If it’s done nothing else, internet search has helped to level the playing field for big and small businesses. Sure, big-biz money helps to pay for television ads and other key strategies for driving up traffic and sales. But when it comes to flexibility, agility, operation costs and speed, the small fish can’t be beat. Large businesses on the other hand take a lot of people to make a decision then a-whole-nother mess of people just to implement it.

In the end a small businesses with a good leader can swim nimbly through any situation whether it be economic, strategic, demand/supply related or anything else. So without further ado, here are the top reasons why the small fish rules the ocean.

ONE: Small Businesses Are for Everyone!
With low start up rates and your choice of business platforms, ideas, inventions, services and products the internet business world is for anyone and everyone with an idea. Innovative and ambitious folks as young as six and as old as… well, I guess as long as you’re not dead you can start a business. Website tools are designed for beginner and intermediate designers alike making website set up easier than ever. All you really need is a computer, internet and a little extra time on your hands.

Computer Economics Inc. of Carlsbad, CA, calculates that approximately 8% of all teenagers in the USA, or about 1.6 million are making at least some kind of income on the internet.

Young Michael Furdyk was only 10 when he started M&S enterprises with his friend, Sean to teach people in their neighborhood how to use their computers. At 16 he sold his first website, MyDesktop.com, for over $1 Million in 1998. Now 26, he is the founder of TakingITGlobal.org which is run by 15 core staff with the help of 50 contractors and “coordinators”. He also consults for several Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft and advocates heavily for Youth IT and Technology Education. Because Furdyk was able to think big, and go big without actually growing big, he was able to dictate where he put his efforts and resources. He was also able to remain flexible and make a quick profit on the turn around of his smaller, less meaningful projects.

TWO: Inexpensive Start up and Maintenance.
If you’re considering putting your business online, don’t think that it needs to be as big or profitable as Furdyk’s. Many online stores have an even less expensive start up and make their owners a reasonable annual living either as a part-time or full time venture.

Take for instance Jessica Jollota of Biddeford, Maine. She started MySilverCrown.net as a place to exhibit and sell her handmade jewelry and gifts. The website startup/maintenance cost is about $15 per month and the sales it generates act as a nice second income.

Worried about the cost of goods, or that wholesale distributers won’t sell to you because your order isn’t big enough? Even wholesalers who would prefer large orders from big retail names, have to recognize when shelf space is getting tighter as more products fill the market. The internet broadens their customer base instantly so it only makes sense to give small, online retailers a good deal on smaller orders.

THREE: Find your niche.
Big businesses need to diversify in order to keep up with business expenses and sustain their profit margins. Small business owners on the other hand, are able to do one thing really well and make a good living for themselves and then some. There’s always holes in the market that are too small for the large companies to deal with in a cost efficient way. Those small holes can mean big profits for a small business owner who is willing to pick it up

One such example is Jibbitz, those little decorative buttons for the popular Croc Shoes. They started out as a fun arts and crafts project for Sheri Schmeizer and her three kids and were soon in demand all over the neighborhood. They knew they had found a unique niche in the Croc market, so the Schmeizers officially launched Jibbitz and in one year they had sold over eight million of them. Since then, Crocs, Inc. has acquired Jibbitz and Mr. and Mrs. Schmeizer operates the wholly owned subsidiary of Crocs Inc. as the President and CEO.

FOUR: Less Stress in Hard Economic Times.
That’s not to say that an economic downturn isn’t stressful or even possibly catastrophic to small businesses. But, thanks to that maneuverability we talked about earlier, small internet businesses or businesses that at least have an internet presence are more likely to come out of those situations intact at least.

When the economy hits a downward spiral, big companies start downsizing and put most of their effort into saving money. Smaller businesses typically have cost effective strategies implemented no matter what the economy is like. The difference is that many small businesses have less overhead to worry about and therefore are running on a wider profit margin than those big corporations. While the big sharks are worrying about their next meal, the little fish is focusing on developing a new niche or territory.

FIVE: Self-Sustaining and Self-Generating Growth.
The amount of revenue a small business brings in determines the level of strategic growth it will undergo or the amount of cutbacks it will have to make. This “bootstrap” strategy (named for the old saying: “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.”) applies to staffing, outsourcing, physical growth as well as the acquisitions and sales of other businesses.

