Tag Archives: Small Business

Sep
23
How do search engines rank your small business website?
Category: Search Engine Optimization, SEO Web Design, Small Business Marketing, Website Design Tagged , , , , , , , |

Search engine ranking is an intricate process. Search engines rate your small business website on a number of factors in order to assign it a rank among your competition. Every business wants to rank on page 1 of the organic search engine results, but less actually know how it happens.

There are a number of elements to be considered by businesses for search engine ranking. The following section discusses these elements briefly.

Where to Start?
95% of all searches go to three major search engines including Google, Bing and Yahoo and of that 80% use Google directly. So, a small business website can start with submitting its URL to these big players.

How Do Search Engines Read Websites?
Search engines read your website either through the automated spiders or crawlers they run or through search engine directories. Search engine spiders read the links on your site and record your website into their database, based on the keywords in your content, so that the next time a searcher tries to look for a certain keyword, your website appears in search results. The more popular and relevant the links you have on your website and to and from your wbesite, the better the rank your small business website will have and appear higher in the results pages.

This is a preview of How do search engines rank your small business website?. Read the full post (356 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)
Sep
7
Small Business Blogs: Become the Local Industry Expert
Category: Blogging, Small Business Marketing Tagged , , , , , |

An online small business website flourishes by increasing traffic and converting visitors into customers to generate revenue. What good is a blog in this whole scenario, some people might argue. Well, here is an eye opener for them.

Most of us may take blogs as a way to keep adding new content to your small business website so that readers keep coming back for more. Another acceptable benefit with most people is that a frequently updated blog also keep your website fresh ‘in the eyes of search engines’. One really important benefit that many of us miss, however, is the fact that you can use your blog to prove yourself to be an expert in your relevant local industry.

How can you position yourself as the local industry expert through your blog?

By offering informational content to the readers that adds value for them, you can make them better believe in your expertise. If you are, for example, a small business offering cloud computing solutions, make sure your blog contains informative articles on the subject. When your visitors come across that content, they become interested in reading it and even subscribe to it. When your blog keeps churning out content that is both informative and interesting to the readers, they will accept you as authority on cloud computing. And the next time they want to hire an expert for a computing solution, your name will automatically pop up in their minds.

This is a preview of Small Business Blogs: Become the Local Industry Expert. Read the full post (314 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)
Aug
10
Why Create a Blog for Your Small Business?
Category: Blogging, Small Business Marketing Tagged , , , , |

If you have a basic small business website or have recently launched your business website, chances are that you haven’t had enough time to focus on your small business blog that is IF you have even thought about one yet. Why you need to create a blog, you may ask. Well, the reasons are manifold:

A Small Business Blog Increases the Inflow of Web Traffic
When your website offers something apart from product and services information, it gives the readers a reason to keep returning. The readers will come once to your website for basic product or services information or a few times at max. While they will definitely come back for more once they get hooked to the small business blog on your website.

A Blog Wins Loyal Readers
When people like the content on your blog and find it useful, they start visiting the blog more and subscribing to your newsletter. They do this in order to keep up to date with new content. These people will then be more likely to recommend your blog and your business to other people.

This is a preview of Why Create a Blog for Your Small Business?. Read the full post (337 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)
Jul
16
Top 12 SEO Facebook Strategies
Category: Facebook, Search Engine Optimization, Small Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing Tagged , , , , |

Facebook has increasingly become one of the must have components of an SEO campaign. The social network has opened a wide range of opportunities for keen internet marketers to explore and get benefit from. This write up discusses some facebook SEO tips for the up and coming internet marketers.

1.    Selecting an appropriate name for your Facebook page > Avoid using more generic names. Instead stick with a facebook page name that best defines your business. You do not need to stuff your FB name with passwords. Instead of using “SEO Consultants” use your own business name.

2.    Never change your Facebook Page name > Changing your fan page name will cost you SEO points since Google dings pages that change their names.

3.    Choosing the right Facebook Username to show in your Facebook URL > When you choose a facebook username for your page, the page URL displays it. It is also referred to as a vanity URL. This is a great SEO opportunity and must be dealt with cleverly.

This is a preview of Top 12 SEO Facebook Strategies. Read the full post (482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)
Jul
13
Power of the Business Card
Category: Small Business Marketing, Website Design Tagged , , , , , |

Just about every employee of any business has a 2 x 3.5in card lying in a drawer, hiding in a wallet, lost in a briefcase, placed in a holder at the front desk, etc… I know too many friends who have full-time jobs, but don’t have a business card. Now why is that? Scores of people believe only the sales teams; marketing teams and the owners should have cards. How ignorant!

Business cards are often one of the most underutilized tools in one’s marketing. Use the front and back of your business card to gain full benefit. Depending on your market you can put some very valuable information on the back such as a sports schedule, emergency numbers, or special dates people want to remember.

Creatively distribute your card. When you eat out you can leave one with the tip or ask if you can place some near the register. If you borrow a library book, use one as a book mark and leave it in a page upon return. Hand them to clerks in stores who may know other people who could use your product or service.

