Since the introduction of the web in the late 90’s, it’s growth has been explosive with an impressive 25% of all people on the planet using it. Worldwide, Internet usage seems to have grown roughly 340% since the beginning of the millennium.
So what does all of this mean? It means that nearly 1.6 billion people worldwide are surfing the web today, and a fair number of them are likely to be using the Internet to research products and ultimately, to buy them. Records show that in 2008, over $133 billion dollars were spent in America buying products online. Thats more revenue than international stalwarts like AT&T, IBM, or Bank of America were able to generate last year.
In order for your small business to get a piece of this $130 billion pie, you need to find different ways of promoting your website online and bringing hundreds of qualified visitors to it on a daily basis. If you’re looking into paid advertising like pay-per-click (PPC), watch out - these campaigns could get extremely expensive and often times lead to campaigns shutting down right with the businesses that spend the money to run them!
Small business entrepreneurs with the desire to maximize web traffic know that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a far better answer than PPC. What they may not know, however, is that SEO must reach beyond simple keyword and metatag enhancement. Instead, SEO should focus on getting the highest degree of leverage possible from a wide variety of Internet-based resources.
Ideally, these resources will be selected carefully by a reputable SEO firm, and they will be aimed at increasing exposure for your website using a combination of the following:
Optimization of individual website pages. By avoiding the inclination to focus SEO efforts on the site at large, traffic can be exponentially improved through finding doorways that allow individual pages to rank high within search engines.
Building back-links. When visitors come to your site by way of another link placed on a different web page, this not only increases your traffic but also helps your website rank higher in the search engines. An ethical SEO firm will work hard to secure back-link opportunities in a professional and organic way.
Analyzing the Competition: You better know what keywords your competition is ranking for and why. If your business can understand this concept, chances are it can find windows of opportunity to drive more traffic in towards your own website.
Social Media. Leveraging the masses of social media (Myspace, Linkedin, etc) will allow for further expansion of the exposure your website should enjoy.
Detailed Reporting. No SEO program can be properly assessed without comprehensive and timely reporting of results.
Effective SEO companies should provide you with these tools that will further promote your business online and allow you to gain maximum exposure and awareness. Competition for sales is hard enough when times are good - and when the economy is shrinking, selecting an effective and economical SEO firm is an extremely important decision.
Thus far, in 2009, the pace for ecommerce (compared to 2008) is only off by about 5% - this is nothing compared to the double-digit decline of retail sales in the last 365 days!
In today’s turbulent economy, such a modest decline puts the ecommerce world ahead of most businesses. And with a properly managed SEO strategy, your small business could very well avoid participating in the current recession altogether.
