According to Sysomos Inc, one of the world’s leading social media analytics companies, Twitter has experienced hockey stick-like growth in 2009. 72.5% of all Twitters first joined Twitter during the first five months of 2009. Twitter is incredibly popular in bigger cities like New York, LA, Toronto, San Francisco and Boston. And, there are more women on Twitter than men. 53% 5o 47%. Here’s a quick-start small business Twitter marketing guide to help you get started.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to tell the world what you are currently doing in 140 characters or less and connect with people globally. In a sense, it is like a global chat room where news and ideas can go viral within minutes.

The Twitter concept is simple. You sign up for an account, edit your profile, and answer the question: “What are you doing?” If you structure your profile well, people within your niche market will find you and “follow” you, which means they sign up to receive your updates and communicate with you.

Twitter is social by nature. You have to try it out for a few days to really understand how powerful of a tool it is. While you can use it to simply broadcast short messages and updates, you get the most benefit when you actively participate in the ongoing conversation.

Of course, with so much information streaming at any given point, not everyone on your list will read every Tweet you make, but if you befriend enough loyal followers, you can both be a connector and be connected with top people throughout the globe. It is a fantastic way to meet people and get to know them.

Isn’t Social Media Just a Fad?

Perhaps you’ve heard that social media is just a fad and haven’t wanted to use it to market your services. If you think this, I encourage you to watch this YouTube video.

What Makes Twitter Different?

With so many social networking sites out there, you may wonder – what makes Twitter different? It doesn’t have nearly the functionality of Facebook. When the two are compared side-by-side, Twitter seems extremely basic.

Yet Twitter’s simplistic nature has been one of the contributing factors leading to its enormous success. Anyone can sign up and start posting within a minute or two. And because you are limited to 140 characters, it doesn’t take long to craft and submit a post.

Twitter has a vast group of loyal updaters who often beat the mainstream media to announce current events. If a major earthquake happens or an airplane crashes, Tweeters within the area will immediately post. If a major event such as a conference or political rally is happening, people attending the event will Tweet updates to keep people informed.

Benefits of Twitter for Small Business Marketing

Twitter isn’t only for people who want to stay current on national trends and current events. Businesses can build a targeted following by staying active in the community. Here are some ways you can use Twitter to grow your business.

• Promote Your Services – By announcing newsletters you send out, articles you publish to your website, new product launches, and other major business events, you can promote your products and services instantaneously.

• Ask For Feedback – If you need to conduct market research, simply send a Tweet asking your followers for feedback. Twitter can be a great tool to help you build trust and credibility within your market.
• Build Your Web Presence – Twitter can also help you build a web presence. If you use your name as your Twitter account, it should rank well in Google when prospects search for you. Mine was ranking for my name within less than a week. (Follow me on Twitter.)
• Drive traffic To Your Website – Not only is Twitter great for helping you rank well in Google, you can also use it to drive traffic to your website. Because you control the information channel, you can direct people to sources of great information.
• Build Your Network – Twitter can also be a great tool to build your sphere of influence. It’s extremely easy to find people in your niche area through various Twitter search engines. And more and more influential people have started Twitter accounts, so if you want to meet someone in person, check Twitter to see if they already have an account. If so, that makes it incredibly easy to start networking with them.
• Monitor Your Competition – Want to find out what your competitors are talking about? Twitter will help you stay up-to-date on what is going on in your industry with minimal effort. As you engage with your colleagues, peers and competitors, you will always be in the loop about the latest buzz.

The best thing about Twitter is it is so easy! Even if you hate writing articles, you can easily think of something to write about in 140 characters or less. And as you get good at Tweeting, you will be amazed at just how much you can say in so few words.

Get Started On Twitter

This quick-start small business Twitter marketing guide just scratches the surface of what you can do with Twitter. To learn more, I’ve just put together a step-by-step Beginner’s Guide to Twitter that will walk you through the process of setting up your Twitter account, what to write about, how to get followers, ways to automate the process, and the most popular Twitter tools you can use to make using Twitter a breeze.

Step 1 – Discover Your Competitors

The obvious way to start researching your competitors is to do a Google search for your top keywords. Who is listed on the first page? Which websites are advertising their services in the sponsored listings? Create a list of your top competitors so you can keep track of them.

