SEO Is The Key

In the 21^st Century, it’s assumed that if you’re in business, you must have a website.  It seems a logical assumption, particularly when we consider how businesses and consumers are researching and buying products and services in our Web 2.0 world.

Last year, Marketing Sherpa interviewed business decision makers who made a recent purchase.  The study showed that 80% of the interviewees found the vendor, as opposed to the vendor finding them.   Clearly, the traditional selling model is evolving with more power going to the consumer.  But what does this mean for small businesses and what should they be doing to modify their marketing approach?

Well, for one thing, if you’re among the 46% of small businesses who still do not have a website, you may want to rethink that strategy.  Jupiter Research reports that 66% of consumers who viewed an offline ad either visited the company’s website or a search engine to get more information.  Only 14% said that they actually called the company directly in response to the ad’s directive.

If you’ve got a website, the most important thing you need to work on is making your site more visible to the people who are already looking for what you sell.  If traditional marketing is about pushing information out to customers, (i.e., advertising, trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail, and email) then inbound or contemporary marketing is more about making your business findable in a world where customers have more control over what information they receive and how they receive it.

Since search engine optimization (SEO) is the key here, what can businesses do to affect their organic (vs. paid) search engine ranking on Google? There are three critical factors:

1.  Identify Keyword Phrases that are highly searched yet not overly utilized by your competition.  There are free keyword generation tools that will help with this, but WordTracker is among the best.

2. Content is KING! Google bots that run around the web indexing data from web pages love content. The more you feed them with new, relevant, and interesting news, articles, case histories, blog entries, etc., the more they will come back to your site, which impacts your ranking.

3. Inbound Links are like testimonials to your greatness. Google likes when credible, high traffic websites link back to your site. It’s another indication that your business is a recognized expert in a particular field. Make it a priority to get quality link backs to your site. Start by submitting to directories, such, as Yahoo!, DMOZ (the open directory project) and vertical directories in your industry.

Your website and SEO efforts require constant care and feeding.  If you need help turning your web traffic light from red to green, you may want to explore an outside service provider.  Check out SearchSupport360.com.  They base their compensation solely on the results they generate for clients. You don't pay unless you rank on page one of Google -- organically.

Lisa Kaslyn is president of Kashen Communications, a NY-based marketing communications consultancy specializing in SEO and inbound marketing,www.KashenComm.com.  Lisa also serves as communications director for SearchSupport360.com, a search engine optimization solutions provider.

Related articles

• 5 Steps to Get Your Site Found on Google (seodiva.net)
• 5 Essential Things You Need to Nnow About SEO to Have an Effective Website (smallbizbee.com)
• Tips On Doing Local SEO (encourageblogging.com)