Most successful small e-businesses only have 1-5 employees along with (possibly) some contract workers. (Wikipedia was a prime example of this for a long time.) When your company starts taking on new projects and revenue then increasing staff to accommodate customer/company demands is reasonable. When times are tough it’s much easier (and ethical) for small businesses to let go of one or two employees if necessary, than it is for large corporations to let go of hundreds or thousands of employees.

This theory also applies to internet marketing, SEO and SEM tactics. Pay-Per-Clicks, keywords and other SEO/M tactics are not only inexpensive, but can easily be adjusted according to which keywords, PPC’s or tactics are bringing in the most visit-to-sale conversions. Although it’s always a bad idea to skimp on marketing, having a revenue-centered plan is always a smart idea so that you never go above your budget line.

SIX: The Anti-Growth Strategy
You’re small, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be picky. Sure, some folks think that they should take on every client that comes their way because “every little bit helps” right?”

Wrong! Customers who aren’t making you a lot of money, don’t pay on time or are taking time away from better paying clients aren’t worth your effort! They can actually take away from your bottom line and make it tough for you to operate a successful business.

This is sage advice for many small business: Don’t grow too fast. Make staying small your growth strategy.

CNNMoney.com did a report in October on a small company called “Incredible Foods” run by Jim Christy. About ten years ago Christy landed Starbucks as one of his new accounts.

“They were opening new stores in northeast Ohio and Pennsylvania in 1998 and wanted me to distribute a single product, a crumb cake.” Christy stated.

I think we all remember how fast Starbucks grew over the last ten years. Christy had to hire two employees just to cover all the paperwork and reports for his Starbucks account. Not to mention the fact that he had to dedicate five trucks for delivery to their multiple locations nationwide, pay for gas, insurance, employee benefits, workers comp and still turn out products for his other clients. Starbucks was generating about 48% of his annual sales. However, Christy was uncomfortable with putting 48% of his eggs in one basket. He felt that by cutting the chord with Starbucks, reducing his staff size from 13 to 6, working out of just one office instead of two and focusing on local markets he would be able to run a stronger company.

It was a risk to give up almost half of his revenue, but he was right for doing it. Last year his company made $2.2 million and he expects a 22% increase in revenue for 2009. Incredible Foods is another great example of a company that had the flexibility to take a risk, stay in control and become stronger by staying small.

SEVEN: More Freedom to Form Strategic Partnerships
Recently Yahoo and Google called it quits on their strategic advertising agreement since it may have possibly brought up some antitrust law issues. Even if corporations can steer around any legal issues that arise with forming a partnership, they still are faced with lengthy approval procedures.

Small businesses don’t have that problem since they aren’t big enough to be a threat to anyone. (At least that’s what we want them to believe, right?) Forming partnerships, whether it be for SEO and advertising purposes or just working on a common project or goal together, can be beneficial for everyone involved. Sometimes all it takes is exchanging a short write up and a links to increase each other’s traffic. Want to make a stir with your partnership? Put it in a press release. You can do it because small businesses have the freedom to create strategic partnerships with whomever (and however) they choose.

April O’Keefe, owner of AOK Herbals in Kittery, Maine, started up her small business for just $5000. Her ability to create strategic partnerships with other locally owned companies is one of her primary marketing and advertising resources – her second being word of mouth referrals from clients. Online, O’Keefe benefits from link exchanges and cross-selling of products and services. Offline, they reap the same benefits in addition to being able to work together as strategic partners with the common goal of educating and empowering their clients and the community they serve.

Because this group of local small businesses is able to stick together and form relationships without government regulation, they are stronger as individual businesses. It is a luxury that big businesses are not always able to enjoy.

EIGHT: A More Personal Approach.
This one is obvious. Small businesses often mean more personal service. Although buying from big businesses can have its advantages, most people are getting increasingly tired of becoming just another sale or number. They want to shop in a place (even online, believe it or not) where they can call or email someone with a question and get a “live” person on the other end. They want quick and reliable service from someone, not some company. You, the business owner, are able to deal with difficult situations and questions directly and immediately. Customers appreciate this and show it with loyalty and referrals.

In the last 5-10 years there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of local economy and small business support. This is why putting an emphasis on your local area in SEO/M efforts is so important. Customers feel that they are contributing to their country or local economy somehow when they know their purchase is from a local or a small business owner. Put your face on the website. Let your clients know who you are and thank them for supporting your local/small business.

