Blanketing the Search Engines
December 28, 2009 by Ryan Wheaton
Filed under Online Marketing
When it comes to marketing your business online do you solely rely on your martial arts school’s website to drive potential new students to your business or do you blanket the search engines?
I subscribe to the theory of blanketing the search engines and use a lot of third party websites to help give my salt lake city utah martial arts school more of a presence. This way I have more than one opportunity in the search results to attract potential new students.
Some might call this a shotgun approach but in online marketing relying on only one thing (your website) is just plain a bad idea. While it certainly should be a primary focus, you should also consider using these other tools to help build and grow your martial arts school as it gives you more opportunity to get your prospects attention.
Some examples to help you blanket your search results include local business directories, social media sites and paid search.
Local Directories
- Google.com/local
- local.yahoo.com
- Bing.com/local
- Yelp.com
- InsiderPages.com
- CitySearch.com
- SuperPages.com
- Local.com
With the directories mentioned above that are owned by a search engine, your school can be included in the local maps that appear at the top of the search results pages.
Further, the search engines weigh heavily on the local directories in many markets. Sometimes they list the directory (a ton of local martial arts businesses) and sometimes they list specific martial arts businesses. Either way, if it’s indexed and ranking well, you have a chance at more eyeballs looking at your page.
Social Media Sites
- Facebook Fan Pages
- FriendFeed
- YouTube
- Flickr
The search engines love social media sites as they find them highly relevant because they are updated so frequently, among other reasons.
Paid Search
- Google Adwords
- Yahoo Advertising
- Bing/Microsoft Advertising
- Facebook Ads
Another big idea to consider is paid search. This is where you pay a search engine on a per click basis to have an ad in the “sponsored ads” section of the search results. You bid on different keywords for higher placement. So long as your daily budget isn’t exhausted and your competitors don’t outbid you, you’re in good shape. This can also be highly cost effective depending on your market. More on that in future posts.
With all of these sites and resources helping to blanket the search results, I don’t have to worry if one particular third party site gets devalued in the search results because Google was having a bad day. I have plenty of others to help pick up the slack. And, with paid search, you have a presence even if your website or other sites aren’t ranking well.
The great thing about this is that all of these, with the exception of Google’s Adwords, are free. And, best of all, these all drive people back to my lead generation website one way or another.
Blanketing the search engines is a good idea for your business. The more spaces you occupy in the search results the better your chances are at attracting more potential students.
Do you blanket the search engines? How do you do it?
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I'm Ryan Wheaton and I work with martial arts school owners to help them attract more students. Many martial arts school owners are confused at how to best market their business and feel awkward in selling situations. I help them overcome those challenges to become confident and competent in marketing and selling their services - helping them become more profitable so they can live the lifestyle they want to live.
How do I blanket the internet?
Thanks,
David
David,
Thanks for reading. Can you be more specific?
Ryan
This is a great post! You provided some really great information here on how to blanket the search engines. That’s such a key in local search marketing and internet marketing as a whole. Thanks for sharing!