Developing a Local Business Directory Into a Thriving Web Portal

Developing a local business directory is a very good way to go for anyone who aspires to have a successful offline-online consultancy business. The advantages of such a strategy are the provision of a valued service to the local community, as well as a profitable return to your business.

However, you need to differentiate yourself from other local business directories, many of which are little better than link farms. The only value such directories provide is to list the local business in an appropriate category. And what use is that?

Your local directory must dare to be different. You need to draw in local businesses who are willing to pay a premium for a quality listing.

Therefore the key issue becomes: how can you as a consultant to small businesses, provide that winning edge that will entice local businesses to list with you, as opposed to avenues such as The Yellow Pages or other similar utility portals?

The way to go about this is to create a full page description of each local business listing with you and re-direct surfers to that page. The page may, for example, contain a video of an interview with the business owner. This approach gives the site visitor a more personal feel for what the business has to offer. The visitor can then be sent to the local business website in order to purchase a product or service. If the business doesn't yet have a web site then the visitor can simply be sent to the business address.

You will need to use your creativity and imagination in order to get top class presentation pages. When you achieve this you will get greater exposure in the search engines because you are providing relevant local content that will rank highly. If you use basic optimization for keywords then the local businesses will get traffic that they never had before. This means they will be willing to pay you a premium for a listing in the directory.

Make no mistake - if you develop a local business directory into a thriving web portal, you will not only provide a solid foundation for your business, but you will have a valuable asset that can be on-sold for a lucrative profit.

Do you want to become a successful online consultant to offline business? Developing web portals is only a small part of the picture. Get the big picture at http://www.offlinebusinessonlinewealth.com/

Fort Worth Business Directory