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The Most Important Website Marketing Tactic for Small Business Marketers
Written by: Caroline MelbergArticle Overview: Before trying any of the new tools and techniques on the Internet, you must Optimize Your Website.
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Free Download - 5 Ways to Know that Your Website Needs a Makeover By Caroline Melberg |
The Most Important Website Marketing Tactic for Small Business Marketers
I hear it all the time from my clients: The Internet is so BIG how can I ever be successful online?
While the Internet is big and new tools and techniques pop up every day to help you market online, it makes no sense to pursue any of those tactics until you've taken one critical step: Optimizing Your Website.
By Optimizing your Website, I mean making your site visible to the search engines so you'll rank higher in search engine results when your customers look for your products and services online.
While Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is a whole industry unto itself, here are 3 simple steps you can take yourself to make sure your site can be found when your customers go searching.
1. If your site is currently hosted using shared hosting, ask your host for a dedicated IP address. The cost for this is usually nominal, and the search engine benefits are great.
2. Use a descriptive title for your site as well as keywords tags that allow search engines and your site visitors alike to know what they will find when they visit your web page. Make sure you are placing keywords that appear in your keyword tags within the text of your web pages as well. Your keywords should be specific to your products and services and should be chosen with consideration for the terms your prospective customers use when searching online for your products and services.
3. Make sure every image on your website has an alt tag associated with it. Search engines cannot see images, but they can read the alternate text associated with your images. Make sure to use your keywords in your alt tags for all your images as well.
About the Author:
Entrepreneur and outdoor photography adventurer Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Small Business Mavericks, a division of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating marketing communications materials and writing copy for some of the largest and most successful companies in the world. Her small business columns are syndicated online, and she publishes the award-winning eZine, "Small Business Maverick Secrets." Learn insider Maverick Marketing secrets you can use immediately to find new customers and increase your sales. When you subscribe, you'll also get a FREE copy of her e-Book, "Local Small Business Internet Marketing Secrets" - learn insider secrets to marketing your local small business on the Web today! Get your FREE subscription at .
Want to use this article in YOUR eZine or business publication? You can, as long as you include the complete article along with my bio above!
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Related Forum Posts
New Small Business Topic
- Hello everyone,
I'm on the lookout for new topics to add to my site. We just launched a Franchising section and are planning Human Resources section. Do you have any thoughts for a new section?
Here's a list of what we currently have:
Angel Investors
Branding
Bank Loans
Business Coaching
Business Plan
Franchises (New)
Insurance
Legal
Marketing
Public Relations
Sales
Small Biz Loans
Venture Capital
My entry
- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: what position to request?
- Hi Michael,
Great suggestion from David, or you could try something around a design consultancy,
How about Website Design Consultant, Design and Development Manager, Website Support and Development Manager or maybe Internet Business Development Consultant.
Ultimately whatever you are comfortable with and good luck for the future,
Mal.
These maybe the coldest franchises out there:
- Here are the worst 15 performing franchises in regards to having the highest Small Business Administration (SBA) loan failure rates. The list is dotted with sub sandwich shops, fitness centers and car shops.
WORST FRANCHISE LOAN FAILURES Failure %
1 OBEE'S SOUP SALAD SUBS 55.56%
2 LADY OF AMERICA 41.94%
3 COUNTRY CLUTTER (BED & BREAKFAST) 41.18%
4 COPY CLUB 36.36%
5 ALL TUNE AND LUBE 35.71%
6 PICKERMAN'S 35.71%
7 PHILLY CONNECTION 35.59%
8 ROLY POLY ROLLED SANDWICHES 34.78%
9 COTTMAN TRANSMISSION 34.48%
10 HAIR COLOR EXPRESS 33.33%
11 LEE MYLES AUTOMOTIVE TRANSMISSIONS 33.33%
12 GODFATHER'S PIZZA 33.33%
13 SMOOTHIE FACTORY 33.33%
14 BLIMPIE 31.39%
15 GOLF U.S.A. (RETAIL GOLF EQUIP.) 30.77%
Source: Small Business Administration, SBA Loan Performance Within Franchise Code for the Period of FY 2001 - 2005
Exclusive: Interview with Results
- Hi Forum Members,
I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles).
As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business.
This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business.
I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months.
At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews.
I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum.
If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM.
Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
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