Back in April of 2008 I did a little rant post about several local companies and the websites they had at the time. These were Big companies, not the mom and pop shops. I was looking for some ATV tires and the local sites I was looking to compare some tires on an early Sunday morning just lacked function, products and prices while displaying mainly contact info, business times and weekly fliers. Well, the good thing is, 2010 has arrived and ALL the sites that I mentioned in my previous article are all sporting new sites and are displaying products, prices and online shopping now!

FleetFarm.com is a local company that offers farm, outdoor and everyday household stuff like chains, rope, tires, bird feed, grills, lawnmowers, oil, kitchen, bath, sporting goods and pretty much everything under the sun. The store is often referred to as the "Man’s Mall" and it lives up to that name now in person or online! After writing my article, a Fleet Farm staff member assured they were working on improving the site and they sure did. It took a little time to fill the site up with products and prices but now you can get the vast majority of things they carry in store as well as a wider select of stuff they do not carry in store.

Since the parking lot at Mills Fleet Farm in Green Bay, Wisconsin is always full when I stop in or drive by, I thought to myself yesterday when I went to the store… "I wonder how many of these people know they can shop at Fleet Farm online now?" I answered my own question when thinking about it because the site really isn’t promoted all that much in store or on the bags you get while checking out.

Now that they have the site up and filled with products, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to promote it to its customers now so they are aware of it as well.

In the article I wrote in 2008 talking about Local Search and Local Companies Not Getting It, I was happy to see a comment from Fleet Farm as well as a comment explaining more from Gander Mountain. It wasn’t because of my article that these sites greatly improved but it is nice to see the improvements to each. Not only were they listening at that time, they followed it up by providing a better service to there customers. As for a "blog" and social media connection.. that still seems to lack a bit for Fleet Farm but I’m sure that will come over time as well.

GanderMountain.com is also now offering products, prices and a revamped site after it wasn’t able to compete after selling a catalog business in 1996.

This is a nice trend that I have been seeing with improving websites of many local companies and picking and using domain names that help them and simply make sense.