7 Things You Can Do Today To Make Google Fall Head Over Heels In Love With Your Small Business Website

admin    Google     business, Fall, Google, Head, Heels, Love, Over, Small, Things, today, Website

Creating your own small business website can be a scary thing to do. It requires some planning to get it right and make Google sit up and take notice of your site at first glance. Small business website search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the keys, but all too often, astute business people leave the creation of their websites up to a family member or a friend who happens to know something about it. This is strange, for they wouldn’t dream of letting the same people build their bricks and mortar store or office.

Of course, getting an expert who fully understands small business SEO to build your website is not likely to come cheap, but it may be the best solution if you are starting out from scratch. However, this article is aimed at those small businesses that already have a website, but are disappointed at how poorly it performs. If you’re frustrated because your website appears on page 42 of the Google search results, and no one is visiting your website, here are 7 things you can do to quickly improve your results.

1. Create an Effective Website Title Tag, Description Meta Tag,
and Keywords Meta Tag

The most important part of any website page (in the eyes of the search engines) is the title tag. The title is enclosed between the opening title tag: and the closing title tag: . It is located in the head section of an HTML document, or web page. You should use your page’s main keyword in your title. Try to use your main keyword near the beginning of your title, and perhaps again near the end. But always strive to make your title readable, and not obviously keyword stuffed.

Your description tag plays an important role in SEO for your local small business. This tag is used by most of the search engines in their listings, so you need to spend some time getting this right. The description tag looks like this: and it is also found in the head section of your web page.

Something brief such as, “Acme Incorporated, Makers of Blue Widgets,” gets the message across, but you could do much better. Try to list benefits rather than features, and use your main keyword in your description as well. Keep your description reasonably brief, but not too short. Something like, “Acme, Inc., Makers of the Strongest, Most Powerful and Affordable Widgets on the Planet” is better.

Like a headline for an ad or sales flyer, your description may take time to develop. Start with a list of all of the benefits your product or service offers and then try to write 20 different descriptions for your site based on those benefits. Test your descriptions by reading them to your customers, employees or others familiar with your business. You’ll find out which description resonates most strongly with your potential prospects – and that’s good for the search engines and for your sales.

The keywords tag, again found in the head section of your web pages, looks like this: . The keywords you choose for your page are important, because they tell the search engines what should be found on the page. Google and all the other search engines present search results based on relevancy – how relevant your web pages are to the keywords and phrases your prospects are searching for.

Keep your keyword phrases to less than seven and don’t repeat the same words. For example, if you have two keyword phrases, which are, “blue widgets” and “bright blue widgets,” you should only include unique words after including the first “blue widgets” keyword.

Curious to know what your Title, Description, Meta and Keyword tags currently look like? Here’s a simple tip – just go to any page of your website, then click on “View Source” or “View Page Source” from the “View” menu. There you’ll be able to see exactly what your tags are telling Google when they crawl your site.

2. Optimize Your Website Copy

Your website copy consists of the words on every page of your site. Try to make it interesting and informative. One simple way to arrange your articles, or informative pages, is to use a simple three-step format. Begin with an introductory paragraph that tells your visitor what you are going to tell them. Then in the next two or three paragraphs, tell them. Finally, wind up the article by telling them what you just told them.

This may seem overly simple, but it works. Speak to your website audience as you would to a seven-year-old child. Don’t patronize them, but lay it out clearly in simple steps using straightforward language that anyone can understand.

When writing your copy for each of your pages, make sure to focus on one or two keywords per page. If you are selling widgets in all colors and you also sell thingamajigs, then widgets should be on one page and thingamajigs on another. Keep it simple for your customers and the search engines by focusing on one idea per page and your customers will thank you for it, and Google will thank you too.

3. Establish an Acceptable Keyword Density for Your Website Copy

While optimizing your website copy you also need to establish a keyword density that is acceptable to the search engines. Opinions differ, but somewhere between 2% and 5% is probably about right. This means that for effective small business SEO, your main keyword phrase should appear around three times for every 100 words.

Where your keyword appears is important too. Try to use your main keyword or phrase twice in the first paragraph, once in the second paragraph, once around the middle of the article, and once again near the end of the article. Try to start and end the first paragraph with your main keyword if possible, but don’t force it. Always aim for copy that is readable before copy that has perfect keyword density.

