23 October 2010

SEO, Small Business And How To Dominate Local Search

Is your small business showing up on the virtual map? When people type the product or service that you offer, does your website show up on the first page of the results? Does your business dominate the local search results? If it does not, then your potential business is sitting on the other side of a closed door. Can this problem be fixed? Can you advertise in a way that is efficient and cost-effective? Can your small business be promoted using a means that will not break your meager advertising budget?

Absolutely! And, it is much easier than you might think. All you have to do is create a little buzz around your product or service and make sure that your company name or website address is sitting right in the middle of it. So, how is this done? Easily, with Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

If you are not familiar with Search Engine Marketing, as a small business owner, it is something you would definitely want to know about. Essentially, it is the systematic increasing of visibility of your business or website by leveraging the traffic found in search engines. How is this traffic leveraged you ask? Through a variety of steps that anyone, regardless of their experience level, can pursue. Here are a handful of the things that you would need to do in order to get things moving in the right direction.

You will need to launch a website. You definitely need to be visible and you would definitely want to launch a website, if you do not have one already. Your website is the foundation of your SEM platform. Visibility is key and when your potential customers learn about your product or service offerings they need somewhere to go to look you up. Your business website is the only place they can do this and see your offerings the way you want to have them seen.

You will need to promote your website. In the old days, if you built a website, people would come and visit it naturally. In today's virtual world of high competition, your website will have to be actively and consistently promoted for you to remain visible. This will entail the pursuit of a variety of marketing techniques that will guarantee search engine visibility and ranking. Writing will be key to these efforts as search engines are based on readable and crawl-able content.

You will need to research. If you have a product or service that you offer, odds are, people are looking for it. The only question is, what search terms are they using to find it. Keyword and traffic research are both necessary elements of this process. To build your website and promotional efforts around terminology that receives low-level traffic would be a huge mistake. Research is and will always be a key element.

Search Engine Marketing is a pursuit that is well worth your efforts. If you have a small business and are interested in learning SEO, SEM or internet marketing as a means to promote your products or services as a means of dominating local search results, it is highly advised that you sign up for a comprehensive search engine or internet marketing course.

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