This is a preview of Power of the Business Card. Read the full post (425 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)
Jul
7
Get Found Online with SEO
Category: Search Engine Optimization, SEO Content Writing, SEO Link Building, SEO Web Design, Small Business Marketing Tagged , , , , , , |

There was once a time when SEO was French to most small business owners. That is not the case anymore. Most small business websites make good use of SEO in order to further their business and increase profits. The best thing about search engine optimization is that it is a marketing tool that costs far less than paid internet advertising. In other words, SEO is considered to be unpaid for of advertising for websites, thus increasing their chances of getting a better standing with users.

SEO literally helps your business get found online. When you optimize your online presence or your website with search engines, your business appears more in relevant search results. These appearances are called impressions. This substantially improves your chances of being noticed and getting clicked by an internet user searching for your kind of business. Once the searcher clicks on your website and lands on your webpage, half your battle is won. Without search engine optimization, it won’t be possible for you to get as many impressions; not without spending a lot more at least.

This is a preview of Get Found Online with SEO. Read the full post (305 words, estimated 1:13 mins reading time)
May
31
Small Business Blogging
Category: Blog Content Writing, Blogging, Small Business Marketing Tagged , , , , , , |

Blogging has become quite popular for small businesses as of late. After noticing how many small businesses have started to take the initiative to build a credible blog for their website I wanted to do a little more research on why this “Blog Boom” was taking place. I began by posing a question to myself, what are the benefits of having a blog as a small business owner? Turns out, there are several benefits to blogging for small businesses. After doing some more reading on the subject I choose the 3 I felt should be on the top of the list.

1. Build Relationships Online: Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience. You have the opportunity to share a piece of yourself with your community allowing them to get to know you better.

2. Higher Search Engine Rankings: Search engine marketing is HOTT. Business bloggers are achieving top search engine rankings because search engines rank based on link popularity and content relevance. Learning the basic skills of search engine optimization and good content management are keys to better rankings for bloggers.

This is a preview of Small Business Blogging. Read the full post (399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)
May
29
Small Business Web Design: How to Design to Your Audience
Category: Website Design Tagged , , , , |

While it is definitely important to have a substantial target audience for your business to be profitable, it is not always wise to target a very broad target audience. There are a number of issues with that. For example, keeping a broad audience focus can easily let you become un-focused in your business efforts. The same is true for small business website designs. A good web design should take into account the people it is targeted at. The additional advantage of having a focused audience is that it will enable you to design your website in accordance with your audience.

There are a number of factors that come into play when you design your small business website as per the tastes and preferences of your audience:

Background and Lifestyle:
You need to see where your audience comes from, what kind of life they lead, what is their qualification, what they do for a living etc. A website designed for home owners will be different from one targeted at finance professionals, a small business website for housewives needs to be different than one for students, so on and so forth.

This is a preview of Small Business Web Design: How to Design to Your Audience. Read the full post (385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)
May
23
Optimizing Your Website Using Free SEO Tools
Category: Search Engine Optimization Tagged , , |

It is no-more a difficult task to create a website these days. The free sites like WordPress and Blogger have made the task of creating websites a very easy one, even for the most non-technical users. However, one also needs to think in terms what to do once they have launched a website because a website is of no use if it doesn’t attract enough visitors. In order to appear in search results and attract traffic, your website needs to be optimized for search engines. There are various free seo tools available for use if you want to carry out your website’s SEO yourself.

Let’s have a look at what SEO areas you can cover with the free seo tools available for use:

Keyword Tools: These tools can be used to find the words and phrases users enter to search for specific information or to find variations of keyword phrases etc.  There can be three types of free keyword tools.

Software: There are many free keyword software available, which you can download and use to find the right keyword for your niche, to calculate keyword density and much more. Examples include ‘traffic travis’, ‘Free Keyword’ etc.

This is a preview of Optimizing Your Website Using Free SEO Tools. Read the full post (379 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)
May
17
What is an SEO company?
Category: Search Engine Optimization Tagged , , , , , |

Just like search engine optimization is a process by way of which websites are made more visible to search engines, an SEO company is one that performs this task for website owners. A business may decide to conduct SEO for their website themselves, but this does not make them an SEO company.

SEO is one of the various website promotion techniques with the sole purpose of increasing traffic to the website. There needs to be a certain set of skills in place for a company to claim the ability of carrying out the task of optimizing websites for search engines.

Required Skills for an SEO Company
An SEO company needs to be well versed with the tools and techniques of optimizing websites but at the same time it also needs to have a knowhow of other website promotion tools and techniques, whether or not it handles them as a company. If the company also offers other website promotion services, it adds feathers to its hat and proves to be profitable for them.

SEO vs. Other Website Promotion Techniques
All website promotion techniques cover a certain area of website promotion. While SEO focuses on organic or unpaid search results, SEM or Search Engine Marketing targets paid listings. Yet other tools used for the purpose are web content development and search engine submissions.

This is a preview of What is an SEO company?. Read the full post (308 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)