Posts Tagged ‘seo’
Having a business website can be a huge cost advantage and very profitable. However, there are some downsides to it. For example, having a brick and mortar location in a high-traffic area can get you some great sales, but how do you get people to notice you on the web?
As a small business, you need to devote most of your time towards marketing your website to consumers that need your products or services. You just don’t get the natural traffic that larger brand names have and because of that – you have to work a little harder.
Stand out
It’s difficult to stand out on the web, but in order to appear higher up on a Google search (clearly a priority since most people never search past the second or third page of search results), work on your search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of weaving popular search keywords into your copy so Google is more likely to rank your website above others when people are searching for something that relates to your brand, product, or service.
You can also use social media to your advantage by working a Twitter page or a Facebook page. Once you find people talking about issues that relate to what you’re selling, you can jump into the conversation and provide a solution. For example if you run a daycare business, listen to people speaking about the trials of having young children, join the conversation and offer a solution.
Encourage sales
If your site is easy to navigate, provides fresh (continuously updated) content, and unobtrusively directs people towards purchasing your product, you’re well on your way to having a profitable web presence. Your site must look professional, organized, and trustworthy. For example, if you can’t take quality pictures of your product, ask your supplier to send you some images you are allowed to use on your website.
There are so many little things you can do to engage your customers and encourage people to buy from your website and not your competitors. Take the time to review what you have, and invest the time to improve your business website and current market position.
Google has made some changes that could seriously effect your business website’s search engine optimization. You’ll want to pay close attention here because if you’re like the rest of the small business owners out there – you’ve already put a serious amount of time and effort into optimizing your website for search engines.
What are these changes?
Google has been putting in some effort to make changes to their page-ranking algorithm. After the embarrassing incident with the shady eyewear company DecorMyEyes, Google responded rapidly by developing an initial algorithmic solution, implementing it, and the solution is now live.
Now that the new algorithm has been implemented, it may have altered the way search engine optimization experts adjust websites to raise their search engine rankings. One way of doing so would be to create an algorithm that detected merchants who “provide poor user experience,” and rank that site lower than others.
One theory according to Katherine Noyes for Entrepreneur.com, is that customer reviews and feedback are becoming a part of Google’s page ranking formula.
What does this mean for you?
As a small business owner with an online presence, it is important to watch the links that are attributed to your website. One of the number one negative contributors to a website’s search engine ranking is link acquisition from known link brokers and sellers.
So, what you can do is: stick to the basics. If you stay on track with your current seo efforts, you should be fine so long as you avoid any unscrupulous tactics like spamming or any black hat techniques.
It is more important than ever to be genuine online. If you are fake and using less than honorable tactics to raise your page ranking, Google will figure you out.
As the year 2010 comes to a close, many small business owners are enjoying the holidays and looking forward to the future. There will be several changes and enhancements in the world of small business next year; many of these changes have already started to take place.
Mobile Applications
For the past couple years, it was important for business owners to build an effective website and then create a mobile app to supplement the website and make access more readily available to consumers. Next year, it will become imperative for a small business owner to design your website keeping mobile in mind. Your site should be simple, clean, and easy to read from a mobile device.
Social Media
It’s already becoming mandatory for small businesses to have a social media presence, so what could be changing for next year? Social media marketing may very well shift from connecting with consumers to selling to consumers. Now that social media users are becoming desensitized to seeing businesses’ presence on social media, it will come time for consumers to do business on social media. Workers with skills in social media will have a busy year next year.
SEO
Search engine optimization will get even more complicated next year, content will still be incredibly important of course, but search engines are getting smarter too. You won’t be able to rely on stuffing your content with keywords. Search engines will begin to differentiate the value of keywords by using methods such as ranking the amount certain keywords are mentioned on social media sites. Next year, it will be about how you use your keywords, not how much you use them.
Traditional Marketing
There are rumors floating around the Internet saying that traditional marketing, like direct mail, telemarketing, radio advertising, and the like are fizzling out. Now, marketing must be a form of entertainment. Marketing is revolutionizing into a form of customer acquisition in which businesses aspire to gain relationships with customers, rather than sales.
It is important to keep up with trends. Some trends may stay as trends, and some may die out. Social media looks like it’s here to stay so it’s important to develop a social media strategy for your business and your website.
As the year 2010 comes to a close, many small business owners are enjoying the holidays and looking forward to the future. There will be several changes and enhancements in the world of small business next year; many of these changes have already started to take place.
Mobile Applications
For the past couple years, it was important for business owners to build an effective website and then create a mobile app to supplement the website and make access more readily available to consumers. Next year, it will become imperative for a small business owner to design your website keeping mobile in mind. Your site should be simple, clean, and easy to read from a mobile device.
Social Media
It’s already becoming mandatory for small businesses to have a social media presence, so what could be changing for next year? Social media marketing may very well shift from connecting with consumers to selling to consumers. Now that social media users are becoming desensitized to seeing businesses’ presence on social media, it will come time for consumers to do business on social media. Workers with skills in social media will have a busy year next year.
SEO
Search engine optimization will get even more complicated next year, content will still be incredibly important of course, but search engines are getting smarter too. You won’t be able to rely on stuffing your content with keywords. Search engines will begin to differentiate the value of keywords by using methods such as ranking the amount certain keywords are mentioned on social media sites. Next year, it will be about how you use your keywords, not how much you use them.
