Online Marketplace 

Increasing Competition In The Small Business Online Marketplace: Unfortunate Reality or Exciting Opportunity
Tyler Hawkins

“For small companies, just having a Web site isn’t enough anymore.  To be successful online, they must learn to harness one of the Web’s most powerful tools:  search engines.”

Kelly K. Spors The Wall Street Journal (April 30, 2007)

With each passing day more and more consumers turn to the internet in their quest to satisfy their needs and wants.  Successful businesses realized this, invested accordingly, and, taking a “build it and they will come” approach, established powerful web sites. 

This approach has been largely sufficient for many well established businesses—especially those with strong brand recognition.  Consumers are drawn to their site by way of strong brand identity.  Smaller companies and those lacking established branding who lean on this build and wait method, feel they are missing the boat and their sites aren’t seeing much traffic.

For many small businesses this provides proof they were right all along—the internet isn’t the boom it was supposed to be.  Small businesses view their Web site as a waste of valuable resources.  This misconception has led many small businesses to retreat or deemphasize from the online market, neglecting their websites (or even pulling them entirely) and effectively missing out on reaching a sizable chunk of the market. 

This short sighted approach can be devastating for small businesses.  Reality is, the internet is here to stay and companies who fail to take heed do so at their own peril.

The Good News
It is not a viable option to simply abandon the Web all together.  How can small businesses harness the power of the Web to boost their bottom line without breaking the bank?  The Wall Street Journal small business columnist Kelly K. Spors points out, to be successful online, companies must embrace Search Engine Optimization strategies.

Conducted properly, Search Engine Optimization represents target marketing at its finest.  SEO is the act of tailoring and periodically modifying website content in order to garner higher search engine rankings for a given set of targeted search keywords. SEO is fundamental in maximizing quality traffic to your website.  Can you locate your site on Google using a keyword search that your target market might perform?

The Rubber Meets The Road
Consider this example:  My girlfriend and I visited Salt Lake City recently.  Like most people, we were interested in finding out what there is to do in Salt Lake City.  What sites should we see?  Where should we eat?  What kind of nightlife is there, shopping?

Old school we would have simply looked in the yellow pages, inquired at the front desk of our hotel, or tapped into “the word on the street.”  Not anymore—Google it!

For instance: While in Salt Lake City we had a craving for Thai food.  We Googled “Thai food Salt Lake City.”  Google’s first page of results effectively compared various restaurants and we could visit their websites to see if they had our favorite dishes.  Missing from the list, were any number of Thai restaurants lacking a search engine optimized Web presence.  These restaurants could have been hands-down the best Thai food in the Salt Lake City.  Lacking an optimized website and visible online presence, they missed big opportunities by not even being considered.  How many customers and hundreds of dollars are they giving to other businesses by not having a website presents?

Make It Happen
The Internet is here to stay.  Search engines are an increasingly integral component of the Web.  For the vast majority of small businesses, turning their back on this reality is a recipe for disaster. An invitation for others to steal your market share.  The time is now; action is required.  Optimize your website for your target market, increase site traffic, and grow your sales!  Need help? Simply click these links below.

http://www.bigmouthmedia.com/live/articles/seo-customer-guide-15.asp
 
http://www.seochat.com/
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10415455/site/newsweek/
 
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-06-13-web-marketing_x.htm

By: Tyler Hawkins, 1Degree.  A  Bellevue Website Design Company