Since the introduction of the web in the late 90′s, it’s growth has been explosive with an impressive 25% of all people on the planet using it. Worldwide, Internet usage seems to have grown roughly 340% since the beginning of the millennium.
This equates to nearly 1.6 billion people all across the world who use the Internet today. Chances are that these people surfing the web are hungry for information – information that they will eventually use for purchasing a product or service. Studies estimate that over $130 billion was spent in America online last year. That’s more revenue than fortune 500 companies make!
In order for your small business to get a piece of this $130 billion pie, you need to find different ways of promoting your website online and bringing hundreds of qualified visitors to it on a daily basis. If you’re looking into paid advertising like pay-per-click (PPC), watch out – these campaigns could get extremely expensive and often times lead to campaigns shutting down right with the businesses that spend the money to run them!
Small businesses that want to maximize their web presence realize that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a much better resource over pay-per-click advertising. They might now know that SEO better be more than just keyword research and metatag improvements. SEO should focus on getting the maximum exposure possible from many different Internet resources.
Usually a reputable SEO firm can identify these “outside” resources, and the goal is obviously to promote exposure and brand recognition for your website using a combination of the following:
Optimizing each page on your site. Many people don’t realize that websites don’t rank as a whole – each individual page actually ranks by itself in the search engines. Since you can leverage more than one page and not just the “home” page, incoming traffic can be increased significantly in the search engines.
Building back-links on other sites. When people come to your website through a link that is strategically placed on another site, this is called a bank-link. Back-links serve two purposes – they obviously bring in more traffic to your site directly from other websites, but they also allow your domain to rank higher in the search engine results. A good, ethical SEO firm will work diligently to provide bank-links, often through content, on other relevant websites.
Analyzing the Competition: You better know what keywords your competition is ranking for and why. If your business can understand this concept, chances are it can find windows of opportunity to drive more traffic in towards your own website.
Social Media. Leveraging the masses of social media (Myspace, Linkedin, etc) will allow for further expansion of the exposure your website should enjoy.
Detailed Monthly Reporting. A good SEO firm will provide your business with detailed reporting, usually once a month, with the improvements that your website has made in the search engines.
Effective SEO companies should provide you with these tools that will further promote your business online and allow you to gain maximum exposure and awareness. Competition for sales is hard enough when times are good – and when the economy is shrinking, selecting an effective and economical SEO firm is an extremely important decision.
Retail sales have declined in the double-digits since last year – ecommerce has only experienced a 5% decline in the first quarter of 2009.
In today’s turbulent economy, such a modest decline puts the ecommerce world ahead of most businesses. And with a properly managed SEO strategy, your small business could very well avoid participating in the current recession altogether.