For small business owners, the key to do-it-yourself website promotion involves three types of web design optimization. Your search engine optimization goes beyond what visitors view displayed on your website, so our advice is looking at these seo optimization techniques:

• Code optimization accessed by search engines only
• On-page content optimized for seo and visitors
• Off-site promotional services for seo and backlinks

Within your design code in html or xhtml you may improve your small business site popularity and ranking by including key code features. Search engines only access the code, so be sure to use title tags with keywords and a proper meta description in a complete sentence. Each will improve your seo if you avoid using your company name and focus on what you do.

On-page content includes H tags for headings (h1) and subheadings (h2-h6), and then keywords within the text content, especially at the beginning of each opening sentence of each paragraph, and again in the last paragraph of your site. People are more likely to search on your product or service rather than your company name, so my advice is placing your company name in the second paragraph or last sentence of the first paragraph rather than at the very beginning of each page.

Off-site promotional services include web directories, blog directories, and web 2.0 social sites for establishing natural backlinks that act as votes for your site when found by search engines.

Do well on these three types of web design optimization techniques, and your small business website will be a step ahead of the competition.

Tags: advice search engine optimization small business website design

Labels: advice, design, seo, websites

                     

Of the approximate 6 million small business enterprises in the USA, those with 20 or fewer employees are still the vast majority. 5.23 million have fewer than 20 employees, and only 760,000 have 20 or more. These are the latest published statistics from the US Census Bureau, and the breakdown is rounded off as follows:

Total Number of Small Businesses in USA by Size

20,000 with 500+ employees
110,000 with 100+ employees
630,000 with 20+ employees
5,230,000 with 20 or less

5,990,000 Total Number

Micro small business website ownership of at least one home page is more than 70%. Of those, only 5% have added a small business blog to their site according to a NY Times piece reported in December 2007, and entitled Blogging’s a Low-Cost, High Return Marketing Tool.

Based on this 5% which may be slightly higher according to others tracking data, there are only 299,500 small business websites with blogs. If you are one of the 30% of small business owners without a website, or one of the 95% without a blog, my advice is starting now with this low cost marketing tool to promote your small business. Let us know how we can help with your strategy of keeping up with or staying ahead of the competition.

TAGS: advice blog news promotion reviews small business websites website design

Labels: advice, blog, news, promotion, reviews, websites

                     

A series of new pages were added to the Code Repair main site with tools for website design for established web developers, or do-it-yourself site owners interested in custom small business website design. Four new sections provide reviews on a variety of great tools for website design.

Visit these links to learn about Website Design Tools, Web Browser Add Ons, HTML Coding Software, and PDF Creation Software.

The majority of the resources reviewed at the links above are free. Questions? Please email us about any of the tools that we use and recommend for custom website design.

TAGS: advice design news reviews small business websites website design

Labels: advice, design, news, reviews, websites