Feb 22, 2012
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If You’re a Small Business, a Website Is Your Bazooka In the Battlefield
The Facts | How the Internet Stole the Show
A lot of small businesses today are catching on to this whole “Internet” thing. Back in the good ol’ days (a few years ago), the Yellow Pages were a small business’ best friend. Check after check would be written to buy ads in the Yellow Pages. Once Google came along and threw the Yellow Pages in the dumpster, people found a new way to find what they needed. It gave them what they wanted, when they wanted it without having to call a phone number.
So now these small businesses who were putting so much money into tangible advertising were watching their customers disappear. That’s when things got interesting. Internet marketing agencies and website design companies started sharpening their swords and preparing for what we know today in 2012 as the Age of the Internet.
How Does a Small Business Like Me Make an Impact on Google?
A lot of people look at the Internet and think it’s voodoo. Anything looks intimidating when there are people fighting to the death over it. What these people don’t understand is that a simple website can bring enormous benefits to their small business. The great thing about the Internet is that businesses have not mastered it yet. Nobody has it down perfect. Search engines are always coming out with new ways of grading and ranking websites which gives small businesses with brand new websites a little bit of room to learn, work the system, and get caught up to a few of the competitors already on the Internet.
The job of a web design and search engine optimization (SEO) company is to research the market of a particular business. They look for certain words or phrases that people are typing into search engines to find products, services, or pieces of information related to that market. Then they use a variety of SEO tools to look at how many competitors are targeting those phrases. It’s their ultimate responsibility to make sure you, as a small business with a shiny new website, are targeting the right phrases at the right time with the right weapons and armor.
Proper Website Design and Marketing Strategies = $$$
The benefits of having a website as a small business only come if you use that website correctly. You can’t just throw up a few pictures and a BUY NOW button and then call it quits. A website is just like a muscle. If you use that muscle and push it to its limits on a regular basis with proper form, it gets stronger and stronger.
Marketing your website requires consistent activity that caters to Internet users looking for your types of products and services. Here is a list of a few marketing activities that really bring those benefits of having a website to life:
- Article Writing: On a daily or weekly basis, write an article about something in the news that relates to your business or new products or services you’re offering. The more content you have on your website that people will actually read, the better.
- Social Media: Every one and their mother is on Facebook and Twitter. Follow the crowd. Find a way to connect with those people using social media. If you go about social media the right way, it can be a savior to your small business.
- Blogging: Blogging is hit or miss. Some companies write articles and post them on blog websites like WordPress.com or Tumblr.com that simply promote their business. People hate this and so does Google because it looks like spam. If you’re going to blog, be smart about it and blog about subjects that people are willing to read and share with their friends. The great thing about these blogging websites is that Google searches through their content constantly. The moment you post something up, Google is reading it and putting in their index to be ranked.
- Google Maps: If you don’t have a physical location, get one and create a Google Maps listing. There are a ton of search queries that yield Google Maps listings above organic search results. For example, if you search for “Malls in New York City,” you’ll see a big map pop up on the right side of the page and then business locations listed next to it on the left. These are Google Maps listings, and they can help your business like you wouldn’t believe.
There’s a lot more I could mention here, but it would take all day. If you want to experience the benefits of having a website as a small business, your best bet is to consult with a reputable web design agency. Their experience on the Web can help your business thrive when so many others are falling off the face of the earth.