
Search engine optimization has become an effective strategy for marketing small businesses cost effectively. SEO requires good content, adequate site structure and a driving force defined by an original “call to action.”
Top 5 Search Engine Optimization Tips for small businesses from Vendor Seek:
1. Use appropriate page titles like Creative Bakery in Chicago, IL Specializing in Wedding Cakes instead of just Welcome
2. Choose the right keywords in your text. See what terms users are searching on in Google and make sure they appear on your website
3. Build a Sitemap so that search engines can easily navigate your web site and include them in the search results
4. Optimize your local advertising by submitting to Google Local, including your physical address on your website and submitting to free directories like Yahoo, Yelp, SuperPages, etc.
5. Analyze your visitors that come to your site using Google Analytics (free) or another web traffic analysis program. This will tell you what people do when they come to your site and how to improve.
2010 is already flying by, it is not to late to take a step back and get some perspective on internet marketing and the search engine optimization that can be done to improve your website ranking on the major search engines, Bing, Google and Yahoo. Sit down and put together a To Do List that prioritizes tasks for your in-house SEO team this year. Everyone has a huge list of search engine optimization tasks that need doing, but let’s focus on larger tactics that will maximize 2010.
Optimize for Bing
If you aren’t running an active paid search account with Microsoft’s Advertising adCenter, 2010 is the time to start. The latest comScore figures (December 2009) report Bing has now reached over 10% in share, closing in on Yahoo’s 17%. If the two year trend of Bing stealing Yahoo search share continues, expect to see your Yahoo paid search account traffic and conversion volumes decline. You’ll need to have a search marketing strategy to recoup Yahoo paid search losses. Shift some of your time and resources to getting your paid search keywords on Bing to take advantage of the traffic shift. The adCenter desktop tool makes porting over existing accounts and making easy find and replace updates efficient.
In terms of the Micro-Yahoo deal, the latest timeline suggests that paid Microsoft/Bing results will being appearing on Yahoo in early 2011 in major markets with the goal of all results by early 2012. While 2011 is still a year away, there’s no time like the present to start preparations for this transition. The announcement of their deal is already six months old, so see how time flies? Bing’s not going anywhere in 2010, Microsoft will likely continue their advertising push to steal search share, and Yahoo is unlikely to aggressively respond to win significant share back. Coupled with the imminent syndication of Bing results on Yahoo, search marketers should start treating Bing as they would Yahoo in terms of search priorities and resources.
Keep Google a top priority
Despite lots of news and noise about Bing and Yahoo, Google is still the focus for search engine marketing and will likely remain the top priority. Google maintains an outstanding share of the search market (65-67% in December 2009) and the market leader position for paid search, so no surprise that the bulk of any paid search marketer’s time should be spent on AdWords, as that’s likely responsible for the majority of search marketing traffic and conversions. In the flurry of activity around other projects and news, it is always a good idea to remind oneself of that. There’s always more to do with AdWords: test content targeting, placement targeting, sitelinks, target devices like iPhones, creating mobile ads (more on that below), image ads, video ads, and classic strategies like simply testing some new ad text.
Optimize for mobile
As more innovative devices (like the Nexus One) hit the market the mobile buzz, and search share, is increasing. Get in on the ground floor by kicking off a mobile search strategy in 2010. For many search engine marketers this might largely consist of lobbying for a mobile friendly version of your organization’s website, or for better reporting and tracking on an existing mobile site. Marketers lucky enough to have a functional mobile site should start testing mobile paid search campaigns to increase direct traffic. Particularly focus on messaging, a mobile user will likely respond to a different ad text than a user at their computer – a last minute, local emphasis might garner a better response. If your organization has a mobile application, consider search strategies to promote the application. Maybe a paid search campaign to encourage downloads is worth pursuing. A strong search presence for an application can also boost PR coverage as most reporters and bloggers conduct searches as part of their research.
Integrate your website socially
Every day, in every way, you are becoming a better search engine marketer. Think about new ways you can add value to your organization’s in-house marketing efforts. Is anyone committed to working on your organization’s social media presence? Becoming the Twitter, Facebook, blogger and all around social media guru is a great way for an in-house search engine marketer to increase their profile and responsibilities. As more Twitter and Facebook links populate the search result pages, this will only help your existing search efforts. Read the original post online.
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