I’ve been an SEO. Having done the intensive SEO work I know the value of good SEO and why it comes at such a premium. SEO is labor-intensive and ever-evolving, but extremely effective when executed well.

I’ve been the lone marketing manager in a small business, wearing fourteen different hats and trying to figure out how I am supposed to fit SEO into the schedule… and the budget. And I’ll be totally honest:  Working for a small business, even though I knew how important SEO was and even though I wanted to do it all myself… I honestly just didn’t have the time.

But I didn’t want SEO to fall by the wayside. So I sought outside help.

I reached out to some local SEO companies in the hopes of finding someone who could help me prioritize our SEO efforts at a price that I could actually present to my boss. Here’s what I discovered. It’s not pretty.

• Many SEO companies don’t really understand what a “reasonable budget” is for a small business.
• Many SEO companies offer off-the-shelf “packaged” solutions for small businesses, in an attempt to streamline their services and make attractive presentations. Unfortunately, there are pitfalls to this approach.
• Many SEO companies fail to prove the value of SEO during the sales pitch process . My feeling is that many SEO firms are used to dealing with IT or website development teams for larger companies (who already have at least a working knowledge of what SEO is), and when faced with a small business owner who doesn’t have the time to learn much about SEO, they forget to actually outline why SEO is important or what it entails for their site and business. When small businesses are doing everything they can to cut costs in a down economy- you MUST to be able to explain what it is you do and how it is going to translate into money for your clients.

From a small business stand point, the truth is that many of them know that SEO is something they should be doing (because that’s what they have heard), but they don’t understand it, and they don’t have the time or manpower to be able to do it themselves… so they are coming to you. It’s your job to lay it out for them and help them see the benefits of an SEO investment. So how can we do that? How do we bridge the gap and bring SEO and SMB budgets together?

3 Ways SEO Companies Can Improve their Small Business SEO

1. Understand your clients’ unique budgetary needs:  Maybe a small business can only afford $300 a month. Or maybe it’s a one-time payment of $3,000. Each company is different. A small budget doesn’t mean you can’t do good work for them… it just means that you are going to have to prioritize and pinpoint your efforts to achieve very specific goals. And when a small business owner says that their budget is $3000… please don’t send them a proposal for services costing twice that amount. That happened to me on more than one occasion, and I was not appreciative.
2. Respect their business by customizing your approach: No small business is alike. Each one is going to have its own customer niche, its own unique set of challenges, and its own unique brand. However, I interviewed some SEO service providers who didn’t seem to understand this. For example, after one young man pitched his company’s new SEO service to me, I asked him how it would work for us. He proceeded to tell me about how successful it was for a local pizza shop. Except, I was in real estate… and there is a huge difference between selling a house, and selling a pizza. That meeting didn’t end well. I needed to hear how SEO was going to help my business, not someone else’s.
3. Set realistic expectations with your small business clients: There are a lot of bad SEOs out there that make big and empty promises to unsuspecting small business owners. And this , in turn, creates one of two scenarios:
1. It gives those business owner the illusion that SEO is a magic bullet, and results are almost instantaneous OR
2. The business owner gets burned and becomes convinced that all SEO is a scam

I’ve seen both, and both offer their own challenges. However, each situation can be somewhat healed through transparency and honest communication. Tell your prospective client exactly what you would like to do for their business, why you want to do it, what it’s going to cost, and what the realistic payoff will be. Keep it short, simple, and specific to them.

And of course, for small business owners who may be looking to hire an SEO.

