07/ 25/ 2006
by Lena Basha
Type an interior design keyword into a Google search bar and one of the top results might be April Grace Interiors. It's not a big design firm located in New York or Los Angeles, but a year-old business run by Lori Shrum and a part-time employee in Mooresville, N.C.
"I have clients in Hawaii, California, even Canada," Shrum says. "It's an untraditional setup, especially in my industry, but most of my clients love that they can make decisions and get stuff done through the Internet."
Seventy percent of the clients Shrum served during her first year in business found her online. That's because she includes strategically placed keywords on her Web site that, when crawled by a search engine's software programs, improve her business' rankings in search results. "Before I started my company, I did a lot of research on competitors," she says. "I realized when I typed in certain keywords, the same companies came up. I knew I needed that same leverage to succeed."
This marketing practice, called search engine optimization, is just one of many ways Shrum ensures new customers find her on the Internet. Here are some other easy marketing practices you can use to win new business online:
Links: Shrum links to more than 100 fabric manufacturers, many of whom, in turn, have linked back to her site. "It keeps potential customers coming back to my site—and that helps keep my name and my business at the top of their list when they want to hire an interior designer."
Pay-per-click advertising: Pay-per-click advertisements, which are text ads on a search-engine results page, can be an effective (yet sometimes expensive) way to help make sure new customers find your site when searching for a certain keyword. The more mainstream the keyword, the higher your pay-per-click rate, which can quickly add up if you’re getting a lot of clicks.
Paid inclusion: With the exception of Google, most of the major search engines charge a fee in exchange for inclusion on their search indexes. A search engine will eventually find most Web sites, especially those like April Grace Interiors that have links from more established sites. Paid inclusion guarantees that your site will be included in the search index, but it does not ensure placement.
NFIB.com
Find more online marketing tips in "Internet" in the "Office" section of www.NFIB.com/toolsandtips.
Helpful Resources
Online Marketing Success Stories by Catherine Qazalbash (Atlantic, 2006): This all-inclusive guide to Internet marketing provides tips from the real experts—business owners who successfully market their products and services on the Internet every day.
Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg (Wizard Academy Press, 2005): This guide focuses not just on getting new visitors to your Web site, but going one step further and turning them into new customers.
101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site by Susan Sweeney (Maximum, 2006): Straightforward but detailed, this online marketing guide touches on tried-and-true strategies of all types, from search engine optimization to e-mail marketing.
