These small business owners know their business but they are typically not experts in Internet Marketing. And they shouldn’t be – they should focus on their business. To make it easy and affordable for Jensen Beach business owners to get new customers through the Internet we built JensenBeach.com and added Jensen Beach to Inside Florida.

Local Web Marketing Fundamentals
If you own a local business you need to be using the Internet to find new customers. If you have your own website one of the best ways to get that website to rank in search results is to get links to your site from other websites that are about your city or town. That makes the links relevant and as a result they will benefit your website.

At Net Builders our focus is Internet Marketing Florida Two of our websites focused on the Treasure Coast are Inside Florida and Jensen Beach

Jensen Beach
Jensen Beach (JensenBeach.com) is a 10 year old website that ranks on page 1 of Google and Yahoo. The site gets thousands of visitors a month looking specifically for information about Jensen Beach.

Here are the ways we promote Local Jensen Beach Businesses:

• Detailed Business Listings
• Sales, Coupons, Ads
• Articles

Many of the businesses listed on Jensen Beach and Inside Florida fax their company information to Net Builders and we do the work for them. Sites like JensenBeach.com are the perfect way to get customers through the Internet.

JensenBeach.com is a mix of community information, a business showcase, photos, and articles about the area.

Inside Florida
Inside Florida includes a section dedicated to Jensen Beach.

This website Netbuilders.com ranks on Google and MSN for the phrase “Florida Internet Marketing”. Do a search yourself and see. We picked that phrase because it describes our focus – we help Florida businesses get found. We have four other websites that rank in the top 5 on Google for many competitive phrases. We give you this information not to brag but as an example of how you should evaluate any company offering to do search engine optimization for you.

Picking An SEO (Search Engine Optimizer)
The first and most important step in hiring anyone to help you with your website is to see what their website ranks for. They should be able to show you their search engine rankings for a competitive phrase on Google. If they cannot, run away screaming.

We focus on Google because that is where the majority of searching takes place. In addition, the Google approach to ranking websites is far more complex and takes more of a commitment. Google separates the pros from the amateurs.

A few Scams to Avoid

1. Made Up Phrases
The key to Internet Marketing is ranking (showing up in search results) for a phrase that people actually search on. An obvious scam is to make up a unique phrase that is easy to rank for because no one actually searches on it and as a result there is no competition for it.

If a search engine company cannot show you that their site shows up in search results on Google for a phrase that is commonly searched on, you don’t want to hire them. The phrase should not include their company name or have more than three words in it. The more words in a phrase the less competition and the easier it is to rank.

2. Link Farms
It’s widely known that having links point to your website from other websites helps your search engine rankings. But those links need to come from sites that have content somehow related to your website. Getting 500 links from a bunch of unrelated websites will not help and in some cases is seen by the search engines as spamming. This can result in your site being banned and never showing up in search results.

3. Hosted Content
There are some companies that offer to let you pay them to create articles on their website with content about your business. They will put links to your site in those articles and therefore drive visitors to your site. You pay every month to have those articles stay up with your links.

This is less of a scam than just a bad decision. The problem we have with this is that the minute you don’t pay your monthly fee the company will call one of your competitors and offer them the pages and resulting traffic.

The Wrap Up
We get at least 5 phone calls every month that go like this.

“Hello do you need help with search engine optimization”
The person calling has a heavy accent and you can hear dozens of other operators in the background in a busy call center.

Our response: hang up..

If you are going hire someone to help you with search engine optimization the best bet is run a search on “search engine optimization” or “search engine marketing” on Google and look at the first 20 results. Those are very competitive phrases so anyone showing up in the top 20 has to know something. Picking the right one will be tougher, just make sure you know exactly what you will be getting for your money and that you will get monthly reports showing measurable results.

Paid Advertising – PPC (pay per click)
Every major search engine includes paid advertising these days. This advertising is typically referred to as Pay-Per-Click or PPC. The ads normally appear across the top and down the right of the screen when you perform a search. And in most cases the company running the advertisement pays each time someone clicks on it.

Below is an illustration of Google search results with the Pay Per Click ads highlighted.

Use Pay Per Click with Caution
Pay per click advertising is an effective tool if it drives consumers to a webpage where a sale can result. We typically don’t recommend pay per click advertising in situations where a direct sale cannot result. It can quickly get expensive with no measurable result.

Natural Search Results
Natural search results cost the website owner nothing and are clicked on with much higher frequency than paid ads. This makes natural search results incredibly valuable.

In the early days of search engines (circa 1994) the results were all natural. You would search on a phrase such as “new cars” and the search engine would display a list of web pages that it thought were the most relevant for that phrase.

Natural search still has the same basic goal – display the web pages that are the most relevant as determined by the search engine. Each search engine applies it own set of logic and rules to decide which pages to display.

Below is an illustration of Googl search results with Natural search results highlighted.

So the question that immediately comes to mind is: How do I get my website to show up in natural search results?

Ah, the million dollar question. Getting your website to show up in natural search results and show up on page 1 (the first 10) is the holy grail of Internet Marketing. If you can do it, the result will be more customers than you can imagine.

For a small local business the opportunity is that customers who have never heard of your business can find you online and show up at your door. Ignore this source of new customers and you are giving away business to your competition. 

In 2005 there was 12.5 billion dollars spent on online advertising a new record. Big companies are shifting their ad dollars from print and television ads to Internet Ads. Even more traditional companies like Ford Motor Company are spending more online.

Big Business Capitalizing Online
How do big companies use the Internet to increase their business? Big companies spend millions creating web sites that make it easy for customers to find their store, buy online, and see all the products and services they offer.

Local Business Online
As a small business owner you don’t have a room full of Internet experts. The good news is you don’t need it. Once you understand this opportunity and the enormous amount of customers it can bring you ready for the next step; promoting your business online so you can get found.

Get Found How it Works
How do consumers use the Internet and how does that translate into business.  Go to one of the three big search engines Google, Yahoo, or MSN and search on the phrase that best describes your business. Does your business or website show up on page one of the search results? Does it show up at all?

How Do Customers Find You Online?
We recently surveyed several small business owners a bike shop, a marine electronics store, a veterinarian, the local hardware store, an insurance agent, a realtor, an Italian restaurant, and a flooring store.

We asked them one question: How do customers find your web site?

The answers were a surprise:

• We print it on our water bottles
• We put it on our business cards
• It’s on all our paperwork

These business owners were not aware of the real opportunity that an effective web presence can deliver. They were using their websites as a way to service their existing customers not as a tool to get new customers.

Consumers searching on line (who have never heard of your business) can find your business on the Internet.

Do You Need a Website for Your Small Business?
Assuming you want new customers to find you on the Internet the next question is do you need a website to get found? The answer is not necessarily there are a variety of methods that allow you to put your business information online.

How to Get Found
There are a variety of ways to get found by consumers on the Internet. Our focus is on local shoppers looking for products and services who are using the Internet. Data indicates that 63% of shoppers that search online actually buy local. In most cases they buy from a large box store because that is they find when they search online.

Ways to Get Found

• Your Business Website
• Online Advertising
• Business Listings in Directories
• A Website within an Online Marketplace

Build it and They Will Come
Getting a website built is fairly simple these days. And if your goal is to print your website address on your business card and have your current customers visit the website it’s easy.

But if your goal is to get new customers through the Internet you need more than an online brochure. Part two of this series will detail a variety of ways your small business can get found online.