Linking and Your Community
We have discussed some of the aspects of the importance of
creating good and effective links within the pages of your web
site. This effort needs to be ongoing. It takes time to do this
and patience as well. The Internet as a whole is a giant and a
beast. It has its problems as well and is far from perfection.
In my opinion, there are way too many pages of useless garbage
floating about. In time I believe the powers that be will work
to sort through this. Already there are search engines working
to change the way we use their tools.
One of those changes is a local search. To help in sorting
through pages and pages of unwanted web sites, search engines
think that if they can narrow the search down some for you it
will make the search process easier and faster. A local search
would focus on the geographical area near you. This may or may
not be beneficial. Until they can provide the user with an
opportunity to define the geographic area themselves, a local
search may be limited. In time this will happen and so we should
plan ahead.
I am a firm believer in networking for business. Often our egos
get in the way but the truth is none of us has all the answers.
As a collective resource, we can cover a lot more bases than
alone. It seems to me that the larger the population of an area
the smaller the percentage of businesses working together to
achieve sought after goals. Whether you live in rural Maine or
New York City, eventually search can and will be refined to
pre-selected geographic regions.
How is this going to happen? As the computer becomes more of the
everyday fixture around the house and in our hands, we will rely
more and more on these devices to do much of our legwork. As
much as I dislike cell phones, we see everyday people shopping
with the phone stuck in their ear while seeking assistance on
what they should be purchasing. We already see phones that take
pictures and now there are devices being developed that all you
need to do is do a quick search and it finds what you need.
Here’s an example: You are walking around Pittsburgh, PA one day
and you develop a headache. You would like some aspirin but
don’t know where to go. You pull out you cell phone and do a
local search for pharmacies nearest the address you are at and
in seconds it provides you an address of the nearest drug store.
Scary, but like it or not it’s coming and sooner than you might
think.
No matter your business in the town or area you live, you want
to be found. Without being discovered by potential customers,
your bills don’t get paid. Sitting alone wishing and wondering
isn’t going to cut it. You have to make your business proactive
– cutting edge.
We talked previously about linking our web site together with
other related businesses. The same should be done on a local
level as well. You will always have those who just don’t get it
and that is fine. Don’t focus on them. Focus on the ones that
want to progress and move into the digital world.
The Pleasant River Motel, as we talked about earlier, decided
they wanted to provide their customers with links to Sunday
River Ski Resort in winter and information on Androscoggin River
canoe trips in summer. This is great for me the consumer. As a
consumer, I decided to stay at the Pleasant River Motel while on
a ski trip to Maine. Not only while finding this wonderful place
on the Internet did I discover they had Internet access in all
their rooms but if I go to their web site I can find out all
kinds of locally related information. This way, I don’t have to
look so hard to find things.
That is the key to all of this web design and Internet
navigation – simplicity. As a user I want to be able to find it
all in one stop. From this web site I can find restaurants, ski
shops, rental shops, what’s playing at the local movie theater,
how much bowling is at the Big Adventure Center and whether or
not I can get pizza delivered to my room at 10 pm. I can get
snow conditions at both Sunday River and Mt. Abram and find out
the rental cost on snowshoes at Carter’s Cross-Country Ski
Center. And you know what? One of the reasons I decided to stay
at the Pleasant River Motel because they have all this for me –
they must care.
Part of your service you provide is done because you want to.
You want to do what others may not. This sets you a notch above
others. Locally, you need to contact other businesses and link
up with them. Tell them what you would like to do and how you
want to make sure that anyone who comes into your area leaves
with one thing on their mind – coming back.
It doesn’t matter your business; you have to be found. One way
to help being found is to tell someone. Linking your website
with a fellow businessperson is a way of telling someone. Don’t
be stupid either. I don’t think I would put a link to a direct
competitor of mine but I would provide a link to where they
could find that information.
Local search is the future and the future is now. Presenting
your community as a business friendly place to go will reap
rewards.
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