Costa Rica’s Central Pacific Coast Booming, Local Business Struggling To Keep Up

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 09, 2007 – Jacó, Costa, Rica September 1, 2007 – Unparalleled growth in the real estate market of Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast has brought small businesses a burden with its boom.

Businesses that were competing in a small town environment before are finding that they have to deal with a major market shift.  That market has been brought on by Costa Rica’s real estate market explosion, and development in Costa Rica is at an all time high. In some areas, such as Playa Jacó, dramatically increased competition has businesses fighting even harder to survive those first few months.  With more and more business being done on the web, this has created tight online competition as well.

None of this is new, and businesses large and small all over the world have been dealing with market shift for years.  With the maturing of the World Wide Web small business has been able to grow faster than ever before, and they have increased tools to market in ways that were not possible before.  Knowing how to leverage these resources can often make the critical difference.  Paul Dillinger, a technology consultant and web developer with over thirteen years of experience, has this to offer:  

Small businesses everywhere have numerous resources at hand to compete in these rapidly growing environments, but often times these simple things are overlooked.  You don’t need to be a specialist to improve your web site’s ability to get noticed.  For example, the title of your web site should be between 80 and 150 characters and use the words you think people will use to find your site.  It also helps if the title of each page is different, reflecting that the content is different.  Headings are important, these are called the “H” tags.  These bits of bold text, often used at the tops of pages, let important points be restated.  Used sparingly they are a great asset.  Finally the best way to get your site noticed is getting good links.  Good links are links from sites about the same subject matter as your site.  Sometimes it’s as easy as working with local businesses to share links, or searching for relevant terms and contacting the top sites asking how to get a link.

It is also important to keep your equipment in good shape.  This prevents down time that can often cause customers to search for an alternative.  One important component to keeping your equipment running longer is stable power.  This is important anywhere, but especially critical in Costa Rica.  Using an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) keeps even power going to systems, and helps them to last longer and crash less.  No less critical is using a good anti-virus software and, more importantly, keeping it up to date.  I suggest NOD32 for my clients, and you can get a 30 day free trial from http://www.eset.com.

Using these tips will get you a great start on keeping your business running and getting your business noticed.  None of this can replace professional advice, and a proven consultant should never be overlooked.  There are plenty of people out there who are qualified, but there are plenty more who are just after your money.  I suggest avoiding anyone who contacts you by e-mail first or promises top search engine results fast.  Natural search engine traffic is not a fast process, and optimizing your site for search engines but forgetting people can lead a lot of people to find your site and forget it.  It is important to always design your sites for people first.