Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it’s referred to in the marketing industry has helped build small businesses into large businesses. With that said, here at Catalyst Marketers, we don’t specialize in SEO. We specialize in building relationships. SEO helps prospects find your small business website, Catalyst Marketers helps you communicate with those folks once they get there. Even though SEO isn’t a core offering from Catalyst Marketers, it’s still an important part of a small business owners’ marketing plan, which is why we want to take this opportunity to talk more about Small Business SEO.

One of the main components to Search Engine Optimization is filling your site with relevant keywords for your business. A Keyword is a word or phrase that’s relevant to your small business. A good keyword for Catalyst Marketers would be, “social media marketing agency BucksMont Pennsylvania”. It’s a good idea to use your keywords in your website page titles and website content. On top of that, it’s good to use them as “anchor text” within your site.

Anchor text are the hyperlinked words on your small business website. Anchor text is valuable because it helps search engines understand what a page is about. Anchor text is especially important for Google search. An example is, “Catalyst Marketers offers social media solutions for small business owners, in and around, the Bucks County, PA and Montgomery County, PA area”. The anchor text is “social media solutions for small business” and it links to our Solutions page. Now Google, and other search engines, will rank our Solutions page when people search for “social media solutions for small business”. The more I incorporate the keyword phrase “social media solutions for small business” into my blog and website, the higher I’ll rank for that keyword phrase.

Starting to “get it”? So, how do you find out what keywords to use?

If you’re not fully versed in SEO, then Google Adwords: Keyword Tool can help you answer the question, how do I find keywords for my small business? Through the Google Keyword Tools, there are two ways that you can find keywords for your small business website.

1. Add descriptive words or phrases that are relevant to your small business
2. Add a URL from a relevant website to see what keywords that site uses and then use similar keywords for your site.

The Google Adwords Keyword Tool allows you to see lists of keywords, which are broken out by both local and global search volume (the number of times a particular keyword is search for, both locally and globally, on a monthly basis). The tool also shows you the percentage of other sites who use the keyword. When selecting your small business keywords, be sure that they are relevant to your business, have a decent local and global (only if you’re a global company) monthly search volume, and have a small number of other sites who are using the keyword. This will give you the best opportunity to move up the ranks for that keyword.

Some other things to consider when choosing keywords:

• Local search is gaining momentum, so use location-specific keywords “Social Media Marketing Agency in Doylestown, PA”
• Go for specific keywords, sometimes referred to as “long tail” keywords. Long tail keywords are ULTRA-specific phrases that describe your business/products/services. These keywords will drive quality traffic. Generic keywords drive a large quantities of traffic, but often that traffic isn’t taking any action because they are looking for something different and landed on your site by mistake – through a generic keyword.

Even though it’s not our core business, Catalyst Marketers can help you with SEO for your small business through our virtual network. Let us know if you have any questions or need help getting started.

Technorati Tags: Google Adwords Keyword Tool, google keywords, SEM, SEO

Tags: Google Adwords Keyword Tool, google keywords, SEM, SEO

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 9:03 am and is filed under Online Marketing, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.