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Eight Reasons Why Your Website is Crap

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

A few years ago I heard a quote, supposedly by Bill Gates:

Soon there will be two types of businesses, those online and those out of business.

While I’m not sure if the quote ever really came from him, the premise of the statement is definitely true.  And even years later, only a staggering 40% of small businesses in the US have websites.

Of that 40%, a good chunk of those websites are stale or dead.  They heard that they needed to be online, and rushed to get online, but had no strategy or planning about why they should be online.  They just knew they had to be there.  And after a few years of their website sitting there doing nothing, they’ve most likely abandoned what little hope they had about the Internet, when actually now is when they should be actively pursuing climbing the rankings and dominating the ever-growing online segment of their industry.
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Posted in blogging, SEO, small business, traffic | 1 Response »
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Buying Up Your Domain Names

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Should you buy the .net, .org, and .us versions of your .com domain?

Business owners know that they’ve got to own a really good domain name in order to get online.  Most go with their business name, which is a perfectly good strategy for most businesses.  But where the owners fall short is that they only buy the .com version, and ignore the others. This mistake is easy (and cheap) to fix, and could save some big headaches down the road.
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Posted in domain names, small business | 1 Response »

Get Your Business on Google Maps – Correctly

Monday, April 12th, 2010

There’s no question about it, if you’re a small business, you’ve got to be listed in Google maps, Yahoo Local and Bing Local. It’s not debatable. Just do it.

But by all means, take the time to do it right. You don’t want to look like an idiot because you ran through it so quickly. And it’s not something you can pay your twelve year old son Jimmy to do, neither. You don’t have to pay some business $299 to do it, either.  That’s just crazy.  Take the time on a Sunday night to get it right.  It’ll be worth it. Click to continue »

Posted in local marketing, small business | 1 Response »
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Why Should My Small Business Blog?

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

At last week’s Market Saint Louis Conference, one word seemed to dominate every session.  It was mentioned more than anything else, and it wasn’t ‘Facebook’, ‘Twitter’, or even ‘social’.

What was the word that was mentioned more than any other? WordPress.

During my session on Local SEO, one of the business owners raised his hand and said, “All throughout these sessions the number one thing we keep hearing is blog, blog blog. Why is this so important to a small business owner?”
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Posted in blogging, small business | 5 Responses »
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Big Discount for Upcoming Midwest Internet Conference

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

On April 1st I’ll be speaking at the Market Saint Louis conference about how any business can dominate their local area in search results. Along with myself are some other awesome speakers including Jason Tinnin from Saint Louis-based SimpleFlame and Derek Chew, former SEO lead at Yahoo!.

The conference only happens once a year, and there are only 100 tickets sold.  It’s a perfect fit for  small and medium business owners/execs.  There are two tracks – a beginner and an advanced, so no matter what you’re expertise level, you’ll learn a lot.

The tickets are $249 each, but I’ve been given the green light to offer a pretty sweet deal.  From now until tickets sell out, all purchases are Buy One Get One Free!  But that’s not even the best part – if you use the promo code ‘SPEAKER‘ you’ll get $50 off of the ticket price.  That means 2 tickets to this premier conference will only cost you $199!

How cool is that?

Like I said, this deal only lasts until all the tickets are sold out.

As if I need to sweeten it any more, the tickets also get you admission to the conference’s pre-event mixer on March 31st at 7PM.  You’ll get a few free drinks and will be able to meet the speakers and mingle with all the other business owners.

It’s going to be so cool.  I hope you can make it!

Details
Market Saint Louis
http://www.MarketSTL.com
April 1, 8am-4pm

Mixer (free with ticket purchase – sponsored by SimpleFlame)
HoteLumiere
March 31, 7pm

List of freebies: http://www.marketstl.com/register/freebies/

Posted in conferences, Marketing, small business, St Louis | No Responses »
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Your Most Important Post

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Many times when we come up with great inspiration for a blog post or twitter status update, we take it straight to the web and start typing.  Since numbers and analytics data are what drive many of us, (perhaps we should call it egolytics), we’re always on the lookout for that one great post that drives a huge amount of traffic.Most Important

…and to you it seems like the most important post of your career.  This is the one.  You’ve got some great info and you’re ready to bust on the scene with a groundbreaking update.

