Want More Web Traffic? 5 Make-or-Break Tactics to Help the Search Engines Find Your Small Business
Want More Web Traffic? 5 Make-or-Break Tactics to Help the Search Engines Find Your Small Business
There are a lot of things that can be done to get your local Web site noticed by your local customer base. Five of those techniques are invaluable in guiding you to success.
1. Use Phrases
Phrases can make a world of a difference in what can be found through search engines. Type in any single word and you're bound to find literally thousands of results. Type in specific phrases and the results not only drastically decrease, but they become much more relevant.
For instance, a search on Google for "renovation" can bring back over 32 million listings. However, a listing for "bathroom renovation" can return less than 200,000. A search for "software" can return more than a billion results. A search for "custom accounting software" gets barely twenty-five thousand.
Many times people know what it is they're looking for and can get fairly specific with their searches. However, if your local small business site isn't geared to take advantage of that, it will either be lost in millions of listings or excluded from your customer's more specific searches altogether.
2. Include Location References
Because you're aiming to reach your local audience, including location references when choosing your small business keywords can also work well. This can mean including your specific city, metro area, well-known landmarks or even surrounding cities that you commonly provide services to.
By doing this, you accomplish two very different tasks. For one, you make your site known to the people who matter most to you. You can be found by your customers looking for you in their own location. But there's an additional advantage to this.
When you include locations in your keywords, you eliminate a lot of unnecessary communication. With the abundance of people searching for products you may be offering, there's no limit to how many customers you can't help that may contact you for information. By including location, they know who you're working for and can move on to companies that are less focused.
3. Communicate with Your Customers
As with all business choices, communication is absolutely important. If you come up with keywords that make sense to your industry as a whole, but aren't words your common customers would use, you have failed.
Customers aren't always in tune with the proper terminology of your industry. You would do well to interact often with your customers and find out how they refer to the products and services you offer in your own personal business.
This can be done when they're in your store. It can also be done through surveys. Contacting your customers, explaining that you're simply trying to better serve them by learning how they view your products and getting them to respond in their own terminology can give you a strong advantage in keyword advertising – with the added bonus of letting your customers know you really value their input!
While other companies may be reaching out to them just as vehemently as you are, you can sprint ahead of the competition by making your local small business easier to find according to your customer's standards.
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 popular 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!
4. Use Honesty
A huge mistake many companies make when choosing their small business keywords, is to draw people in dishonestly. Often, they'll find out keywords that are very popular and try to jump through hoops to tie those words to their own products. This is not good business!
Instead, offer what you have according to honest keywords. You don't just want to draw anyone and everyone that uses the Internet. You want to draw customers that really are looking for your services.
It is said by some that people who are dissatisfied with a company spread their feelings 10 times more than those who are content. If you begin to draw anyone and everyone you can pointlessly to your site, you will eventually have a large amount of people who have a simple distaste for you before they even know anything about your company.
5. Continually Reevaluate
Finally, you must recognize that language is organic. It is continually changing for a multitude of reasons. Keywords, key focuses, key everything changes based on fads, slang, trends, needs, and so on. You must continually check on how your keywords are performing.
Once you've found a set of keywords that work well for you, it would be good practice to reevaluate them about once a month. Check to see the popularity of those words and phrases. See if they're no longer being used or if they're typically being applied to something irrelevant to your company.
Your local small business is absolutely important to you. In today's information age, your Web site can be equally important to your customers. If they cannot find it, you're inevitably going to miss out on business you otherwise would have had.
There are other tips for choosing keywords, but they're negligible compared to those mentioned here. If you want to be seen, you must remember to use phrases and location references. If you want to be seen by the most relevant customers, you'll need to communicate with them and be honest. And finally, you must always remember that language changes – as do preferences - and you have to be able to change with it.
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 popular eZine, "Small Business Maverick Secrets." Learn insider Maverick Marketing secrets you can use immediately to find new local 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 More Web Traffic 5 MakeorBreak Tactics to Help the Search Engines Find Your Small Business - To learn more about this author, visit Caroline Melberg's Website.