Step 2 – Research Your Competitors

Once you know who your top competitors are, it’s time analyze their websites and traffic. Here are a few tools you can use to monitor the success of your competition.

1. Alexa – Amazon’s Alexa rank isn’t incredibly accurate but it will give you a high-level overview of how a website’s traffic is trending. Alexa will also show any user-submitted reviews for the website, major keywords it is ranked for, and a general overview of site visitors’ demographics.
2. Yahoo Site Explorer – The best way to find out who is linking to your competitors’ sites is to use Yahoo Site Explorer. This tool will show you the most popular pages on the website as well as which websites are linking to the site’s content. This is incredibly useful when you are trying to get back links to your website and want to find websites who might link to you.
3. Spyfu – Spyfu allows you to see which keywords your competitors are buying pay-per-click ads for and how much they spend on advertising. It will also show you how they rank in the organic and sponsored listings. Spyfu offers both a free and a more comprehensive paid service.

Step 3 – How to Analyze Competitors

The best way to analyze your competitors’ sites is to put yourself in your prospects’ shoes. I previously wrote about what your target audience is looking for. Here, you’ll evaluate how good your competitors are at helping them achieve their goals. Specifically, you want to look at:

1. How does the website look? Is the text legible? Is it easy to scan and pick up the basic message? Do the graphics enhance the site’s content?
2. How easy is it to navigate? Will they understand where to click to find information?
3. How useful is the site? Can they do what they need to do?
4. Would they trust this site? Does it look professional? Is there a privacy policy? Is the company’s address and phone number displayed prominently? Do all the links work? Does it look like they keep the site up-to-date?
5. How convincing is it? Would they want to join the mailing list, buy a product, or request a consultation?

Once you’ve made note of the good and bad points of each site, review what your business objectives are and what your target audience will be looking for. From that, come up with a list of features you’d like to include on your site. Stick to the essentials rather than getting caught up in all the bells and whistles. Good sites are practical and functional at their core.

Step 4 – Monitor Your Competitors

Once you’ve analyzed your competitors, the final step to competitive research is to track and monitor what they are doing over time. Ideally, you want to keep track of which keywords they continue to bid on, what their Adwords ads say, and where they continue to rank in search results.

A general rule of thumb is that if your competitors are at all savvy about marketing, they will be monitoring their advertising campaigns so the ads they continue to run should make the most money while the ads they stop running are not profitable. This isn’t always the case – many small businesses don’t have the time to monitor their advertising, so they lump everything together and wouldn’t be able to tell you what is profitable and what isn’t, but generally speaking, if they are making money through their advertising, they will continue to advertise. Spyfu is great for keeping track of advertising trends over time.

In addition, one of the best ways to monitor what people are saying about your competitors is to use Google Alerts. You can sign up for a free account to monitor any keywords, competitor names, and even the names of articles or videos you submit to directories. Google Alerts makes it easy to track virtually anything.

If you want high rankings in search engines, you must know who your competition is and what they are currently doing to market themselves. By studying your competitors and following these 4 small business web design tips, you can uncover what works and doesn’t work for them – thus learning from their mistakes without wasting lots of money in the process.

1. What are their demographics? Demographics are things like age, education, gender, marital status, job type and income level. They are the basic facts about your target audience that help to segment your market. They give you an idea of where prospects are in life and what major events might influence their purchasing decision.
2. What are their psychographics? Psychographics describe how your prospects and clients view the world. They focus on character, personality and motivations. For instance, are your prospects and clients optimistic or pessimistic? Open-minded or closed-minded? Do they take control over their lives (“seize the day”) or believe that they are victims and “things happen to them”?
3. What do they want? You’ve probably heard countless times that people buy benefits, not features. What, specifically, does your target market want? How will their lives change if they buy your product or service?
4. What are their key problems, concerns and frustrations? Many people buy products or services to solve a particular problem. What is your product or service the “solution” to?
5. What else do your prospects and clients buy? What other products and services that are similar to yours are they buying or have they bought in the past?

