15 September 2009
Four Years of Blog Posts Gone Overnight!
Posted by admin under: Hometown Business; Resources; Search Engines; Small Business Advantage; Use the Internet; Yellow Pages .
Local Search advice ahead of the curve
In early 2005 I started this website and blog to be a useful resource for what I knew would be important for small and mid-size businesses (SMEs). Although they operate in their local communities, the Internet was becoming more important for customers to find them. And the Yellow Page Directory was becoming less useful all the time.
From business cards to the Internet
Back in 1996 I had wrote a massive book about the body language of business cards (now out of print). What later became apparent to me was that the Yellow Page directory ads exhibit many of the same qualities as business cards. And they succeed or fail in attracting new business for most of the same reasons. So before long I was writing extensively on Yellow Page advertising.
I noted the early efforts that the search engines were making to make Local Search more relevant. If only businesses owners could use their “unfair advantage” to attract buyers from their own community via the Internet. Brick and mortar businesses that could be found online, without being e-commerce businesses. A lot more advantages have grown up since then, but to a large measure smaller businesses haven’t taken advantage of the edge that Local Search has given them.
This website had about 80 pages and numerous articles plus 4 years of blog posts at the start of 2009, when we changed the website host. I transferred the HTML website to the new host without difficulty. But somehow in the transition the database of blog posts vanished. Poof! Never to be retrieved. I was shocked, but what can you do when something like that happens?
Starting over
It took me a few months to be able to deal with the loss, but this post is my declaration to put that loss behind me, behind us. At this time, I’m converting the website pages to a dynamic website (most of the original content). And I’m starting the blog with this post. So in one way it’s a new blog, even though there were numberous posts over those 4 years.
The commitment being made is to post on a regular basis—to maintain regular useful content. It is also to make this website the resource envisioned when it started, and reflected by the domain name. Even before the loss of the blog posts, this was a neglected website, without receiving regular new content. Even so, because it was launched so long ago and had information considered very useful, it did make a mark on the Internet. It had declined from the days of a Page Rank of 4 of 10, but even today I searched Google: links: localsearchresources.com
The result: 20,200 and a Page Rank of 2. So that’s the starting point for the rebirth of this website and blog. Let’s see what can be accomplished with the new Local Search products in the pipeline. Some I’ll be developing or bringing back from other formats. But also I’ll be looking for products and services that are out there that business owners need to know about.
The Promise: Useful and easy steps for the non-techie business owner to benefit from Internet exposure
So this website is itself a resource that business owners can rely on. It will not deliver the corporate insider outlook, but speak to the concerns of small enterprises with limited resources and computer or online expertise.
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