Guerrilla tip: build a small business website

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Jaime Lim | 24 May, 2011
As a guerrilla small business entrepreneur, you explore every possible media to constantly keep your small business in front of your target niche market. Using brochures, t-shirts, discount coupons, post-it notes, or even complimentary gummy bears, your small business needs to be on top of your prospects' minds when they search for a particular product or service that you provide.

The small business guerrilla learns from www.internetworldstats.com that as of June 2009, there are 1.67 billion internet users worldwide, with 704 million in Asia, 402 million in Europe, and 251 million internet users in North America. From the year 2000 to 2009, internet users in the Middle East and Africa grew by 1360 percent, while Asia had a 516 percent growth over the same period.

Furthermore, the small business guerrilla knows that a small business with a website sold more than one without a website. In an eBay-commissioned survey conducted by ACNielsen, more than half of the 400 small business entrepreneurs who participated stated that the internet equals profits. A small portion reported that without a website, they would not have a business. The survey showed that 51 percent of the respondents indicated the internet improved the profitability of their small business, and as much as 58 percent said the internet has helped their small business expand. A good 15 percent of the small business owners surveyed said the internet is essential to their survival.The survey results clearly suggest that both the Internet and eBay have enriched the opportunities for small business success.

Mobile marketing and mobile devices will also definitely change the way consumers shop. In two years, as much as 40 percent of internet access will be through a mobile device. In fact, eBay generated US$400 million in business from consumers browsing products, bidding and selling via iPhone and other mobile applications. The small business guerrilla knows he, too, has to evolve in order to remain competitive.

Given these impressive facts, the small business guerrilla knows that to build a website for his small business is definitely well worth investing into. But it is not enough to just build an informative small business website. With thousands, or even millions of search results on the same search topic, the small business website has to land, ideally, on page 1 of search engine results for the website to be effective. Not too many internet users will bother browsing all the way down to page 28 of search engine results. And with thousands of other websites competing for page 1, the small business website also needs to have a strong Page Rank to be able to stay on page 1. To land on page 1 of search engine results and rank strong, the small business website needs to go through search engine optimization, either through link building, article marketing, or other similar optimization techniques. While search engine optimization is actually a fun and interesting activity, it is also very time-consuming. And time is a very valuable resource for the small business owner. If the small business guerrilla does not have the time to do SEO himself, he can always outsource this activity and let web developers or a professional SEO company do the optimization for his small business website for a small fee.

If everything works out as planned, the small business website on page 1 of search engine results has a high percentage of converting search engine traffic into buying customers. What’s more, monetizing the small business website with non-competing ads and affiliates can bring in additional revenue for the small business guerrilla.

(Source Articles Base)
* Jaime Lim is a freelance writer.
* The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely his/her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of SME Times.