3 Ways Small Businesses Can Make Their SEO Efforts More Effective

1. Become SEO educated: The more you know, the easier it will be to spot scams and shady SEO tactics and protect yourself and your company from making a costly mistake. Having that knowledge base and shared language, you’ll also be able to better understand what is happening on your Web site and to ask better question. The more you know, the more you’ll come to appreciate the value of good, high quality SEO services and choose the firm that will be the best fit for your business.
2. Focus your efforts on things that matter: If you are running a location-driven business like a store or restaurant, your SEO efforts should be focused on the things that will have the biggest impact on a local scale. Therefore, your first SEO priorities should be:
• Having a clean, simple, easy-to-navigate website
• Creating a social media presence in your local community
• Setting up and optimizing local listings for your business in all the places where your customers may try to find you
• Creating fresh, relevant, hyper-local content that people in your community are likely to share with one another
• Focusing on a few, targeted keywords that you can realistically rank for and which will drive relevant traffic to your site
3. Understand that SEO is an investment in your company: Search engine optimization should be considered a vital component of your online marketing strategy. SEO can improve your business’ visibility, help protect your brand’s reputation, and increase revenue. But, it’s not a magic bullet, and it is not going to come cheap. Don’t quit doing the other marketing activities that work for you (whether it is newspaper ads or mailers), but make it a priority to set aside some of your marketing budget for SEO, and stick with it long term so you can see all the good things that it can do for your business.

Are you an SEO specialist that specializes or caters to small businesses? What would you add? I’d love to hear your point of view…

Or, you know, start their link building efforts.

A few weeks ago at SmallBizTrends I wrote about why SMBs shouldn’t fear link building and why, without even knowing it, SMBs have natural link building skills they can take advantage of. I thought today I’d go a little deeper and offer small business owners a place to start.

If you’re an SMB struggling to build links – start here. Below are the basics of small business link building.

1. Work your size

Okay, so you’re little. You need to stop thinking of this as a bad thing and embrace it. Being little means you’re more agile, have more freedom, and that you can experiment and do things that a cumbersome big business isn’t able to. Your small stature makes it easier you to seek out and take advantage of opportunity.
Because you’re small:

• You can use Google Alerts or saved Twitter Searches to monitor industry conversation and jump into news angles and hot topics faster.
• You can experiment with new tools, methods and ideas while they’re still hot because there are fewer hoops to jump through.
• You don’t have to get permission to fail fast and rebound.
• You can talk to customers without going through legal
• You can play up your size to make people WANT to help you (and your content).

There are a lot of advantages to being small. Your size makes you a better link builder because it allows you to move faster. As a small business owner, you want to map out some ways to take advantage of these and integrate them into your link building plan. Trust me. The ideas should be plentiful.

2. Do relationship link building

One reason SMBs are such powerful link builders is because they GET relationships. Whereas others have to re-learn what it means to be human and how to make friends, small business owners are already doing this. They’re already friends with their customers, their vendors, and nearby businesses. Trying to acquire links? Use your offline relationships to create bridges (also referred to as “links”) online.

• Ask your vendors and local, non-competing businesses that you work with to link to you when it makes sense.
• Join the Better Business Bureau.
• Join your Chamber of Commerce.
• Join local professional organizations.
• Support local charities.
• Ask your customers to leave reviews for your business on local review sites.

These are all very simple ways to turn your offline contacts into online link buddies. As a small business owner, your business has long been based in the art of building relationships. Use it.

3. Become a source

A great way to build both links and buzz to your small business is to become a source for news. Create an old-fashioned Press List that allows you to keep track of all the local reporters/bloggers/media outlets in your area, as well as their niche, their most frequent angles, etc. Once you have your Press List completed, work off it and begin building relationships with these people. Start a rapport with them before you ever reach out to offer yourself up as a source for a news story. Make sure they know what you do for a living, who your business reaches, and the areas that you’re an expert in. Then, when there’s an opportunity to localize a national news story or when your business is doing something that’s worthy of coverage, reach out and pitch yourself. Not only is this incredible exposure for your brand, most times that news mention is going to come with a link. After a few mentions, you’ll notice that the press begins contacting YOU and not the other way around.

4. Become a publisher

Want to build links to your small business? Start a blog and become a publisher of unique and authoritative content. Here are 23 bloggable questions to get you started, but you’ll also want to create Resource Lists (industry- and local-specific), How To Guides and tutorials, comment on industry happenings, and produce evergreen content that your customers will be able to get value from year over year. There are many different content flavors, so don’t pick just one. We recommend creating an editorial calendar to help keep yourself on task and hold yourself to the burden that is creating awesome content on a consistent basis.

5. Get Social

Use Knowem to help you claim and secure your online usernames – and then actually use some of them. You don’t need to establish a presence on every social networking site ever created (I assume you’d like to have an actual life), but pick two or three sites to create satellite communities on and then engage with people there. It doesn’t matter if you’re being social on Twitter, using Facebook to promote contests, are on Quora answering tech-related questions – just get active. Don’t forget to link to your Web site from these social profiles.

