By Liz Kudwa
A: This is a very common concern among small business owners because they often don’t have enough money to pay a web designer/developer and often lack the full knowledge to completely optimize their website themselves. To increase the amount of traffic your website receives you need to optimize your site so that search engines are able to more easily find you. This is called search engine optimization (SEO) and we have several books in our collection that can help you better understand what SEO is and how to make it work for your website.
o Search Engine Optimization For Dummies by Peter Kent
o Search Engine Optimization: An Hour A Day by Jennifer Grappone
o Get To The Top On Google: Search Engine Optimization And Website Promotion Techniques To Get Your Site To The Top Of The Search Engine Rankings by David Viney
o Ultimate Guide To Google Adwords: How To Access 100 Million People In 10 Minutes by Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd
o Google Advertising Tools by Harold Davis
I also subscribe to a blog called Small Business Trends and they posted an excellent article about how customers find businesses online. Janet Meiners Thaeler, author of this article, is an SEO evangelist for a company called OrangeSoda, Inc. She describes how the Yellow Pages used to play a very integral role in tracking down local companies and generally it was the place most people checked first. But this is not the case today. A behavioral study conducted by Comscore (Local Search Marketing in a Multi-Tasking World) shows that a “fundamental shift” is occurring when it comes to looking for local businesses. These days, more and more people are using search engines, like Google, to find their local hair salon, plumber or insurance agent. Really I think we’ve all done this a time or two or more. Say you’re looking for a plumber. You visit Google, type “plumber Lansing Michigan” in the search box and see what turns up. The Comscore study has data showing the top 5 ways people find local businesses these days:
o 31% visit a search engine – most research without a specific brand or business name in mind and a specific location (i.e. a plumber in Tampa, Florida).
o 30% look up a business in print in the Yellow Pages or White Pages.
o 19% use Internet directories – often to find a phone number.
o 11% look at local search sites like Google Maps or Yahoo Local (usually to get driving directions).
o 3% get information from a newspaper or magazine.
I find this fascinating because while the Yellow Pages make up one-third of this pie, 3 of the top 5 methods for searching for a local business involve using the Internet in some capacity. There is a clear message here for small business owners. You probably have limited dollars to spend on your advertising so make the most of the money you do have to spend. Work on optimizing your website so that it’s more easily found with search engines and I bet you’ll see more traffic on your site, which will hopefully translate into more dollars for your business.
Elizabeth Kudwa is the Business Reference Librarian at the Capital Area District Library located at 401 S. Capitol Avenue in Lansing, MI. Contact her at 517-367-6301 or by e-mail at kudwae@cadl.org.
