Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Basics

You’ve honed your small business’s Pay Per Click and Pay For Calls campaigns. Now you want to create search engine marketing copy to help your site rank organically with the 10 to 15 major search engines out there. Let’s discuss the basics of intelligent, search friendly copywriting.

Ideally, your content should be different from anything else on the web. It’s okay to do research on other web sites about your industry and about the products you carry. However, the content that you create for your small business web site should be descriptive and totally unlike anyone else’s writing. Even direct paraphrasing can get you in trouble with the search engines and also with web sites that you “rip off.”

In addition to building superior content to rank your site, you might also look into linking to other small business sites. Support others by linking to them, and you may be rewarded in kind. Aim to get the biggest, most respected sites to link to you, and you’ll find that your small business web site cachet will organically rise.

Remember that search engine spiders have a very difficult time identifying and “finding” text that’s buried within the context of frames or obfuscated by animations. Keep your interfacing simple. Provide a direct conduit to your shopping cart, subscription service, or other place of “action.” Provide easy contact information. Leave a lot of white space on your site.

Research other small business web sites to find what’s aesthetically pleasing and what’s confusing. Build in easy navigation tools. Opt for a customized small business web site, unless you have numerous miniature e-portals and can afford for your individual mini sites to look “cookie cutter.”

Don’t stuff your text with keywords that aren’t related to your business. Avoid nonsensical phrases that contain keywords for the sole sake of “tricking the search engines.” Truth be told, the search engines are too smart to be tricked now. You must create good content if you want to be relevant to the spiders.

Finally, keep your catalogs and copy fresh. If you don’t regularly update what you have for sale or revise your list of officers and associates, you could send confusing messages to clients and slowly chip away at your consumer base. Attend to the little touches and make your web site a welcome and clean portal for small business customers.

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Raise the profile of your business with this powerful selling tool. Online customers look for more than a name and number when they need goods or services. Use this method of free Internet advertising to show customers your vital business information.

Do you have questions? Call 866-311-4158 now to ask a superpages.com consultant about Online Advertising.