Research Your Target Market Online

To learn more about your target market, you should conduct some online market research. Specifically, you want to know where they go online, so that you can find the right types of people and get them to your website. There is no point in building a website if you don’t attract the right types of people, so here are a few starting points.

• Online forums and communities – Do a Google search for your keyword + “forum” and analyze the search results. Look for popular forums with a lot of activity. What are people talking about? What questions do they ask? What are popular discussion topics?
• Blogs – Browse sites like BlogCatalog, Technorati and AllTop for popular keywords your target audience might search for and compile a list of the most popular blogs in your market. What are bloggers talking about? Which topics get the most number of comments?
• Videos – What videos do they watch? Search YouTube for your keywords and look for popular videos. Which videos get the most views?
• Articles – What articles are of interest? eZineArticles is an article directory that allows anyone to submit articles to their website. (For instance, here’s a link to my author profile.) You can search eZineArticles for content ideas or even use the articles in their directory free of charge on your website, in your newsletters, or in free reports as long as you credit the author for using the content. What topics to authors write about most?

By understanding what content your prospects and clients want most, you can make your website a valuable resource by providing that content. With a small amount of research, you will never run out of ideas for what to write about.

Step 1: Capture Prospects’ Attention

When prospects visit your website, they are usually searching for information on how to solve a particular problem. This is especially true of search engine traffic. If you want to keep them on your site, you must provide the information they are searching for. A good way to do this is to provide great website content such as articles, audio, video, past newsletters, or an interesting blog. If you don’t capture your prospect’s attention in the first few seconds, they will click the back button.

Good websites focus on prospects and include plenty of informative content educating and explaining different problems your prospects have and offering advice, new perspectives, or potential solutions. They use web copy that speaks to the problems and concerns of visitors. Put yourself in the minds of your prospects – what are their biggest concerns, problems and obstacles? What might be motivating them to solve those problems? What keywords might prospects type into Google to find a solution similar to what you offer?

Step 2 – Position Yourself as a Specialist

Once your prospects learn more about their problem and potential solutions, they will become more interested in who you are and what you might be able to do for them. They are looking for a trusted adviser who can guide them through the process of solving their problem.

At the same time, your prospects are skeptical. They want proof you can do what you say. They want to know if you are credible and trustworthy. Here are two ways to do that.

• Use a unique selling proposition. – Your website should tell visitors who you are, why you are different from other service professionals, and why they should choose you.
• Provide social proof. – While anyone can brag that they are the best service provider for the job, you prospects want to know what other people think about you. Do you offer client testimonials and case studies? Have you won awards? Has the press mentioned you? Do you often speak at industry events?

Step 3: Capture Leads

Offer several ways for people to contact you through your website. Don’t simply provide your address, phone number and a contact form. Give them an incentive to give you their contact information and permission to follow up. Here are a few ideas for capturing website leads.

• Include an opt-in form for your newsletter. – Place your newsletter’s opt-in form prominently on your page. Ideally, your form should be visible when a visitor clicks on your page so they don’t have to scroll down to find it. Use your form to capture your prospect’s name and email address in exchange for joining your newsletter, downloading your free report, or accessing special content on your website.
• Display contact forms prominently. – Use contact forms for general inquiries, to schedule a consultation with you, or to ask a specific question, which you will answer on your blog.
• Offer RSS feeds. – Some people might not want to give you their email address but may still want to receive your updates. Make it easy for them to do so by providing an RSS feed. Services like Feedburner.com will allow you to track your feed’s subscribers by providing subscriber statistics.
• Store leads in your contact database. – Having a place to collect and store leads is critical to your follow up success. Anyone who joins your newsletter, requests free information, or inquires about your services should immediately be entered into your contact database.

Step 4: Have a Follow Up System

Most people who give you their contact information won’t be ready to hire you. Instead of discarding these leads, follow up with them. Here are a few ways to do that.

• Offer a newsletter – Email marketing is cheap. You can sign up with an email service provider like Aweber for less than $20/month. Decide how often you want to publish your newsletter and send prospects articles about potential problems and issues regularly. A 500-word article shouldn’t take you more than a few hours to write, once you get good at it. Then, simply copy and paste it into Aweber’s interface and click “send.”
• Create a follow up autoresponder sequence. – Autoresponders are emails that you schedule to send at particular intervals in response to a prospect’s actions. For instance, if they request your free report by filling out your form, your email service provider (like Aweber) will automatically send them an email with the link to download that report. You can also schedule to send emails every few days to follow up, The best thing about this is that it’s completely automated. You write the content once, set it up, and Aweber delivers the content to your prospects for you.