4. Create Quality Back Links to Your Website

Increasingly, the search engines are giving added weight to the number of quality back links your website has. It used to be that reciprocal linking was quite acceptable, and it still is, but now Google and the other search engines give higher credibility to one-way back links as far as your search engine rankings are concerned.

And it’s not just any back links either. You need to have quality back links, or back links from sites that are similar to yours. It’s not much good getting a back link from a site about butterflies if your site focuses on racing cars. With Google, it’s all about relevance. You should also strive to get back links from so-called authority sites. These are sites that the search engines deem to be an authority on their chosen subject. They tend to be quite big and to have been around for some time.

5. Use Local Directories Effectively

If you are marketing to a local market, then make use of local directories. How do you find them? If, for example, you are located in New York, then go to Google and search for, “directory” + “new york.” This will return a list of all the local directories in that city. You could even try searching for, “blue widgets directory” + “new york,” if you are marketing blue widgets.

Once you find a suitable directory, submit your website to it. People do search on local directories, so even if your product has worldwide appeal, there’s a greater chance that you will get the sale if someone finds you in a local directory over someone else located in another continent who can deliver just as cost effectively or as quickly.

6. Create a Proper Site Map and Google Site Map

Every website should have a site map. This is merely a directory of all your site’s pages with links to every one. You should have a link from every page of your site back to your site map, and your site map must be updated whenever a new page is added.

A Google Site Map is also a site map, but one that is in a special format that Google can easily spider. It has the great advantage of allowing Google to instantly “see” your site and evaluate it. It can be a very useful tool in getting Google to index your site more quickly than otherwise. For more information on creating a Google Site Map, go to: http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/.

7. Add Fresh Original Content to Your Website at an Acceptably Measured Pace

Your website should never be considered finished. It should always be a work in progress that is constantly expanding with fresh and original content. The easiest way to do this is to add new articles on specific subjects on a regular basis. One article a week is the least you should aim for, but don’t add content too quickly either. Dumping 100 articles a day into your site will ultimately work against you, because the search engines look for organic growth – in other words, growth that seems natural. Since it’s not likely that you were able to write 100 articles in one day, Google and the other search engines will see this as unnatural and will count it against you in your page ranking.

SEO for your local small business is easier than you might think. Getting Google to fall head over heels in love with your small business website is not rocket science. You only need to implement a few simple things on a regular basis, and over time Google will notice and your page rank – and your placement with the search engines – will start climbing.

Is Twitter Part Of Your Small Business Marketing Strategy

admin    Twitter     business, Marketing, Part, Small, Strategy, Twitter

The interesting thing (to me) is even though there are so many Twitter users, less than 10% are active on a regular basis. In fact, I read most users have less than 10 posts and same for followers.

Even if Twitter is included in your marketing strategy, without commitment and regular contribution to build a following it isn’t really a strategy. Twitter should be included in your marketing mix, but not how I see many people using it.

So many times, I see people using Twitter to send automatic direct messages (DMs) when someone follows them promoting their product, or they have automatic tweets set up to go out at the same time, everyday, that say the same thing.

This is not how Twitter is used effectively and to most, these methods are seen as spam.

While tweets can be set up to automatically post, there is a way to set them up so that they aren’t seen at the same time day after day. You can stagger your messages throughout the day and at different times on different days.

But you can’t just use automatic tweets and believe that Twitter will be a successful medium for you. Twitter is a part of social networking. The key word is networking. Twitter is a means to connect and build relationships from all walks of life and from around the county. For a business owner, or company, it’s a way to branch out from Chamber Mixers or BNI meetings on a local level. Don’t just tweet or read. Reply. Retweet. Talk.

In my opinion, and based on the experiences that I’ve had with Twitter, the strategy that you come up with and implement includes finding followers and following people who you can connect with ….. and then after striking up a relationship on Twitter, moving the conversation to email, phone, or in person.

Social media is all the buzz. I encounter many small businesses who are allured by the fact it is ‘free’. They think they can ditch all other marketing and focus exclusively on Twitter and Facebook. (Most will be very disappointed.)

I think Twitter can work to support a sound marketing plan. (That means actually having a well-planned, diverse marketing plan.) However, too many just tweet silly things without thinking about relevant keywords that may lure new followers.