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Choosing effective small business keywords can be an intimidating task. Everyone knows that going to search for anything on a major search engine like Google can often return thousands of results. But does that mean defeat for your local small business? No!
There are a lot of things that can be done to get your local Web site noticed by your local customer base. Five of those techniques are invaluable in guiding you to success.
1. Use Phrases
Phrases can make a world of a difference in what can be found through search engines. Type in any single word and you're bound to find literally thousands of results. Type in specific phrases and the results not only drastically decrease, but they become much more relevant.
For instance, a search on Google for "renovation" can bring back over 32 million listings. However, a listing for "bathroom renovation" can return less than 200,000. A search for "software" can return more than a billion results. A search for "custom accounting software" gets barely twenty-five thousand.
Many times people know what it is they're looking for and can get fairly specific with their searches. However, if your local small business site isn't geared to take advantage of that, it will either be lost in millions of listings or excluded from your customer's more specific searches altogether.
2. Include Location References
Because you're aiming to reach your local audience, including location references when choosing your small business keywords can also work well. This can mean including your specific city, metro area, well-known landmarks or even surrounding cities that you commonly provide services to.
By doing this, you accomplish two very different tasks. For one, you make your site known to the people who matter most to you. You can be found by your customers looking for you in their own location. But there's an additional advantage to this.
When you include locations in your keywords, you eliminate a lot of unnecessary communication. With the abundance of people searching for products you may be offering, there's no limit to how many customers you can't help that may contact you for information. By including location, they know who you're working for and can move on to companies that are less focused.
3. Communicate with Your Customers
As with all business choices, communication is absolutely important. If you come up with keywords that make sense to your industry as a whole, but aren't words your common customers would use, you have failed.
Customers aren't always in tune with the proper terminology of your industry. You would do well to interact often with your customers and find out how they refer to the products and services you offer in your own personal business.
This can be done when they're in your store. It can also be done through surveys. Contacting your customers, explaining that you're simply trying to better serve them by learning how they view your products and getting them to respond in their own terminology can give you a strong advantage in keyword advertising – with the added bonus of letting your customers know you really value their input!
While other companies may be reaching out to them just as vehemently as you are, you can sprint ahead of the competition by making your local small business easier to find according to your customer's standards.
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 popular 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!
4. Use Honesty
A huge mistake many companies make when choosing their small business keywords, is to draw people in dishonestly. Often, they'll find out keywords that are very popular and try to jump through hoops to tie those words to their own products. This is not good business!
Instead, offer what you have according to honest keywords. You don't just want to draw anyone and everyone that uses the Internet. You want to draw customers that really are looking for your services.
It is said by some that people who are dissatisfied with a company spread their feelings 10 times more than those who are content. If you begin to draw anyone and everyone you can pointlessly to your site, you will eventually have a large amount of people who have a simple distaste for you before they even know anything about your company.
5. Continually Reevaluate
Finally, you must recognize that language is organic. It is continually changing for a multitude of reasons. Keywords, key focuses, key everything changes based on fads, slang, trends, needs, and so on. You must continually check on how your keywords are performing.
Once you've found a set of keywords that work well for you, it would be good practice to reevaluate them about once a month. Check to see the popularity of those words and phrases. See if they're no longer being used or if they're typically being applied to something irrelevant to your company.
Your local small business is absolutely important to you. In today's information age, your Web site can be equally important to your customers. If they cannot find it, you're inevitably going to miss out on business you otherwise would have had.
There are other tips for choosing keywords, but they're negligible compared to those mentioned here. If you want to be seen, you must remember to use phrases and location references. If you want to be seen by the most relevant customers, you'll need to communicate with them and be honest. And finally, you must always remember that language changes – as do preferences - and you have to be able to change with it.
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 popular eZine, "Small Business Maverick Secrets." Learn insider Maverick Marketing secrets you can use immediately to find new local 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 More Web Traffic 5 MakeorBreak Tactics to Help the Search Engines Find Your Small Business - To learn more about this author, visit Caroline Melberg's Website.
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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