6. Send out press releases

Sure, you’ll be going after links by using your Press List to hit up local- and industry-specific media, but don’t forget to submit your press releases to sites like PRWeb, as well. Not only with this get you a link back to your site from a pretty big authority, but you’ll get in front of their distribution lists, which may results in even more links and coverage. If other people do pick up your news, track that and add them to your Press List for future blasts.

7. Hold an IRL event, invite the media

Want to do some good in your community? Hold an event that gives back to a local charity or non-profit and invite the media to cover it. They get their good news angle, you get some coverage, and the charity gets some funds and increased awareness. Feel slimly about tying your charity work into your link building? Then don’t. Hold an event that celebrates your company’s birthday, a success milestone, or that simply gives back to the community for their support. While the event is going on, also set up a review station so that your customers can leave reviews for your business while they’re in mood or ask them if they’d be okay with you recording testimonials that you can use on your Web site. One stone, so many birds.

8. Hold an event online

Feeling a little social awkward or don’t want to wear your best party dress? Then hold your event online instead off.

• Host a Twitter party.
• Throw a contest.
• Give lots of free stuff away.

Online events are a great vehicle to allow small business owners to create buzz around their business, while also getting some links in the process. Don’t forget to reach out to your Press List to get their help in promoting the event for you and ask your community to blog about what’s going on to share it with their own audiences.

9. Guest post

Write guests posts for other authoritative sites in your industry to help give back to the community, and promote your business at the same time. These posts should be tailored for the site that they’ll appear on, and should provide a value to that community. If you need some help on landing guest blogging spots, well, we got ya covered there, too.

10. Create a Referral program

Chances are good you’ve been doing this offline for years. You reward your customers who send more leads to your business through word-of-mouth recommendations and for telling their friends they should stop in and see you the next time they need a massage. So why not create an online referral program for customers who blog about you or who get their friends to sign up for your services through your Web site? Just because we’re talking about the Web doesn’t mean we have to reinvent the wheel. Just tweak what’s always worked before.

11. Offer Web-based coupons

Who isn’t obsessed with getting the absolute best deal in these tougher times? By offering Internet coupons on your Web site, you not only give customers an incentive to do business at your location, but you give your brand a link magnet that people will link to, blog about, repost, and go crazy over.

While link building is often an intimidating concept for small business owners, it doesn’t have to be. As an SMB, you’re already doing the relationship building part of earning links. Now you just need to ask for them.

That said, I’ve also learned that many of these larger, enterprise-caliber brands have learned to leverage certain online marketing techniques quite well. I’m convinced that one of the main reasons small businesses don’t leverage these techniques is simple lack of awareness, so I figured I would share my own personal list of highly effective enterprise techniques that a small business can use:

While search engine optimization still relies heavily on human elbow grease, there are plenty of elements that can be automated to help speed up implementation and improve return on investment. For example, there are a variety of tools that can automate the identification of link building targets. One of my favorites is the Clique Hunter tool offered by Majestic SEO, which allows you to identify the links that your competitors have in common (which typically means that they are links you should be able to acquire as well) but there are many others.

In addition, depending on the kind of site and content management system you have in place, there are certain techniques that can automate the process of optimizing on-page elements for your entire site. For example, if your site’s pages are database-driven (this is common for e-commerce sites) you can leverage said database to introduce relevant keywords into the title tag and other meta elements of each individual page at once. This approach to optimizing on-page factors isn’t quite as effective as manual page-by-page keyword research and construction, but it can be a very valuable approach that drives immediate return on investment for sites with a high number of pages.

Lastly, there are some amazing tools out there that can automate the project management elements of SEO. My personal favorite is Raven Tools, which is a fairly comprehensive tool that I use mainly for link building project management as well as to automatically track link building targets and determine whether the link is active or not (as opposed to trying to manually check that kind of thing).

