ShopLocalGuide.ca, formerly shopsmalltowns.ca, was created to be a community marketing platform for the small towns in Lambton-Kent. When towns and cities invest money in promoting local businesses, they tend to only think of the bricks and mortar shops in their area. But most towns overlook the fact that there are many, many people with home-based businesses and even online businesses that they leave out of the area’s marketing endeavors.

This site, and it’s sister site, www.shoppetrolia.ca, were developed out of my own experience with my businesses being excluded from my town’s new website that promoted the town and its businesses. My businesses are both mainly operated online, so without a bricks and mortar shop, I was informed that I was not allowed to be a part of the town’s website.

But marketing businesses under one website made a lot of sense, so, I built my own marketing website where we are inclusive of all businesses, whether online, home-based, or regular shops and stores. Together, we have a greater impact online. Why? Because each time one business is visited on the website, all the businesses on the site get a rankings boost on search engines. And I work in the background, optimizing those ranking through embedded keywords and submitting sitemaps to the major search engines.

This is site was built to give all area entrepreneurs a low-cost marketing option that connects them to the people that may be looking for their goods and services. Brought to you by Dawn Stilwell of Get Online! Web Design in Petrolia, who has successfully marketed the www.shoppetrolia.ca website to her home town of Petrolia, and now is looking to expand on that success by making shoplocalguide.ca available to small town businesses in the Lambton-Kent area so they, too, can reap the benefits of low-cost, community marketing.