The statement, “but my customers are not online” is nothing but an excuse against investing in a solid SEO campaign. Here’s the reality about this particular excuse:

FACT: Google’s customers are ordinary people looking for information online in the best possible format to use in making purchase decisions, educational research, recreational purposes and so on and so on. Google’s own mission statement attests to this very fact, albeit in more detail. These people make Google and flood their website looking for info everyday, heck Google (the verb) has even made it in the dictionary now, yep the good old Oxford Dictionary. It means almost EVERYONE is using Google and your customers are also bound to be on it.

FACT: Google have realised that they need more relevancy in their search results and have introduced Google Maps, Geo targeting and Google Local search. No point showing you the Dominos Pizza in Swaziland when you are in that place in Iceland that spewed all the volcanic ash that got half of Britain stranded abroad. So if people are in your neighbourhood they will probably get local results in their searches which may include your business.

FACT: More and more people are using the Internet (Google) to look up local businesses then walk right up to them and buy whatever it is they need that day from a local supplier.

I could spin out a few more facts about this but my point here is that every business can do very well by getting themselves online in the search engines and don’t get me started on the social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc.

Back to my point, as long as people that patronize your business, do a walk-by search on your High Street to find your business, or whatever it is they want to buy, guaranteed they will also look for it online. It may just be for directions but it is a search nonetheless. Google have a lot of tools that the local businessperson can use to really get visible and most of them are free. There really is no excuse not to get involved at all. You see, if your business and all the other billions of businesses worldwide did not put information online, Google would not exist as we know it today. There would be no search, no relevant information, no SEO and other related businesses thriving today, and they know this! They are actually dying for you or that extra business to include their information online so they can have an index that represents all information possible. This is also in their mission statement, about being the goto place for information sources on anything.

What does this mean for you?
It means while your last customer may have found you on the High Street on foot, Google have done so much work and pulled ALL your prospects to their website and now you can just do a few things and literally farm for business from that one place. This is excellent for you. You can switch between watching TV and your lead generation or follow-ups all in the comfort of your lazyboy chair these days. We have certainly come a long way from the days of hunting your dinner everyday and hoping against hope that you kill it before it kills you! I’m sorry but I am laughing hysterically as I write this.

Of course there will be some work to do to take advantage of all this but that is why search engine marketers exist and we are all here to help you get to that person, you know, the one with a fist full of cash and searching for the very same product that you sell!

Trust me, if your customers look for you on the High Street or even at the breakers yard, if you are in that business, they are online as well. talk to me about how to connect with them and stop making excuses and start making connections online!

Bloggers that are searching for more information about the topic of one way links, then please check out the web page that was mentioned in this passage.