Here in 2009, it seems odd to be asking that question but the truth is that the majority of small businesses still do not have a presence on the internet. In addition, if the business owner is over forty years old, it is even less likely that they are on the internet.

In these difficult economic times, it is important than ever that anyone “doing business” have a presence on the internet. The form that presence takes can vary widely, but one needs to have a presence none-the-less.

When deciding what form your internet presence will take, it is important to think about “why” people use the internet.

Since the infancy of the internet, the days before “web pages” and “private domains,” it has become increasingly clear that the primary reason people use the Internet is to search for solutions to specific problems or to find information about things they have some interest in. Social Networking is the second reason that people flock to the internet by the millions each day, shopping, and entertainment are tied for third place in the “reasons why” race.

The internet today remains a worldwide clearinghouse for information of all types. It has also evolved over time to become “the great worldwide market place” that we know it to be today. Many billions of dollars exchange hands each day because of information exchanged and/or goods and services offered for sale on the net.

So, what does that have to do with you? Today, in 2009, the vast majority of people on the internet are still looking for information that is relevant to their interests, need, or purpose. In general, when it comes to shopping, most people use the internet for product reviews and price comparisons. Currently, about 25 percent of the goods sold in this country are sold over the internet, and that number is increasing daily.

What does this means for your business? It means that you need an internet presence and that in order to be “found” on the internet your business needs to compete in the great world of “relevant content.” Content rich websites rank the highest on internet search engines and make it easier to find specific information, businesses, or service providers.

There are a number of ways to increase the content on your site including having an SEO firm guide you through the process of creating relevant content; you can use content that is made available through content aggregators, you can hire a copywriter, or you can write your own original content.

Along with each well-written piece of content on your site, it is important to have each page or article “tagged” with “meta tags” in the web page code so that search engines can verify the relevancy of the sites content to the searches that people perform.

Relevant topical content increases traffic to your website because articles focused on a specific topic tagged with accurate keywords will place your site higher in search engine rankings. 

For example, you have a website about poodles. If you write original content about the care and feeding of, the breeding of, the grooming of, and the socialization of poodles you may find that you have the word “poodle” occur as many as 40 times in one article. Then when you place the word “poodle” in a tag, the search engine sees the word “poodle” in the tag and it will go through your content to see how many times it occurs in the content and it calculates how high to place you in the search engine rankings based on the number of occurrences. Therefore, if your website is about poodles, you might want that word to occur a couple hundred times throughout the site. This will move you closer to the top of the list in the search engines and it will draw more traffic to your site. However, you want to be careful to avoid “spamming” your own site with words used improperly, or that are not relevant to your marketing message.

Search engine rankings are the listed results when an internet user goes to a site such as www.yahoo.com or http://www.google.com and types in a particular “search key” such as “Poodles” and the search engine returns with pages of listings for the word “poodle.” For example, today – March 20, 2008, when I typed in the search key “poodles” into yahoo’s search engine it returned results telling me that there are about 8,310,000 pages with the word “poodle” included in their content. This is important information if you have a poodle website because it tells you many things, not the least of which is that there is great interest in poodles. However, it also tells you that many people write about poodles and so you have to have a site that is very content rich on the subject to be found in the first few pages of search results. This really is not as overwhelming as it seems. Many of these sites are from breeders with many photos of poodles, and articles or blogs about their poodles, poodles for sale, videos of their poodles, etc. 

When it comes to a topic as large as poodles, the search terms (aka Meta tag keywords) need to be even more specific. For example, while you will certainly have the words “poodle” and “poodles” in your tags you will need specific phrases as well such as “poodle grooming,” “poodle breeding” or “poodle feeding” and content that coincides with the keywords that your perspective audience will be looking for.

In other words, if you create content that is targeted to a specific topic and you get the key search phrases correct, you will always be closer to the top of the search engines for that specific keyword or phrase. This simple coding function on your web pages will increase traffic, incite sales, and increase the profitability of your website.

The Internet is a focused content driven venue, so the websites with the most tightly focused content on any specific top will always rank the highest and produce the best results.

The other factor that plays right into the “rankings” game is how often your content is updated or “refreshed.” For this reason, putting a blog on your site and making sure that it is properly tagged can help keep you current in the rankings. Using RSS feeds will also assist you in keeping the content of your website fresh and of interest to readers.

Research has shown that it is primarily the first two or three pages (about thirty “search” listings and another twenty or thirty paid listings) of search results that ever see much traffic. Overtime, your website content will help you become one of the first ten or twenty results. This means that you will have more traffic (people) then you ever thought possible visiting your site. Of course, this also means that more secondary search engines that base their rankings on the predominant search algorithms such as Yahoo or Google will index you.

Another solid reason to have well written content on your website is that it builds credibility with your customers. When this happens, you leave the ranks of unknown amateur in people’s eyes and are elevated to the rank of slightly famous celebrity in your field. This brings with it many benefits not the least of which is that suddenly people believe what you have to say and they spend more time on your site reading your content about a subject that is important to them or that they are actually PASSIONATE about and they are more likely to buy your products and services.

Keeping people engaged on your site, called “stickiness” is critical in the process of turning “browsers” into customers. The longer someone is on your site the more time you have to build your credibility as someone that they want to do business with and it facilitates pitching them your product or services.

The longer you have someone’s undivided attention on your site, the more likely they are to bookmark your site to return to it the next time that they need information about your particular topic or when they are ready to make a purchase. It also means that they are more likely to subscribe to your newsletter, to recommend the site to someone else or even to write a positive review of your site in a discussion forum to which they belong. All of these in turn, mean more traffic to your website.

One other very good reason for having a content rich site is that it will attract advertisers and link exchange offers from other websites that likely share your customer demographics. This can increase traffic and revenue for both you and your advertisers.

The bottom line is that the more content rich and relevant your website is to people looking for the information, products or services you offer, the more traffic your site will have and this can only mean more customers for your business.

Therefore, however you choose to provide content for your site, whether you write it yourself, hire a copywriter, or you select content from an aggregator, be sure that the articles are well written and that they are in keeping with the overall subject or focus of your site. Poorly written articles will do nothing to increase your traffic and they may result in negative publicity that you simply do not want.
 

© 2009 Incite Sales and Marketing, All Rights Reserved.

If you are unsure about how to write for the internet, you might want to consider picking up one of the following:

One Step Ahead: Writing for the Internet (One Step Ahead Series)

The Online Copywriter’s Handbook : Everything You Need to Know to Write Electronic Copy That Sells

Writing Copy for Dummies