As the world becomes more and more reliable on technical gadgets, almost everybody you know has an iPod or iPhone or some tool to listen to their music or keep them on the web while on the go. More and more people are accessing the internet and your website with these devices. It’s not a bad idea to learn ways to keep this group of people interested in what you have to offer by catering to their choice of electronic devices.
Get Apps
Everybody who owns these iDevices crave apps! Applications are what make iPod users continue using these gadgets for more than just simple music, photo and media enjoyment. You can actually create an application yourself, or you could outsource if you feel you’re incapable. Either way, you can include an app in your small business design that allows visitors to download the application to access your website easily, with just the click of a button. You can also get very creative with apps. They don’t need to lead users to your website alone; they can also include some form of game to engage them. Free apps for your visitors are definitely a great choice for your website. You can search for tutorials to make your own applications or check out a variety of helpful videos on YouTube.
Podcasts
If you have something to say, say it with a podcast. It could be a great attribute to your small business. You could make one weekly, monthly or anytime you’d like. The great thing about a podcast is that it’s incredibly easy to create and requires very little equipment. If you have a computer, a microphone and a website, you’re set. Consider publishing your podcast to your website’s blog. When you’re done creating it, list it in the iTunes Directory and search engines like Yahoo! Audio Search. You may be surprised just how many listeners you have. You can also do video podcasts. These would be great if you want to create a “Vodcast” for new products you may be showcasing on your site.
According to Apple, 220 million iPods have been sold worldwide. That’s a lot of potential clients. By applying the techniques to your small business, your business will become more accommodating to those who wish to use their iPods to access information that you have to share.
Any small business owner knows the importance of making a website that ranks well on major search engines. The hard part is knowing what will help us make our websites show up on the coveted first page of Google. You can apply all the SEO techniques that you know and still struggle to get a decent page rank. There are new and better ways to work on increasing website traffic and improving the search ability without just relying on words.
Slideshows
Give your small business home page a little pizzazz by adding a customized slideshow. It will add a “wow-factor” to your website. Slideshows are aesthetically appealing and it offers a little something special for your viewers. Basically, you’re just creating a PowerPoint presentation and putting it online. It can be a great way to summarize what people will find throughout your website, or perhaps just in a specific section of a webpage. You’re making your readers more interested in your website when you offer something that makes visitors get involved as they go through the content. Just remember, let the viewer choose when to access each slide; don’t have it on auto-run.
Video
When you have videos on your website, you’re encouraging visitors to stay longer. By engaging them with a multimedia experience, they’re likely to visit again. The videos do not necessarily need to be ones you created. You could put related content videos on a webpage or clips of relevant current events. As long as you’re not taking copyrighted material and making it seem like your own, you’ll be fine. You can also incorporate live chats on your website, if it seems fitting.
Footers
Linking your website’s pages together by text links with the keywords as the anchor text may give your website the lift it needs. Just make sure the wording in the links is the target SEO keyword/key phrase. Also, add your footer links to all of the web pages included in your website for the best results.
What You Shouldn’t Do
Search engines are getting smarter. A lot of time is wasted on trying to figure out which SEO techniques are worth their salt. There are a few things that people are still doing beyond written content for their small business website that isn’t really helping. These are things like:
- Link Exchanging. There is no longer a need to do this, as reciprocal linking between websites does not improve content anymore.
- Pay for Website Submission. You can do it yourself if you feel you need to, but websites like Google and Bing are so powerful, they’ll know your website is there in very little time. You can increase your chances of being found by simply posting the link to your website on someone’s Facebook page.
- Drop Links. Don’t drop your link in blog comments, whether it be on your blog, or someone else’s. It’s an out-of-date practice that will not get you better rankings for your website. Do it enough and web crawlers will start to notice. This can be considered a form of link spamming and is also known as “Black Hat SEO.” You can get your website removed from search engines if you keep these practices up.
SEO is evolving, and your visitors expect to see a professional-looking small business design when they arrive at your website. It can be a chore to keep up with all of the new and improved SEO techniques to make your small business website stand out against competition.
