Local Search Engine Marketing – An Affordable Small Business Marketing Idea

Do you have a small business? Did you just start your start-up? Is business booming? If you answered “yes” to the first two questions, odds are your answer to the third question is “no.” Starting a small business is very time consuming and takes tons of effort. Visibility and recognition are two keys to building your customer base and this comes with marketing. If you have a new small business, one way you can promote it is through Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEM is the process of marketing your business using an affordable small business marketing idea that is easy to implement by yourself with a little effort.

Search Engine Marketing is a highly effective and also a cost effective method of marketing for small businesses. SEM allows instant visibility for your small business using the most highly trafficked and most targeted method of search today, search engines.

It is no secret that most people today refer to the home page of their favorite search engine as a means to locate the service or product that they need or want. Does your business appear in the search results? If it does not, you are losing business. In some cases you may very well be losing business to competitors that are note even as close to your potential customers as you are. For fresh start-ups, this is unacceptable. So, how can this problem be fixed? It can easily be fixed through Search Engine Marketing.

SEM is really a simple process. If you think that it is something that you cannot do, you are quite mistaken. There are a handful of things that need to be done in order to get started and they are all within your ability. Here are the steps you would need to take.

Set up a website. To set up a website, you need two things, a domain name and hosting. Domain names are very easy to obtain. All you have to do is head over to GoDaddy and search for a domain name that describes your business. The best names and the ones with the highest marketing value are the ones with your product or service in the name in addition to your location. Generally, the best location to add to your domain name is the city that your business is in. If your city has a small population, then you can use your state or province. This will influence you search engine ranking greatly in a good way.

Once you have a domain name, go to HostGator and sign up for hosting. Good hosting is important because of the fact that your want exceptional server up-time meaning you want your website to be visible all of the time. If you website is available to inquirers at a time that is convenient for them then you have move that much closer to gaining a new client. Once you have purchased hosting, add your HostGator Domain Name Servers (DNS) to your GoDaddy DNS list for the domain name you purchased. This will be done in your GoDaddy account. Now, HostGator is allowed to serve your website to inquiries for that domain name.

After your Domain Name Servers have been set, you can launch your website. To do this, simply open your HostGator CPanel and find the Fantastico De Luxe website installation software. Open it and install WordPress or Joomla in a single click. Your website will be up and running in no time. After your website is up, type the web address of your domain name in your browser and verify that you can see your new website. If everything is working, you can now begin adding content about your business to your website. Also, you would want to add your contact information so that potential customers can easily get n touch with you.

Market your site. Once your website is up and running, you need to market it to search engines specifically. This is easy to do but it does take a little work. You now must write unique and informative articles about your subject of interest.

Once you have written some articles, submit them to article directories. Article directories allow links pointing to your website in the article resource box. Add links with your keywords of interest as the anchor text. Search engines will spider and index these articles and the links that the resource box contains. Special note will be made of the links and they will be counted as votes in favor of your website as a resource relevant to that search term.

Congratulations! You have started the process of marketing your business using an affordable small business marketing idea, namely, local search engine marketing. Continue to add content to your site and submit articles to article directories to maintain and increase your visibility.