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One of the best ways to optimize your website is article marketing.  Article marketing starts with creating articles that relate to your industry and/or your specific products.  Then you get those articles out on the web through a variety of channels.  The two major benefits are 1) increased inbound links from reliable web sites and 2) letting web searchers know that you’re an authority in your field.

Most article marketing campaigns include writing a good, strong article and then submitting it to multiple article directories like www.goarticles.com, ezinearticles.com, and articledirectory.com.  These websites are trusted by Google and tend to get fairly high search results.  So, it’s quite possible that someone searching using your top keywords would find your ezine article listed on the first page of search results while your website is still listed several pages back.

To take maximum advantage of this, what most people will do is change their articles slightly by moving paragraphs around, changing the title, and replacing a few words here and there.  Then they’ll submit these articles to 50+ article directories.  The upside of this plan is that your article has the potential to rank on many article websites.  However, the downside to this plan is twofold.  First, these changes usually result in lower quality articles.  Second, searchers will most likely keep coming across the same article in different forms.  This will be frustrating to them and can hurt your brand.

While it takes a little more effort, it’s best to select between 5 – 10 directories and then to write original, unique and interesting articles for each of them.  It’s fine to utilize the same topic, even some of the same facts, figures, and research.  However, it’s best to take a different angle with each article.  Find a way to use the same information to glean different ideas and different meanings.

If you just don’t have the time or the interest in writing articles, you can always hire someone to do the writing for you.  Sites like www.elance.com and www.guru.com have listings for thousands of writers who could do the work for you.

No matter how you get started, a strong article marketing campaign should be part of every small business owners advertising plan.

As business owners we’ve all been there.  An employee makes an honest mistake.  We do all that we can to rectify the situation, but sometimes we simply can’t get back for the customer what they lost, be it time, a special occasion, or a hard to find product.  The truth of the matter is that being willing to bend over backwards to please customers isn’t always enough. 

Years ago, small business owners didn’t really have to worry too much about one dissatisfied customer.  The customer might tell their friends and even their family about their disappointment with your company, but they probably weren’t going to take out a full page ad in the New York Times or find some other way to share their woes with the world.  Until now…. 

Fast forward to the new millennium where consumer generated media is all the rave.  People use their blogs, twitter accounts, and customer feedback sites to seek their revenge on companies they feel have done them wrong.  According to Wikipedia, “if a company website has a negative result directly below it then up to 70% of surfers will click the negative result first rather than the company website.”  Ouch!  A full page ad in the New York Times might actually do less damage than an angry blog post with consistently strong SEO.  

Now, let’s talk about the good news.  While you can’t erase blog posts that paint your company in a negative light, you can work to ensure that those posts do not appear on the first page of search results when people search for your company name.  

First and foremost, you need to know what’s being said about you.  A simple way to do this is to sign up for Google Alerts or use Trackur.  Either of these programs will alert you when something gets posted on the web about your company or even your key personnel.  

Second, do all that you can to get high rankings for your company name, best blog posts, press releases, and news stories that mention your organization.  For the basics on how to get high rankings, check out our free guide, “6 Tips on How SEO Can Help You Grow Your Business.” 

The goal is that when people search for your company name, they get several pages of positive results.  If the negative results are on page three or four, chances are that few will ever find them.  In a world where anyone can create media that’s read by millions, it’s important to take an active approach to managing your online reputation.

Last week we talked about how Google’s been expanding their local search results and what that could mean for your business.  Last year Google began adding new features and abilities to their Google Maps system.  Essentially, if someone searches for a company that mainly offers their products or services locally (i.e. a restaurant, salon, chiropractor, etc.), then in addition to getting natural search results, users will also see a list of companies that are located near their location, based on the searcher’s IP address. 

The good news is that this gives local companies an opportunity to rank above national companies and provide additional information like store hours and coupons.  For these reasons alone, it’s important to make sure that your company can also be listed in these results. 

The first and most important thing you need to do if you haven’t already done it, is to sign up with Google’s Local Business Center.  There you can control how your company is listed and more.  This video does a fantastic job of explaining some of the benefits of creating a local business account with Google.

One of the great things about Google’s Local Business Center is that it includes a dashboard of features that go beyond Google Analytics.  For example, when someone searches for “florist” on Google, they might get a local listing for your store.  If they click on your link and then request directions to your location, Google will capture their zip code and include it in your reporting.  This tells you exactly where your customers are coming from.  This type of detail can help you refine any offline marketing your company is doing, or make changes to your business to better meet customer needs. 

You’ll also find out the top search phrases people are using when they find your business.  For example if you own a restaurant and you’re paying top dollar to get good rankings for the keyword phrase “family restaurant”, but most of the people that actually get directions to your restaurant are searching for the phrase “affordable restaurant”, this can give you invaluable direction about how to focus your marketing efforts.

In addition to increased reporting capabilities, Google local results listings can provide small or local business owners with another opportunity to get their name in front of prospective customers, and that’s always a good thing.