Small business owners must take advantage of every possible tool at their disposal. Online marketing is not just an option any longer, it is a necessity. Small business owners can use online marketing to reach an audience they never would have been able to reach just a few years ago.
So, I ran across a blog post on the Salesforce blog tonight and it includes a very useful guide for small businesses (see below).
Some of the good points from the article:
Website Development:
Talk to a developer before you decide what CMS to use. Yes, many times small business owners can only see one facet of the situation and they don’t see the technical side. A developer can point them towards a CMS that meets their needs and point out any potential issues.
Don’t use a custom system, unless you absolutely need it. This is great advice. You will always benefit from using a widely adopted CMS with a large community for advice and support.
Customize a template. Don’t try and re-invent the wheel. There are usually tons of templates for most CMS platforms available. Find one you like as a starting point and then customize it. Don’t hesitate to hire a professional for this since this is the public face of your company.
SEO:
Bring in an SEO expert early. An SEO expert can help you when you are first laying out your site. This will keep you from having to rework your site to fit the SEO needs later on.
Invest in an audit and strategy document. You need to have a clear strategy laid out before you begin. This will help you stay on course and make it easier to measure success (or failure) of your methods.
Don’t sign on for a long term campaign. SEO takes time but the bulk of the work is done early on. The rest is maintenance and tweaks.
These are just a few of the great points made in the article. You can read the entire article here.