It’s important to think about your customer/prospect base. It’s not what YOU think is important, but what your customer/prospects do.

The bottom line is to figure out what will build loyalty and increase sales.

Is Twitter Part Of Your Small Business Marketing Strategy

admin    Twitter     business, Marketing, Part, Small, Strategy, Twitter

The interesting thing (to me) is even though there are so many Twitter users, less than 10% are active on a regular basis. In fact, I read most users have less than 10 posts and same for followers.

Even if Twitter is included in your marketing strategy, without commitment and regular contribution to build a following it isn’t really a strategy. Twitter should be included in your marketing mix, but not how I see many people using it.

So many times, I see people using Twitter to send automatic direct messages (DMs) when someone follows them promoting their product, or they have automatic tweets set up to go out at the same time, everyday, that say the same thing.

This is not how Twitter is used effectively and to most, these methods are seen as spam.

While tweets can be set up to automatically post, there is a way to set them up so that they aren’t seen at the same time day after day. You can stagger your messages throughout the day and at different times on different days.

But you can’t just use automatic tweets and believe that Twitter will be a successful medium for you. Twitter is a part of social networking. The key word is networking. Twitter is a means to connect and build relationships from all walks of life and from around the county. For a business owner, or company, it’s a way to branch out from Chamber Mixers or BNI meetings on a local level. Don’t just tweet or read. Reply. Retweet. Talk.

In my opinion, and based on the experiences that I’ve had with Twitter, the strategy that you come up with and implement includes finding followers and following people who you can connect with ….. and then after striking up a relationship on Twitter, moving the conversation to email, phone, or in person.

Social media is all the buzz. I encounter many small businesses who are allured by the fact it is ‘free’. They think they can ditch all other marketing and focus exclusively on Twitter and Facebook. (Most will be very disappointed.)

I think Twitter can work to support a sound marketing plan. (That means actually having a well-planned, diverse marketing plan.) However, too many just tweet silly things without thinking about relevant keywords that may lure new followers.

It’s important to think about your customer/prospect base. It’s not what YOU think is important, but what your customer/prospects do.

The bottom line is to figure out what will build loyalty and increase sales.

How Small Business Can be Benefited through Twitter List?

admin    Twitter     Benefited, business, List, Small, Through, Twitter

Most of us know that twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. In this article, we will discuss how small business can utilize twitter effectively.

Earlier in twitter, group following was not possible. On the basis of users’ feedback, twitter has launched new features “Twitter List”. It enables group relationships beyond following each other. Anyone can create and publish twitter lists, so if you have a new idea for one, just click “New list” in the sidebar of your Twitter account. Add accounts to a list using the “Lists” drop drown on a twitter profile page.

Twitter list has some incredible benefits for small businesses in how they can organize or otherwise endorse people they follow. There are no best practices for using Twitter Lists. However, we will share some great ideas to spark your imagination.

Twitter lists can be private or public and small businesses can follow any lists without resulting in an influx of people they follow. Twitter helps you to notice and noticing others in this competitive business environment. Twitter has a very fair and equal platform for everyone to connect to their desired audience or customer and engage.

Instead of becoming obsessed with the number of followers you have amassed pay attention to the lists you are enrolled on and see which associates you have attracted. We know few companies encourage employees to Tweet. This would be a healthy why to highlight and endorse one’s association with the company. Does your business make use of VIPs or similar stars that could be a street team for your brand? Draw attention to them and they will highlight you.

Associate yourself with industry associations or peers. On Twitter, it’s collaboration not competition. What are you using twitter lists for? Share it in your blogs or comments! There has to be someone in your company who is great on twitting. Showing humbleness and embracing talent on twitter is a great service for your audience to help grow your audience.

There are more ways for small businesses could benefit from Twitter Lists. To know more about how twitter can be benefited for your organization read an e-book on “Twitter Marketing”.

Copyright © Ryan Mutt, All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your website or in your ezine, make all the urls (links) active.

Small Business Guide To Twitter Marketing

admin    Twitter     business, Guide, Marketing, Small, Twitter

These days one way to really get the word out about your small business is to have some kind of social media presence. Social networking platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn can help put a virtual ‘face’ to your company, its products, goals, etc. However, the micro-blogging service Twitter, which is a free service that allows you to post messages up to 140 characters, is really helping small business increase their online reach.

