2. Google Juice: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization (SEO) -- the process of making and keeping a Web site highly visible to search engines -- is the crux of a business's online marketing success.
The beauty of it is that search engines can't distinguish between a titanic multinational corporation and a smaller business that might be competing for the same customers.
If small and midsize businesses have their SEO mojo working, size really doesn't matter. They have just as much of a chance of getting Google, MSN, Yahoo, or Ask to notice them as do their jumbo-size competitors.
The way to know how revved up your SEO is is to look at search engine page rankings. Sites with the coveted spots high on the search engine results pages are the champs. The higher a Web page's ranking, the more likely searchers will see it and click on it.
Attracting the attention of search engines can be simple or involved, depending upon the approach. A small to midsize business can make the search engines find their Web site on their own or they can turn to an SEO consultant to show them the ropes. Either way, the investment of either time, money, or both doesn't have to be great and the payoff is almost always worth it.
There are loads of SEO tricks, SEO resources, and SEO info available on the Web.
Smaller companies should keep SEO in mind constantly, from designing a search-friendly Web site to developing Web content to continually analyzing the results of the SEO efforts, and making tweaks.
On the Internet nobody -- not even the search engines -- knows whether a business is small, midsize, or large. And that's something to be thankful for.
-- Naomi Grossman
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