Keyword research is the process of finding the best keywords that a business can use to ensure that there is a healthy amount of traffic coming to its website. These keywords are usually both as descriptive as possible of the goods and services that are on offer and as expressive as possible of the information that the visitor is looking for.

It is this point that makes it important for the business owners to put themselves in their clients’ shoes and think of what they would type in search engines if they were looking for their services. Then, more keywords should be covered because different people in different parts of the world have a different way of speaking and writing – even when they speak the same language. This ensures that a larger segment of queries are covered.

Another important factor in small businesses and keyword research is analysis; an eye should be kept on the performance of the keywords. Those that are performing well should be allowed to have more content generated for them and those that don’t should be dropped. A good way of doing this is by having an analytical app installed on the website – a good example being Google Analytics. The comprehensive reports in this tool will not only be able to draw a clear picture of how well the keywords are performing, but it will also give hints to new ones by showing what it is that people are looking for when they arrive at the sites.

After the SEO campaign has been going on for a while and there seems to be no change for the better in the form of rising traffic, then it is at this point that one important factor needs to be taken into consideration. And this is the factor is the landing page. No matter how good an SEO campaign is, it will all be a futile exercise if the landing pages that are at the receiving end do not convert the traffic into sales or have not been optimized to readily provide the information that the visitors are seeking.

On a final note, keywords are popular at one time and drop out of sight at another. Research and analysis of keywords and their popularity should be done at regular intervals to discontinue with the ones that are losing popularity and to discover related ones that are on the rise. One good way of doing this is by using the Google Trends tool. It can be used to view relative comparisons between any set of keywords.

Now, this might seem like a project that takes a lot of money and some psychological skills, and it might even be true for some of the campaigns that have been put in place by the larger industries but it doesn’t apply to all. As a matter of fact, success stories are abundant of how small businesses were able to garner a faithful following by using simple online marketing methods.

So, here are a few ways you too, as a small business owner, can use as a means of getting into the head of your customers, and then staying there:

Consistency
With everyone being exposed to hundreds of advertisements per day, people tend to get overwhelmed and mentally exhausted. After a time, they just block everything out. You, therefore need to be in as many places as possible to catch them at their best. Consistency means that you will be able to reach them constantly and be there when they are ready to actually take in advertisements. Do not give up on any aspects of advertising just because you are not getting any traffic from it – at least not until you have given it some time. It just takes that one ad to reel someone in.

Emailing
Building a mailing list is one of the most important basics of online marketing. Therefore, it should be started from day one of a website’s launch. You do not need to wait until you have hundreds of addresses to start campaigning, even a handful will do. Send regular updates about your business, informational news bulletins about the industry in general and fun and free offers.

Two things need to be taken into consideration: first the content of the updates should be of the best quality possible because nobody wants to waste time, period. The second thing is to make sure to not use spamming techniques. Include an “unsubscribe” link for those that want to opt out. This will reassure the readers that you have their best interests at heart.

Stand Out
No two products are produced in the same exact way. Find out what makes yours special. Any uniqueness can be transformed into a selling point. Simple things like the place the goods come from or are processed in, the internal manufacturing process that is involved or even the way it is delivered can be used as an online marketing pitch. If you can’t find one, then do the opposite: “Our products do not have [put defects in competitive products].” – Just be careful not to mention specifics, you do not want to end up in court.

This inability of properly gauging SEO campaign ROI has led many of these small businesses to throw in the towel either to early (giving up hope right when they are about to make a breakthrough) or too late (not realizing that the path taken was not the most effective one) – after having spent a huge amount of time, effort and money.

Below are two basic principles of finding out whether a campaign is working or not; after the realization, steps can be taken to either improve on the implementation method or to correct it, respectively.

Constant Analysis
An SEO campaign can not be implemented and then just left to “do what it does best”. Basically, SEO is a continuous process that needs close monitoring and analysis. Most hosting sites have analytic tools that can give comprehensive information on websites’ traffic and their sources. And even better, there are hundreds of [absolutely free] plug-in apps that can be installed on sites and, at a click of a button, give detailed analysis and breakdowns of the traffic the websites have received.

These reports can then be used to find out which parts of the SEO campaigns are performing well and which are not. As an example, traffic that were arriving from search engines would indicate that the keywords that were in place on the site were the right ones and this would in turn imply that more content would need to be added using those keywords.

Inefficient Landing Pages
When looking at their balance sheets after an SEO campaign has been implemented, business owners will want to find a rise in their sales and profits immediately after the campaign has been launched. But, while they may have seen the rise in traffic, they might not have seen an impressive rise in sales, if any at all. This may lead them to think that the campaign is not working.