NINE: Adapt and Overcome!
There’s obviously an overarching theme here that large businesses lack the flexibility and control that small business owners have. Part of that is the ability to completely change the direction of your business at the drop of a hat. What you’re selling now, may not turn a profit tomorrow.

Today you may be selling friendship bracelets, tomorrow you could be selling ketchup. It’s that easy because you have the flexibility to flow with the market, and enough control over your company to make key decisions quickly without having to consult with anyone else. How, when and why you decide to go from bracelets to ketchup is completely up to you.

TEN: Strategic Marketing
I don’t know if you’ve ever been witness to a corporation who is either

a) Trying to rebrand itself
b) Trying to change their current online marketing strategy, or…
c) Trying to adopt an online marketing strategy… period.

It takes a team of marketing professionals to come up with an idea that has to be approved by some executive or board. Then of course some website designer, copywriter, consultant, board member or manager will always have an objection so in an effort to please as many people as possible they’ll make adjustments. It can take up to 18 months and it’s relatively painful to watch.

What does your small business strategic online marketing plan involve? You and your consultant. That’s it. Your consultant advises you and you make the final decision. The whole thing will take anywhere from 1-30 days to devise and implement. By the time that big corporation implements their strategic online marketing strategy you would have been reaping the benefits of your new online marketing plan for months.

Popularity: 38%

Yahoo! announced in a press release on November 5th that they are disappointed that Google decided to back out of their advertising agreement proposed back in September. While Google was more easily intimidated by the Department of Justice which had already hired a litigator in order to block the deal, Yahoo! had been trying to work with the DOJ to find a compromise.

Yahoo! President, Sue Decker stated that “Yahoo! continues to believe in the benefits of the agreement and we are disappointed that Google has elected to withdraw… rather than defend it in court.”

The agreement was an essential step in strengthening Yahoo! Corporation. It would have allowed Yahoo! to step up their investment, growth and general business strategies. Decker stated in a memo to her employees that although the Google deal would have helped to accelerate their strategy for growth, Yahoo! still has other deals and efforts in the works. She also went on to say that this fall-through does not change “Yahoo!’s commitment to innovation and growth in search.”

She cited the improvements that Yahoo! has undergone including “monetization and driving query growth.” Decker also noted that just in 2008, Yahoo! has added and developed new ranking models, index updates and expansion and fine-tuned their overall performance. “Not surprisingly, we are seeing results, with the company benefitting from strong RPS gains, as discussed in our Q3 earnings call. Further, we are adding search and contextual ad functionalities on a regular basis.”

At a 2.0 conference in San Francisco, there were questions about whether Yahoo! would allow Microsoft to purchase it under the current circumstances. Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang replied, “There’s no new news.” But he also stated that buying Yahoo! at the right price would be the best thing Microsoft could possibly do right now. When asked about a possible purchase of AOL, Yang said that he couldn’t talk about it.

Yang did however talk about his commitment to Yahoo!. “I don’t take my position lightly. It’s a very serious obligation… There has been a lot of change, a lot of people coming and leaving, but the plans we’ve tried to execute against have been done and I’m extremely proud…”

Despite their disappointment, execs at Yahoo! seem to be incredibly optimistic and seem to plan on moving forward aggressively. According to Decker’s memo, Yahoo! is stepping up the “efforts to create a more open, efficient and effective marketplace…” This will mean new tools designed for easier interaction between users, advertisers and publishers. Yahoo! also has plans to lead the way in cutting edge technology advances in order to provide better products, services and platforms for customers. As consumers, business owners, marketing professionals and developers we’ll just have to wait and see where Yahoo! really decides to go from here.

Popularity: 31%

The Defrag Conference held in Denver, Colorado in the beginning of November, played host all of the top execs in the search industry including Tom Chi of Yahoo!, Bradley Allen of Siderian Software, Derek Murphy of Isys Search Software, Tom Tague of Thomson Reuters and more. So naturally there was some incredibly interesting dialogue regarding the future of search going on there. During Steve Larson’s presentation on “Next-Level Discovery: Open Search, Semantic Search, etc.” the top question on everyone’s mind was this: What will the next-generation of search engines look like?

“The only problem with search is that it’s awful, but other than that it works pretty well.” Tom Chi of Yahoo! Corporation said of current search engines. He was referring to the fact that although search is a wonderful and useful tool, it could also be a little more user friendly and helpful. “People are still doing navigational searches for Ebay.com” he added. This is significant because not only are they getting relevant direct results on their results page, they are also getting lots of other stuff they don’t need – both in direct results and in the ads section. It’s become “flooded with too much noise” as Murphy puts it. People hardly know what to do with the millions of results they get.