By putting this four-step small business website lead generation strategy into place, you will not only capture more leads from your website, but you will convert a higher percentage into paying clients.

Step 1 – Choose A Topic Based On Keyword Research.

Keyword research is essential to article writing. You need to know exactly what keywords and phrases visitors type into search engines to find content like yours. A great place to research keywords is Google’s Keyword Tool. Simply type in the keywords you’d like to be ranked for, and Google will give you suggestions and synonyms.

Pick a key phrase that is 3-5 words long and gets moderate traffic. Don’t choose keywords with tens of thousands of visitors because they have plenty of competition and will be more difficult to rank for.

Step 2 – Decide What Type of Article To Write.

There are a number of types of articles you can write. Some of the most common include a how-to article, where you lead the reader step-by step through a process; a list, where you give readers a number of tips or ways to achieve a goal; a case study, which asks a question and then offers a few real-life examples; a review, which gives your opinion on a product or service; or an editorial, which offers your opinion on a particular problem, trend, or current event.

Step 3 – Write Your Article.

Your article should include a brief introduction paragraph which tells readers what they can expect; the body of the article, which delivers the main content of the article, and a concluding paragraph. Try to keep your article between 400-700 words, so it’s a fast read, but is long enough to give readers the content they are searching for.

For web articles, keep your paragraphs short and break up your text with sub-headlines, bulleted lists, and bolded font. Use a conversational style and make your content useful to readers.

Step 4 – Give Your Article A Powerful Headline.

Your headline is what grabs reader’s attention immediately, so writing a great headline is key to your article’s success. A good headline peaks your reader’s curiosity so they keep reading. You can promise quantifiable benefits for reading the article, such as what they’ll learn, how they can complete a task, or how they can save time or money. Or you can ask a question about a common problem or fear they have.

Step 5 – Proofread.

Use a spell checker and re-read your article to catch any spelling or grammar mistakes. I find it helpful to read the article aloud to make sure it sounds conversational. You can also ask someone to proofread your content, or wait a day or two and re-read it before publishing it.

Step 6 – Optimize Your Content.

Finally, when publishing your article on your website, the best way to maximize its traffic generating potential is to make sure your keyword is used first in your site’s title tag. So instead of writing:

6 Steps For Generating Free Web Traffic With Article Writing

You’d write:

Article Marketing Tips – 6 Steps For Generating Free Web Traffic With Article Writing

Using your keywords in your website’s title tag is the single best search engine marketing strategy you can use because search engines place considerable weight on what your title tag says when ranking websites.

Anyone can write articles to generate more traffic to their small business website. By following these six steps, you can generate free web traffic quickly. Read more small business web marketing strategies.

Seth doesn’t give your typical PowerPoint presentation. Sure, he has slides, but they are mainly pictures – images that complement the ideas he’s talking about. He’s quite the engaging speaker and you can tell from his first few words just how passionate he is about his message.

The audience was just as great. The event was a fairly small gathering of about 500 of us – many from the online Triiibes.com community we joined a few months ago – but attendees were just as enthusiastic about his ideas as he was. I met a number of great people throughout the event, each working to create their own “tribe,” which Godin defines as “any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea.”

The premise of the presentation was this – the internet has brought lots of people with similar interests and passions together. People can find like-minded individuals with just a Google search.

But bringing people together isn’t enough. Tribes need a leader, someone passionate about the idea who wants to help organize others to further the cause – whether that be to spread the word about a particular musician, idea, hobby, business concept, gadget or anything else you can think of.

You can find tribes around anything from the Grateful Dead and the iPhone to a political campaign, interest (wine enthusiasts, CrossFit members) or a cause (free Tibet, stop global warming, give business loans, etc).

Tribes can also be found in business organizations – those who actively campaign for change within their department, who aren’t content with the status quo and innovate rather than put up with outdated business models, or who aren’t afraid to speak up if something doesn’t seem quite right. Seth calls these people Heretics.

