Business Advertising Site in Development

Business Advertising Directory in Active Development

Graphicline's newest product for South African business owners went into active development today, 2 June 2012. This project is code named Project Lighthouse. Project Lighthouse aims to provide South African businesses with the strongest possible online advertising medium in the country.

This website has been a concept under consideration for nearly 2 years, so I am pleased to announce it is finally going to become a reality.

Parallel CMS Development for The Directory

During this pre-launch beta stage of development, 3 versions of the site will be created using the three best open source content management systems; Drupal, Joomla and WordPress before settling on one of these systems to concentrate on for the release candidate version of the site.

Single Market Sector for Beta/RC/First Edition Versions

In order to create  site with the strongest Google Search Results, a single market sector has been selected (sorry, no clues as to this industry sector yet). Concentrating on building a site where the first hundred advertisers  conduct business in a single sector provides relevancy and authority for Google. Relevancy means the site will immediately be stronger than it would be if the bulk of the content was spread over every possible industry, or even split between a selected handful of sectors.

Also with regard to relevancy and authority, once more industry sectors are opened up for customers, the site will be structured in a way to keep this strength by using sub-sectors for each market sector.

Content Quality and Quantity the Key to Success

While many businesses have websites, many of the companies trading in the targeted market sector find their sites provide little if any benefit. The main reason is the sites are a) too small, b) are not created and maintained by a professional web content manager, and c) are not updated frequently.

All of these factors have a direct bearing on how Google rates the site and it's content. By joining in a project where the site is large, where new content is added regularly (because instead of only a single businesses information, multiple companies participate) everyone advertising on the site benefits, and because the content is edited and optimised by a content manager with a proven track record of top placement in Google SERP, the content is "Good for Google"

Part of the Graphicline Group of Websites.

On initial launch this online directory will be part of the graphicline.co.za group of websites, and share the domain name. I believe this will provide an immediate boost to the site... The first market sector has some relevance to Graphicline's existing web presence (other than our web management products and services) and fills a gap left when we withdrew from the DTP industry earlier this year. By the time the site is moved to it's own domain, the strength gained will transfer smoothly to the final destination.

Following this method provides the 'best of both worlds'. Initially the site benefits from being part of an existing network of sites. Had I decided to place the site on it's own domain straight what, it would take muchlonger befoe Google started considering the site for good results placement (just the way Google works unfortunately).

Free and Paid For Advertising

It is my aim to provide the most useful possible resource for the chosen industry... To this end I want the site to represent the industry in South Africa as comprehensively as possible, so I am opening up the site to every company trading in this market sector to be featured. Not every business owner will want to pay for placement on a new and unknown website, so I am making free space available to all industry participants for least a 12 month trial period. More about this free offer will be announced soon...