If you have a website or are researching websites, you’re sure to have heard the term SEO bandied about quite a bit. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO techniques are used to improve the visibility and ranking of a website when people conduct a search on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Generally speaking, the higher on the search page that a website displays and the more frequently a page ap­pears in searches, the more visitors it will receive from search engine users. How optimal is it to appear on the first page of a search? Very. Up to 42% of search users click the top-ranking link, as few as 8% click the second-ranking link. Click-through rate (CTR) drops thereafter. Sixty-two percent of users click a link on the first page of search results, 23 percent go to the second page.

The drive to come up on the first page of a search — and in the first, second, or third place — is one determined by traffic and relevance and can be an expensive one. Most small businesses may not be able to justify the time and money spent to come first in search engines that continually change their algorithms, and to outrank simi­lar, larger companies with more traffic. However, there are some things you can do that will help.

First Steps

When optimizing a website, you must first consider how search engines work and what search engines are used more often by your target customer. Also, think about how people conduct a search. What actual search terms might they enter when searching for a business or ser­vice such as yours?

The next step is for you, or your website developer, to edit website content to increase its relevance to specific keywords and to be sure everything is properly coded to remove barriers that may prevent search engine “spiders” from crawling through and indexing your site. Since effective SEO often requires changes to the HTML source code of a website and to a website’s content, SEO tactics can, and should, be incorporated into web design and development.

Five Things You Can Do for Better SEO

1. Title Tags – Each page should have a unique, descriptive title tag. A description relative to the content on the page helps people who are searching for you, your product, or your services.

2. Content – Content is King. Unique, infor­mative, and relevant site content helps SEO. Use keywords within that content that you feel best describe your business and will be words customers will search for when look­ing for services that your business supplies.

3. Links – Build working links between the pages of your website and with other trusted websites. Ask business affiliates and other trusted businesses to link to your site as well. You should also use Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs to create links to your website and encourage followers to visit.

4. Keywords – When your website developer lists keywords in the HTML files of your pag­es, be sure that those same words appear with frequency in the content on your site.

5. Updates – Fresh content will bring search engine “spiders” back to index your site, and will bring your customers back as well, so update your site as frequently as possible. You may want to update some pages once or twice a month, and others less frequently. The more traffic you receive, the higher you will come up in searches.

Conclusion

SEO is a critical part of online business success. If your content is not recognized and ranked highly by search engines, people will not be able to find you and if they can’t find you, they won’t be able to interact with you. It is those relationships that eventually lead to greater success for you and your business.

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LinkedIn now has more than 100 million professionals worldwide, potential clients for small businesses. If you have a LinkedIn profile, follow these steps to take advantage of recent changes to LinkedIn and create your Company Page today.

Add your company page. In LinkedIn, choose Com­panies on the navigation bar. On the right are links to Add a Company and FAQ. Click on FAQ for com­prehensive information, and go to Company Page Overview for the requirements to add a Company Page. There are only four, but one is that you must have a company email address (e.g. john@companyname.com). Once you meet all the requirements, select Add a Company, fill in the contact information and verify that you are an official representative.

Add basic information. Add com­pany description, industry, website URL, Twitter ID, location, and more. Once your page is established you can click on Admin tools in the upper right, select Edit, make your changes and Publish. Your profile must be associated with the correct company in or­der to edit the page. You can also assign administra­tor rights to employees for later updates.

Add your key services. Select Services. Under Ad­min tools on the right, select Edit. Add a more de­tailed description of your services with banners and URLs to highlight current promotions. Target audi­ences with multiple variations of your service page. Add products or services by choosing Add a prod­uct or service under Admin tools, and provide information and pho­tos. You can assign specific em­ployee contacts for each service, add a promotion with a link to a specific URL, and even add a You­Tube video.

Ask clients and associates to rec­ommend and follow you. Once you have taken those first few steps to get your page in order, don’t forget to solicit recommendations for your work, which can be done directly within the services you have promoted. Also, don’t forget to ask associates and clients to follow you.

