For the purpose of this article, I will be concentrating on the integration of design and SEO techniques to promote the small business.
When it comes to building a website for a small business, it isn't possible to separate the design aspects from the SEO aspects. To do so is the equivalent of building your business in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Hey, it might look really beautiful, but if nobody can find you, then you are not going to succeed. The equivalent to building your business in the middle of the desert when it comes to the internet is for your site to be languishing at number 143 in the search results. Nobody is going to find you there either.
Small business SEO is NOT the mystery that many SEO Consultants would have you believe. The application of basic principles when building your website will have two effects.
- First of all, you will rank much higher in the search engines that what you would have without using simple SEO techniques that every professional web developer should know
- And secondly, you won't necessarily have to spend lots of money down the track with a SEO Consultant making changes to your site, much of which will be really basic small business SEO.
One of the easiest ways to find out if your web developer knows anything about small business SEO is to simply have a look at where their own site ranks in the search engines. Another way is to ask for examples of sites they have done for small business clients and see where they are ranking. With either of these techniques, choose the search terms yourself, as if you were trying to find the business. Don't use search terms that are provided to you. The reason for this is that it is very simple to rank very highly for non competitive terms.
The book, "SEO For Small Business", available on this site, contains lots of information about small business SEO techniques. You should have a working knowledge of these things if you have a site or are considering a site for your small business. It will both save you a lot of money in the long run and make you money through the acquisition of more customers and sales.
