Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

Small business SEO is a vitally important part of successful online marketing. Small businesses do not have the same resources as large corporations to buy online advertising on all the popular websites, nor compete with pay per click on certain top keywords. Thus, a sound small business SEO strategy is necessary.

However, there are small business SEO methods that could work to your disadvantage. Be advised that many website owners have tried sneaky or tricky search engine optimization strategies and have suffered dearly with the resulting fallout.

What are some of the possible results of doing things search engines hate?

• Your site will be poorly ranked - Not the worst outcome, but if you do not employ sound small business SEO strategies, your website could suffer low rankings on certain keyword or search terms.
• Your site won't be found - One possible outcome is that your small business SEO won't be successful at all. Your website will not be categorized or logged properly by the major search engine "bots", and your ranking will not appear in search results.
• Your site could get sandboxed - Don't think that major search engines won't exclude you altogether. Google is notorious for finding culprits of sneaky small business SEO tactics and banning them from search results altogether.

So what is it that search engines hate most? Here are the top 8 most despised small business SEO methods.

1. Duplicate Content

   The biggest crime in the eyes of search engines is duplicate content, which is text that has been plagiarized from another website. Too many small business owners make the mistake of copying and pasting text from another resource, rather than writing their own unique content. The result is that your website simply won't appear in the search results. Make sure your web content is 100% unique to avoid being lost in the search engine abyss.

2. Flash

   Flash is an animation format released by Adobe, and it is one of the most popular formats for introducing short animated vignettes on a website. Even some video formats are using Flash.

   However, Flash does not provide any helpful content information that will help a search engine rank your website. If you use Flash, keep it as just a visual part of your website and not the entire web page of content.

3. Splash Pages

   Having a cool animated "splash" page can make a good impression on your visitors and customers. However, an animated "introduction" to your real website content does not get past search engines. Plus, extra time and clicks can easily turn off some visitors. Avoid losing visitors and improve your small business SEO rankings without the use of a splash page.

4. Old Content

   A website that has not been updated with fresh content is not good search engine optimization and does not impress search engines. Keep your small business website fresh with regularly updated content and new page publications of relevant keywords.

5. Image Maps

   An image map is dividing a graphic or image into different clickable links. While this can be great for your visitors, image mapping does not provide any anchoring keywords for search engines to latch onto. If you must use image maps and clickable images, be sure to use captions and <alt> tags to define the image in small business SEO keywords.

6. Keyword Stuffing

   A search engine hates nothing more than a website that "stuffs" massive amounts of keywords to trick it into thinking the site offers something relevant. Websites that get caught stuffing hundreds of keywords on a page with the purpose of trying to jerry rig or skew results could get quickly banned.

7. Hiding Keywords

   Similarly to keyword stuffing, hiding keywords within your HTML coding is also poor small business SEO, and it could have the same sandboxing results.

8. Cloaked Landing Pages

   Scurrilous web designers will try to trick a search engine by designing a relevant web page with all the appropriate keywords, but quickly redirect a visitor to another website that is completely unrelated. This is called "cloaking" a website and can quickly get a website fully banned from Google. Keep your small business SEO legitimate and present a website that a visitor expects when they click a link.

In your ever-evolving quest to improve your small business SEO, there is a seemingly never-ending list of strategies. One SEO strategy that has become clear just within the last few years is the leveraging of inbound links.

Inbound links are found on other websites that point their visitors to your website. Google has made it clear that this type of "recommendation" from other websites is important to their algorithm system. Thus, inbound links should be a major part of your small business SEO strategy.

However, not all inbound links are created equal. A link to your site from a small web page that gets 5 hits a week is low priority in Google's eyes - but so is a inbound link from a large website that contains totally unrelated content and completely different keywords and terms. Especially since the last Panda update, who points to your website can make a tremendous difference in whether your website is categorized as first-page quality or spam.

A good inbound link should be:

• Relevant - Google's automated 'bots' like to know that the website providing the inbound link is related to your industry and keywords.
• High traffic - A website with high traffic volumes will pull more weight with Google and thus rank your inbound link higher.
• High rank - A website with a high page rank in Google that links to your site will also be the most effective.

Finding and obtaining relevant inbound links may be easier than you think. Here are a few of the best methods to get your inbound link list growing:

Link Your Blog to Your Website

First of all, you should focus your small business SEO internally. If you have a small business website on one domain and a blog on another, that is a perfect opportunity for linking.

