Want to be Found Online? – Be a Better Business!
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A long long time ago (in Internet terms), if you wanted to be found on the Internet you just needed a website.
Well, those days have passed. Today, if you want to be found on the Internet, you need a website and it needs to be optimized. You need SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SEM (Search Engine Marketing), or Local Search Optimization.
Why is that? Here’s why… Nearly every business has a website so you need to find a way to make your website stand out from the crowd.
The good news is that most businesses haven’t figured this out yet. You still have time to get optimized and jump ahead of your competition. If you don’t they will jump ahead of you and not only will it cost you in lost business, but you will face more competition online and it will cost you more to join the game. You should get SEO now.
What about the Future of Search?
SEO is important if you want to be found today. And it still will be important to be found tomorrow, just like having a website is still relevant, but in the future it will take more.
In the future, if you want to be found online you will need to be a better business! You need Social Media Marketing.
Why is that? Here’s why… Search engines are becoming more social. With the success of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and other social media technologies, search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing are elevating search results with “LIKES”.
So in the soon-to-be-future when you search for a service, product, or business, search engines will see if there are any relative results that your ‘friends’ have ‘LIKED’. If there are, those are going to move up the search result list and possibly be on top. They figure if your friends like it, and you are like your friends, than you would like it.
Do Only Your ‘Friends’ Matter? NO!
One of the new social-media-integrations is called Collective IQ. Here’s how a blog article from Search Engine Land describes it.
Collective IQ refers to the presentation of aggregated Facebook data: most popular sites, stories and so on. It’s the wisdom of the crowd in total and not just the opinions of your personal Facebook network.
So what does this mean to business owners? You have to be better. You’re going to want people to ‘LIKE’ you and ‘LIKE’ all the things you do as well. The reputation you build overtime will either help or hurt your ability to rank in search engines.
If you do find that your online reputation brings back search results of complaints, or negative publicity you can enroll in a reputation management campaign to repair your reputation online.
Formula for Online Success
Website + SEO + Social Media + Good Business = Success
The Internet changes fast. You need to change with it. If you don’t have a website yet, GET ONE! If you don’t have it SEO’d, DO IT! And if you aren’t taking advantage of Social Media yet, DON’T WAIT! And don’t forget about the the people online you want them to ‘LIKE’ YOU!
The sooner you get started, the cheaper it is to start and run your campaigns. That means a faster ROI (return on investment) and more profits. If you wait till everyone else is doing it, then you’re already too late. It means you probably won’t catch up to your competitors without a major investment of time, money, or both.
