All new businesses need to advertise; whether it’s posters, radio, television or the web. Without advertising potential customers will never know you exist and as a result your business could fail. Even business giants such as Coca Cola and McDonalds still need to advertise, the need to excel in the market place is no different for a global enterprise than a small business.
So, how can the internet help your business? The benefits of a web site speak for themselves. A web site is accessible 24 hours a day to a global market. It is very cheap advertising, hosting for your site costs as little as £40 a year. Compare this to print media such as brochures and flyers and you’ll soon notice a big difference in costs. It is a great way to show off and when designed efficiently can be a real asset to your company or business.
If your business doesn’t already have a web site then you need to get one. Even if your business is already successful, not being on the web could be losing you potential custom. If you decide not to have a web site you can still build a web presence by submitting your business to various free business listings such as Google Local Business Center or Freeindex. That way, someone searching for your business will at least be able to get your contact details or opening times.
If you already have a web site there are numerous things you can do to further promote your business online.
Fresh Content
A great way to get your business noticed online is new content. The more unique and relevant content you add to your site the more traffic you will get. You could create your own RSS feed or join web sites such as Digg, designed for people to share news articles and stories. The more quality content you create, the more visibility your site (and business) will get.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. This is primarily the job of the person who designed your site. When designing a site there are certain factors that need to be taken into account. Web sites are not just visual, they need to be coded correctly, certain accessibility standards need to be taken into account and the better your web site adheres to these standards the greater your chances are of being picked up by search engines.
Below is basic checklist to ensure your web site is coded correctly:
- Make sure your meta tags are present and correct
- Ensure all your pages validate (W3C)
- Use title and alt tags where necessary (and correctly)
- Use relevant keywords throughout your site
- Do not use images for text; search engines will not be able to read them
The above is a very basic list; there are numerous factors to take into account with SEO. For further details check out the following:
Top 10 SEO tips – at the UK small business directory
SEO tips – from Submit Express UK
Ultimately, ensuring your web site is coded correctly will draw more traffic to your web site and if your web site has done its job, get you more business.
Google AdWords
If you want to really push your web site online then you’ll need to think about using Google AdWords. The processes described above are known as organic and they can only take your site so far. AdWords is not a free service, it works on the basis that you pay when people click your ads. The ads are fully customisable and appear alongside organic search results, however they are much more likely to appear higher up the search results and will be placed in a more prominent position.
If you want to be found on Google then AdWords will get you where you want to be much quicker than organic SEO, but you will have to pay for the privilege.
If you would like more information on Google AdWords then take a look at the following page.