Your company blog should link to your small business website domain on the main page. Your blog is also a good place to slip that link in to each blog update or post you publish. Strategically use keyword anchor text to link back to your website to help you appear in the results for your top keywords.

Include Links On Your Social Media Profiles

Your social media accounts are another great way to improve your small business SEO with inbound links. Most social media sites allow you to create a profile page and include one or two links. Use them wisely. If you can, always include links to both your company website and your company blog.

Encourage Social Media Followers to Repost

Write and post occasional social media updates that include a link to your website or blog. Note that this shouldn't be practiced on EVERY update, but that you can link back to your own sites whenever you publish relevant, useful, and interesting content. When you do, encourage your followers or fans to re-tweet or share with their friends so the links gets spread virally.

Many SEO experts believe that since the Panda update, the weight of social network sharing and backlinks has become more important than ever. Thus, backlinks and activity from the social networks could be boosting your SEO more than most other strategies.

Write Articles for Other Sites, But NOT Article Databases

Previously, writing articles for the directories was a prudent way to build backlinks. However, since the last Panda update, most all of the major directories have been stripped of their PageRank, and links pointing out of the article directories have been considered spam.

Consider instead taking the initiative to contact industry-relevant blogs and resources, and ask if you could have an opportunity to be a guest author. You can pitch ideas for articles and back up your expertise with your credentials. Writing articles is still a fantastic strategy for building backlinks, but you only want to be published in industry-relevant, high quality websites.

Many SEO link building strategies have changed since the Panda update, but with the growing weight of the social networks, link building is perhaps easier now than ever before.

Trade show marketing can be a great way for your small business to find and open new markets around the country and promote your products to those who are unfamiliar. And while we've talked before about the benefits and how to find the right trade show for your industry and product, there are a few trade show tips and secrets that will improve your success.

Here are a few trade show tips that will give you an edge at your next showing:

Booth Design

During small business trade shows, you want to grab the attention of attendees and participants. While your product is the star of the show, a well-designed booth is the stage for your showpiece.

Whether you build your booth space yourself on a budget or pay a specialty shop to construct your booth, keep these elements in mind:

• Walls - First, be sure to color coordinate with all booth elements, starting with the walls. Your walls could be heavy-duty cubical material, or simple cloth stretch between PVC piping. Keep the color warm and inviting.
• Banners - Include graphic banners for your booth display. A banner with your name and logo is great, but to stand out at small business trade shows, include graphic banners and displays with photos of your product, people enjoying your product, etc. Make them full color and put these at eye level to attract attention.
• Tablecloths - A trade show will likely provide you with a table or two, and maybe even a plain tablecloth. But you should bring your own that complements your color scheme. White is the trade show tips top choice because it highlights the objects on top of it.
• Flooring - Likely the trade show will be on concrete flooring. If possible, bring your own flooring. It could be carpet squares, fiberboard, or even a cloth flooring. A brighter color is also recommended, as it will help reflect light and brighten your booth.
• Lighting - As well, small business trade shows will likely provide plenty of shadowy overhead fluorescent lighting. Consider bringing your own light stands to project spotlights on targeted areas on your display.

Use Interactive Displays

During small business trade shows, you will attract more customers with interactive displays. It could be a sample of your product that people can handle and touch, a cooking display, or even an iPod monitor where folks can use the touch screen to go through a quiz, an interactive PowerPoint, or display product photos.

Don't Forget The Giveaways

At small business trade shows, be sure to help people who stop at your booth remember your product. Provide them with product samples, business cards, pens, magnets - whatever you think can make an impression and carries your business name and logo.

Stock Up on Brochures and Order Forms

You don't want to run out of literature at small business trade shows. Bring enough brochures and product information sheets to pass around.

Likewise, if you plan to take orders at small business trade shows, always keep enough order forms on hand.

Cookies!

Of all the trade show tips available, one secret to almost assuredly get people to stop by your booth is to have a small basket of cookies available. It could be name brand like Oreo, maybe Girl Scout cookies, or homemade cookies. Cookies are hard to pass by and can be that simple trick that makes a passerby say, "oh, cookies! What else do you have here?"

Have Backup Attendants

Trades shows typically run long hours, usually from morning until evening. It is unfair and unwise to ask any single person to have sole responsibility of attending your small business trade show booth the entire time.

Among the smartest of trade show tips is to be sure you bring backup. At least two people should attend. That way, one person can attend to the booth to meet and greet, while the other can walk the floor, do competition research, attend the seminars, or network.

The key to small business trade shows is to have someone on duty to answer questions, do demonstrations, and take orders at all times.