I get asked some version of this question almost every week: “Ron, how do I get more people to find my website — and actually walk through my door?”
It’s a fair question, and the honest answer is that running a business up here is its own animal. We don’t have the foot traffic of Seattle or Bellevue, and we never will. What we do have is a strange and wonderful mix of customers — tight-knit locals, Suncadia guests, weekend warriors coming over the pass, second-homeowners, and seasonal folks chasing the rivers and the trails. The generic “internet marketing” advice you read online wasn’t written for a town like Cle Elum, and it shows.
I’ve been building websites since 1996 and working with small businesses across Kittitas County for a long time now. So instead of the usual fluff, here’s the hyper-local playbook I actually walk my clients through — the stuff that brings in qualified traffic and turns it into paying customers.
1. Win local Google search first
If someone is staying at Suncadia, driving down I-90, or just lives down the road in Roslyn and needs what you sell, the first thing they do is pull out their phone and search. Your job is to be the obvious answer.
Start with your Google Business Profile, not your website. For local businesses, your GBP is often more important than your homepage, because it’s what shows up in the map pack and on phones. Make sure your name, address, phone, and hours are 100% accurate everywhere they appear, and keep fresh photos flowing — your storefront, your work, the area around you.
Then ask for reviews, consistently. Every happy regular is a review waiting to happen if you just ask. Bonus points when a customer naturally mentions “Cle Elum” or the specific service you provided — that real-world language is exactly what Google uses to decide who ranks.
Finally, put your location into your website. I see so many local sites that say “High-Quality [Whatever]” with zero mention of where they are. Change your page titles and headings to say what you do and where you do it, and name the surrounding communities — Roslyn, Ronald, Easton, Cle Elum — so you show up for the people actually searching from those spots.
2. Capture the Suncadia and tourist crowd
Our population balloons on weekends and all summer long. These visitors have money to spend and no idea you exist yet. That’s an opportunity, not a problem.
Write content that meets them while they’re still planning the trip. A post like “A Weekend Guide to Cle Elum” or “Things to Do Near Suncadia Resort” can pull in travelers searching months ahead — and your business gets a natural mention right there in the guide they landed on.
Then get listed where the tourists already look: the Kittitas County Chamber, downtown association pages, and regional tourism directories. Those sites carry real authority, which helps your search rankings, and they send you visitors who are ready to spend.
3. Show up in the local Facebook groups
Facebook might feel a little old-school, but up here it’s still how the community genuinely talks to each other. Groups like the Cle Elum/Roslyn community pages and the local buy/sell/trade boards are where recommendations actually happen.
The trick is to be helpful, not spammy. Don’t barge in posting “buy my stuff.” Watch for the people asking, “Who’s the best _____ in the area?” — and that’s your moment to step in (or have a happy customer step in for you) with a genuine recommendation and a link. One good answer in the right thread beats a hundred ignored ads.
4. Team up with other Upper County businesses
We small operators have to stick together out here, and the good news is that cooperation is also great marketing. Reach out to friendly owners in complementary lines of work — a landscaper and a real estate agent, a builder and a hardware store, a caterer and an event venue.
Put a simple “local partners we recommend” page on each of your sites and link to one another. Customers trust referrals from a business they already like, and from a search standpoint those links pass authority back and forth between sites Google already sees as legitimate and local.
5. Build an email list so you don’t lose them
Getting someone to your website once is only half the battle. A tourist who visits and leaves will forget you by the time they’re back in town. An email address fixes that.
Offer a reason to sign up. For locals, that might be a simple “join the list for 10% off your next visit.” For visitors, a free download — “Our favorite hikes and eats near Cle Elum” — works beautifully. Once they’re on your list, a short monthly note keeps you top of mind for the next time they need you, whether that’s next week or next season.
6. Run small, tightly targeted ads
If you have even a little budget, don’t blow it advertising to the whole state. The power of online ads for a business like yours is precision.
You can run a Facebook or Instagram campaign for a few dollars a day and aim it at a tight radius around Cle Elum, or specifically at people who are currently traveling in the area. That’s how you put your name in front of the weekend crowd without paying to reach someone in Spokane who’s never coming here.
One more thing for 2026: get found by AI, too
Here’s the part that’s changed fast, and it’s where I spend a lot of my time these days. More and more people aren’t just Googling anymore — they’re asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI assistants questions like “who’s a good _____ near Cle Elum?” When those tools answer, they name specific businesses. You want to be the business they name.
The frustrating reality is that a lot of these AI answers right now are vague — they hand out generic advice and don’t recommend anyone by name, which means there’s a wide-open lane for local businesses that get their signals right. The same fundamentals above — an accurate Google Business Profile, real reviews, clear location-and-service language on your site, and citations from trusted local sources — are exactly what teach the AI who you are and where you fit. This newer discipline has a name (Answer Engine Optimization), and getting ahead of it now is one of the smartest things a Cle Elum business can do.
The bottom line
None of this happens overnight. Building these local roots is slow, steady work — but it’s also how independent businesses up here survive and thrive against the big out-of-town competition. Do a few of these well and you’ll feel it: more of the right people finding you online, and more of them showing up in person.
If you’d rather not piece all this together on your own, that’s literally what I do. I’m right here in Roslyn, I know this market, and I’m happy to take a look at where your website and Google profile stand today. Reach out anytime — let’s get you found.
