LocalBizBits Local Search Marketing Information and Resources
Today I am talking to Michelle Tukachinsky of Palm Beach Local, a new (it is only a couple of weeks old) local business directory in Palm Beach Florida.
Q. Hey Michelle, thanks for taking some time today, can you tell us a little about yourself?
A. I am a piano teacher who has become very interested in search marketing and SEO over the past year. I do search marketing primarily for local business and I enjoy writing articles, press releases, and blogs. I am co-founder of PalmBeachLocal.info.
Q. Tell us a little about your directory- who can list their business?
A. The Palm Beach Local Directory is a multi-media directory for small and medium sized local businesses in Palm Beach County. Any business that is legitimate can be listed in our directory. We do not allow gambling sites or anything related to pornography.
Q. You have told me “This will be the most interesting, user-friendly, helpful, dynamic business directory in Palm Beach County South Florida” how are you going to accomplish this?
A. Palm Beach Local will be an interesting site to visit because of the beautiful photo galleries, virtual tours, and videos of our local business owners. Our site is also search friendly and easy to navigate through. We are hoping our site is easy to the eyes and not filled with confusing text, flash, and images.
Q. Tell me about your video services.
A. Our video services will be achieved through a simple upload of a video by the business owner. If the business owner wishes to have a video professionally done, it will be at an extra charge.
Q. Why are you including video?
A. We added video because video has become extremely popular on the Internet. A video can truly provide that personal touch and convincing message that can win over a prospective customer when ready to purchase goods and services.
Q. What do you see as the greatest challenges to small local business directories such as yours?
A. The greatest challenge that I see for a directory such as ours is convincing potential advertisers of the true value of our service. Many businesses are still Internet phobic. What they do not realize is that over 50 percent of people look for local business products and services online.
Q. Why should a business use your directory vs. say Citypages, Superpages etc?
A. Our directory is very personal, and provides the nicest picture galleries that I have seen. Our price point is lower than yellow pages and other directories and offers much more for the money. Our search marketing efforts for our site are also very strong due to intense article marketing, blogs, and press releases.
Q. Where do you see local search going in the near future?
A. Local search is only going to become more popular as more and more people use the Internet for their every day searches and queries. 70 percent of non-referral piano students have found my name through a Google, Yahoo, AOL, or MSN search in the past year. This has been increasing every year since the initial launch of my website in 2001. I truly believe in the power of local search and the true potential that it has in the future.
Thanks Michelle. I definitely think small business need to take advantage of the smaller, really local directories in their communities, as well as using the national directories. So if you are in Palm Beach head over to Palm Beach Local.
Local is defintely taking off, but I think startups that build a model based on charging businesses to advertise will run into the same problems, the current industry leaders are facing.
Jippidy.com – Internet Yellow Pages