As a basic internet instructor for adults I see it everyday. Students look up at the top right hand corner and see that there are millions of results for “Gardening” but I can’t get them past the first page for some reason. If what they are looking for isn’t right there in those first ten results, they just give up. They would actually rather try another keyword than venture deeper in to the website. Occasionally I can get them to page two or three, but that’s as far as they’ll go.

Another problem is unintelligent search results. When users search for “eby.com” they don’t get anywhere, even though what they’re looking for is obvious. Major search engines aren’t compelled to change this because those faulty search results yield the same profits that correct ones do.

Yahoo! has started to take steps to help its search platform evolve through SearchMonkey, which I’ve talked about before. It is essentially a mix between a wiki and a search engine in the sense that it allows website owners, developers and programmers to create applications that enhance the users search experience.

Other search engines like are working on vertical search systems that give more specialized results. Siderean is interested in developing a vertical search for business tools, networking and resources. Both Yahoo! and Siderean are taking a smart step forward since part of the problem, according to Tague, is that search corporations need to solve is how to integrate search with social graphs and networking.

So what’s the future of search? Will change come in an amalgam of search, wiki and social networking? Or in an evolutionary bang in proportion to algorithms? No one seems to really know what the gen-next of search will look like. But don’t worry. Users can rest assured that the experts are on it.

Popularity: 22%

When iPhones first came out the demographic was mainly affluent professionals ages 20-35. But with iPhones being increasingly accessible to the middle class and teens, more and more people are hooking themselves up with one. This is significant for e-biz owners because according to M:Metrics, more people use the iPhone to surf the net than any other mobile browser in the USA. The New York Times also reported that 58.6% of iPhone owners used their device to access and use a search engine. There are also over 350,000 iPhone in service in Europe (2007) making it #2 on the top most used mobile browsers. In the USA, people actually perform 5000% more Google searches on their iPhone than any other internet capable phone users combined.

But that’s not all. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but here in the USA teenagers have astronomical amounts of buying power. Not only do they hold their own part time jobs, but they also have tremendous influence over their parent’s purchases. According to the US National Center for Education (2008), there are approximately 15 million high school students and 8% of them (or 1.2 million) own an iPhone. In spring of 2008 about 9% of teens who did not already own an iPhone wanted to buy one. In six months that number jumped to 22%. Out of all the students who planned on purchasing a new phone in the next six months, 33% of them specifically said they wanted an iPhone.

Anyone in the marketing field knows that technology such as smart phones and the internet have become important parts of teenage life. They are incredibly dependent on these as an intricate part of their lives in school as a learning tool, socially outside of school and for recreational browsing. Granted they aren’t the only customers that businesses should cater to, but they are the immediate future of internet browsing and purchasing. Their habits are the future habits of America.

So the question remains: Do you have an iPhone friendly website?

With phones being so much more than just phones, it’s important that websites and bloggers ensure they are iPhone compatible. By either making your current website iPhone compatible or setting up an additional iPhone compatible website, you are making yourself more accessible to customers. Not only that, but your original site will collect more quality links for it.

There are two problems that iPhone users face when using their mobile browser. The first is a download speed that is slightly slower than their desktop counterparts. The second is the small screen resolution of only 320×480. Website managers need to develop a site that loads quickly and doesn’t force users to scroll through the page as much. They can do this by reducing (or eliminating) any unnecessarily large pictures, Flash or “heavy” content from the new/updated website. Also, many websites are optimizing, coding and configuring themselves to work with iPhones accelerometer so that different content can be displayed by holding the iPhone different ways.

It’s also a good idea to start developing some relevant iPhone apps. Applications for the iPod are relatively inexpensive and they are a huge market right now. In economically hard times, the iPhone apps can be considered a small, affordable luxury and provide the user with news, games, weather, music or whatever. Creating your own application not only helps to drive traffic to your website, but can make you a little extra on the side as well.

There are websites that can help you build apps and configure your website for use on the iPhone as well as other smart phone brands. However, you may at some point reach a point of difficulty that a professional becomes necessary. Whatever you decide keep in mind that the iPhones have been and will most likely to remain the most popular mobile browser in the world. But after the iPod phenomenon, did we really expect anything less from them?

