By the time you’re done talking to an internet marketer most people are lost… I know I used to be! One of the biggest mistakes that I typically see in internet marketing is not focusing on a niche’.

When starting out, or even if you’ve already establised a typical business model it is easy to get overwhelmed, and easy to go over budget! Think about narrowing down your marketing to a local area can help 

But many credit repair businesses that market online tend to focus on too broad of a picture (trying to target the entire U.S.).  In reality, most credit repair businesses do the bulk of their business within their local community, typically within a 50 – 100 mile radius.

Research shows more and more people are using the internet to locate local businesses. For example, if you want to find a “Restaurant” in Tampa, Florida, you will go online to a local search engine and type “Tampa Restaurant.” People are doing the same for credit repair.

A study by ROI Research Inc. indicated that online searches influence 20 – 30 percent of purchases made locally.

So how do you get your credit repair businesses listed online for your local market?  This article provides you with a list of search engines you can use to get your name out to your local market.

1. Website: Google Adwords

How to use it: Adwords will allow you to target local online customers by setting pay-per-click advertisements to appear when people search for a particular city or state.

As the name implies you are going to pay every time someone clicks on your listing.  So, if you operate a credit repair business in Tampa, you would pick keywords like “Tampa Credit Repair” or “Tampa Credit Restoration.”  Then when someone Google’s the term “Tampa Credit Repair” your web site listing will show up.  There’s no minimum spending requirement for Adwords and your daily budget is up to you.

2. Website: Google Local Business Listings

How to use it: Google displays local businesses in the middle of the web search results.  You can list your business with Google’s business center, and your listing will be included in search results for free. In the image below, you can see I searched for “Credit Repair Tampa” and it includes the local businesses on the top. Although businesses don’t need a website to be listed in Google Local, it’s a good idea to have a properly optimized website.

3. Website: Yahoo! Local Listings

How to use it: Unlike Google, users have to select Local Listings as an option in Yahoo. Yahoo created this to promote local businesses. You can choose from a couple of different plans including a free listing. The one thing I recommend is to put the word “credit repair” in your listing. For example if your company’s name is “Smith & Co.” add the word “Credit Repair” next to it, such as “Smith & Co. – Credit Repair.” That way people see you are a credit repair business.

4. Website: City Search

How to use it: Although City Search is not free, if you have the budget it works well.

They offer online advertising tools to get your ad listed on MSN, Yahoo!, Google, and Ask.com. The service works a lot like Google Adwords, where you pay-per-click.

5. Website: Craigslist

How to use it: Craigslist gets an estimated 10 million unique visitors per day (that’s a lot of people). You can take out an online classified ad for your local city. Posting on Craigslist is also free. But, be careful not to go crazy, or they will mark your stuff as Spam.

6. Website: AOL’s CityGuide

How to use it: AOL’s CityGuide provides local entertainment information to AOL members. If you advertise with AOL you can target consumers based on lifestyle and market.

7. Website: Local.com

How to use it: Local.com has 10 million + monthly customers which you can target

You can choose a basic free listing or pay-per-click.

8. Website: YellowPages.com

How to use it: The online equivalent of your yellow pages phonebook, yellowpages.com is a large directory for businesses. You can get a basic listing for free.

List your credit repair business on the above web sites and you will be generating local business in no time!