Does the local marketing strategy for your business include establishing a presence for yourself on the Internet? Just because you are running a local brick-and-mortar business that serves live people in your local community does not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that you do not need to bother with getting a website set up and establishing a formidable presence for yourself in the online world.

The world of business today is extremely competitive and cut-throat. Competition is fierce both in the online and in the offline world. But those who succeed in establishing a solid presence for themselves on the Internet will ultimately gain the edge over the competition. If you think about it, it only makes sense.

How many people in the world today search for local businesses on the Internet, whether it is a restaurant, a grocery store, a library, the post office, a hospital, or a movie theater? They want to get directions, store hours, sample menus, online coupons, and read reviews. What’s more, millions of people across the world are now using GPS-enabled smart phones, and so they are searching for local businesses nearby. If your business’ website doesn’t show up in the search results, then you don’t exist to most users.

Think about it for a second. You may have heard the philosophical question: “If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody is there to witness it, did it really fall?” Similarly, you could ask the philosophical question: If someone does a Google search for local businesses in your geographic area, and you don’t show up in the search results, does your business really exist?

If you think about it, for the average person who is accustomed to searching for local businesses online, if you aren’t listed in Google, you don’t exist. Or, perhaps even worse, if you don’t rank highly in Google, you must not be a reputable business.

And that is one of the most important reasons why every business, no matter how big or how small, must incorporate the Internet into their local marketing strategy. You want your website to show up and rank highly in the search engines for specific keywords that visitors might be looking for. You also want your website to be linked to by other local business websitesor local business directories online as well.

Also very important for your local marketing strategyis to not only create a website that can be viewed through standard web browsers, but to also create a mobile version of your website, optimized for smart phone web browsers. You want your website to integrate with other smart-phone features such as GPS location services, maps for driving directions, as well as social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.