On the contrary this should be a clear indicator that the campaign has worked and that the problem lies somewhere else: the landing pages. After all the work that has been put into making the SEO strategy work, it would be a sin to see it wasted because the landing pages didn’t do what they were supposed to – conversions.

This realization should lead to investigating how the pages could be made more efficient, rather than dropping the whole campaign. Studies must be done on which pages the visitors landed on, how long they stayed on it, where they went next and comparing the keywords that brought them to the pages and what was actually offered on the pages.

By working on just these two points, businesses will be able to see a jump in their SEO ROI.

Many small business owners assume social media networks to either be a total waste of time  or one that is not an appropriate advertizing platform for businesses.

But, taking into consideration that sites like Facebook and Twitter have billions of subscribers should make them open their eyes to the fact that effectively using social media networks as a business advertisement platform can lead to a greater profit margin.

So, how can small businesses profit from them? Let’s have a look:

Heading the Right Way
Not all social media networks are the same and all have unique characteristics. Businesses should choose which ones they are going to use and for which content. For example, while images work fine on sites like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest they are not as popular on others like Twitter. On the other hand, constantly sending out time saving, short messages wouldn’t be well accepted by followers on the other platforms as they would be by those on Twitter.

It’s “Social”
The whole point of going to social media networks is to be “social”. One can not just keep posting messages and do nothing else. It should be a two way street. Interaction is expected. And all queries, comments and suggestions should be addressed as soon as possible – even the negative ones.

Analysis is required
Simply posting messages and not going back to see how they perform is not an ethical way to go about online promotion. Each post must be analyzed to gauge the overall success of the online marketing effort. Knowing which Tweets were re-tweeted most, which Facebook posts were ‘Like’-d the most and which topics were popular etc. should be recorded and used for future posts and Tweets. This method can even be used to find out what the customers demand from the business. After all, in the online world too, customer satisfaction does do wonders for businesses.

Handling the Incoming Traffic
One of the most common mistakes that occurs in an online social media marketing campaign is that after all the effort that has been put into creating the required waves and eventually driving substantial traffic to the businesses’ websites there is no place for them to go or anything to do – at least not what they want to do.

Having a landing page that caters to exactly what it is the visitors want (purchasing goods, information etc.) should be of prime importance. Otherwise, it would be like asking customers to come in and then asking them to turn around and walk out again – simply annoying.

But, it would be irresponsible to go on without mentioning the fact that just having a large amount of visitors a day doesn’t mean that it will be enough. On the contrary it is what is done with the traffic that has arrived that will decide the end-result. Because, the inability of a landing page to convert the visitors into becoming paying customers will be a futile effort. Therefore, the effectiveness of these pages should also be taken into consideration.

Returning back to the easy ways to drive traffic, we find:

Building a Reputation
The most successful businesses are the most famous ones. But, to think that this is like the case of the chicken and the egg is a mistake; small businesses can build a reputation and eventually become highly successful.

The trick is to create an online social media group. It doesn’t matter which social media network, or even if all of them are used. The point is to bring together people and businesses that have a common interest – the services that the business provides. The group should not be created to make direct sales, but rather to create a reputation and to get some credibility. This will eventually lead to traffic as the word spreads about how knowledgeable or helpful the small business is on the topic.

Regular Contribution
A similar tactic to the one above would be to contribute to the blogs and newsletters of the business’ industry related websites. Most sites would be glad to have a contributor, and some would even offer a regular position. This is an opportunity that will help in two ways: first it will make people aware of the expertise that is behind the contributions, and it can be used to provide links that will lead to direct traffic. This in turn will be a good thing for search engine ranking as they do take into consideration the number of back links a website has.

Share Knowledge
Any small business owner has something to share with the world when it comes to information regarding the industry he or she is in. And, no matter what the industry, there are always people out there that want to know something about it.

So, how can the two come together? The business owner can share information in the form of e-books and newsletters and give them out for free. This is one of the most effective ways of advertising as people prefer dealing with someone who is confident enough to write and share everything online.

Even as Twitter’s membership has increased in leaps and bounds there are still some parts of the small business community that have not taken to it. And yet, those that have done so have realized that apart from being quite simple to use it can be turned into a very powerful aid in raising a business’ profile and profits.

