Small Business News: Harnessing Google for You
With all the talk about social media these days, you might think that the key to marketing your business and even driving sales lies entirely with sites like Facebook and Twitter, but, if you market your product or service online, harnessing the power of Google for your small business is still important. By this, of course, we mean search marketing, the general focus of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and, while there are other search engines to consider, SEO expert Aaron Wall reckons Google still makes up about 75 percent of the search market. Here are some things every small business owner planning to market online should know to capture it.
SEO Basics
Why organic traffic is still the most valuable. The first thing you ought to know about marketing online is that not all traffic to your Website is created equal. According to Aaron Wall, who is, of course, in the SEO marketing game, the difference between paid traffic and organic traffic is simple. It comes down to a question of value. Read Aaron’s full explanation of why he believes SEO traffic for your online business is the most valuable traffic online. SEO Book
Why search engines are still important, even in a Facebook world. Google may not be as important as it used to be, but that’s not to say you can leave Search Engine Optimization out when marketing your online business. In fact, the four key concerns web developer Jon-Mikel Bailey often shares with clients about building their Web presence and the traffic that should follow are about equally divided. Can you add anything to his analysis? Wood Street Inc.
Techniques
Do you believe in paid search? Organic traffic, that is visitors who arrive at your site due merely to the relevant search terms and generally the ease with which your site can be crawled and indexed via search engines like Google, may still be the best traffic in online marketing. But if you doubt the value of paid traffic, usually through pay per click ads and the like, a simple experiment could change your mind. Search Engine Guide
Blogging: Still the best search marketing strategy. Creating a blog has long been considered one of the simplest and best ways to engage in simple search marketing for your online business. Creating a blog for your brand or adding a blog to your Website will improve your Search Engine Optimization. Alastair Kay explains six reasons why. SiteStream
Online Presence
Creating a credible Website. With all the key wording, site navigation improvements and other Search Engine Optimization tips and tricks that go into creating an easy to index Website, the majority of these techniques won’t be any good at all if when visitors arrive they find a site that is less than credible or provides information that cannot be trusted created by people we don’t know and cannot contact. Search Engine Guide
Resources
What small businesses told Google. In a recent “Google Wishes initiative,” small business owners and entrepreneurs shared dreams and aspirations for 2011. Google has long been in the business of encouraging entrepreneurship as a major part of its mission to create tools that enhance online business efforts. Here, Anita Campbell gives an overview of what the initiative found and a link to more. Small Business Trends
Google Apps become more accountable. Besides the Web search for which Google is unquestionably best known, the company also offers a variety of other technology tools for small business including its Google Apps with both business and education versions. Up until now, these tools have functioned to an already high 99.9 percent uptime standard. But Google announced today increased accountability by beginning to log every moment of downtime and count maintenance time against its guarantee. Yahoo! News
PPC
The other side of the Google AdWords equation. As explained earlier, paid traffic including Google AdSense may make money in the short run, but what does the pricing structure of pay per click ads say about their long term sustainability for small businesses and startup entrepreneurs marketing online? Read this post about what Google’s AdSense business model says about the likely increasing cost of the service for those on the buying end. Konnessi
Opinion
The state of SEO: A blogger’s perspective. Ana Hoffman gives her thoughts on Search Engine Optimization from the perspective of a small business blog owner. Far from big operators, a substantial number of online entrepreneurs have launched blogs not as a way of promoting a business but as businesses in themselves. Ana talks from her own personal experience, growth and knowledge as a small business blogger and what lessons learned could mean to you. Traffic Generation Cafe
Other Tools
Are you using Google Trends? This Google tool allows you to search for trends in your industry throughout the year and even determine how to plan offline marketing including mailing campaigns based on these trends. The tool can also measure changes based on unexpected events by tracking how these events impact overall online search in your market. Sprike
Managing Editor of SmallBizTechnology
Founder of Small Business Finance Forum
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Hey,
I fell social media will surely help young people like us to develop our business. We have got many new small business clients who use it.It is important that the business decides before hand what they want to acheive – Branding, Word Of Mouth, or Just Sales…and then take the approach that best matches these goals…I wish all the readers a very Happy and Socially Productive 2011!
Thanks!
Lakshmi
You’re right, Lakshmi.
Today, small businesses is not only rely on Google Search Engine but also reply on Social Marketing in order to generate traffic. No traffic, no money.
Another fantastic collection of what’s important to all of us who are not only small business owners, but are online a lot.
Folks like Aaron Wall, and even newcomers like Ana, who I’ve been learning from too, are fantastic sources of easy to follow techniques to improve our status in the “being found on Google” world.
The Franchise King
Great article! The marketing strategy of a company mainly depends on the target market and the budget of a company. As Lakshmi mentioned, social media is a great tool for start ups and small businesses with a fairly small budget, but also for large corporations looking to target the teenagers and young adults. There has been a lot of hype surrounding the growth of Social Media in the recent past, but I still think that SEOing and PPC will continue to dominate the online marketing stream for the next few years.
This is cool. I have been researching online tools like the ones mentioned here for a while. I was wondering- I always see practical marketing stuff examined. But are there any free online tools that can create design elements for small businesses? Like some logo builders, letterhead builders, stuff that we can use for visual and print marketing? Let me know if you know of anything.
An interesting collection of articles. The temptation is to head for the latest and greatest, such as social media. However, the best approach is to slot the new technologies and techniques into a balanced approach that utilizes all of the available tools.
Small Businesses cannot rely on one technique alone. Good job of listing the most important ways to increase traffic to their websites.
[...] Small Business News: Harnessing Google for You This is an excellent resource for all marketers, a list of SEO and Google resources focused on strategies. [...]