Although the Internet is really starting to catch on with small local businesses that don't offer products or services on-line, article marketing has not been keeping pace. This is unfortunate for these sites as they are missing out and a great opportunity to help build sales as the way people use the Internet continues to change.
In the early days of the Internet people would go to the sites they had seen in another media for a specific product. It was only when more and more information based sites appeared did we learn to use search engines to find things. At first it was just information but later products as well.
As e-commerce started to grow and the search engines started to evolve a new area of marketing opened up. That arena was Search Engine Optimization, the somewhat simple art of drawing traffic to a site. For the e-commerce sites this would become a necessity. Sites like Coke or BMW had a market from the start. They really had no need for SEO. Sites like Bob's Camping Supplies or Purses by Tina (both fictional), however, had to compete with other sites for the e-commerce dollars. One of the easiest, cheapest and most effective techniques they found was through article marketing.
Now you have small local businesses that are using the Internet. The majority of these sites are little more than an on-line billboard. They sum up what they do, when they are open, and how to find them. This was fine when the sites went uncontested in their markets but that is rarely the case anymore. It is not enough to have a site but to end up at the top of the local listings. When people still used phone books you had companies called AAAA Plumbing just so that they would be listed first. If you want your website listed first you are going to have to use some SEO.
Local Businesses should learn from the older e-commerce sites and use article marketing. It is the quickest way to help you build traffic and that translates to a higher ranking. Even if you are not sure how to go about it there are a lot of freelance writes and marketers out there that can help guild you through it. It is the cheapest and most effective marketing tool you can use and the best way to build your sales without using things like pay-per-click ads.