No matter how small your business, it is not only important to tap into all the various segments of your personal network, but to also belong to an online social network where others can find you. However, before you even sign up for a Twitter account it is essential that you have a social media strategy. Although it can be a great free way to advertise your services and be in touch with customers (existing and potential), you do have to put some effort into identifying your goals and the kind of online image you’d like to create.

Some Advantages to Twitter for Small Businesses:

Free, Simple to Use

One of the best things about Twitter is that it is free marketing. There is no cost to open the account. You can easily post updates or even links to news, upcoming events, new products, etc. as long as it does not go over the 140-character limit.

Spread the Word Quickly

Word can spread like wildfire on Twitter. If one person raves about your services/products then everyone in their social network will know about it and you can be well on your way to increasing the number of Twitter followers.

Building a Network

Twitter can also be a great place to network with those in your market or to potentially find partnerships with suppliers/manufacturers. Also, you can reach potentially reach those outside your local area, increasing the amount of customers you reach.

Detective Work

You can easily conduct a search to find out who on Twitter has been talking about your business or may be talking about products that you offer. You can then start following and post updates about your company. Further, you can also use Twitter to search for what others are saying about your competitors.

Instantaneous Updates

Unlike promotional flyers, brochures, or email newsletters, you can send Twitter updates frequently throughout the day or week. Some small businesses use it to send out promotions or alert customers to new products.

Some Twitter Tips:

• Spend some time following those in a similar market or those companies that have enjoyed huge Twitter success and observe how they use Twitter. These can be great case studies that you can also apply to your business.

• Do not overwhelm your followers with updates. Sending too many may be annoying, causing some not to follow you anymore. So do not send Twitter updates every hour. Aim for a couple a day or week.

• If someone follows you, make sure to return the favor and follow them back. This is good Twitter etiquette.

• Do not only post updates to advertise your business. You can also share things about your area, community, useful links, etc. Or use it to start conversations with others.

• If you have employees, have them sign up with business Twitter accounts, as they can offer different perspectives on your business. Plus, can save you the time of always being the sole Twitterer.

A Small Business Guide to Twitter Marketing

admin    Twitter     business, Guide, Marketing, Small, Twitter

The business world has recently been inundated with the buzz about Twitter, a web-based social networking application assisting those who wish to keep in touch with customers, clients and friends.  Remarkably, it’s already allowed some entrepreneurs to double their clientele while efficiently enhancing their word of mouth marketing.  The following will provide a thumb-nail sketch of the most important steps and tips for effectively using Twitter.

Getting Started

I highly suggest making your username, your business name.  This will add a branding element in addition to Google ranking your Twitter account for your company searches, thus increases your prospects’ chances of finding you online.

For your profile image, use a picture of yourself so that followers can associate your image with the company name.  This is especially true if you as the owner are doing the tweeting.

When designing your profile background, use one of the templates provided by sites like Twitterbacks or FreeTwitterDesign.

Customize your account as much as possible by creating relevant a username, image and background to convey your brand.

Using Tweetdeck

After creating your account and customizing your profile, it’s vital to supplement your account with a management tool or application.  Tweetdeck is probably the most used site for this which allows you to update and use Twitter more efficiently.  Having thousands of followers necessitates the ability to filter the multitude of conversations.  For example, it can allow you to just see a handful of your friends’ tweets even though you may be following 5,000 people.

It also lets your search for a group of people based on keywords specific to a given business.  The possibilities are virtually endless with this capability when you consider a local business seeking to track a certain town or zip code.

Personality

So many businesses fail because their customers do not know, like, and trust them.  Today in 2009 it has never been easier for small business owners to integrate their personal touch with their product by using the internet and social media sites like Twitter.

The less personable you seem, the less likely consumers will believe you.  Consequently, you should also feel free to tweet non-business updates that allow your customers to acclimate themselves with your true character and interests.

Building Value

Don’t expect to have thousands of followers from week one.  Rather, focus on building true customer loyalty and satisfaction by what they take away from your updates.  Your goal is to garner a core group of fans who end up telling their friends about who you are and what you have to offer.

