Being a website development business, we tend to push the “every business needs to have a web presence” issue. I am naturally drawn to articles in business publications which mirror this practice. It would appear that Fortune Small Business (CNN) feels the same way. In a January 28th article, a writer asked for suggestions on how to reach (what he believes) the target market he feels he’s missing. The advice given by William Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association: “Start by taking a good long look at your website”. Optimization of your website is important because search engines send out “bots or robots” all the time to search for websites that don’t meet the “friendly” category. If you have a website that has a log of Flash Animation, search engines don’t like them and will be blocked by them. He also states that use of key-word advertising will help your website get higher ranking on search engines such as Google and Yahoo. You can also purchase banner ads on websites within your targeted industry or field states Marla Schrager, Executive Director of Business Marketing Association in Chicago.

One of the biggest mistakes people make with their websites is not having enough analytics on their website to give the owner an idea of where the user originated from. You want to make sure you know how consumers are getting to your site and whether these users are being converted into actual sales. Rice also states that eBay is like a silver bullet because of the number of people who pass through eBay as consumers and sellers. He states that advertising on eBay through ebaybusiness.com could “work like magic.”

Some web developers, like ourselves, develop websites with all of this in mind from the beginning. It is important to keep up to date on the latest trends in search engine optimization, from a programmer standpoint. It is also extremely important to keep the search engine “bots” happy by verifying your website through the W3C to ensure you are complying with standard. Any good developer is going to automatically do this for you and is a good “trick of the trade”. When someone creates a website on their own, they are typically creating a visually appealing and cost efficient web presence for their business. What they don’t realize is that if that website is not search engine friendly, their potential target market might never be reached.

Resource: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/24/smbusiness/target_customers.fsb/index.htm?postversion=2008012518