Social media monitoring

Some of the more popular social media monitoring tools out there cost a pretty penny, but the good news is that there are plenty of high-quality options that are either free or extremely cost effective. In fact, simply setting up some well-configured Google Alerts can often do the trick. Remember that in addition to tracking your own brand name, you should also track competitor brands, product terms and general industry terms.  If you’re a local/regional business, then adding local/regional modifiers also makes a lot of sense. Also, remember to track specific questions that suggest a user that is in buying mode (e.g “where can I buy…”)

One technique that will help you weed out a lot of the noise from your monitoring data is the use of quotations or other handy search operators to capture exact-match phrases. So for example, if you sell blue widgets in Miami, Florida, it’s a good idea to use the command “Miami blue widgets” (as well as phrases like “blue widgets in Miami”) as opposed to simply typing in Miami blue widgets.

Email marketing

Simply put, email marketing is almost always the most lucrative and cost effective of all enterprise-caliber marketing techniques. It’s also the one that’s the least understood and most underutilized by smaller businesses. The key is relevance and consistency. Oh, and you have to actually ask folks to subscribe to your email list. That means including prominent “subscribe to email” calls to action within your site as well as within any conversion vehicles within the site (purchase process, membership sign-up, etc).  If you have a brick-and-mortar business, make sure to setup a system for collecting email addresses at the point of purchase.

Now back to that “relevancy” thing.  Sending relevant email messaging requires that you collect as much information about your users as possible up front, so that you can then segment your email subscribers into relevant groupings.

• Are they male or female?
• How old are they?
• Do they have kids?
• Where do they live?
• What kind of phone do they have and is it a smartphone?
• What kind of social networks do they frequent, if any?

These and other key questions can be leveraged to ensure that the marketing emails said user receives reflects their specific demographic and psychographic profile. The more relevant, the more likely said user is going to open your emails and continue to be actively subscribed for future messaging.

And as for consistency, it’s ok to email users more than once a year or once a quarter or even once a month. As long as the message is relevant and provides some sort of value, users are typically more than happy to receive emails on a weekly (or in some cases, daily) basis.

Measuring all the way through to sales and revenue

This is a technique that even many large companies struggle with, particularly if the sale and revenue isn’t immediate (e.g. an e-commerce transaction) but that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible – or even all that difficult – for a small business to implement. It simply requires that you create a system for tracking a web-based lead all the way through to a real-life transaction. That requires the implementation of a sales lead and customer-relationship-management (e.g. CRM) platform like Sales Force. It also often requires the implementation of things like call tracking, which allow you to trace how an online visit turns into a phone consultation. Bridging the gap between web visit and real-life sales cycle will help you identify your most profitable marketing channels, which in turn, will let you devote more resources into those specific channels.

Take good notes because there will be a quiz later. The quiz is called “Google”.

Step 1: Do Everything We Already Told You

I know. In an ideal world, a rash of new things entering the fray would mean that others had been de-valued, allowing you to shift your focus. Unfortunately, that’s not so much the case here. Small business owners truly have their hands full in the new and improved world of local. And you can blame Google for that. What all of this means is that if you haven’t finished the list we created for you last April, well, it’s still waiting for you. And you’re late. Do localize your content, claim your listings and find places to earn citations that will help Google associate you with a particular area. However, once you’re finished, there’s more. So keep going.

Step 2: Claim Your Google Places Listing

In April 2010 the world of local changed forever. It’s when Google made its local intentions clear with the release of Google Places. Just as Google had always prided itself in organizing the world’s information, Google Places looked to organize the world’s businesses. To date, more than 50 million places have been created. If yours isn’t one of them, you’re behind. This is something you can’t ignore.

To claim your Google Place Page, head over and add your business if it’s not already there. Fill our your profile with your basic information, service areas, payment options, hours, videos, photos and any other additional information that you feel is relevant. It’s really important that you take the time to fill out each and every section, including the area of photos. On October 27, Google showed a serious change to the search engine results page with Place Search What it did was replace the old local 7-pack with comprehensive local listings that put related business images and reviews directly under your Web site listing in the SERP. Yeah, they’re right there for everyone to see.

It’s massive. If you haven’t checked it out, do so now. You’ll start to see just how important your business’ Google Place page is.

