Business121 Small Business Newsletter #1
In this week's Business121:
1. Top Tips for Killer Keyword Selection
2. Would your small business be better off under George W? +
other small business news
3. Should you post your email on your small business site?
4. Sites we Like - a free key tax deadline reminder service
5. What's on...
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Top Tips for Killer Keyword Selection
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Choosing the right keywords for your web pages can help you to
attract far more visitors to your website. But what are keywords?
...what do they do?...and how do you choose the best ones?
All web pages listed by the major search engines contain several
lines of 'meta information'. These appear at the very top of each
HTML page (well, they should do!) - details include a 'Title',
'Description' and 'Keywords' tag.
These 'meta tags' are used to help define what the web page is
about - primarily for the benefit of search engines. You
essentially use your meta tags to tell the search engines what
that web page is all about.
When choosing your keywords, here are the three main things
you should consider to maximise their effectiveness and boost
your traffic.
Think Keyword Phrases!
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Rather than trying to target single keywords such as 'laptop' or
'modem', go for longer phrases such as 'buy used laptop', or 'buy
cheap modem uk'.
Unless you're running a small business with the biggest niche
products known to man, competition for Top 10 placements for
single keywords is staggering.
Don't waste your time trying to compete against sites with massive
web marketing budgets. You're better off finding a niche and
working within that.
Research your key phrases
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It's easy to assume that you know what your visitors will search
for when looking for your site. For example, I thought 'small
business uk' would be a great phrase for Bytestart.
However, only a couple of people have ever found the site with
that phrase, whereas a number of less obvious phrases could bring
dozens more visitors each day.
To avoid making the same mistake I made, I'd recommend you take
a look at the Overture word popularity tool.
http://snipurl.com/4z06
It will list the number of searches made for each phrase you
enter, alongside many related phrases which may be of use.
Again, avoid phrases that have been searched upon 10,000
times that week - go for more modest ones. You can always
target similar phrases on different pages of your site.
Make your phrases relevant
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Telling Google that your web page is about 'used modems' is
pretty useless, unless your page really is about used modems!
Google, and the other major engines use complex relevancy
algorithms to determine how relevant your meta information is
to the contents of the page.
In order to climb up search engine rankings, you must ensure
that you select keywords that closely relate to the content on
each page. It's also critical your chosen phrases appear within
the main text of the page you are priming.
But don't go over the top. Search engines are getting
cleverer all the time and may actually penalise you if your
text is merely repeating your keywords at the expense of
readability and sense.
For example, let's say your keyword phrase was 'buy used
laptop' and the text on your web page read:
"If you're looking to buy a used laptop, this is the best
place to buy a used laptop. When you buy a used laptop
you should buy a used laptop from a specialist site for
buying used laptops."
This is a sure-fire way to get your site penalised by the
search engines. It's also a complete turn-off for anybody
that does find your site because it reads like gibberish.
My view is - write good, clear content, and then apply the
keywords based on the content you have written. Relevant,
text-rich pages always seem to win out in the end.
Of course, many other factors, such as link popularity, also
affect how your web pages are ranked by search engines.
I'll write more on these key areas - to help you increase
the number of visitors to your website - over the coming
weeks and months.
In the meantime, you can read in-depth articles on keyword
research and keyword density in the Web Marketing section of
Bytestart. http://snipurl.com/Web_Marketing
(Bryan Jackson)
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Latest Small Business News
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Would our small businesses be better off under George W?
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According to the latest report from the World Bank, British
companies pay more than twice as much in direct and indirect
taxes as firms in US.
http://snipurl.com/Better_Under_Bush
Online Keyword Suggestion Tools
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If you're creating multiple web pages, in the same subject area,
there's the strong possibility that you'll get stuck for new
keywords to use, or more likely get bored and cut corners (most
people do)!
http://snipurl.com/Keyword_Analyzer
Survey says small businesses back flexible working
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Six out of ten smaller firms offer flexible working to their staff
and over half of them believe it has a positive effect on employee
relations, according to a recent survey.
http://snipurl.com/flexible_working
Small businesses fail to check staff references
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While small businesses are relying heavily on word of mouth and
personal recommendations to fill vacancies, almost half are
failing to check candidates' references according to a recent
survey.
http://snipurl.com/reference_check
Section 660 - Arctic Systems Court of Appeal date set
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A date has been set for the Arctic Systems Section 660 appeal.