One example of this is by you giving free advice, tutorials or samples to consumers that need your product or service.  It strengthens your reputations and integrity if done with sincere honesty.  In the long run these customers will remember you when their need arises, thus equating to more sales and greater revenue.

Summary

Twitter offers businesses a new way to connect with consumers and build customer loyalty. It’s important to take the right steps to make your profile and workflow receptive to new customers. Properly fill out your profile, use a Twitter application like Tweetdeck, and create a strategy for your business to make the best use of this new social platform.

SEO For Small Businesses

admin    SEO     Businesses., Small

It seems like times are always tough for small businesses, but no time is worse than during a recession. During a recession, many businesses try to cut back on as much as possible, but when does cutting back start to hurt the company? One of the places this question is most often applied is to the question of SEO. Should a small business pay for SEO when money is tight?

Unfortunately, many small businesses axe their advertising budget first. While this can be a good place to save a little bit of money, if businesses completely cut their advertising, they will not be able to attract new clients. Without new clients, there’s little they can do to make more money. While word of mouth may help somewhat, it’s not as effective as a marketing blitz.

While web marketing is cheaper than doing offline marketing, there are still costs involved. However, you may get a much higher return on your investment since you’re able to more deeply analyze how well your marketing is doing. Since websites allow users to track where their traffic comes from, it’s easier to identify and cut any online marketing that is not working. To this end, small businesses should not immediately cut their SEO budget when times get tight.

Some small businesses may not have even invested in SEO yet, and these businesses may be asking why they should spend the money. However, those small business owners may not recognize just how great a return they can get on their SEO. A huge return on investment is everything in a recession, and doing SEO is ranked as one of the top ROI solutions.

By selecting specific keywords and phrases, you’re very specifically targeting your audience. While ads in magazines may get a lot of attention, you never really know if your target audience is viewing the ad or if it is being viewed by someone who will never purchase your product. SEO, however, makes certain your website is being viewed by those who are looking for what you offer. It brings in more than just quantity; it brings in quality visitors and provides them with information about your website right away.

When it comes to dealing with SEO, small businesses have a few choices. They can either handle the SEO themselves or they can hire a professional SEO company. The first is obviously the most budget-friendly; however, if you and your employees don’t understand the basics of doing SEO, you may end up wasting your time. Fortunately, you can learn the basics of SEO fairly quickly.

Paying a company to do SEO, especially if the company is thorough and completely redesigns your website from the ground up to be fully optimized, may be out of your price range. Many small businesses simply can’t afford this. However, having an expert in SEO look at your pages can be helpful. Outsourcing only part of the SEO process can be helpful. For example, you may want to hire a professional SEO writer to create content for your website after you determine the keywords yourself.

Taking a Small Retailer On-Line

admin    Google's Nexus One     Online, Retailer, Small, Taking

Most small retailers recognize that having a website is a valuable marketing tool. A well-developed website not only provides potential customers with information about the retailer and their products, it is also a critical tool for branding a small business in the customer’s mind, communicating the passion and drive that animates the retailer, and differentiating the business from the competition.

The internet, however, also offers small retailers the opportunity to capture additional sales through ecommerce. It dramatically expands the geographical reach of the business. It leverages the equity a retailer has built in its chosen niche. Most importantly, for many potential customers, the internet has become the preferred channel for niche or specialty products, the province of small retailers.

Many small retailers have established on-line stores to augment their retail business, but if you haven’t, it’s time to get started.

Getting Started
Your objective is to build an ecommerce site that will leverage the brand equity that you’ve built up with your store. Your brand equity is the understanding that your customers have of exactly what you mean to them. It is what they think of when they think of you. It is the sum of the experiences they’ve had with you. It is the source of their loyalty to you, and your assurance of future success. It is the means by which you differentiate yourself from your competition.

Your website must leverage this understanding. It is where you translate your retail customer experience to the web. Your site is the nexus where strategic positioning, merchandise assortments, written copy, visual presentation, pricing, and customer service all come together to create a comprehensive whole, more significant and compelling than the sum of the individual parts. To create the identity that you want for your website requires a singular vision that encompasses all of these elements.

