Small business owners are busy people. They are responsible for every facet of their business. They are part accountant, part salesperson, part manager, part strategist, and part marketer. None of these jobs are easy. All require skills that take years to perfect. With so many hats to wear and the business environment becoming more and more competitive, success in business is becoming increasingly time intensive. If business owners are inefficient, they will never have enough time to complete the endless number tasks that demand their attention. They have to choose what is important. They have to prioritize.

Marketing is one of the most stressful areas a business owner must manage. It is also one of the most pivotal. The best product in the world and the best service cannot make money if no one knows about it. Getting exposure requires a plan. A smart business owner needs to know how to get known in the area his or her business serves, how to create some buzz around town about their product or service, and how to generate customer inquiries.

With time so limited and with so many marketing avenues available in today's digital universe, business owners must choose the marketing options that are most effective.

For most small businesses, business profiles provide the most bang for their marketing buck. Studies show that 4 out of 5 potential customers use search engines to find a product of service. To have your business show up in these search results, you must establish a business profile.

What are business profiles?
Business profiles are online listings of a business's name and location. These profiles are what helps s a business show up in search-engine results. If your business has no profile, it remains invisible to all the potential clients looking for the product or service you provide. A strong business profile is optimized for search results and uses a name that attracts target customers.

Citations establish the credibility of a business as being real and in a location a consumer could actually visit. NAP (Name, Address and Phone) mentions throughout the web create consumer trust and raise the quality of a business. Local profiles allow consumers to leave business or product reviews which help search engines determine which companies have higher value and are more worthy to rank at the top of search results pages. Review sites demand a level of accountability to businesses because treating customers poorly will effect reviews and ultimately their ranking and traffic from search engines. Combined with a really well optimized web site, local profiles can generate substantial traffic from targeted consumers.

Many search engines offer business profiles, including Google, Yelp, Yahoo, and Bing. The more business profiles a company sets up, the more exposure and resulting business it receives. Most people want a service provider who is within five miles of their search location. Having business profiles set up with all the search engines used in your local area means that your small business will grow within your community.