Heretics aren’t simply dissenters. They make it their mission, their purpose, to lead a movement to innovate and change. They find allies among like-minded individuals. And they work passionately to bring their ideas to the forefront. Sure, it may be scary. Sure, you may come up against resistance.

But it’s better than the alternative, what Seth calls “sheepwalking” or doing what you are told – even when you know what you do isn’t impactful or may actually be hurting the company (think of all the wasted money spent on ineffective advertising). Sheepwalkers don’t speak up because they are afraid of encountering resistance, of criticism or of being fired. These people do their jobs because it pays the bills – but doesn’t give them a sense of pride, satisfaction or challenge.

Yesterday, Seth encouraged us all to be heretics – to find something we’re passionate about and build a tribe around it. Then, it’s up to us to lead that movement and embrace the possibilities.

I highly recommend you check out his new book, Tribes, and if you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak, do so! I saw a few people recording the event, so if I find an audio/video link, I’ll add it.  You can also download a free ebook written by members of the Triiibes community.

Update: Listen to the recording here or download the slides. Check out photos of the event. Here’s a great list of tactics to start building your tribe. And lots of freebie recordings.

Step 1 – Setting Goals and Objectives

Many people believe (erroneously) that getting a top rank in Google is “the goal” of any small business SEO campaign. Unfortunately, a top rank in Google won’t do much for you if no one is searching for those keywords, those who do search for those keywords aren’t looking for your product or service, or if your website isn’t set up to convert those new visitors into subscribers, leads or sales.

Every good small business SEO campaign starts with understanding your website goals and who you want to visit your site. Ask yourself these two questions.

• Who is your target audience? – What types of people do you want to visit your site? In other words, who can benefit the most from your products and services? Put yourself in the mind of your visitors – if they are looking for what you sell, what keywords do you need to target, what content do you need to provide, what offer do you need to make to grab their attention?
• What should they do once they get to your site? – Until your visitors take action, they will remain anonymous. Ideally, you’d like your visitors to raise their hands and let you know they are interested in your information, products or services. In other words, you want to generate leads from your website, so to capture their information, they might join your mailing list, download a free report, request a consultation, subscribe to your blog feed, buy your product, etc. How can you make it as easy as possible for them to do that? What would compel them to take that action immediately?

All successful small business SEO campaigns start with understanding the psychology of your target audience. Yes, you know your product or service can help them. But they don’t. They don’t know anything about you – and they aren’t likely to read every page of your site to see if you can potentially help them.

When your visitors click onto your site, they are in control of what content they read – so it’s up to you to design a site that very clearly explains what you can do for them and what the next step is if they are interested in learning more. How can you make it as easy for them as possible to take that action?

Step 2 – Keyword Research

Once you know a bit about your target audience, you start looking at your website the way they would. Your goal in this step is to make sure your website shows up where your target audience is actually looking – not simply where you think they’ll be looking.

Often, what people actually search for when they are ready to buy a product or service is not what you think that might be. They might use different phrases, terminology, or brand names than those you use to describe your products and services. Alternatively, if you pick keywords that are too generic or seem irrelevant to your services, your visitors won’t be as qualified as you’d like.

Keyword research usually starts with a brainstorming session – which keywords do you think are most relevant? You can also look to your competitors’ websites – which keywords do they target. Keyword suggestion tools like Wordtracker’s Free Keyword Suggestion Tool or SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool are also good resources.

Step 3 – On-Page Optimization

Once you know what keywords your target audience is actually searching for, it’s time to evaluate your website for how well it ranks for those keywords. On-page optimization means everything you can do to your website that will influence its rank in search engines. This can include:

• using those keywords in your content, title tags and other HTML tags
• creating more content about those keywords
• linking to pages using those keywords in the link’s anchor text
• making sure visitors can skim your web copy within a few seconds by providing headlines, bulleted lists, and bolded words
• keeping content up-to-date
• and so forth

Before I get too far, let me stress – concentrate on your visitors first and then worry about search engines. If your site looks like it was written for search engines rather than your visitors, they’ll be able to tell – and will quickly click away.

