In todays' digital, fast moving online marketplace you absolutely need a local business website to compete with everyone else. A great website is only the beginning of course you are going to have to get that website to show up on the first page of google. If you 've spent a lot of time and money without exposure you have been spinning your wheels. You are probably asking then just how do I assure myself a first page spot?

As you know there are many people in your area that are capable of building you a local business website. And if you go online you could probably find thousands more around the worldwho would happily put up a site for you. They will charge you anywhere from several hundred dollars to thousands of dollars to put up a site for you. But remember almost none of them will know ANYTHING about getting you listed at the top of page one with google.

See, web designers, especially the ones who aren't working for huge companies, have learned (or taught themselves) to make websites that look good. And many of them are very good at it, and they can build you an awesome looking website with all the latest bells and whistles. You'll be impressed, and when you show it to your friends, they'll be even more impressed. No doubt about it, you'll have one really, really cool website.

The bad news of course is that know matter how much you spend on a fancy business website, you still won't have any new customers because google doesn't give a hoot how fancy and pretty you or your website is. If you don't show up high on page one your competition will.

Or any of that stuff that "professional" web designers like to show off with and charge you big bucks for. In fact, not only does that stuff not help your ranking in Google, much of it can have an extremely negative effect on your ranking. It's the last thing you want to do if you're looking for customers for your local business on the INTERNET

So what does Google look for? Websites that Google's software judges to be highly relevant to the search term. When people search for "Chicago antique store" Google wants to show them information they'll find useful. They'll direct them to sites that Google's software thinks are the best matches for "Chicago antique store", not the ones with the cutest animated cartoons.

Fortunately there is a method to building business websites that googles' little robot spiders just love. When I build websites for clients I always optimize both the hidden code for google and also the actual website content so as to get high search positions. This means more clicks the higher up the site goes. And the more people click the higher it goes so it stays up high.

Here's some more good news. You don't have to pay thousands of dollars for a website that makes your business a good amount of money. For less than a thousand dollars the right web designer can get you a great looking site that ranks very high in google and pulls in loads of customers and leads for your business. Do Not waste money on fancy bells and whistles, that's not what your customers are looking for.