The economy has dominated the news; however there are things Tampa Bay restaurants could do to recession proof their business and one of them is to make sure they have an Internet presence.

All the real world brick-and-mortar style businesses should have an Internet presence in order to reach those consumers who use the Web to search for what they need or want over all other media combined.  Hardly anyone uses the phone book any longer because it only offers one way to reach a business and only one piece of information about a company.  Magazines and newspaper advertising offers only slightly more information than a telephone book; radio and television advertising, which offers the most information, is cost prohibitive for small businesses and usually only spotlights name brand merchandise in a big budget production style way.

Once a restaurant has an Internet presence, they should enlist the help of Tampa search engine optimization.  Search engine optimization is the act of placing keyword rich articles on a business’ website in order to attract the three major search engines – MSN, Yahoo!, and Google.  These three major search engines send out their “feelers” so that they might locate the keywords and keyword phrases within the articles and among the websites and then rank the websites according to a special formula.  This special formula is only known to the three major search engines; however it is acknowledged that the special formula is based on the number of keywords and/or keyword phrases within a website. Keywords and keyword phrases are the words potential customers place in the search boxes on the search engines in order to find what they need or want.

Another Internet marketing method often used by real world brick-and-mortar style companies is blogging.  Blogs are no longer considered simply online journals or diaries in which people whine about their problems.  Blogs are now places where businesses, such as an Italian restaurant in Tampa, introduce new products and services.  A blog placed on an Italian restaurants website could also act as a place where customers could blog about their experiences as a way of leaving testimonials for future customers to read before visiting the restaurant.  Testimonials are a good way to reach more potential customers.

Placing a keyword rich article on an Internet news website is another often overlooked Internet marketing method.  Internet news websites are always looking for informative and well-written articles about everything from food to the housing market to schools and everything in between.  A business, such as an Italian restaurant, could write an article about their latest pasta creation and place it on an Internet news website in order to gain more customers.

Search engine optimization, blogs and Internet news websites will all help a real world brick-and-mortar style business bring more customers through their website and into their real-world location.