Acquire ecommerce software
Many order processing and point-of-sale software packages have ecommerce capabilities already integrated into them, but many do not, especially those targeted to smaller retailers. Acquiring software that can be integrated seamlessly with your order processing or point-of-sale software is the first step in the process of building an ecommerce presence on-line.

For an internet customer, your website represents their initial impression of you. However positive that first impression is, their next impression is even more critical, and that’s the ease with which they can process an order with you. No retail eCommerce site can succeed without having the basics down cold; easy navigation and a shallow architecture, a seamless flow from shopping cart to payment and credit card processing through customer receipt and confirmation, shipment notification and tracking, to returns processing. These customer-facing basics are essential to affirming a memorable shopping experience. 

There is no room for error. Without the proper ecommerce software, and without integrating it seamlessly with your other systems, than all of your other efforts to develop an ecommerce presence on the web will be for naught.

Determine what you’re going to sell
Like any retailer, merchandising basics hold true for internet retailers. Inventory is the most significant asset for an internet retailer, and effectively managing that investment is critical to success. Excess inventories, whether a result of too much depth or overly broad assortments, invariably leads to heavy markdowns, eroded margins and weak cash flow. Effective category management and item replenishment keep the inventory turning and the cash flow coming.

For many small retailers, the inventory management practices for supporting an ecommerce presence are similar to a retail store. In a retail environment, if a particular item is out of stock, there may be an opportunity to still capture the sale with an acceptable alternative. In the ecommerce world, however, if you’re out of stock, you’ve likely lost the sale. If the item is an in-stock basis, you’ve got a problem until the next shipment arrives. If it’s fashion item that’s not been reordered, the item has to be immediately pulled down from the site, while another goes up to take it’s place in the assortment.

This is where category management comes in. Planning a season to support an ecommerce site is the same as planning a season for a retail store. You have to start with a detailed sales plan, by month by category, and then plan inventory to support those sales plans. From there you can back into monthly merchandise receipt plans that allow you to continually flow in new styles, and keep your offering fresh.

In selecting the things you are going to offer to sell, you must carefully balance the stock levels you’re going to need to maintain with how much you reasonably expect to sell of that item. Turning over inventory and generating a return on your inventory investment is just as important for an ecommerce site as it is for a retail store.

Make sure you are ready operationally
Once your website is up, it may take a bit of time before customers find it and the orders start flowing in, but once they do start flowing, you must be able to handle the volume. It’s critical that your operation is ready to process these orders expeditiously, pick and pack them accurately, and ship them out as quickly as possible. And all without negatively impacting your core retail business.

Review your operational processes and procedures to be sure you’re ready to take on this added volume. Don’t wait for the orders to start coming in before you look at how you’re going to deal with them.

Determine how you are going to develop your website
Building and managing a successful ecommerce site will require skills and expertise that you may not have in-house. You may want to seriously consider outsourcing the technical work of building your site. Outsourcing will provide you with the skills and expertise you will need but not necessarily the detailed, nuanced understanding of your business, products, services, and customers.

On the other hand, if your product line is extensive and you have the operational capabilities to process a significant influx of ecommerce orders, building and managing your site in-house may justify a full-time hire. Whether you outsource this work or ramp up to handle it in-house, you must be prepared to dedicate the personal time and attention necessary for any significant business project.

Write compelling copy, create memorable web pages
The lifeblood of any website is the written word. Photographs, diagrams and charts are also essential to communicating the features and benefits of your products and services, but the information which will motivate a visitor to take action and place an order can only be imparted through compelling copy. Copy which focuses on the customer, on the benefits the customer will derive from your product or service, and how it will make your customer feel, is copy which will drive sales.

There’s another important reason to focus considerable time and attention on your copy. When your potential customers search for your product or service, they will likely use a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. These search engines will index your website based on the copy on each webpage.  Web pages with copy that are rich in descriptive keywords will generally rank higher in the search engine’s search results than pages that aren’t as rich. This search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to attracting customers to your site.

Monitor, measure and manage your website
Once it goes up, you will need to track the effectiveness of your website. This is another area where an outsourced or in-house specialist can make a significant contribution. You will want to track the number of hits to your site, the keywords used to find your site, your positioning in search engines, and then as sales begin to build, sales per hit, sales by keyword, and units per order, among many, many others. What you track will largely be dependent upon the specific nature of your products and website.