Popularity: 40%

SEO is one of the most important online marketing trends available right now. Almost everyone knows that you need good quality text, keywords and links combined with lots of popularity and a good reputation to make it big. But it’s also important to take a holistic view of your online business pages. Your website is a valuable SEO tool in itself. By building (or remodeling,) your website so that it’s more easily accessible to spiders, you can boost your search engine score astronomically. It’s also important to have the “SEO-friendly website” conversation with your website design company and/or SEO firm if you have one to make sure that they on the same page as you. So with out further ado, here are some things that you should keep in mind when building or redesigning your website:

1. Content, Keywords and Links. As always ensure that your content, keywords and links are unique, of good quality and relevant to your business. Your back links should also be relevant so be sure to look out for and reject illogical links. Use absolute links which are less likely to have issues, but also allow you to get more backlink love if your content gets scraped. Remember that when it comes to keywords there is such thing as “too many” so don’t overdo it.

2. Make your links and keywords easily accessible to spiders. Drop down menus make the website user friendly, but they aren’t spider friendly. Somewhere on the page you should be placing good old-fashioned text links so spiders can find them. Also, be aware that SPIDERS CAN NOT CRAWL IMAGES OR FLASH. Be sure to label everything with text and include text descriptions so that spiders can find it more easily. Use minimal AJAX and Flash, and you shouldn’t be using frames at all.

3. Viral Videos and Pics. Enable the “Enhanced Image Search” option and list a video sitemap in your Google Webmaster Central account. Also, get your videos played on viral sites like YouTube, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, Metacafe and MySpace. All these places are crawled by Google. When posting captions and descriptions for pics and videos use words like “image” “pics” or “video” since many searches for pictures or videos include obvious words like that.

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4. Unique Title Tags. Make sure that each title tag on your website is different and has a keyword in it. Don’t put your company name in there unless you are so big and popular that people ask for you by name. In other words, unless you’re Wal-Mart, Gucci, or Vera Wang, you should put your name somewhere else on the page… like at the end.

5. Interior linkage. When linking pages within your website, don’t simply hyperlink the words “click here”. Use keywords instead. So if you’re selling diamonds then hyperlink the phrase “Buy Wholesale Diamonds” or “Wholesale Diamond Information”. Also, if you have “index” associated with your home page (ie: DelawareDiamonds.com/index.html) then be sure to arrange it so you’re not splitting your links. You don’t need index.html, default.php or any of those. Your URL should just be your URL with a plain-Jane dotcom (net, org, edu or whatever) ending. When linking internally though, spiders and search engines don’t pay attention to your URL file extension.

6. Location, Location, Location. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, be aware of local search keywords. Don’t be afraid to put your location (i.e. Florida, New York, Presque Island,) into your keyword phrases. “Delaware Diamonds,” “New York Fashion” or even just “Presque Island Store” instead of “our store” helps people find you better. This is especially important if you count on your customers finding you online, and buying your products/services in-store.

7. Make sure to buy up any similar URLs to yours and have them redirect to your website. This is not the same thing as creating doorways, gates or mirror sites. What this does mean is that if your original URL is http://www.happybusiness.com then you could buy up http://happybusiness.com, happybusiness.net, happybusiness.org, and have them all automatically and instantly redirect to your original site. This typically works well for website URLs which are commonly misspelled by searchers. A good example is Barnes and Noble: you can enter www.barnesandnoble.com into your address bar and you’ll automatically be redirected to www.bn.com. Just a note though before you go buying up URLs; Don’t buy up links that haven’t been updated or used in over a month. The best way to tell is to do a Google search for “cache” plus whatever website your looking for. i.e.: “cache:www.whateverwebsite.com”

8. Sticky Forwarding. If you’re completely renovating your website and changing domain names then be sure to use “sticky forwarding.” This will allow users to get redirected from your old site to your new one and help them transition through the change better.

9. Check Yourself. Google up some server header checkers (you can actually do a search for “Check Server Header”) to get a tool that will check your redirected websites. You should be popping up with a report that says: ‘301 moved permanently” or “200 OK” if they are set up and used the right way. If not, either fix them or get someone to do it for you.

10. Guilt By Association. Make sure to run occasional blacklist checks if you are running on a shared server to make sure that you’re not sharing space with any banned or notoriously shady websites. This could actually affect your ratings with search engines. It also helps to make sure that your domain ownership information is visible by search engines.