Full steam ahead with promo­tions. You can create paid ads for your company or for specific ser­vices and promotions. Just look for promote my products & services or promote my product under Ad­min tools on your Service page or product or service page. Ad varia­tions can test which image and text performs best. Be brief, creative, and honest. You can target your ads to specific audiences, one of many campaign options available to maximize your ad. There are help links to answer questions and guide you through the process.

NEW on LinkedIn: Status Pages. The most exciting new rollout is status pages for companies. Now, you can create status updates that showcase your company and help to drive your connections and their contacts to your company page! Once you create a status update for your company you and your em­ployees can share it with personal connections. You can also send the update to individuals or post to your groups (if they allow such promotions). There’s a comment space and like link to engage your followers and others too, so make the most of each status update!

Conclusion

LinkedIn is an amazing tool for business and LinkedIn company pages enables you, as the business owner, to strengthen your relationships with other people. LinkedIn is constantly coming up with improvements (tools, applications, etc) that make your LinkedIn experience even more profitable and beneficial.

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Plan to include more time to network with fellow professionals and potential clients this year. The more you network, the more connections you will have and the stronger those connections will be for your business.

Business may be “busier” than ever, but don’t allow yourself to be trapped indefinitely in your office. Get out from behind your desk and talk to managers, employees, fellow professionals, existing clients, and new clients. Resolve to expand your business and social circles in the upcoming year by including regular networking time in your schedule.

Join a group or two

Visit a few local networking and industry groups, mingle with the members, and choose a group that best suits you and best meets your needs. Some groups meet on a weekly or monthly basis while others may have fewer meetings in a year. Some are more lead-oriented and may place a limit on the amount of members who can represent one field. Groups such as this can offer the opportunity to be the only business provider in your industry, but you should also be prepared to spend time generating leads for others in your group. Some are regional and may include a variety of fields, but place no limits on the number of members. You may have some competition in the room, but there is likely to be a deeper pool of potential clients and there may be more scheduled time to network. Joining an industry group can also help build business. You may get invaluable advice from networking with others in your industry or combine forces with another professional to land a larger joint project, branch out in a new direction, or put pressure on common suppliers for better service or lower costs.

Attend a conference

Conferences can be a great way to make new business contacts across the country and across the globe. Attend a conference to pick up some new skills or learn about current trends in your industry, but also plan to make a few new contacts with other attendees while you’re there, and then continue that contact via eMail, telephone, or over a cup of coffee.

Network in social settings

Networking can be fun. don’t limit yourself to networking groups and conferences. Network while you go to the gym, stand in line at the grocery store, attend a holiday or cocktail party, or pursue a hobby or activity you enjoy. You never know where your next lead will come from, so expand your networking beyond people you know or plan to get to know and make an effort to get to know the person who happens to be in front of you.

Set aside a few minutes a day to strengthen and expand your network

A few minutes a day is all it takes to stay in touch with the people in your database. Executives who spend a few minutes a day calling or eMailing colleagues, vendors, and other business associates have an advantage. Networking can provide business leads, and keep informed about current trends. It’s also a great method to fill a vacancy in your company or help out your associates.

There are different types of networking approaches that can be used with great results. There is in-person networking  (which has been discussed above) and online networking. Online networking works differently than in-person networking; however, the desired results are the same. You can establish and maintain a strong relationship with other people with whom you are connected online and you will see that the relationship is just as valuable and just as solid as relationships that you have face to face. Online networking gives you the advantage of interacting with people in a much broader geographic area (virtually anywhere in the world) and there can be many advantages to having relationships with people in other countries. The broader your scope, the better your chances at a successful business.

Conclusion

Networking connections are critical to the success of your business. You need to take advantage of online and in-person networking and to use all opportunities to build and strengthen relationships that are mutually beneficial.

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You may not be eBay or Amazon.com, but if you have a website, you’re in the business of selling online. Most companies rely on their web presence to build awareness of their products and services. In some ways, their sites function as brochures. But unlike a brochure, a website offers opportunities to share exciting news quickly and inexpensively. You may not accept orders and process credit card payments, but your website should be an effective sales and marketing tool.

Take a look at your site – does it reflect the value of your products and services in today’s economic environment? Consider the point of view of your target audiences. Targets typically include current customers, prospects, job seekers, and the press. Depending on your business, other targets may include suppliers, partners, former employees, and regulatory agencies.

