General Internet Marketing Tips for Your Business Website

Looking for some basic Internet marketing tips for your small business? While there are hundreds of suggestions I can make, here’s a list that I think might be the most useful for 90% of small business owners.

1. What is the goal of your website? Ultimately, it should be to drive more business. But how exactly will it do that? Start with one goal, such as increasing the number of phone calls and branch out from there. It’s important to set goals, but it’s just as important to come up with a system for measuring those goals.

2. Evaluate your websites content – Content is King. What does your website say? Is the content unique and useful? Will people learn anything when they visit your site? When was the last time you added new content? Does your website have content worth reading? Does your content match your business goals?

3. The –title> tag – Visit your website. Look at the very top of your browser window. What do you see? Does it describe the page you’re looking at? Is it a unique description? Does it contain the keywords you want people to associate with that page of your website? If you’re a local business, does it contain your key local search keywords? If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to all these questions, research online to find the answers.

4. Call tracking and analytics – You can’t improve upon what you can’t measure. Analytics provide a tremendous amount of incredibly useful data, such as where your website visitors come from, how long they stay, and what they do on your site. Google analytics is free and pretty darn good, and I recommend it. I also recommend you make sure you can track every lead that’s generated by your website. Also, most hosting companies and many Internet Business Opportunities offer Analytics in their packages.

5. Take advantage of free local business directories – There are a few great local business directories that are completely free. Get your business listed in as many of the directories as you can and you’ll see a boost in website visitors and hopefully a boost in business too. (By the way, I don’t advocate paying for any directory listings anywhere unless you’ve got a very good reason.)

6. Check out your competition – Visit your competitors’ websites. Do searches for keywords related to your business. Find out what others in your vertical are doing and saying. This is a great way to get ideas and take stock of your own company’s online marketing efforts.

7. A lot of business owners love their websites, but the first step to improving your website is to admit that it has some deficiencies. No website is perfect, and every website can use improvement. If you have a website, you probably have an ugly baby.[sorry] Just how ugly your website is, however, is open to discussion.

8. Start blogging – Every business, and I mean every business, has something to gain by blogging and absolutely nothing to loose. Why should you blog? The list is long.

9. Post online video – Video is still a little cutting-edge for some, but the benefits can’t be understated. Online video is the wave of the future, and every business needs to have something on YouTube, Metacafe, etc. If you’re concerned about expense here, keep in mind there are some low-budget options that won’t damage your brand while still providing concrete benefits.

10. Take advantage of free website submission services such as:

FreeWebSubmission.com
SubmitExpress.com
Scrubtheweb.com
Manta.com