11. Sponsorship. Philanthropy is actually rewarded by most search engines. Find non-profit organizations on the web, see if they are looking for sponsors and reap the benefits of those back links.

12. RSS Optimization. It is what it sounds like. You need to be optimizing your RSS feed the same way you would any of your web pages.

13. Beneficial Blogging. Your title tag and blog title are two different things so make sure you’re optimizing both separately. Use a “call to action” style of blogging where you provoke people to respond or react to what you’re blogging about. Also see if you can get someone of influence to post something special on you blog. Build up to it ahead of time: i.e. “Coffee Guru, Joe Schmoe will be posting with us on October 10th!” You can also ask the person of influence to post comments and opinions on blogs that you’ve written.

14. Social Networking is SEO. You can’t do SEO nowadays without incorporating social networking into the mix. Websites like Digg, Facebook, Twitter and Del.icio.us have become SEO essentials. Also, adding components like blogs, podcasts, social content, reviews, sharing apps, user ratings and comments help to boost your website’s “viral appeal.” It does take extra time and effort to do this right and not spam every blog you come across so make sure that you or whoever you hire knows what they’re doing so your website doesn’t get penalized.

15. Quality not Quantity. I know I talk a lot about page rank, but it’s actually not so important that you’re #1. There are plenty of websites that outrank the #1 spotters in hits, quality, sales and time spent on the site simply because the lesser-ranked website has better and more relevant content. Another important thing to do is keep adding to or refreshing the content that you have to legitimize your website to search engines. You should be adding new content or changing content about 3-5 times a week to keep spiders happy.

Popularity: 46%

Over the past year or two I’ve been hearing quite a bit about Gray Hat SEO. There seems to be a few ideas out there on what Gray Hat is and how it is achieved. This in itself makes it a “gray area” thus possibly earning its name no matter what the actual definition. Either way, the tactic is always questionable and borders on Black Hat, if not crosses the line completely. It’s a highly debatable issue, but here are the major veins of reasoning in regard to what Gray Hat SEO is and why it’s used.

1. New SEO tactics that wouldn’t necessarily be considered White Hat because still they involve manipulating content, keywords, codes, web pages and/or URLs to increase SE score and rank. On the other hand, they haven’t been deemed Black Hat by search engines yet. (Emphasis on yet.)

2. Another form of Gray Hat tactics are those that have been deemed Black Hat techniques, but are subdued to a point that search engines won’t pick up on it. An example might be keyword stuffing just under a concentration that a crawler would notice. However, there will usually be a high enough keyword density that a reader would be able to pick up on it.

3. Many people believe that Gray Hat SEO is Black Hat techniques which managers use in ethical ways, thus justifying the behavior. The reasoning is that Black Hat is typically used to spread spam, viruses, malware or promote scam-products or services. Legitimate businesses who are trying to increase their page rank feel that using some Black Hat tactics are okay because they aren’t spreading spam or causing harm to others. These “lesser offenses” won’t get them banned, but could get them penalized.

4. A fourth theory is that because search engines basically give score/rank on two things: Good search engine results, and lots of visitors. Gray Hat uses mild black hat methods to achieve white hat results in search engines in order to get visitors, but ensures that those surfers are getting the relevant and quality information they were looking for. This sort of goes along with all three of the examples above.

Gray Hat SEO tactics generally take longer to discover than Black Hat because the intent isn’t necessarily malicious. However even though you may take two steps forward by using Gray Hat, eventually search engines will have you taking three steps back. It takes longer, but White Hat has an advantage over other methods because the results are long term and ultimately bring in more traffic (and cash) over time. So really, it’s not an ethics issue. For true SEO marketing professionals, it’s just plain common sense.

Popularity: 46%

I recently posted an article about the importance of properly naming your website and webpage headlines as well as adding in the right (and the right amount of) keywords. With the economy being what it is, many people will be starting up new online businesses soon. In order to help with their efforts, I decided to write up a quick entry on the importance of creating an SEO friendly business name.

A substantial amount of searches performed online are direct brand searches. In other words, people are searching for companies by name. In order to make sure that your business name isn’t drowned out in the rankings, be sure to follow some simple rules:

Get some hired help. I highly recommend hiring a SEO agency, marketing firm or SEO consultant to think of something for you. But if you insist on doing it yourself…

Make sure that your business name does NOT contain any popular or highly competitive keywords. A name like “Jill’s Discount Toys” is more likely to get ranked poorly if “discount toys” is a hot keyword, even if a potential consumer searches for Jill’s company by name. The reason: Because if “discount toys” is a competitive keyword then everyone is going to use it.

