How a Small Business can Benefit from Free Advertising on the Internet

Overnight the Internet has skewed the level playing field toward the small player. Never before in history has there been a medium capable of delivering so much potential for so little outlay.

The first thing to realize …is that the Internet is all about information …not graphics as some web designers would have you believe.

At the same time a picture is worth a thousand words …so a delicate balance is required in design. If you are a small business owner with a web site …you have the potential to attract a highway of traffic to your front door.

How do you go about achieving this result at minimum cost? The first step is to have the ability to personally make changes to your web site.

We are not talking about designing websites or making any big modifications …but amending the wording of your web pages to get better results.

But by personally taking control of your web site you have the luxury to experiment and discover what works best. Only you, intimately know all about your area of business.

The act of writing forces you to become more involved and to examine closely the business you are engaged in. By clearly defining your business, it provides giant steps in shaping a marketing plan to attract lots of visitors.

It is important to have a good relationship with your web designer to be able to take over the development of your web site. Some web designers could be difficult to work with and you may have to address this problem.

In addition, you would need to learn how to create new pages, page linking techniques and the uploading of pages to your host server. These simple tasks can be learnt by the same method as word processing or spreadsheet software.

The first step in website optimization is to clearly define your business so you can search the Internet and reveal your competitors. Select suitable web sites out of the top ten search results and learn how to analyse the web sites.

On the Net there is a ton of information regarding how to best develop a web site. There are even free tools that will let you examine web sites and give a report on the effectiveness of each page.

By doing your homework and checking out successful sites …an overall plan will start to emerge.

Word selection is a big step in search engine optimization. It's also where most people go wrong. If you pick a keyword that is not used by the people hunting for your product, you won't get traffic.

You must pick popular keywords that people enter into Internet searches. How do you tell a popular keyword from one that you "think" might be popular? To get objective popularity information you need feedback from the search engine enquiries.

In the adjoining article we examine suitable software as well as sources of live search engine data.

Software you can use for Keyword Selection

Although you're optimizing your site for search engines, getting the people who surf the Internet to reach your site is your ultimate goal.

You should therefore try to think like your target audience to determine what search words, terms or phrases might lead them to your site. Are they likely to use technical, industry specific jargon or simple layman terms?

It is critical that you understand the search terms and keywords used to locate your site as a part of a search engine query. To help in this keyword study and query history, information is available through several sources.

At www.overture.com you will find an excellent tool for finding new keywords and determining the frequency of searches. You simply type in your keyword or keyword phrase into the search box and hit enter.

Overture then looks up all the data it has in its network for the past month and shows the number of times it was searched on for that period.

It also suggests other keywords that might be good alternatives with their respective monthly searches. One point to remember is it only has data for the Overture network, but by carefully evaluating the data you have a useful tool for word selection.

Checking the Stats

You can measure your progress in the quest for more visitors ...by regularly checking your site statistics. The site statistics can be accessed via the hosting company’s website. Check with your web developer for access details.

At first glance, the stats look like a page of gibberish, but by careful checking and comparing the daily results, you can gauge your progress in your pursuit for more traffic.

Also available on the net are free services that can track your search engine ranking on a daily basis. At one site, for example, you enter your website details and in return you get valuable statistics in chart form.

By using these time saving devices, you can accurately keep track of your progress and make regular improvements.

Author: Joe Ley

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