Back in the day *about five years ago* you could put out a bunch of blogs on your site on keyword optimized topics and get search traffic based on that activity. But now? AI summarizes every search, people are using Chat GPT to give them answers for everything, and your service-based small business isn’t top of the heap for information that you used to use to generate leads. Now what?
E-commerce still offers an opportunity for small business owners to drive traffic to their website. Can you sell something? Physical? Digital? Downloadable? The more “product” it can be, the better. I’ll give you some examples of service + product:
Educational / curriculum = workbooks, books
Psychological /social services = texture fidget stickers, journals, “junk journal kits”
Physicians (direct primary care) = first aid/first response kits for kids (not just bandaids but innovative ways to comfort and care for kids during illness season), custom vitamin/supplement packs (branded).
Photographers = photo albums, custom handmade frames, upcycled/one-of-a-kind or vintage frames
Interior design = vintage/one-of-a-kind or thrifted/upcycled products, books
Local or online businesses can offer something physical to sell that helps boost search. In our case, we just started some product-based businesses which have the added advantage of being a live testing lab for the stuff we install, recommend and configure for our web development clients. Think of this as a side hustle to your business.
In one case, we know of an online product business that opened a local showroom (the opposite) to get LOCAL boost in business search.