Business Directories - Online Marketing

Most businesses would like to have some sort of online presence to promote their products and service offerings, but although there is no shortage of website developers out there, business owners stay reluctant to fork out large sums of money for online advertising. Everyone knows that there are millions of internet users, who in turn, can become potential customers. So why is it that business owner turn away from internet exposure?

When I spent time pitching online marketing, most people seems to respond the same way - they prefer to advertise in something they can see, smell and feel. They seem to think of online advertising as so called 'pay-and-pray' marketing. They can buy the newspaper and see their advert contained therein. The know that the printed media will reach their targeted audience. In contrast they need to believe their advert on the internet is visible and attracting the correct audience.

Of course, there are many online business directories that can target specific users or industries, but the question remains: how do these Business Directories promote themselves? Isn't it true that most internet users make use of larger search engines (like Google, Yahoo and MSN) to find company information, instead of jumping directly to a local business directory? This is a fair question, and with it they believe the only way to be listed on the search engines is to have an expensive website. Nothing could be further from the truth.

SEO Business Directories

Most business directories depend on users to make use of their own search engines, but Web 2.0 directories and Social Media websites create search engine friendly 'mini websites' for each and every business listed on the website. The advantage of this technique is that users don't have to know much about the business directory or even its existence, but when users Google a business, product or service, the relevant businesses [listed on the business directory] will be displayed as a result on the search engine - linking to the Mini Website on Business Finder's website. This gives businesses advertisements and exposure in the large search engine, without actually having a website at all.

Web 2.0 Business Directories is free

It gets even better, as some of these business directories are absolutely free. To accommodate the Mini Website, each business listed will be provided with access to a back-office where they can customize and update their Mini Websites, as well as upload pictures, promote specials, etc.

Although Web 2.0's presence isn't anything new, it hasn't really been fully used in business directories. What this means for your business is a search engine friendly presence on all the major search engines, cost free. Business owners have nothing to lose, and everything to gain by registering on Web 2.0 directories.

Leon van Zyl is the owner of Business Finder and assists businesses in their website marketing ventures.

Fort Worth Business Directory

Aerating Your Customers’ Lawns

If your customers don’t have the thick, lush lawns they’ve imagined, you can rack your brain trying to figure out the cause. While you interrogate them about their watering practices and second guess yourself on fertilization, the problem might be a lot simpler. It might be time to aerate.

Are there tracks in the lawn? Are there tons of weeds despite a good fertilizer with weed prevention? Are pests becoming a problem? Is water pooling in the lawn after heavy rains? Are there bare spots that you haven’t been able to help? The soil might have compacted, and it might just take a little aerating to make the lawn thrive. If the customer has clay soil or it’s a dry area, you’ll need to aerate more frequently. There’s a simple and pretty unscientific way to tell when it’s time to aerate. Grab a stick. If the soil is difficult to penetrate with the stick, you should aerate.

You should choose a nice, clear day to aerate. If the soil is wet, you will have a huge mess and a lot of explaining to do to customers. You’re also going to get compacted soil much more quickly if it’s wet. If it’s too dry, you won’t be able to penetrate the soil with an aerator. Pay attention to the weather. You should have nice weather for as long as possible (a week at least) after you aerate for maximum benefits.

If you don’t yet have an aerator attachment for your mowers, you can rent one. I recommend renting them before you buy one anyway. There are different types of aerators with different features, and the best way to determine which you prefer is to try them out. Aerators with spreaders allow the plugs (or cores) of soil to be spread throughout the lawn. It’s fine to leave them, but they should be raked to make the lawn look better right away. If you have a lot of clay soil yards or live in a dry area, you want longer spikes on your aerator. You also want more spikes to play the odds. The more spikes you have, the more likely at least some will penetrate harder, dryer soils. In particularly dry areas, it’s a good idea to water a day or two before aeration, just to promote penetration. Then simply mow in the same pattern you were going to mow anyway, with the aerator attached.

Aerating a lawn allows air, water, and nutrients to get to the roots of the grass. It allows earthworms to move about. Other good little organisms that take care of pests and naturally fertilize the lawn will thrive. You’ll also break through some weed roots, and the healthier lawn will have a better fighting chance against the weeds. You’ll have fewer problems with flooding, and the lawn will be more drought-tolerant. Bare spots will fill in much better.

Right after aerating is the perfect time to overseed if you are trying to repair bare spots or filling in during fall for a green winter lawn. By core aerating the lawn, you’ve perfectly prepared the soil to thrive on the seeds. This should be done as soon as possible after aerating, and it’s best to remove the pulled plugs from the lawn if you’re going to seed. It’s also a great time for water to get deep into the soil in dry areas, so watering after aeration is preferable. If it’s fertilization time, it’s also a good idea to aerate first if it’s needed.

In hot, dry climates, you might need to aerate in summer, fall, and at the beginning of spring, depending on how dry the winter was. Cooler weather grasses are better aerated early in fall. They are too fragile and will recover more slowly if aerated in the summer, and fall is the perfect time to prepare them for winter. If the soil is heavy with clay, you might need to aerate more often. It’s a good idea to keep your stick (knife, screwdriver, etc) handy to check if the soil has compacted.

Aerating will save your customers time and money watering in the summer as their lawns will be better able to withstand drought, and they will be thrilled with their healthier, fuller lawns. It’s well worth investing in a good aerator.

Grand Prairie Lawn Care

Grand Prairie Landscaping

SEO- A Popularity Check

Before using key words for your site, it is always better to check for the popularity of these sub theme keywords. Some or all of the tools mentioned in the key words tools section could be utilized to measure the popularity of these key words. SEO Services Delhi (e-fuzion) has set of 25 to30 keywords will be expanded to include singular-plural word combinations, juxtaposing the same words in a different combination, using synonymous, building on the list of words using thesaurus and a good dictionary. The SEO Services Delhi Company (e-fuzion) have the ideal set of key words/ key phrases is to come up with around 70-100 possible ways to of looking for that web site on the search engines. Research on these variations of the sub theme keywords for actually combing up with the combinations that are relatively unutilized for yet popular. At the end of this exercise SEO Services Delhi (e-fuzion) have the ranked list key words, which it can start optimizing for general observation and other nuggets. When using Google to check for the competing pages through the SERP house the key phrases in quotes. This will do the exact phrase searching for the phrase that we are optimizing for. Now to have a real feel of the actual competition chosen keywords. Another useful tip is to watch out for the ranking of the sub pages o the SERPS page. In SEO Services Delhi you find typically offline competition for the business and online competition are not equivalent. The client needs to be driven out of this mindset. On line the competition for us depends on the key-phrases that we choose rather than the competition chosen words. Yet another tool is Alta Vista “PRISMA”. One can use refine search option of Teoma to arrive at more generic/Primary keywords. Another way of doing that could be through the DMOZ subcategory study. A higher occurrence of a sub page is suggests a lesser competitive key phase.

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