I’m a small business owner. My business is helping small business owners get seen on the internet.

Studies say that 63% of families no longer use the yellow pages and do all their searches on line. So if you’re not on the internet, you probably need to be.

If you’re not easily found on the internet by business category in the towns within driving distance of your business, you’re missing out on customers looking for what you offer. While lots of customers may know you because they are local people, but NC has lots of newcomers and you want to reach out on the internet so they can find you.

Here are 10 ways to get your business or your friend’s business found by customers on the internet

1. Research your business’ visibilty on the internet. Sometimes even if you don’t have a website, directories have bought your name and address in a database, so your biz might be listed. But it would only be a listing. No content, no photos, nothing personalized.

If you do have a website, check out the business categories by surrounding towns and see how well you show up. Look at your site and see what questions your site answers, and what questions arise, how easy it is to contact you and to locate your business – directions from different places.

2. Review how you are advertising your business, what it’s costing you and how well it is working. Can you tell how many people responded to an ad because they bring in a coupon or mention the ad for a discount or free gift? Find out what additional advertising you can do for free.

3. If you have not site, consider getting a free or affordable site from a site with no hosting fees, to one with a $10/year fee when you add your custom domain (www.yourname.com), to other sites that may be under $15/month to host, and usually under $15/year for the domain name. If you have $800 – $1300 – $1600 – $3000 – $5000 to spend, please do. You’ll get a fancier site with potentially more visibility, but not necessarily. Depends on your industry and how well the site was created to be optimized for showing up early in searches on the internet.

4. Find the free directories and fill out your company information in the ones you like.

5. Get pictures taken of you and your store to add on those listings and your website, and press releases, and your inSide919.com profile.

6. Write articles, interviews and press releases to post on the internet, so when people search for your industry in your area, hopefully they’ll find much more than a listing with address and number, they’ll find real content that will tell them of the value in your services, and why they should visit you. Find out about the many places you can post them for free.

7. Consider the internet advertising alternatives, including the new low, fixed cost, locally targetted Local Ad Link ads. These are focused on specific zip codes – so that you’re only paying for the people in the areas you want to reach to see your ad, you’re not paying for 48,000 areas in the US to see your ad. If you’re a local business, you don’t need the who world to see your ad.

For $50/month you can advertise in 3 zip codes, for $100 in 10 zip codes, and for $200 in 50 zip codes.

8. Research the business power of social media, there are a hundred people in the Triangle, if not several hundred, who offer services to help you understand what social media is, and how you can use it to network, strengthen your existing relationships and promote your business. There are dozens of articles in blogs on the internet too.

You may not be interested in social media, but people are talking, and they may be talking to your customers, so you really do need to have an eye and an ear to the net.

* If you’re a professional and you’re not on LinkedIn, you may want to talk to someone like me.

*If you’re a small business owner and you’re not on inSide919.com, then you might want to do that, add your personal photo, and start getting to know people in our community.

* If you’re not on twitter – the ‘micro-blog’ you might want to find out how you can be using it to learn a lot and get known

* If you’re not using a blog, there are some questions you can answer that would help determine if a blog could be helpful to your business.

9. Write a guest blog post about your business and review blog strategies for making a blog work for you. Blog posts can give a friendly and familiar presence that also can show up well in search engines.  Strategies include search engine optimization, widgets, tracking visitors, increasing traffic and developing relationships with other bloggers.

10. Call local experts  in internet marketing and publicity and see what they offer, how comfortable you are with them, and what it costs. Of course I’d be delighted to discuss what I can do for you. So many things can be made so much easier when you’ve got knowledgeable and trustworthy advisors and service providers.  Anora McGaha, ClearSight Publicity. 919-741-9449; 828-398-0390