By: Guest Blogger, Kentaro Roy
For a small business, having a professional and effective online presence is crucial. Everyone is online these days, and you can’t afford to not utilize the tools available to grow your business. Here are 5 Internet Marketing tips for you to consider in your small business:
1. Get Local Visibility. Set up a Google Places page for your physical location. Why? Because Google Places results show up first on Google results page for local + service queries on Google. So, if your frozen yogurt shop just opened up and someone Googles “Smalltown Frozen Yogurt”, they’ll see you right away on Google Places. They can immediately see how to contact you and find your business, as well as all of the rave reviews that your satisfied customers are sure to write. You can also upload photos of your product or pertaining to your services, and give your page credibility by verifying the listing. A Google Places listing also makes it very easy for mobile phone users to find you on apps like Google Maps.
2. Start a Blog. You’ve probably heard that suggestion many times, but blogs really can help your business. They’re easy to personalize and are a great way to offer more information about your brand, industry, field, etc. Many companies use blogs as a way to inform their customers of news and trends in the industry. Establish your company as a source of credible information on topics that your target market may need to know about. Blogs are also a great way to interact with consumers, through polls, interviews, trading posts, and comments. Update regularly (at least weekly) to show search engines that there is new content, which will lead to higher search rankings. If you’re one of the many small business owners who just can’t find the time, you might also consider hiring a marketing intern from a local university.
3. Utilize Social Media. Facebook has more than 500 million active users, and the average number of new Twitter accounts created every day is 460,000. Other platforms to consider are Yelp and Merchantcircle.com. If you are going to start company profiles on social media sites, make sure that you can update them regularly; people will grow bored with your Facebook profile if your status updates are few and far between. It doesn’t take much time out of your day (or your intern’s day), and if done successfully you can grow a community for your business. Additionally, when Google sees references to your website on multiple platforms and sites, it will see your site as credible and can increase your search engine rankings.
4. Provide Quality Content. It should go without saying, but don’t spam your consumers—they won’t like it, and search engines won’t, either. Don’t post fluff or purely promotional material; make sure that the content you’re publishing has value for the consumer. A regular FAQ column, updates on industry trends, guest posts, and the occasional announcement about your company’s products and services as it grows are all good ways to keep readers informed, and if they see you as a credible source of information they’ll keep coming back. People like to read things that are well-written, well-researched, and engaging.
5. Don’t be a copycat. A fatal error that many companies make is studying their high-ranking competition and then employing the exact same methods. This is self-destructive because some sites that enjoy high rankings may be using unsavory SEO practices: doing things like posting spammy comments on blogs to get traffic to your site, producing insubstantial content, or attempting to redirect search results using unethical SEO practices. As a general rule, if you’re following search engine guidelines, you’re doing it right. Search engines are raising their content standards and looking for ways to prevent spam from turning up in search results. Pay attention to your analytics and focus on providing high-quality content, you’ll be on your way to gaining greater visibility on the web.
Points to ponder and share:
Which of these top five tips have been a struggle for you, or which ones are you resisting?
Are you skeptical about what SEO can do for your website? For a related article on that topic, read Is SEO Snake Oil?
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Kentaro Roy is the owner of Kentaro Web Consulting, an SEO (search engine optimization) consulting and web marketing company based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Through smart, ethical SEO strategies, Kentaro helps businesses achieve their online visibility and marketing goals.