As you learn what is working well for you and what is not, you will need to constantly revise and update your website. In addition to the normal additions and deletions to product offerings, you will need to tweak your copy to add keywords and increase keyword density.

Keep an eye on the competition
Just as you closely monitor your retail competition, you must also monitor your internet competition. But in addition to keeping an eye on their product assortments and prices, you must also monitor the quality and performance of competitive websites. Are their presentations cleaner? Are their links between pages easier to follow? Do they have more compelling copy and a more memorable presentation? Do they have greater keyword density in their copy? Are they using keywords that you haven’t considered? Most importantly, are they coming up higher on search engine results for critical key words, thus generating a greater number of hits to their site?

Many small retailers have seen the internet contribute an ever-increasing percentage of sales to their overall business. To take your business on-line is no small project. As ecommerce continues to penetrate into additional categories and gains an increasing share of the consumer’s dollar, however, no small retailer can afford to continue to overlook this potential source of additional revenue.

PPC Advertising for Small Businesses. is it Logical?

admin    PPC     Advertising, Businesses., Logical, Small

PPC Management for Small Businesses. Is it Logical?

PPC, or Pay Per Click Advertising is the number one way to increase the relevant traffic to your website. If you are interested in running a PPC Advertising Campaign there are a few things you should know and take into consideration before jumping right into it.

Do you have knowledge of PPC sources? Have you been wondering how to get your ads to appear on the searched on Google, Yahoo, Live and others? The sites you conduct your searches on, each sell their own version of PPC Advertising. Google is to date, the number one search engine providing over eighty percent of all online pay per click advertising. Googles program is called Adwords. Yahoo, MSN, and others have their own versions, each of which you can sign up for on their respective pages by searching for “online pay per click advertising”. This takes a small to medium amount of time to sign up and get your company ready to begin a campaign.

Do you know what keywords to use? Once you have signed up for a PPC Provider, you now need to start setting up which keywords you want your ads to appear for. This is NOT as simple as you may think. You can always put as many keywords in as you can think of, but remember that quantity is not equal to quality. You need to do extensive research on each keyword to find out:

Ø How much the keyword is searched for
Ø How often the keywords is used in an exact match
Ø Where geographically the keywords are searched
Ø What people do once they click a link relevant to the keyword

After researching your keywords you need to concentrate on writing your ads. This is the most important part of your campaign. You want your ads to stand out from the rest without blending in. Remember though, that your ads MUST be relevant to what you are trying to sell or you will be paying for clicks from people who don’t need your product or services. This is a major drawback from using too many irrelevant keywords.

Running the Campaign. Running a successful PPC Campaign requires DAILY maintenance. This is the part that most people disregard when attempting to run an advertising campaign. You need to constantly monitor:

Ø How many times each keyword is searched for
Ø How many times someone clicks on each keyword
Ø The % of each click per display (CTR, click through rate)
Ø How much you are paying for each click
Ø What place is your ad coming up? Top of first page? Pages 1-3?
Ø Would you get a better CTR by paying more per click, but using less keywords?

What I have discussed so far are just the basics of running a PPC Campaign. There are many more technical and detailed and very time intensive processes in running a very productive and cost efficient PPC Campaign. Can you run one by yourself? Yes. Is it worth it? Probably not. The problem here is that most PPC Management companies charge amounts ranging from 500 to 2000 a month, with setup fees ranging from 1000 to 4000 dollars, they are designed to work for large fortune 500 companies or companies with advertising budgets of tens of thousands of dollars a month. If you’re a company with an advertising budget of two, three, or four hundred dollars a month what should you do? Well, you can always use my tips written in this article and try it out for yourself, or you can search for the very few PPC Management companies that are certified by the Ad Providers like Google, MSN, Yahoo which also cater to small businesses.

If you don’t feel like searching around, we recommend using Versatility Marketing Group. Their information can be found at MyPPCManagement.com. Just a hint, their PPC Management plans have no setup fees and range between $99 – $199 a month with plans in between. They built the company up with the small business and franchise clients in mind. Give them a call and you won’t be disappointed.

How Can I Incorporate Social Media Into My Small Business Marketing Effort?

admin    Social Media     business, Effort, Incorporate, Into, Marketing, Media, Small, Social

What are some ways to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to spread the word about my business?