Small business and the Internet
by Robert Nixon
Information is the key to the internet. The more of it you show coming from you, the more traffic will be directed your way.
I believe that small business is starting to make a come back and it is partially due to their addressing the internet side of their business. I have seen more and more small business owners with 'Internet' or 'Web' persons or creating a department for their web side of the business. This move has kept more small business in business than is generally known.
I work for a small business and one of the many hats that I wear is the Internet marketing director and webmaster of the company site. Last year a growing majority of our business first time client's has been coming from those that have found us on the internet.
'Found us on the internet' ? You should know by now, that you do not just 'find' someone or a company on the internet. It takes time, effort and knowledge for your company to appear on the monitor of the searcher.
You have to enter into the right partnerships in business, on the internet this is finding the right 'links' for your site. What is amazing is that many of these links do not have to be physically on your site. It will depend upon what the link will do and where is it from and where ( what page of your site ) it appears.
Examples:
Search engines love to see themselves on a site. Putting a link to them will help your placement with that engine as they will also 'spider' the rest of the site and place it higher in their 'results' listings. ( NOTE: your keywords will matter more here ). But the link to them DOES NOT have to be on your main site page. Just remember to submit the page their link does appear on once a month or so, or when you up date or change that page. On my site I do not have a 'search engine' link on the main page. I do have an 'Alexa' link however. Alexa is a reporting, usage site to the majors. It shows volume or 'traffic' which means a lot to the majors in their ranking of your site in that category.
Yellow pages and directories rely upon your category and whether or not you pay as to how you are placed. Do not let this get you down if you don't have the money to insure top listing. With these, starting higher up the 'tree' is best. What is meant by that is to pay attention to your country, region, state and local area, in that order. This makes good sense as the internet is world wide.
Do a search on your own and find who larger companies in your expertise area are listed with and get listed there too. Just because a company is large does not mean they have a smart IT director of even a full time marketing person. They may have spent thousands on their web site creation, but only up date their site with the addition of a new product. For those that are on the ball, contacting them for a link to your site often proves to be a good move as they may be looking for your area for coverage. Even if they already have one of your competitors with them, they know the value of a 'back up' and will give you business to keep you on board.
Many of these sites that they are listed with are dying for more listings, are lesser engines in their own right with their results feeding to the majors. If you are listed with one of the majors directly as a 'free listing' and placed on page 50, so what ? Getting listed with a minor will show a return for your site coming from other places too. How many of these pop up will increase your standing for a search within that major it feeds, in spite of themselves. This is using the system to your advantage.
Articles, newsletters, forums, Blogs and the rest all have their place in the overall picture. Submitting your information to them is well worth the time and effort. Some of these must be published to become and stay active. Guess what ? The subject will become your keywords and return in a search, again showing more links to you.
I use my test site, http://www.cpucash.net to prove out new ideas and methods for web site promotions and marketing. I use what I have learned to promote my company site, thus make more money for myself and my family. I share the results with the subscribers of my newsletter, free of charge, for information purposes to assist them with their web site promotions and marketing.
Robert Nixon
