One of the most challenging things about optimizing a web site for a small business owner is controlling their expectations and tempering their ambitions. For many, a web site is more than just a way to reach their core audience – it’s a blurring of their understanding of who their core audience really is.
Because it’s called the World Wide Web, many business owners decide that they really will be reaching the world. Unfortunately, if this is their expectation, they get very upset when this isn’t necessarily true. A web site doesn’t automagically translate into state-wide, national, international or intergalactic reach. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered before expanding the expected coverage area of a site:
- If you’re a service provider, can you legitimately provide services in those new territories? If not and you’re thinking you can refer the business for a cut, do you have the contacts or credibility to do so?
- As a product provider, can you ship/deliver to those areas? At what cost? What value proposition makes you more appealling than a more local provider who will have lower rates for delivery?
- What are you willing to do to be able to compete in this age of Local Search with people who may be truly local and thus have an algorithmic advantage?
I know of some businesses that really do manage some national reach. For instance, homebrewing suppliers have traditionally had some ways of reaching national audiences – online homebrewing forums populated by local fans of various shops. And every shop has some unique ‘house’ recipes that can pull in a client. In some areas, there aren’t ANY homebrew suppliers, making going outside the local region essential (even though shipment of glass is always heinous). And there’s now a hops shortage – this is bad news, believe you me – which means that some people to get the specific varietals they want (what, you thought hops was hops? Hops are like lettuce: there are a billion types and they all taste different) need to find shops that have a supplier.
But for most local businesses who decide that they’re intergalactic? Not so much.