It may be good info, it may bring you a ton of traffic, and get lots of inbound links, but it’s not your most important post.
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Posted in reputation, small business, social media | 3 Responses »

I Need SEO, Now What?

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

I’m having a blast with the free Internet Marketing series I’m teaching here in Saint Louis.  The room has been packed at each session and the one I’m teaching tonight is no doubt going to be the same.

Tonight will be the final of three awesome classes.  Of the three, I enjoy teaching Marketing Your Business Website the most.  It’s basically a ten thousand-foot view of Internet Marketing, including pointers on good domain names, design and of course SEO.

I’ve been teaching this particular class for over four years now, and the expression of people’s faces as I close out the curriculum is nearly always the same.

Shock.  Surprise.

“We had no idea there was so much involved in getting our site to rank.”

“This is a ton of work and we’re already busy running our business.”

“We’ve got to do this but can’t believe all that’s involved.”

The realizations are always about the same.  There’s a lot to do to get your site moving towards the top.  There’s more than just coming up with a list of twenty keywords that you think are important (because your web guy asked you for them).  Lots more.  Not to mention social media, PPC or blogging.

So what do you do from here?

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Posted in beginner sem, site ranking, small business, web design | No Responses »

Listed Locally: Needed Now More Than Ever

Monday, January 11th, 2010

If you’ve got a business that caters to a predominantly local market, and you aren’t active in your online strategy, you’re about to be left behind in a big way.

Late last week Google announced a new feature for their mobile search where you can find businesses near you.  This little feature, which rolled out to all iPhone and Droid users can have a huge impact on your local foot traffic.

In order to be listed in what we call the 7 pack, you’ve got to have your businesses listed in the Google Local Business Listings (LBL).  Even if your business doesn’t have a website, you can still list it in there.
Businessman looking at his smartphone
There are two main impacts by this simple change:

  • Those businesses that are listed in the LBL are going to see an increase in walk-in traffic.  Over time as the service is rolled out to more and more smartphones, it will only increase this walk-in traffic.  Since smartphones continue to get cheaper, more and more people are going to have them.  It won’t be long before most cell phones are smart/data run.
  • Not being listed in the LBL is only going to continue to hurt businesses that won’t get with the times.  It’s like ignoring the Yellow Pages 50 years ago.  It’s like saying the television fad will quietly pass.

Now, don’t forget that Google is already showing local/map results for generic queries.  That’s something they rolled out way back around March of 2009.  So it goes without saying that having a strong SEO presence in the search engines is becoming more and more mandatory.  Having your site verified in Google Webmaster tools is no longer an option.

Read other posts on Google Maps and local marketing

Oh – and once you’re listed, don’t forget to keep an eye on your listing.

Posted in Google Maps, local marketing, small business | No Responses »
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Interview with Chris Reimer aka RizzoTees

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

As part of my continuing series on Saint Louis business people, this week I reach out to Chris Reimer, who most people know as @RizzoTees on Twitter.  He’s very active on the social media front, so most questions revolve around that.  Chris founded Rizzo Tees back in October 2007, and his website went live on October 30, 2008.  Chris is a one-man-show, designing and selling funny t-shirts out of his basement in South St. Louis.  And Chris wanted me to pass this on to you:  “I love you more than bacon – never forget!”

  1. Chris, thanks for taking a few minutes to answer my questions.  What first spurred you to get involved with social media for your business?
    Two things – I truly enjoy interacting with people, and a lack of money.
    First, people: I am obviously, at the base of it, nothing more than a new-age salesperson. I mean, in the interest of full disclosure, yes, I have a funny t shirt company, and I’d be psyched if you bought a shirt or two from me! For selfish, capitalistic reasons, Social Media is a great place for me to be. But beyond that, I love Click to continue »

Posted in interviews, Marketing, small business | 3 Responses »
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Just Who’s Thinking About SEO?

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

It’s all over twitter – more and more businesses are looking to SEO, social media and other forms of online “advertising” to get the word out about their services and products.  And I’ve done my share of proposals for these businesses as well.  Some hired me, some didn’t.  But it’s always fun to reflect back and see who contacted me throughout the past year.  Below is a small but interesting list of companies I did SEO proposals for in 2009.
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Posted in Saint Louis, SEO, small business | 2 Responses »
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