Traditional Marketing
There are rumors floating around the Internet saying that traditional marketing, like direct mail, telemarketing, radio advertising, and the like are fizzling out. Now, marketing must be a form of entertainment. Marketing is revolutionizing into a form of customer acquisition in which businesses aspire to gain relationships with customers, rather than sales.
It is important to keep up with trends. Some trends may stay as trends, and some may die out. Social media looks like it’s here to stay so it’s important to develop a social media strategy for your business and your website.
Many people are under the impression that search engine optimization is a service for those looking for a “quick fix” or “immediate ROI,” according to Hugoguzman.com. Generally, people have the idea that SEO fits into similar categories as traditional online marketing channels, like paid ads or email marketing. This leads to the belief that SEO should have instantaneous results.
Not only is this paradigm wrong, it is dangerous. SEO is certainly not a short term, one-time thing. This impression can lead people who are seeking SEO services to engage in risky, fly-by-night SEO practices and cut-rate SEO services that take your money and run.
Clients that hire SEO services that promise instantaneous results are almost always disappointed and feel ripped off afterward. This can lead people to believe that SEO is ineffective, doesn’t deliver, and almost always a scam.
What Can You Do?
Trust SEO services that use time-table results. Usually SEO experts that understand the length of time and effort it takes to see results from SEO will show you a period of time in which continuous effort will help to increase your search engine visibility and page rankings.
These efforts include updating your online business website with quality content, effective keywords, and useful backlinks. Hugoguzman.com describes this process as a marathon. However, this is no 26.2 mile marathon, it is a never-ending marathon.
In the SEO marathon, you are generally trailing behind your competition and the effort you put forth is to catch up, because your competition has been in the game a lot longer than you have. People and businesses that are not already solidly ranked by search engines need to understand the effort and time it takes to build those rankings.
The point is this: SEO is not a formula for instantaneous results and immediate ROI. It is a continuous effort and can take more than a year to begin to lead in search engine rankings.
In order for your small business website to gain the attention and traffic you need to start attracting more customers, it needs to be visible. By visible, I mean visible to search engines. While you may have great content, it might not be on Google’s radar.
The best way to get higher search engine rankings is to use search engine optimization strategies. One great way to use SEO is to have a blog on your website, where you post content once a day, filled with useful keywords and backlinks.
David Rothschild, director of marketing at Insight Forge (a San Francisco SEO consultant company), wrote a great brief on Focus.com. He focused on some key points for using SEO in your blog posts.
Use the tips below for your blog posts to create greater visibility and drive traffic to your website.
SEO Blog Writing Tips
- Create linkable content: Page Rank and search engine standings are in part determined by the number of incoming links from content specific sites. These “linkbacks” are most helpful if they are coming from high traffic sites related to the keywords you are attempting to optimize for.
- Become an authority: Use your blog as a means to establish your site as an authority in your industry.
- Fill the Gaps: If you know there are gaps in available information for your industry, then attempt to create posts to fill in the blanks.
- Create a Conversation: Find other bloggers in the same space and write posts that respond to topics they bring up. If you get yourself in the mix of established “topic specific” bloggers, your own credentials will benefit.
- Keep a Narrow Focus: Write a post with the knowledge that you will use a specific keyword in the post title and specific keywords throughout the post copy.
- Make it easy to digest: Social media plays a major role in generating incoming links and readership for your blog. Make sure to write articles that are easy to read and informative for someone who may not be directly involved in the industry.
- Be yourself: Despite the fact that you are intentionally creating search engine friendly content, it is critically important to be yourself. This means writing about industry specific topics that you find compelling and writing in your own voice.
- Feel free to be creative: Feel free to throw out standard SEO blogging conventions and write a post for your own purposes. Just having fresh content in the ballpark of your industry will benefit your search engine standings.
A business website can use search engine optimization in two ways:on-page and off-page. Simply put, on-page SEO is the process of makingphysical content changes to your website to help its search enginerankings. Off-page SEO is the process of posting links to yourwebsite on other sites outside of your own to drive traffic to yourwebsite.
Intentionally building links can be a tricky process because the main thing you want to avoid is being labeled a spammer. By leaving 10 different links on the same website, you risk being blocked and labeled as a spammer, which immediately compromises your credibility. There are a few ways to circumvent this problem and build valuable links at the same time.
Find Related Websites
Find websites that relate to your product or your industry. If they have a blog or forum, or really anywhere you can post a comment, post one! By engaging in conversation you are well on your way into improving your credibility and contributing value to the industry as a whole. At the end of whatever (valuable) comment you post, feel free to leave a link to your own business website to encourage the continuation of the conversation.
Use Social Media to Your Advantage
Social media is basically one condensed conversation about the industry of your choice. Join (or “Like”) a group that relates to your product or service. For example, if you sell athletic equipment, visit other groups on Facebook that sell similar equipment. Talk about new products that are coming out on the market. Talk about products you feel are underrated that you genuinely feel people should try. Truly try to engage in conversation. Afterward, leave a link to your own business website so people can see the validity behind your opinions.
Why it Works
Is this process time consuming? Absolutely. Does it work? Absolutely. There is no better advertising than consumer conversation. If you engage in social media as well as other forms of consumer conversation, you gain the ability to not only build links to your website, but gain insight as to what consumers truly feel about the market your in. You can find out what components consumers are dissatisfied with, and make changes. These changes can do nothing but help your business grow and improve.
Essentially you’re killing two birds with one stone. You are building your company’s credibility while also driving traffic to your website. In addition to building credibility – you are separating yourself in consumers’ minds from other spammers and black hat SEO’s out there.