Think about acronyms. Can your business name easily be shortened into initials? Think IBM, MRI, AIG or UNH. All of these are businesses with names that the general public thought would be easier to shorten to a set of initials, and therefore search for them that way. The problem is that there’s always more than one business out there with the same acronym and the likelihood of not being drowned out (especially as a small and brand new business) by those other guys is pretty slim. I’ll give an example: Let’s say your business name is the “Salvatore Engineering Operation”. It’s very easy for the general population to search for your business as SEO… well we all know what that is going to bring up and it’s not Salvatore Engineering Operation. So be careful when advertising and putting your name out there.

Be memorable. Easier said than done, I know. Using a clever name, logo or tagline can help people remember your name better. People also remember colorful marketing, unusual color schemes and well organized and branded company logos/names. When people can make an association between your name and something clever, it is easier for them to retrieve that information from the back of their minds. This will also help to prevent people from turning your business name into an acronym.

A common scenario: “Uh, I know it started with an “S”… “S-S-Something” Engineering Operation… oh well, I’ll just Google SEO.) They may also decide to search for the only words they remember: “Engineering Operation.” These two very general keywords will bring up all kinds of companies, none of which are probably yours.

Don’t forget to think locally. If you think your name may be turned into a set of initials, (and you’re absolutely stuck on naming yourself that) then think about putting your state, providence, country or whatever place you feel necessary into your name. “SEO of Maine” or “Napa Valley SEO” may get your business name a little closer to the first page of search results – although it’s still unlikely in the case of “SEO”.

Don’t spend your SEO budget unwisely. You need a place in the rankings, but your new company name just isn’t raking in the hits. So you start to think about PPC and Sponsored Ads. The problem with PPC ads when your company name consists of competitive keywords or ellipses, is that you are going to illicit a lot of poor quality clicks. In other words, anyone searching for an SEO company may click on your PPC ad, but they won’t help to generate an income since your SEO is an engineering company. Without the right name those PPC ads are just costing you money.

Do your research. Get a list of ideas together for your company name and start searching for them online. Also do some searches for abbreviations, possible misspellings, partial names and any other possible ways that a searcher can screw up those business names you’ve thought up. You can even try “reverse engineering” the process by looking up the least popular keywords you can find and building your company name from those. Above all be flexible. Don’t get stuck on one name and be stubborn about it. If it won’t work, then it won’t work – end of story.

Popularity: 25%

There are two kinds of titles that you should be thinking about: Your web page title and your Headline Title.  They can be separate or one in the same, depending on what kind of website/blog you have.  Both can put you at the top of a search engine list if done right.  

Website and Web Page Titles
Your website title is one of the first things that major search engines look for when ranking your page. When your title and description accurately reflect your content, (which should also be fabulous,) it drastically improves the chances that your web page rank will rise like fresh baked blueberry muffins. That’s not enough though. You’ll also need a website title that’s noticeable and makes people want to know more and click through to your site.

Think local. If your business is in London, make a specific appeal to London and the surrounding area. People all over the world will still want to view your website for its valuable information. However, it makes good business sense to make a local appeal too since people are more comfortable making purchases from companies that are close by.

List your business name and some important keywords in your title. Small and New businesses list keywords first. Larger and well known businesses can list their name before the keywords. i.e.: A small business may write: Best gourmet coffee in Maine at Schmoe’s Joe. While a larger company may say: Schmoe’s Joe: Best gourmet coffee in Maine.

For every page on your website, use a different tagline with keywords that you know people will look for. i.e.: Schmoe’s Joe: About Our Gourmet Coffee Company, Schmoe’s Joe: Buy Gourmet Coffee Online, Schmoe’s Joe: Gourmet Coffee Accessories.

Website titles should be as short as possible. Don’t try to squeeze ten keywords in to one headline. You are more likely to get better results with one or two quality keywords than you will with half a dozen of them. This is mostly due to the fact that web surfers are looking for instant information. They don’t typically read that much into a headline anyway. In order to get lots of quality keywords associated with your site, use the method above and put a different keyword in the title of every page.