Never forget the goal of small business SEO – you want visitors to come to your site AND take some sort of action. Conversion is the end goal!

Step 4 – Linking Strategies

On-page SEO will only take you so far. If you are targeting highly competitive search terms, you’ll need to devote considerable effort to getting other quality sites to link to you. Inbound links are a major factor in how search engines rank sites because search engines assume that if other quality sites are linking to you, you must have good content.

Think of it this way – not every site someone wants to be ranked No. 1 on Google for a particular keyword actually deserves that rank. Over the years, webmasters have tried to game search engines by getting as many links as they can without regard to the quality of sites that are actually linking to them. This strategy no longer works anymore.

Now, search engines rank sites based on a number of link-based ranking factors in order to filter out the spammers while promoting the quality sites that do deserve a high ranking. Rather than just look at quantity of links, they look at whether the site linking to you is a relevant, authoritative site that is also considered trustworthy on the web.

What should you be looking for?

• Is the linking site relevant? Search engines give greater weight to links coming from sites that are of a similar nature as yours.
• Is the linking site reputable? Do other websites link out to this site, implicating that this site is an authority on its topic?
• What anchor text does the site use to link to you? Anchor text is the text portion of a link. A link that includes your keywords is better than a link that just includes your site’s title or your URL.
• Where will the link be placed? Links located in the main content of the site are usually weighted more than those in the page footer or near other paid links.
• What type of traffic will the page send your site? – Look for sites with readers who might actually click through to your site rather than just focusing on getting a link back to your site.

A link from a high-quality, relevant site is far more valuable to you than submitting your site to thousands of directory sites or shady sites that will link to anyone.

Step 5 – Measuring Results

Finally, once you’ve implemented your campaign, you must measure and tweak the results.

Where does your site rank for your priority keywords? Are you getting more qualified traffic from those rankings? Are you getting good links from reputable and relevant sites? Are you getting the conversions you want? And specifically, are you getting a good return on your investment?

By following these five steps, you should start to see results from your small business SEO campaign within 30-90 days of implementation. As you monitor your results and make the necessary changes, you’ll soon find your website ranks well – and converts visitors into subscribers, leads and sales.

Read more small business search engine optimization articles.

What is Small Business Search Engine Optimization?

Most people outside the SEO industry equate search engine optimization with getting a No. 1 ranking in Google. While that’s part of what SEO is, it’s not the whole picture.

In the strictest sense, small business SEO is about optimizing elements of your webpage and those pages linking to your site to improve your rank in search engines. But just getting a No. 1 ranking in Google isn’t enough. After all, you could have a No. 1 rank for a keyword that no one searches for. Or you could rank No. 1 for a keyword that people do search for but isn’t relevant to your site’s content. Or you could rank No. 1 for a keyword that people looking for information only – that is, they have no intent to buy your product or hire you – search for.

On the flip side, once people click on your page from search results, you have about three seconds to convince them they should stick around and read more – perhaps take a specific action. If people click onto your page and immediately click away, you’ve lost them. If people skim the page and can’t find the keywords they were searching for, or your content isn’t compelling, or your site looks spammy, they’ll leave without giving you another thought.

So, let’s refine the definition of SEO a bit more: SEO is the practice of improving your site’s ranking in search engines to attract people who are most interested in your information, product, or service. And SEO is about getting those qualified people who do come to your site to take some relevant action – to convert those anonymous browsers into people who are willing to raise their hands and say “I’m interested. Tell me more.”

Common Small Business SEO Myths

Now that I’ve talked about what SEO is, let me clear up a few myths and misconceptions about SEO.

