The Most Important Website Marketing Tactic for Small Business Marketers

I hear it all the time from my clients: The Internet is so BIG how can I ever be successful online?
While the Internet is big and new tools and techniques pop up every day to help you market online, it makes no sense to pursue any of those tactics until you've taken one critical step: Optimizing Your Website.

By Optimizing your Website, I mean making your site visible to the search engines so you'll rank higher in search engine results when your customers look for your products and services online.

While Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is a whole industry unto itself, here are 3 simple steps you can take yourself to make sure your site can be found when your customers go searching.

1. If your site is currently hosted using shared hosting, ask your host for a dedicated IP address. The cost for this is usually nominal, and the search engine benefits are great.

2. Use a descriptive title for your site as well as keywords tags that allow search engines and your site visitors alike to know what they will find when they visit your web page. Make sure you are placing keywords that appear in your keyword tags within the text of your web pages as well. Your keywords should be specific to your products and services and should be chosen with consideration for the terms your prospective customers use when searching online for your products and services.

3. Make sure every image on your website has an alt tag associated with it. Search engines cannot see images, but they can read the alternate text associated with your images. Make sure to use your keywords in your alt tags for all your images as well.

About the Author:

Entrepreneur and outdoor photography adventurer Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Small Business Mavericks, a division of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating marketing communications materials and writing copy for some of the largest and most successful companies in the world. Her small business columns are syndicated online, and she publishes the award-winning eZine, "Small Business Maverick Secrets." Learn insider Maverick Marketing secrets you can use immediately to find new customers and increase your sales. When you subscribe, you'll also get a FREE copy of her e-Book, "Local Small Business Internet Marketing Secrets" - learn insider secrets to marketing your local small business on the Web today! Get your FREE subscription at www.SmallBusinessMavericks.com.

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