If you read my last post you know how important it is for an online business to have a website. You may also be wondering about SEO if you’re unfamiliar with it. SEO stands for search engine optimization and it’s important for any website. Well, at least any website you want to be found. There are oodles of articles on both this site and all over the internet about link building and how to improve your rankings. (Try the marketing section!)

If you’re not sure how to go about it try doing some Googling for a basic introduction. There are plenty of other ways to learn too! Try watching other websites and seeing what they’re doing as well. You can even find a Small business SEO webinar that can tell you all about the basics of SEO and how to get your website seen.

If you’re a local business owner that doesn’t sell merchandise online then you probably have a very small collection of keywords you want to market to. For example, let’s say you’re a plumber from Tampa! You’re probably interested in keywords such as “plumbers Tampa” or “Best plumbers in Tampa”. You don’t want to waste time and money on something general like just “plumbers” because that applies to the entire world. If you don’t plan on working on drains in China I’d suggest being more specific!

The good news is that the competition for these keywords will be much lower for you! (Hoorah!) I’d also recommend starting a blog. This can be a general blog about your company or business. Mostly because blogs attract a lot of long tail keywords. So you can capitalize on this and send people to your business for many hard to target phrases. Using our same plumber example you could try writing on “When You Know You Need A Plumber!” or “Common Problems With Drains.” ect.

If you’re still not sure about the whole thing you could try getting a consultation from a small business SEO firm. Don’t be intimidated due to the size of your business. Many places like this have plans that can cater to all budgets. Since you’ll be competing for smaller keywords they can probably work something out for you to get you started!