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Search Marketing investment is a staple of an effective web strategy and the "build it and they will come" strategy does not work. No matter how good your product, content, or website is - they will not come unless you invest in your SEM web strategy.

It appears a large proportion of small business owners are still stuck in the "build it and they will come" mentality. The study highlights that most small businesses have developed websites, but have done little more to enhance their online business presence. According to the report, over 59% of small business owners who own websites don't use paid search marketing, and of those, a whopping 90% have never tried it.

The first thing clients say to me when requesting SEO is invariably centered around rankings. "I want to be position so and so, for such and such a keyword." And I am certain that this is a situation familiar to many of you providing SEO services. However, search isn't always about ranking. And rankings aren't an overnight success story - they take time to achieve. In the meantime there need to be other indicators of success. There are a range of metrics possible to use to act as such indicators, many of which are key to gauging small business SEM success. Ranking high for "xyz" may deliver huge volume of visitors, but not sales. On the other hand, capturing niche rankings for "uvwxyz" and "abcdefg" may deliver less traffic, but actually better sales, not to mention may be easier to achieve in a shorter lead time.

It continues to baffle me why any small business wouldn't use the internet as an essential sales, marketing and customer relations tool. Establishing and maintaining a web presence is incredibly cheap and easy these days. And web advertising is much more powerful than most traditional print or broadcast advertising in that it enables the business owner to engage customers in a two-way conversation and gain valuable feedback on their products and services.

Great post about the importance of content in a small biz SEO strategy

anking well in the search engines when prospects are out there searching for the kinds of solutions you provide has become an essential component of the marketing mix... When it comes to simple SEO for your small business remember this math formula - Content+Competition+Customer = Conversion

Can businesses today really create sustainable revenue and long-term profit around regularly publishing professional-quality online video, and keep their production costs well below the standards of broadcast-quality? Yes, if they're willing to be what I call "videoratis" - a video professional and publicist skilled at more than one job that relates to their business and their online community.

An excellent post about localized search engine optimization and all the ways your small business can target local search. The items are prioritized so you know which to focus on first.

It is my hope that this study will help small business owners confused by Local Search, or those strapped for time, to prioritize their marketing efforts.

What does this say about SMB's and social media? This piece says, that SMB's are: "Still feeling their way into social media..." Interesting. What's your take?

This is probably a good reason why everyone displaced from a marketing or PR job is now a social media expert :) because they're trying to help SMB's learn how to make this work for themselves. We're seeing great results with businesses we work with but those all take a "long term approach" and realize that seeing results takes a "cultural shift" not a new set of tools.