Current customers – what have you done lately?

Is your website up to date and compelling? Existing custom­ers will lose interest in a static website, and you will lose a marketing opportunity. Websites must change to rein­force the value of the business relationship.

• A newsletter can direct customers to the site for excit­ing news on product launches or industry awards. Make your company newsletter accessible online or start an Email subscription list. Chances are your hosting company offers affordable, easy-to-use tools for maintaining a list and sending Email updates.
   
• The changing seasons (tax time, holidays) are reliable sources of new content. The business calendar and mar­ket conditions provide relevant fodder for B2B-oriented firms.
   
• Create a Q&A area where your company’s experts tackle issues of concern in your industry.
   
• Check out your competitors’ sites. How can you top their content?

Your employees may be the best source of new ideas. Encourage them to brainstorm ways to reach and engage existing customers.

Prospects – what is so great about you?

To differentiate your business, you must communicate the unique value of your products and services. Recog­nize that the value changes over time, depending on the economy and competitors’ moves, among other factors.

• Descriptions of products and services are marketing messages, not sacred scriptures, and should be updat­ed regularly.
   
• Create new case studies and testimonials. Touting last year’s achievements is dangerous if the technologies or methods used have become common or obsolete.

The Press – only recent news is fit to print

No news is bad news. If the “What’s New” section reads like last winter’s calendar, you project inertia. If you can’t commit to regular updates, you may be better off removing the news entirely.

View your website from your targets’ perspective, and you will discover new ideas for making your website an effective marketing tool that showcases a vibrant organization.

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You’ve built your fan base on Facebook and recruited followers on Twitter. Can you generate revenue for your company from those—or other social media—channels? Here are five suggestions for using social media as a sales tool.

Post or tweet a promotion. Offer a discount or a freebie to your fans and followers. Offer a free soda with a meal, a discount on shoes, a free con­sultation, white papers on products, an exclusive gift—anything that you think will be of interest and will en­tice users to act. Use a specific promotional code to track and measure the effec­tiveness of the promotion.

Create a contest. Advertise a contest to win a gift certificate or fun prize. Provide users with a link to register at your website or email an entry. Clear­ly spell out the terms of the contest and how the winner will be selected. Be creative. You might want to ask people to upload a pertinent photo­graph (like a favorite pet photo for a grooming business) or write a short paragraph answering a relevant contest question. To make it easy on yourself, specify that submissions be­come the property of your business and are not returnable. Make sure to post the winner(s) on your website so the participants know the contest is legitimate.

Announce new products and ser­vices. Roll out new products and services on social media and forum boards and include a link for people to respond directly to a page on your website. You can always keep the web page hidden from your site nav­igation to keep it “exclusive” to social media users and their referrals. Spe­cially worded contact forms on that page can help you to discern cus­tomers who email you as a result of your Facebook or Twitter announcement. More specific information and a mechanism for customers to “act now” on that web page can help close the sale. If you have a good analytics program in place, you can gauge how much traffic you gener­ated from the announcement.

Experiment with ads. If you have a Facebook business page, advertise your company to other Facebook us­ers. Pay for impressions or for click throughs. Fine-tune the social de­mographic you are seeking to solicit, and select a specific dollar amount you want to spend daily on the ad. You can select specific days, or a range of days for the ad to display. If you opt to pay for click throughs, even if nobody follows through to your Facebook page or your website, thousands of impressions will help make you more visible to users. View reports to determine the success of any given ad. LinkedIn also offers the ability to advertise—to other profes­sionals. You can create up to ten ads which will rotate and fine-tune de­mographics (including by industry and management position). Select the maximum daily amount you wish to spend, minimum bid per click or view, and end date. You can cancel the ad at any time. Like Facebook, you can view advertising reports. See which ads were the most effective, and pull unsuccessful ads from rota­tion. Twitter is rolling out the ability to advertise too—worth a look!

Reward referrals. Ask your follow­ers to refer others to your business. If you have a small or manageable following, it may be easy to reward a follower for a referral with a discount or small free item if the referral be­comes a customer. (A more complex response mechanism will likely be re­quired for those with a larger follow­ing.) At the least, you can give a pub­lic “pat on the back” by writing a post or tweet directed to your follower thanking him or her for the referral. This acknowledgement will also spur others to direct referrals your way.