Some tips to help you optimize your Google Place Listing

• As I mentioned, fill out every field. Many sources have stressed the importance of having a score of 100 on your Google Place Listing. Yes, I know, no one likes filling these things out but it’s important. Don’t give me lip.
• Include relevant keywords that best describe your products and services. That means not only including keywords relevant to what you do, but also where you do it. This is local search after all.
• Make reviews a priority: Reviews are becoming increasingly important for a number of reasons (which we’ll cover in a bit), however, in the world of Place Search, reviews for your business are appearing directly underneath your Web site listing. There’s no avoiding them, especially now that Google has, itself, gotten into the online review world.

There’s been a lot of activity happening with Google Places lately and, truthfully, it can be hard to stay on top of it. If you can only look toward one source to help you find the signal in the noise, I recommend Mike Blumenthal’s awesome local search blog .

Step 3: Check In to the Other “Places”

Google Places isn’t the only new addition that small business owners should be aware of. There’s been a lot of activity by social sites to get in on the local craze and to create resources for small business owners. While the numbers aren’t necessarily here (yet) to make these a huge priority, I would encourage small business owners to at least set up a presence and look for any potential.

Some places to keep your sights:

Facebook Places: Rumor is approximately 30 million of Facebook’s 150 million active users (that’s 6 20 percent for the math geeks) have tried Facebook Places. And while they’re nowhere near as active as rabid FourSquare users, the sheer size of Facebook’s audience means your business should be represented there. Even if you don’t plan to do much with Places right now, make sure your business is listed and that you’re watching who’s checking in.

The first step is to go to go to Facebook.com to check if your business is listed. If it’s not listed, you can add it by going to Touch.Facebook.com or accessing Places via the iPhone or Android app. If it listed, then you just have to claim it by clicking on the [is this your business?] link at the bottom of the page and going through the manual verification process. Once your listing is claimed, you’ll be able to merge your Facebook Place page with your company page. You can read more about how to do this via the Facebook Places Guide for Businesses.

Twitter Places: This past summer Twitter launched Twitter Places to give users “more context” for their tweets. Twitter Places allows users (and business owners) to ‘tag’ their tweets with a specific location. While we haven’t seen too much activity with Twitter Places over the past few months, there are rumors Twitter will soon be allowing business owners to claim their listings. While we wait for this to happen, I’d encourage SMB owners to set themselves up by at least creating a listing for their business. To do this, you’ll have to turn on Twitter’s location feature. When you tweet with geo-location signed on you’ll see an option to add your location. Once you click on it Twitter will show you a list of nearby places (if there are any) or you’ll be asked to add your own.

Like I said, we haven’t seen much from Twitter in terms of building this out, but who knows what’s on the horizon. Set your location now.

Yelp Check-In Offers: Over at SmallBizTrends last week I wrote about a few holiday gifts Yelp was offering SMB owners. One such gift is Yelp Check-In Offers, which gives business owners the ability to reward customers who check into their business via the mobile application. Each time a customer checks in, they can work toward unlocking special offers set up by the business owner giving them a percentage off, a fixed price or a free item. Because the goal of Yelp has always been to help users find the best business for their needs, these kinds of deals may prove to be quite lucrative for business owners. Yelp has also released better tracking to help SMB owners see which offers fare better and the traffic they’re getting. This is another avenue I’d really encourage small businesses to experiment with.

FourSquare: FourSquare has established itself as the leader in location-based applications. As a small business owner, even if you don’t have grand plans to start using this yet, you at least want to make sure that your business is represented and that the information is accurate. Because even if you’re not using it, your customers might be and you want to make sure they can find you. To add your business, you’ll first have to create to create an account. Once you do, you’ll be able to add a venue to the site. Once set up, you can choose to use FourSquare to offer special offers for your business, to share tips for consumers or take advantage of its analytics to get actionable information about your business. If you’re just getting started with FourSquare, I recommend you check out the FourSquare Business Guide that’s available.

Step 4: Focus On Reviews

If traditional search is all about links, then local search is all about reviews – getting them, making sure they’re good ones, and acquiring them from a bunch of different sites. This, in itself, is nothing new. Small business owners have been aware of the importance of reviews since Yelp, CitySearch and TripAdvisor first became popular. However, in 2011 reviews are going to take on a whole new level of importance. Why? Well, again, we can blame Google.

