There are basically two objectives to select from when deciding which one should be the primary focus for your website;

1. Getting found
2. Making an impression

Let’s use an example to make the distinction clear. If you are a new or relatively unknown company and have a unique or unfamiliar product to sell, your objective will most likely be getting found. You can’t sell your product until someone knows about it, so you need to attract potential customers to your website. In this example, you may choose to invest in optimizing your website for search rather than, for example, custom graphics or expensive animation.

In contrast, if you are an established, well known company that must maintain a high image profile, such as an ad agency, you may choose to invest in graphics and design rather than search. Your potential customers most likely know your name, and so you prefer to impress them rather than be found by them.

In reality, most companies will select elements of both objectives, and the objectives may change over time as the marketing objectives change. For example, you don’t want a website that is not professionally designed and that alienates visitors.

In visual terms, think of your Web objective as a slider: one side of the scale is search optimized, the other side is image optimized.

For small businesses just beginning their Web programs, it will be advantageous to devote resources primarily to one objective and that objective will most likely be getting found.

It’s a litany of frustrations that I hear over and over from business owners/CEOs concerning Internet Marketing. Here are the top ten:

1. How should I set objectives? What are my options?
2. What are all the pieces to Internet marketing?
3. SEO, blogs, social media: How do these pieces fit together?
4. What step comes first, second, etc.?
5. Who can help me?
6. How do I know if the service or company pitching my business really knows what they are talking about?
7. How do I track Return On Investment (ROI)?
8. Can I keep it simple?
9. Can I do parts of it in-house?
10. Can I scale it up?

Up until now I wasn’t sure of the answers, but I am testing the small business offering from Hubspot and it appears to be the all-in-one solution that business owners have been asking for. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Real estate can refer to more than a physical address. For example, I’ve used it to describe storefront real estate- the amount of window display space. I’ve also used it to refer to the space on a restaurant table- tabletop real estate. Both usages mean that however the expression is used, real estate is valuable.

David Scarlett talks about website real estate and claims that “Centimeter For Centimeter, Your Website Is Likely To Be The Most Valuable Piece of Real Estate You’ll Ever Own!” I agree. And to support this statement, he sports a 6 minute and 3 second video describing what to do to maximize this real estate investment. It’s a video worth viewing. Follow his post here, and the video here.

“Every Company Is A Media Company” is a post from Brook Ellingwood that will either strike fear or raise hope in the heart of business owners. Brook writes, “Nearly every job in the modern workplace is to some extent a media job…”

Fear comes from believing that, on top of all the challenges a business faces, it must also adopt a new vision of itself, based on digital and social media. Hope comes from seeing this as an opportunity to outsmart competition.

See full details in this post by Vedran Tomic in Small Business Trends.

1. Business information on the web must be consistent accurate, accurate and up-to-date

2. Claim and Verify Your Listing

3. Consolidate your presence on Google Maps

4. Categorize like a champ

5. Describe remarkably

6. Add pictures and videos

7. Add details (Hours of operation, payment options, additional details)

8.Use coupons (or other incentives) to track response

9. Spread the word in sites and directories

10. Get Reviewed