Here’s a shopping mall analogy that skips the technical talk. First, think of your BBB website as a “store” full of data about businesses in your area. Then think of Google, Yahoo! and MSN as a highway and sidewalk system that brings people to your store. Before Search Engine Optimization (SEO), all of the BBBs - from Oakland to Columbia - were small stores scattered around the highways. With SEO, we’re taking each of those stores and putting them into a big outdoor shopping mall labeled BBB. With every new BBB, the shopping mall gets bigger and more visible from the highway. And with every expansion, Google, Yahoo! and MSN are more likely to send traffic to the BBB mall. The New SEO takes this a step further, by organizing and labeling your data to make it easier for “shoppers” to find. Every business category gets an easy-to-read label. When all of the store maps and business listings are laid out clearly at the front of your “store”, Google and the other search engines take shoppers off the highway and down the sidewalk, right to your door.
Here are a few numbers that I hope will get everyone excited! From May 1st to May 31 2008 we had 9,200 visits to our local website(s) (www.columbia.bbb.org & www.charleston.bbb.org ). From May 1st to May 31 2009 we had 19,361 visits. That is a 110.4% increase in visits to our website. Over 10,000 visits for last month came directly from search engines like Google.
BBB’s live or die through our Accredited Businesses. Without you there is no BBB to serve your business or our community. In this economy, when every dollar counts, your BBB is working to show that accreditation helps drive profit.