SIGN.

A clear sign that if your business is not online then your results are being affected.

So what action are you taking in 2011 to maximise your online results?

Online Directories

Last week I said that I would comment on the value and usefullness of Online Directories.

. . . Why you can’t afford not to be on them.

Some Online Directories can give backlinks to your website.
Backlinks are important for the SEO page ranking of your website.
And backlinks from high-ranking websites are most important.

Also, with so many other businesses listed, you could argue that it is important to be listed there, just “to be in the race”.

Some directory sites will give you these advantages, but make sure the links do not include the html code “nofollow”, as this stops the search engines from seeing their link to your website.

. . . And why they are next to useless for your business.

Many low cost directories do not include your website address – no value to you.
You have to pay heaps to get at the top of the listings – can be expensive.
If you don’t pay for premium listings, you may never be found anyway!
And some Online Directories just do not generate enough traffic themselves to be worthwhile.

Case Study

Last month we did some research for a client who asked us to look at their online presence.

We searched Google and found a directory listing with their name in the Google entry. We then clicked on the Google link to that directory.

Here’s what we found:

– The entire first page was full of paid google adwords – most belonging to the competition of the business.

– The listing for the business was 4 pages down, so lots of scrolling to find it.

– There were 11 others listings before it, so by the time I scrolled down to find their listing, I had 11 opportunities to be distracted by their competition.

Suggestions

1.
Get yourself into some Online Directories, but be cautious about how much time you devote to that activity and the quality of the sites that you use.

2.
Make sure that you get quality listings that appear at the top of the page, especially if you are going to pay for the listing.

3.
This one is very important!
Keep a list of all the Online Directories that you are on and keep the listings up to date.
It’s amazing how many of these listings are out of date – wrong phone numbers, business addresses, etc.

4.
Online Directories are no subsitute for having your own website.
Get a highly interactive website platform, (built by Hotpink Websites of course), along with our SEO to get you onto page 1 of Google quickly.

Coming Next

Look out for my next article on “Are Social Media Pages going to Replace Traditional Websites?”

From The Hotpink Foundation – Hotpink Websites
Take Action Now…