Sunday, October 28. 2007

Taking your business online!

This is never an easy thought as most brick and mortar businesses really do not have a good understanding on what the internet can do for them when properly harnessed. Many small business owners opt to build there site on there own which can be a big mistake especially if you are not willing to take the time to really understand what needs to be done to get noticed online.

Ask yourself a few simple questions:

Have you ever done any html, java, php or mysql database work?

It is essential that you have a basic understanding of how to build a website other wise you present a professional image in one business and are wasting your time in another.

Can you take the time to learn?

Alot of time is required to learn the basice of how to get your site ranked online, but if cash is tight than you have to do what you have to do.

It always amazes me though that the same person that says he has no money will spend money on newspaper advertising. You have the money to build a website the problem is you do not see the value in it, you are probably saying with over a billion sites online I will never get noticed anyways and that could not be further from the truth!

Do you think that getting noticed online is as simple as putting up a website?

Guess
again, every tom, dick, or harry knows a web designer, unfortunatly that
is not going to get you noticed online. Most people that think it does
simply spin there wheels, of course if you like wasting money
then go for it, you work hard for it so you can spend it anyway you
like.

Seriously though unless you understand what it really
takes to get ranked on the first couple pages of the search engine
which include but are not limited to the following:

> Meta-tags and the proper usage of them.

> Incoming Links

> Quality content and more content

> Updating your content

If
you do not understand this then you can always pay for placement,
which after you spend a couple thousand dollars you will wonder why you
did not listen to me in the first place but to each his own. The bad
thing about paying for placement is that it never ends, one keyword is
not going to bring you much so you will have to pay for many keywords.

Any
more most SEO's will do this for you also, ever wander why? It was not
to long ago that SEO meant optimizing your site to be noticed or ranked
on the search engines, well today the majority say they can get you
ranked but the truth is much different so they will pay for placement and with your payment of a couple hundred dollars you are on the first page, they never said how they would get you on the first page.

Always ask to view the results of there work and how the sites they have optimized are ranked on the search engines?

They
can give you all the analytics they want but your site ranking is all
that is important, PR alone is not all that is important and will not
put money in your pocket, only being ranked on the first two pages will
do this for you.

Let's say that your business is in Zanesville, Ohio and you are an Auto-body shop:

> Realistically someone will not be driving more than one or two counties for your service unless you offer some form of specialty service so you will need to be optimized for local searches and not national searches.

> On the other hand let's say you are a pottery manufacturer then you will need to be optimized for more global terms than local.

Understanding business is essential for any good SEO in order to provide the best service for the perspective business looking to go online, you as the business owner should also have a basic understanding of what you need just in case you meet up with someone trying to sell you a bushel of apples when you only need a couple.