Content, Blog and Article Headlines
According to John Caples, author of “Tested Advertising Methods,” There are three major types of titles that attract the most clicks:

1) News Headlines:
It is human nature to seek out information and find out what is happening in their world. News headlines offer objective facts which make readers feel more knowledgeable and in control of their environment. Examples are: “Celebrity Searches Lead to Malware” “New Remote Application Available for iPhone and iPod” and “Buy New Wii at Discount Stores”

2) Curious Monkey:
Everyone has a little curious monkey inside their head distracting them from the task at hand and telling them to click on the video of the skateboarding dog. Headlines like “Cat Declared Hero” “$80M Disaster” or “Bubble Boy Lives!” can get people’s attention pretty quickly.

3) Self Interests:
This is the most effective since readers are interested in things and ideas that they will personally benefit from. It appeals to a need, a want or an ego. For instance: “Learn Spanish in Two Weeks” “Retire Ten Years Early” or “Affordable Mansions”

When appealing to the “self-interest” spectrum, beware of overuse. Consumers and web surfers have become fairly desensitized to marketing and advertising on the internet, if not extremely wary and cynical. Over-sell it and they may think you’re a scam operation. There needs to exist a delicate balance between a quality product and an intelligent, subtle yet strong appeal to their ego and desire. It all comes down to finding what kind of tone your demographic responds to. Do they want something edgy and fresh, subtle and intelligent, or maybe they are more likely to click on a headline that is funny and bizzare

Remember, you don’t have to be #1 on the search engine’s list to get the most clicks.  It’s better to have a few high quality keywords and an appealing headline than a title that is too vague or contains too much information.

Popularity: 39%

Day-Parting, or the act of targeting your internet advertising (like banners, ads and pay-per-clicks) to audiences at certain times of the day, can be difficult to set up and evaluate efficiently. Conversion values can range from 5% to 25% or more for a single retail company according to George Michie of the Rimm-Kaufman Group. Being able to measure and act on the daily, or even hourly differences in data is essential and requires careful analysis and execution. Luckily, I’m about to give you some tips to help you and your small business get day-parting done right.

Quality, Not Quantity
Just because you get more clicks at a certain time of day or week, doesn’t mean your conversion rates (sales per click ratio,) are going to go up too. Besides, you have a budget to think about. You may get 100 clicks a minute between 9:00 a.m. and Noon, but can you afford it? Finding times where

Analyze Your Non-Brand PPC Traffic
Making sure that you are analyzing the right kind of traffic is essential. Brand, Direct load and non-brand (competitive) pay-per-clicks behave very differently. You should be isolating your competitive pay-per-clicks and analyzing them separately. Your job should focus mostly on analyzing the PPC that your software program controls – basically your direct and brand PPC. Also, avoid the common mistake of discounting time zones when looking at what day or time a click came in.

Give Credit Where it’s Due
When tracking click to sales conversion rates, keep in mind that most companies don’t reap the benefits of a banner ad right away. People often surf around the web at one time of day, then make their purchases later on, or the next day. This means that you can’t make a correlation between how many clicks you receive in an hour and how many sales were completed at the same time. Use your cookie tracking tools to give you an idea of when people are looking at your ads versus when they actually make a purchase.

Another thing to keep in mind: People may do much of their web surfing at night while they are home, then return to your website from their work computer the next day to make their purchases. There also may be a time of day when people click on your ads, yet choose to call the 800 number to order instead of make their purchase online. This can make tracking difficult, but it’s worth taking into consideration when looking at clicks and sales in a given time period. One way to offset this phenomenon is to slowly beef up your day-parting one segment at a time and keep an eye out for any unexpected results.

Stay Current, Reasonable and Balanced
You should be using data that isn’t too old, but you also want enough time to gather a sufficient sample. Six to Twelve weeks worth of data is probably perfect depending on your business type. Be sure to exclude things like holidays and special sale events since those numbers can throw off your regular data. Also, be sure that every time-bucket has at least 100 click-to-sale conversions. Any less is too small of a sample to read.

Consolidate and Segregate
Instead of analyzing every bucket independently or a full 12 weeks at once, you can consolidate a day, part of a day, or week. For instance, you can group all the hourly buckets in a day into four groups of eight buckets. This would also help to consolidate sparse data from those hours of the day or night when you don’t get as many conversions.

Day-parting is not always a priority for SEO/M managers, and it shouldn’t be. But the steps above can certainly help you make better decisions regarding where you advertise on the web, what data to collect and discard, and how you should spend your time analyzing that data.

Popularity: 41%