So, for those businesses that have adopted Twitter as a marketing tool, kudos is due! But for those that are just starting out, and need to know the basics, here are a few tips:

But first, the Terminology
A ‘handle’ is a tweep’s Twitter name. A ‘tweep’ is a person that uses Twitter to send 140 character (or less) messages called ‘tweets’. The tweets reach people that are interested in them because of ‘hashtags’ (the ‘#’ sign is added before each keyword). A #technology tweet would reach all those people subscribing to read about technology. People can then ‘retweet’, or resend, the messages that they think others would like to read.

Short Handle
Any business that thinks of using Twitter should come up with a short and creative name. The main idea here is to create a name that makes the business unique. Later the full name and a short description of the business can be added in the profile.
For example, a business named Visions Unlimited can opt for @VisUn.

Find the Voices
One way of finding out what is being said about a business’ field is to follow conversations that are related to the topic. Time must be taken to find out who the serious tweeps are on the topic and then to follow them.  They might be able to give an insight into what has been happening lately. They might even be willing to be contacted for advice on any related subject including the relevant hashtags.

Conversation Tone
Although it has hard to believe, people can sense the tone of a message from just the 140 characters. Warmth can be gauged, queries can be noticed and general politeness can also be felt. Therefore, small businesses should make sure that the ‘tone’ of each tweet is exactly as it should be.

Interactions is Necessary
There are people sitting behind every message on Twitter (OK, maybe not literally) but it can be safe to assume that questions are awaiting answers, comments are being expected and sharing is a way of showing appreciation towards other members. Therefore, small businesses shouldn’t just send bursts of messages and hope that they will be read, but actually interact with people that are grouped around hashtags. This puts a human face behind every message – as opposed to being annoying advertisements.

With the help of SEO (search engine optimization) any small business can make sure that it gets its fair share of the online market. If there is any one great equalizer in the online marketing world it must be SEO. The smaller business can compete equally with the bigger ones if it has a sensible SEO strategy in place, and in some case might even be able to come out on top.

Below are some tips on how to make sure that small businesses and SEO can make a change in the year-end’s profit table:

Finding the Right Words
Keywords are some of the basic building blocks of any SEO campaign. And for the campaign to be successful the keywords need to be chosen carefully. Trying to rank for short keywords is relatively harder than doing so for long-tailed ones. Therefore, the trick is to put themselves in the shoes of the prospective clients, i.e. businesses should try to come up with longer and more specific keywords that people would search for if they were looking for their specific establishment.

Finding the Right People
By finding the right people it is meant that the business should seek out who the ideal customers are and then design an SEO strategy around that demographic. This can be taken to also mean that in the case that the small business only caters to the people in its immediate vicinity, it shouldn’t worry about visitors from other parts of the world – for the time being, at least.

The SEO can be localized to attract the local population by including specifics like city name, address, and famous locations to the keywords that are chosen. E.g. “Italian restaurant in Leicester” would bring in more relevant traffic than just opting for “Italian Restaurant”.

Relevant Content
Many small businesses make the mistake of creating content that hold more than one keyword. This confuses the search engines.

The practical way to approach it would be to create a single page for each keyword. That way no confusion is created on what the page is about. The keywords can then be put in all relevant places: page titles, Meta tags etc.

Promotion, Promotion
Although SEO is in its own sense a tool for online marketing, it can not go without any help from promotion. The more a page is promoted online, the more traffic it will attract. And the more traffic it attracts, the higher the relevance in the eyes of search engines. Therefore, it would make absolute sense to use whatever means available, but the best way would be to use social networking media like Facebook and Twitter.

Many small businesses either underestimate the use and power of Small business Twitter marketing or they think it is too complicated to be handled by them. But, whatever the reason, the time and age calls for businesses that are serious about staying ahead of the competition to adopt this marketing strategy and rise with winners or simply go down with the archaic.

To help with the task, here are a few pointers that can make a positive change in any Twitter marketing campaign:

Your Image Matters
The sign of a serious business, whether in the real or the online world, is its image. Businesses should make sure that all the images that are put up on the internet are of the best quality possible. And this holds true on Twitter too.

All the images and logos that are uploaded on Twitter will be scrutinized by thousands of people and they will judge by the look of things, because in the beginning that is all they have to go on. This point is lost on most small business marketers because they are too focused on the 140 characters of the message.

Using Hashtags Smartly
The hashtags were invented to make it easier for people to find the tweets that were relevant to them. This in turn means that people are on Twitter because of an interest in a topic. Small business marketers should never cross this line by sending every tweet with every single word hashtagged. This is spamming and we all know what happens to spam messages and spammers – one gets deleted the other gets blocked.