• The goal of a small business SEO campaign is a top 5 ranking in Google. – A top rank in Google can have no effect on your bottom line if you aren’t targeting the right keywords (those keywords aren’t relevant to your website’s content or no one is searching for those terms) or if your website isn’t set up to convert visitors into leads and sales. The goal of an SEO campaign should be to deliver highly targeted visitors who want/need your product or service – and are ready to take action.
• SEO involves secret tactics, smoke and mirrors or ways to trick search engines. – SEO isn’t rocket science, nor is it a secret practice that only experts are privy to. Good SEO doesn’t involve shady “black hat” tactics that go against Google’s best practices or taking advantage of loopholes in how search engines rank sites. The key to higher rankings isn’t in tweaking your “meta tags, adding hidden text to your site, using the proper keyword density, getting lots of low quality sites to link to you, repeatedly re-submitting your site to search engines, buying multiple domains or other tricks you may have heard.
• SEO can guarantee a top search engine position. – You’ve probably received unsolicited emails claiming they can get you a top 10 ranking on Google guaranteed. Unfortunately, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is – especially in this case. Google even states that no one can guarantee top search engine rankings.
• You won’t need to change your site. – A major component of SEO involves optimizing your website so that search engines can easily determine what your site is about and will rank accordingly. To do so, you will need to change elements of your website to incorporate the keywords you wish to be found for.
• SEO is a one-time event and once you achieve a top rank, it is permanent. – Search engines are always tweaking the way they rank sites. New competitors are always entering the SEO game. In other words, the game is always changing, and you never can just rest on your laurels once you do achieve the rank you’d like.
• SEO is a free way to market your site. – While many SEO strategies can be implemented for free or low cost, you still must put in time and effort on an ongoing basis. In addition, many effective SEO tactics do cost money.
• SEO will send you lots of quick traffic (or it will take years to see results). – SEO won’t drive thousands of visitors to your site in the next 24 hours. It can take months to see the results of your efforts, but you should start to see results within 30-90 days.

What are the components of a Small Business SEO campaign?

There are three basic steps of any small business SEO campaign:

1. Strategy: This stage involves customer, competitor and keyword analysis to create an SEO strategy for your company. First, you must define who your target audience – that is, who are the people who are most likely to need your information, products, and services – is, how they search for information, and what keywords they use. Second, it involves evaluating your competitors’ sites – who are they? How do they rank? What content do they provide? How difficult will it be to rank better than they do? Etc. Finally, it involves prioritizing the most lucrative keywords – those keywords that bring in and convert the most visitors – to create an action-oriented SEO strategy with firm goals and objectives.
2. Implementation: Step 2 builds on the research you did in Step 1. This step includes building an SEO-friendly website with quality content that your visitors want, adding content rich in keywords your customers use, and getting quality links back to your site.
3. Measuring Results: Step 3 involves monitoring how well your SEO campaign is going and making changes to your strategy for continual results.

Small business search engine optimization can be a great way to send high-quality, targeted traffic to your website, but as I’ve stressed in this article, traffic isn’t enough. If you aren’t also focused on converting that traffic to leads and sales, you are wasting a lot of time and money for minimal results. A solid SEO strategy will help you get the most return on investment (ROI) for your SEO efforts.

Read more small business search engine optimization articles.

Author: David Meerman Scott
Publisher: Wiley
Year Published: 2007
Rating:
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Is web marketing really so different from traditional advertising and PR that we need a new set of rules for how they work? David Meerman Scott says yes – and then shows you exactly how you can take advantage of those new rules to drive more traffic to your site and generate more leads and sales.

Broken into three main sections, The New Rules of Marketing and PR is really a book on Internet Marketing 101. Scott explains why the web changes the rules of marketing and pr, the tools (like blogs, wikis, podcasts, forums, search marketing and social media) you can use to get the most benefit, and how to create an action plan to start working with these tools right away.

So how is marketing on the web different?

Before the web, the only way you could get the word out about your products and services was to find a journalist to write about you or to spend lots of money buying some sort of advertising (tv and radio commercials, print ads, tradeshow booths, etc). The web changes everything because anyone can publish content on the web and have it read/heard/watched by thousands of people without an intermediary.

On the web, you can talk directly to buyers through your website, blog, podcasts, video, forums, wikis and other social media. But this concept also brings a new shift in thinking – now, instead of pitching and pushing your product or service at every opportunity, you must focus on your web visitors. What types of content are they interested in? What are their top problems and how can you solve them?

If you can offer content focused around those issues, you start to build trust with prospects.

Scott’s book helpfully breaks down web marketing into strategic and tactical components. On the strategic side, he explains how to define your firm’s goals, create buyer personas for your ideal clients, and develop content around your ideal clients’ goals and objectives.