Websites do take some time to create, and you should always make it a priority to keep yours up to date and running well. However, you might be really busy with other aspects of your business. Thankfully there are great web designers out there to help take some of the weight off your shoulders. Read this article to find out What to look for in a Web Designer.
If you’ve never considered video marketing, you’re missing out on an entire world of opportunity. Providing videos for your customers is a great way to share information while personalizing your business at the same time. One of the difficulties of an Internet business is that you may never meet your customers in person; videos are a great way to make the personal connection that builds customer trust and loyalty. One of the easiest and best ways to use video for your small business is to take advantage of YouTube’s free services.
Why?
You can certainly host videos on your own small business website, but there are some great advantages to hosting your videos on YouTube instead. Here are a few you should consider:
- YouTube is the world’s most popular online video community, with millions of users. The site’s features make it easy for users to search and browse by topics, view their friends’ favorite videos, and subscribe to their favorite channels–all things that can attract viewers who have never before heard of your company or your website.
- Hosting your own videos takes up your server’s limited storage space and bandwidth. Bandwidth becomes particularly important if you have a terrific video that goes viral. If you host with YouTube, they will be responsible for dealing with the increased traffic load as people flock to see your video, so you won’t have to worry about overloading your own server.
How?
Registering with YouTube and creating your own channel is a simple process, and they have a pretty comprehensive help center if you get stuck. Making your videos doesn’t have to be complicated, either. You need a digital camera, but it doesn’t have to be professional quality–your video will most likely be viewed in a small 320×240 pixel window, so an expensive high-definition camcorder isn’t necessary. Depending on the type of videos you decide to make, your computer’s webcam may be all you need.
Once you have created and uploaded your videos, you can easily embed them in your website and link to them from all over the Internet. Great places to include them might be your social networking profiles, emails, forums, and other Internet video communities.
A few important tips:
- Include your business name, website, and other contact info in the video itself as well as in the description.
- Keep basic SEO principles in mind when writing your video’s title, description, and tags. Using the right keywords will help customers find you and get your video listed on related searches.
- Be an active member of the YouTube community. In addition to posting your own videos, comment on those posted by other users and add ones you like to your favorites.
What?
There are many different types of videos, and you can try whatever approach seems to be the best fit for your business. Here are a few kinds of videos you might consider:
- Create a video blog that you regularly update with short videos, usually under 5 minutes long. This isn’t much different than a written blog, but feels more personal and is more interesting for some website viewers. Check out my article on what blogging is for more info on why you should blog–it’s specific to written blogs, but the same principles still apply.
- Make demos of your product or services. Customers will feel more confident in the product they’re purchasing if they can see it in action, and they’ll be able to see that you know a lot about the products or services you’re providing.
- Offer tutorials or mini-lectures on topics related to your business. Just like with article marketing, these videos will provide your viewers with useful information or skills while also establishing you as an expert in your area. They’re a great opportunity for product placement, as well–for example, if you sell scrapbooking supplies, you can use your products in a how-to-scrapbook video.
- Post video answers to frequently asked questions, or even respond to general customer inquiries with video messages.
- Provide videos of customer testimonials to prove that the testimonials are authentic and show off your satisfied customers.
If you’ve read my
article on SEO, you know that inbound links are one of your greatest allies for boosting your small business website’s search engine results. The power of inbound links to increase search engine rankings makes many website owners worry that including outgoing links on their website will have the opposite effect. In fact, you’ve probably heard or read that outgoing links can hurt your
Google PageRank. Actually, outbound links on your webpage can be a great SEO tool and can work with other SEO tips to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
Advantages of Outgoing Links
- Linking to high-quality websites places your site in a “good neighborhood” by associating your site with quality. You can think of it just like your real-life neighborhood–if the people living next door renovate their house, your house will go up in value as well. Similarly, if you link to an excellent website, your site’s perceived value will increase.
- By taking the time to choose quality links that add value to your website’s content, you show your visitors that you know how to recognize good information and want to be their go-to resource.
- Linking to other websites is a natural way to increase your incoming links, by drawing attention to your website and encouraging reciprocation. If your website has useful content, sites you link to will be inclined to return the favor.
