March 8, 2007 Comments
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One of the biggest challenges of the small business owner is figuring out how to even get started in this crazy world of search and online marketing. Time is tight, budgets are tighter and figuring out where to turn and who to trust can be pretty complicated. That's why I was pleased to speak with Anita Campbell a few weeks ago for a column about learning search engine optimization that she was writing for this month's Inc. Magazine.
From the article intro...
Search engine optimization (SEO) is fast becoming a must-have body of knowledge for business owners. Nearly 91 percent of all Internet users resort to a search engine to find information, according to a recent survey by the non-profit Pew Internet and American Life Project. The question is: how easily can they find your business?
You already could be making costly mistakes, such as a home page that is almost all images and little text, causing your site to have unnecessarily low rankings and little traffic. Or worse, you could be using hidden text and winding up with an every more onerous problem because some search engines ban sites that use tricks to improve rankings.
Anita and I chatted about conferences, books, discussion forums, newsletters, even the best tools for getting started. As we talked, I realized just how much opportunity there is out there for the small business owner willing to invest a little time and effort. The industry has come a long way from the days when there were just a handful of discussion forums and newsletters to choose from. These days, there are literally dozens of quality blogs, books and conferences to choose from, all tailored to different crowds and price ranges. With quality search marketing books selling for well under $100 and two day conferences small enough to give you one on one time with some noted search marketing efforts costing around $1000, there are options for most prices ranges.
Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.
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