The case has been closely monitored by small businesses and
may affect the long term implications of the so-called "married
couples business tax".
http://snipurl.com/Arctic_appeal
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Should you post your contact email on your small business site?
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This question will have crossed the mind of many a small
business person when setting up their website. As most of us are
more than aware, there is a trade-off between providing key
contact details to potential clients, and avoiding the attention of
'email harvesters' who scan sites for displayed email addresses
and add them to spam databases.
When you post your email address on a web page, email
collecting software can easily detect the underlying mail code.
Spammers constantly surf the web 'harvesting' new addresses to
sell-on - presumably to mass-circulation, completely untargeted
mailing lists that promote various 'medical' products and a wide-
range of 'alternative' sites catering to every taste imaginable!
It seems that our email addresses (displayed on the website)
have already been picked up by 'email harvesters' because
we're now the lucky recipients of around 20 emails written in
Chinese each day. (I actually have a begrudging admiration for
the speed at which these spamsters work!)
If we're lucky enough to get spam written in English, it usually
starts with: "Dear Lady/Sir, First of all, please let me introduce
myself as a manufacturer and exporter of tin boxes." - these tend
to end up in the trash folder before we have the chance to read
any further...
Despite the annoyance of this spam, we'll continue to publish our
email addresses rather than include some kind of "contact form"
because people prefer to send an email directly, rather than fill in
an online enquiry form.
A major drawback of an online form is that the sender doesn't
have a record of this communication as it's not been sent
through their usual email program.
I've always found it intensely irritating trying to contact people
behind a website only to be confronted by a barrier like an onsite
form...why is this company making it difficult for me to contact
them?...what do they have to hide?
Don't penalise potential customers
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If you get sucked into the trap of hiding your email address
behind a web-form you're actually penalising the people you
need most.
You're letting the actions of a few misguided morons to put a
barrier between you and your customers. And let's face it we
could all do with more customers.
But, now that we've decided to display our email address to the
world how do we make sure that we don't spend all day sifting
through our mailbox separating the spam from the genuine
enquiries?
Simple software to sort the spam
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The solution to the problem of harvested email abuse is
surprisingly simple. All you need to do is install some decent
email spam prevention software.
Although some genuine mail may be accidentally labelled as
spam, the ones we've tried (McAfee Spamkiller for example
http://snipurl.com/McAfee_Spamkiller) do seem to do a very
good job at keeping out most of the rubbish. Norton also
provides well-regarded anti-spam software.
So, our advice is, keep those email addresses and other contact
details displayed on your website. Make it as easy as you can for
people to contact you.
Keep out the spam with software solutions rather than keeping
out potential clients with fiddly forms!
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Sites we Like
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Although we at Business121 have tried to cram as many hints
and tips into our small business portal, Bytestart, Business Link
(the government-run business information site) will always be an
essential reference for small business advice.
One of the latest additions to the site is a new "key tax dates"
reminder service. You just answer a few simple questions about
your business and the tool creates a handy calendar of your key
tax deadlines for the next 12 months.
You can print or save your personalised reminder for future
reference. You can even sign up to receive regular email alerts
as each date approaches.
But, I decided not to sign-up for the email alerts, nagging me to
complete my VAT returns is an easy way to get my back up!!
http://snipurl.com/tax_date_reminder
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What's on...
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An evening with the Beermat Entrepreneur
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To launch the second edition of Beermat Entrepreneur, Foyles
(Charing Cross Road, London) is hosting an evening with the
author of the best-selling guide, Mike Southon.
It's a good opportunity to hear from the original Beermat
Entrepreneur and a chance for you to ask questions and get
valuable start up advice from him.
It's on Tuesday October 4, from 7pm. Tickets cost £5, which is
refunded if buy a copy of the book on the night (£12.99).
To order your ticket call 0870 420 2777 or visit
http://snipurl.com/Beermat
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Business121 is your newsletter. Let us know what you want to
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that are holding you back and we'll do our best to help. Just
hit reply or mailto:emyr@Business121.co.uk
(c) Business121.co.uk 2005
Posted September 27, 2005
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