From a tactical perspective, Scott spends time introducing the reader to the different types of social media from blogs and podcasts to wikis and PR distribution sites. When talking about internet marketing, it’s easy to get bogged down in jargon, but Scott keeps things non-technical and focuses on why social media marketing is so useful. The nice thing about these techniques is you don’t have to do them all – just adding one or two to your marketing plan can dramatically increase your web traffic and generate more leads and sales.

The second half of the book is devoted to harnessing the power of the new rules today. Some great tips he offers include:

• Realize that you are what you publish. This includes all your web copy, your blog posts, forum posts, podcasts, videos and pictures. You have the opportunity to publish targeted content directly for your buyers just as a magazine would publish articles for its readers.

• To become a trusted resource, you must develop thought leadership content. This means publishing content that educates your readers about their problems and concerns rather than selling your products and services directly. By doing this, you can reach prospects earlier on in their buying process, educate them so they become more savvy buyers, and start building relationships with them so when they’re ready to hire someone, they hire you.
• Use news releases to reach buyers as well as traditional journalists. When most people think of press releases, they think of writing for journalists. Instead, write directly for your prospects because they can just as easily as journalists find your news releases on the web.
• Create an online media room. Create a press room on your site where you keep track of all news releases about your company and various media like your podcasts, articles published, photos of your staff, and so on. This has been on my to-do list for quite some time.
• Get involved. Even if you aren’t ready to start your own blog, you can still get involved with the blogosphere. Start by reading influential blogs in your industry. When you feel comfortable with the different bloggers’ styles, join in the conversation by leaving comments on their blogs. Eventually, you may even feel compelled to start your own blog.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR is a great overview of web marketing. It’s filled with numerous examples and case studies and is written in a conversational that even less experienced web users can understand. The book is particularly relevant for small businesses who can’t afford to buy expensive advertising or fall under the radar of most journalists. If you want to understand how the web can help you market your products and services at minimal costs, pick up this book.

If you want to sample Scott’s stuff, check out his popular business blog, www.webinknow.com, where he offers two free downloadable ebooks, The New Rules of PR and The New Rules of Viral Marketing.

1. Create an attention-grabbing headline. Your headline serves as an advertisement for your webpage so when people see it, it grabs their attention and makes them want to continue reading. If your headline isn’t interesting, readers won’t bother to read the rest of the page. You only have a few seconds to grab readers’ attention so appeal to their self-interest. Why should they keep reading? What’s in it for them?
   
   
2. Make the introductory copy interesting. Your first paragraph or two should reinforce your headline and convince visitors to keep reading.
   
   
3. Stress benefits. People buy benefits, not features. Tell your visitors what emotional benefits they will receive when they purchase your product or hire you. Again, what’s in it for them? Think like your website visitor (your prospect) rather than you (the product/service provider). What does your prospect want most from your products or services?
   
   
4. Follow the AIDA principles. AIDA is a four-step formula for A (attracting attention), I (create interest), D (arouse desire) and A (taking action). Persuade visitors to take action by creating interest and desire for your products and services.
   
   
5. Provide a compelling offer. What will they get if they take action now? What bonuses, special reports or discounts will they receive by signing up for your newsletter, purchasing your product, or requesting a consultation?
   
   
6. Use a call to action. What, specifically, should your visitor do to take advantage of your offer? For example, fill out your subscriber form, buy now, or call for a free consultation.
   
   
7. Demonstrate credibility. How can you assure readers you are legitimate? Your prospects will only take the desired action if they feel their contact or credit card information is safe. To make them feel more comfortable, provide assurances like including your photo and contact information, providing a guarantee if they aren’t satisfied, offering a privacy policy that explains what you will/won’t do with their contact information, or displaying a secure server logo.
   
   
8. Test everything. Install web analytics software on your website and monitor results. Consider A/B split testing where you send half of your visitors to page A and the other half to page B. The pages will have the same website contents except for one thing, such as a different headline, price, or offer. The page that gets the best results is the winner. Let your prospects tell you which works better.

If you want your website to sell – and by sell, I mean sell them on signing up for your newsletter, buying your product or contacting you – you have to make the best case for your products and services. Why should prospects take action now?