Company Helps Boost Small Business Search Results

December 17, 2009
SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. (CBS4) ―  Watch Video Here!

Small businesses always struggle to compete with big box retail stores for people's attention. The story is the same on line, until now. A company doing business in South Florida promises to give "Mom and Pop" stores the attention they deserve.

"The competition is definitely stiff, but you have to have an identity," said Robert Festinger, Director of Sales and Marketing for Newport Beachside Resort, who says standing out for a south Florida Hotel is key during a time when money is tight.

"In the last two or three years, you have 45 hundred more rooms here in the viscidity," said Festinger to CBS4's Jorge Estevez inside his hotel. The Newport Beachside Resort has been around for more than forty years and competes with other larger chain hotels.

To help break from the pack, the Newport Beachside Resort in Sunny Isles Beach has spent millions in renovations, but they needed more to get noticed.

"Without a doubt, it is imperative to have internet presence and be on the top," said Festinger who along with hotel Management went to the techies at AdzZoo.

"We want to create a strategy to help small businesses survive in this changing economy," said Mark Walker, founding Partner of AdzZoo.

The Internet experts at Adzzoo help get smaller local businesses to the top of search engines like Google. For example, when you type in a search, Google uses technology to track where you are and then also gets you results for local businesses that can help you in your search.

"Often times, they can find something right around the corner, but they order it three states a way because that is what they find on line," said Walker, pointing out that local businesses get swallowed up by larger chains with more of an internet presence.

The idea worked for Newport Beachside Resort. They want to be a destination for weddings and when you type in 'Miami Beach Weddings' into Google, the resort appears at the top of the list.

"When somebody types in a key word or phrase like that, we want to optimize and capture that listing," said Walker.

The success makes the hotel management happy. "This is a tool that aides us in bringing new people and lets people see the new changes at the Newport," said Festinger.

The cost of this service can start at a few hundred dollars a month.