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Your traditional and online marketing efforts seem to be generating strong interest, but do you feel you’re missing the mark on the sales end? If converting marketing efforts into sales is a challenge, it’s time to look at how you follow up with potential clients.

It seems like such a small step from marketing to sales, but the more we focus on herding clients to our doors, the less aware we may be of how to follow up effectively to make the final jump from marketing to closing the deal. Follow up consistently, both on the phone as well as through online interactions and you will move more potential clients closer to the sale while developing your sales skills at the same time.

The Marketing-to-Sales Transition. Let’s assume you have a great marketing strategy that is generating interest in your business. Prospective clients are more informed about and familiar with your products and services and are warming up to the idea of doing business. Someone contacts you, whether in the traditional way or online through social networking, expressing interest in learning more about your products and services, or maybe you spoke with someone at a networking event and exchanged business cards. The steps that you take to continue to market yourself during this transition period, before asking for the sale, are crucial to your success in closing the deal.

Follow up with your prospect within 24 to 48 hours. But before you make that connection, take the time and the necessary steps to facilitate the goal of getting the meeting and, eventually, closing the deal.

Make Follow-up Routine. Heading off to a networking event in the evening? Be sure to allot time the next morning to follow up with prospects. In fact, try to schedule some follow-up activity every day. You can always follow up with current clients if there are no new prospects at the moment or take some time to research target prospects.

Do Your Research. You’ve received a call or are holding a business card in your hand. What’s your first step? Visit their website to learn more about their business. Do you see a specific or potential need your business can meet? If your prospect doesn’t have a website, you might ask a mutual acquaintance for information. If you have little or no information, make a note to ask your prospect to tell you more about their business and what they do.

Always Add Value. Think about how you can add value to your prospect’s business through your products and services. If there is a specific need or concern that you can meet, in other words, if you can solve your prospect’s problem, make note of that. Also note how you can meet that need and how the prospect will benefit. Don’t be afraid to add value to every call and email. Remind yourself that your service is valuable to your clients and future prospects. If the issue is outside your area of expertise, consider partnering with someone who has more experience with that issue. Or, at least, give a referral or recommendation for someone you know who can help.

Script it! Now that you have some research under your belt, and you’ve made some notes, write it down and craft a message that sounds natural. Write a warm salutation. Reintroduce yourself and touch upon how you met. Note the prospect’s concern for an issue (or note an area your services could strengthen). Offer to share your ideas about your service. Add value—what you’ve done for oth­ers and how it could directly benefit the prospect. Then ask the prospect for an appointment, either in person or over the phone.

Practice it if you need to. The more you go through the process, the easier it will become, but it never hurts to have a script—just don’t sound like you’re reading from one when you call. Remember, this is not a sales pitch. Your goal is to build relationships and eventually interact face to face.

Make the Call. Your next step is to make contact with your client to set up an appointment. Remember, your follow-up should occur within 24 to 48 hours of your prospect’s initial contact. Connect too soon, and you might not be well prepared. Connect too late, and you may appear disinterested. If you fear calling or connecting online, you must work on overcoming your fear of rejection; going through the process above, as well as doing additional work on the value of your services should help. Pull out your script, take a deep breath, smile, and make the connection.

Persist, Respectfully. You may not meet your goal of getting an appointment on your first follow-up with a prospect, but don’t hesitate to follow up again. Remember to always add value with each touch—a brief statement that will give your prospect food for thought. You can also follow up via email or a social network connection and share a white paper or a link to a helpful article on your website or other non-competitive site. Wait a bit and follow up with another interaction. If your efforts go unanswered, interact again, expressing regret that you have not been able to connect before, add a brief value statement, show respect for their schedule, and provide your phone and email to get in touch at their convenience.

Conclusion

No matter which method you choose to use, either calling or Emailing or connecting via social networking, it is imperative that you follow up with your prospects to successfully close the deal. It is critical that your interactions be consistent and continual so that your relationship with your prospects keeps getting stronger and more valuable.

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