Manta.com

If you're a business owner, you most likely have a presence on Manta.com and may not realize it. Manta provides informative, search engine -friendly profiles on millions and millions of small businesses across the country.

The reason why you as a business owner may already have a presence on Manta but not realize it is because Manta aggregates information - that is to say, Manta collects and dissects information that is already out there on the Internet about your business and then turns that info into a listing on its own Web site.

However, the information that Manta finds on the Internet about your business may be incomplete or inaccurate. This will certainly affect the quality of your Manta listing. That's why it's extremely important to visit Manta.com to find out if Manta already has a listing for your business. If it does, claim the listing by setting up a user account on Manta (it's free and easy to do). Log into the listing and correct any information that is incomplete or inaccurate.

But also take advantage of all the other features that Manta allows you to enter into your listing. For example, you can add to your listing your hours of operation, the names and contact information of key personnel, the forms of payment you accept, etc. You can also include links to your Twitter and Facebook pages.

If you visit Manta and it's discovered that Manta does not already have a listing for your business, you would still go about setting up a user account and simply start building a listing from scratch rather than edit an already existing one.

Search engines love Manta listings. Manta is a very powerful Web marketing tool to have at your disposal, so check it out and take advantage of it if you haven't already. Since discovering Manta, we've been using it frequently for the benefit of our Web marketing and SEO clients.

--Aaron Robertson, president, Intrepid Innovations Inc.