So, as long as the whole idea is to reach as many people as possible all tweets should be made for the purpose of delivering relevant information to the people that are interested.

Direct Promotion
People love freebies and discounts – it’s a human thing. A serious marketer would make sure that the business’ popularity rises by making sure that the followers online become customers that walk in through the front door.

As an example, a way to go about it would be to offer prizes or discounts to followers. Simple giveaways can be handed out to the first 20 people who answer a simple quiz.

The whole idea here is to create a direct-human interaction and bring it into the real world.

A Chatty Personality
Social networking media are all about human interaction. Although the business is online to promote itself, it doesn’t mean the person tweeting should become an entity. The messages that are put out there should be with the intent of creating a human personality that is as realistic as 140 characters will allow. When people reply to tweets they are talking to a person and not the business.

Therefore, the marketers should always remember to create a network of friends and not a collection of consumers.

For those that have already figured out what a powerful tool it is, and want to know how to use Facebook for small business online campaigning, below are some useful tips to help with pushing up the success rate of the campaign:

Announcing and Running Competitions
People love competitions and the anticipation of winning prizes draws them in. Any business looking for a surge in Facebook traffic would be wise to regularly organize and run competitions for its followers. But, there is a hitch: Facebook does not allow its users to run competitions directly from its site.

But, one need not worry. There is a way around it: the use of third party apps. A good example, and a popular one at that, is Wildfire.
Businesses should create competitions and promote them to the limits.

Collaboration is King
Online marketing is not a job that can be done by just one person – even if it is a small business. It therefore makes it important that there at least two people collaborating and contributing to the task.

Facebook allows multiple administrators. This makes it easier for any number of administrators to work together. There are roles that can be assigned to various people to perform various tasks: manager, content creator, moderator etc. thus allowing even outsourced jobs to be performed from anywhere.
Note: Care should be taken that the account of any person that is no longer in the employment of the business is revoked.

Aiming Carefully
Facebook is a global phenomenon. The people that become followers of a business’ page can literally come from any corner of the world. It is their interest that brings them all together. Therefore, not everyone will be able to understand the posts that are being sent out to them.

The remedy: Facebook has a tool that allows for regional targeting. Right before posting, the writer can click on the ‘Public’ icon and can then enter the countries and/or languages of the intended target audience. This makes for a closer rapport with the followers.

Going SEO
Many people think that Facebook pages do not need search engine optimization (SEO). Admitted, although having a page on Facebook by itself lends some gravity to ranking by search engines, it doesn’t mean that no SEO should be done on it.
Just like its main website, a small business needs to implement an SEO strategy to make sure that there is the needed amount of traffic garnered. This, in turn, can be redirected to the main website to make the final sales.

But, as powerful as a tool as it has come to be, there are still small businesses out there that have not had the chance to experience, let alone implement it in their marketing strategies. They seem to have not realized that social networking media like Facebook and Twitter are more than just what the hip crowd uses in place of normal conversations.

Well, below are a few tips on how to use Facebook as a business tool:

Investing Time
Online marketing using Facebook is a job, although it may not seem so. Just like any marketing campaign in the real world takes up time and money, the online campaign too needs an investment of time. As a matter of fact, the only investment (which in some cases can be considered to be a cost) is that of time.

The amount of time invested on Facebook is proportional to the success of the campaign. Therefore, a certain amount of time needs to be put aside for it everyday. It is not a one time deal and the returns will not be seen immediately.

Droning on and on…
Unlike in the real world, the people that are targeted on online social networking media sites have actually volunteered to become followers of the small business. And this in turn means that they have the power to un-follow it if they find the updates annoying or even too dull.

This means that businesses should always be on their toes trying to come up with content that will pull in and engage, rather than alienate, their followers. The posts should always be fresh and closely related to what the followers are interested in.

Taking Full Advantage
Facebook isn’t only about posting posts. There are many tools that can really help a business and its image. Time should be taken to study the tools and learn how they can be implemented in the strategy. An example could be the built-in analytics tool that can help businesses understand what exactly it is their followers are interested in – which in turn can be used to determine future topics and posts.

Abiding by the Rules
Although Facebook is a free and powerful tool, it doesn’t mean that any business can just jump in and do as they wish on it. There are rules and even laws that need to be abided by. Businesses forget this concept and make mistakes that not only alienate their followers but also lead to trips to the courthouses.

Tagging people in pictures that either have nothing to do with them or doing so without their permissions are some of the serious violations of Facebook’s rules. Another could be using a personal page as business one – which many people do, not realizing that pages for businesses should be created under the business section.