- Anchor text for outgoing links can be a great place to include your website’s SEO keywords in your content. If it doesn’t make sense to use your keywords in the anchor text, it may be a sign that the outbound link isn’t relevant enough, and you may want to rethink including it.
Watch out for:
- Becoming part of a virtual “bad neighborhood” by linking to spammy or low-quality websites. Search engines and visitors will judge your website by the company it keeps, so only link to high-quality, relevant websites.
- Including dozens of links to irrelevant sites. Always think about your visitors and only include links that you think they will truly find useful or interesting.
- Sending your visitors to websites offering the same services or products. Outgoing links direct your website’s visitors away from your site, so you want to be sure that you’re not sending them to a competitor. Instead, send them to sites that provide something relevant but slightly outside the scope of your own website. For example, if your website sells baby clothes, you may link to a website that’s all about preparing for a new baby–but which doesn’t actually sell baby items. Your visitors will appreciate the useful information and they will return to your site to make their purchases.
Do outgoing links drain your PageRank?
No one knows exactly how Google calculates PageRank, but the general consensus is that including relevant, high-quality outgoing links will do more to help your PageRank than harm it. The only danger comes from linking to websites which have been penalized by Google, are of low quality, or have no relevance to your website.
Outgoing links can be an excellent SEO tool, and you shouldn’t be afraid to include well-chosen links when you think they will add value to your website’s content.
If you’ve been considering an online advertising campaign for your small business, you’ve probably come across the term “landing page.” The concept of a landing page is new to many small business owners, so don’t worry if you aren’t sure what it is or how it’s different from the other pages on your website. It’s actually a very simple concept that can really increase the effectiveness of your advertising campaign.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is exactly what it sounds like—the page a potential customer lands on after clicking a link. Technically, any page on your website can be a landing page. However, the most effective landing page is one that was created to match the needs of the person who clicked on the link that leads to it. The goal of a landing page is to capture the visitor’s attention and get them take an action you desire—make a purchase, for instance, or fill out a sign-up form.
Why you need a landing page for your advertising campaign
When you create an advertisement, whether it’s a banner ad or an email to your client list, you craft it with a specific goal and audience in mind. You do this to connect with your customers and encourage them to click on the link to your website. But your interaction with your customers doesn’t end there—you want them to take a certain action once they reach your website. This is where the landing page comes in. Sending people to an ad-specific landing page on your website will provide them with exactly what they came to find, making it more likely that they will make a transaction.
Here are a couple examples to illustrate what a landing page can do for you:
Imagine that you own an online store that sells women’s clothing. To market your website, you create an advertisement that promotes your new swimwear collection for summer. To go along with this advertising campaign, you design a landing page that features the top-selling swimwear items. People who click on the swimwear ad are more likely to stick around if they land on this page and immediately see what they’re looking for than if they’re directed to the homepage of your site, which has just a small link to the swimwear section.
Or maybe your marketing goal is to get people to sign up for your email list. To do this, you offer them a free e-book in exchange for their name and email address. When people click on this offer, they’re sent directly to a landing page that contains the form they need to fill out in order to receive the e-book. This will be much more effective than sending them to your website’s homepage, where they will have to hunt on their own for the link to sign up for the e-book. You’ll get many more people to sign up for your email list if you create a landing page specifically for this purpose.
Essentially, a landing page increases the effectiveness of your advertising campaign by immediately engaging visitors who are attracted by your ad. How many times have you clicked on a link only to find yourself on a webpage that seems completely unrelated? That was an example of a bad landing page, and chances are you hit the back button on your browser within seconds. Keep that from happening with your ads with a well-crafted landing page.
As the world becomes more and more reliable on technical gadgets, almost everybody you know has an iPod or iPhone or some tool to listen to their music or keep them on the web while on the go. More and more people are accessing the internet and your website with these devices. It’s not a bad idea to learn ways to keep this group of people interested in what you have to offer by catering to their choice of electronic devices.
Business, Website Content | Yiana Palacios | 
August 31, 2010 6:56 am | 
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