As previously noted, on October 27 Google previewed a pretty major change they’ll be making to search results – essentially breaking down the wall that once existed between local search and traditional search. Now anytime Google deems your search to be of local intent, you’ll be shown not only local listings, but photos, star counts and the number of reviews directly in the search results under your listing.

If that alone didn’t show you how seriously Google was taking results, on November 15 we saw Google Hotpot – Google’s very own online review platform. Google Hotpot is gathering the actual reviews, it’s also there to give Google the data that it needs to blend reviews with Social Search. Check out how Google is already recommending local businesses based on a user’s friend recommendations.

All signs are saying that reviews may become a stronger ranking signal in the future. And it may not just be the number of reviews, but the sentiment of that review that matters. As a small business owner, you need to be working on this now. Learn how to solicit reviews, how to manage reviews, how to respond to negative reviews and how to become an all-round review jedi before Google turns the switch.

As a small business owner, these are the areas I’d be most focused on right now. If it seems like a lot for one person to handle, it is. Google’s is upping the ante when it comes to local search and the business owners must find a way to stay up to date.

New readers may not know that when I’m not hanging out at Outspoken Media, I’m acting as the Social Media Editor for SmallBizTrends. That’s where I go to chat directly with small business owners and get a taste of what’s on their mind. Often I’m finding that many small business owners feel like they’re behind in the Web race. They were late to the game and now they’re struggling to catch up. Where should they start? What’s most important and what can they wait on?

Here’s my 6-point ‘hurry up & To Do’ list for small business owners to help SMBs come from behind and WIN on the Web.

Create your own existence

Don’t worry; we’re not going to start a psychology debate. [We did that last week.] However, this is the ground level where every business must start on the Web: Can people find you? Do you have a Web site? Is it easy to get a hold of your brand on social media? If the answer is no, you have some work to do. That may mean completing any of the following:

• Claim your domain name: If you’re one of those small businesses using Facebook as your Web site, stop it. Your small business is important and needs a Web site. Luckily, KnowEm now lets you check domain availability to see what’s available for your business. Here are some useful tips for picking a kickass domain name], however, don’t do it just yet!
• Claim your social media presence: Before you buy a domain name, check your brand’s availability in social media (you can use KnowEm for that, as well. I’m not even dropping an affiliate link.) to allow you to sync your domain name and social media moniker, if possible. Consistent branding is important in creating trust and using the same name across all channels will help reassure customers that you’re the same person. Once claimed, start creating your social media plan to outline metrics and a strategy for engagement.
• Submit your site to the appropriate places: Once your site exists, you need to submit it to all of the local directories to help users to find it. If you’re not sure where to list it, our post on launching your SMB Web site contains all the major ones that we recommend focusing on. Though it didn’t exist when that post was written, you should also be sure to create a Google Places listing as this listing will only become more important as Google gets more territorial. If you’re not sure which listings you’ve claimed and which you still need to, GetListed.org can help you.

Create sharable content

When should you start? Right now.

If you’re starting from scratch, put a placeholder page up while you work on the rest of your site content to let people know that you’re here, you’re moving in, and that this will soon be a trusted place for information about your brand. If you’ve already got the initial site content down (home page, About page, contact us page, services pages), then it’s time to work on creating shareable content assets. What types of content should you focus on?

• Evergreen resources & How Tos
• Informative blog/newsletter articles
• Industry-specific guides
• Instructional videos
• eBooks
• Off-page digital assets like videos that users can embed, podcasts, images, etc. [The folks at Top Rank have a great post on digital asset optimization that I highly recommend.]

At a recent Social Media Breakfast event speaker Stephen Masiclat remarked that the content we share represents our clothes on the Web. You don’t want to leave people naked.

Pay attention to SEO

As you’re writing your content, you want to make sure you’re pay attention to basic SEO principles. SEO can be somewhat terrifying to small business owners. In fact, it’s terrifying to even large businesses, but it doesn’t have to be. Even if you don’t have the resources to hire a team of SEO consultants or pay for a full SEO audit, you can still benefit from basic on-page SEO practices. That means being careful about taking advantage of (and using keywords within) your Title tag, Meta description, Meta keywords, headers, body content and internal anchor text. It means making sure your site is easily spiderable, that you’re not intentionally placing roadblocks in a search spider’s way, and that your racking up local citations. These are all very low resource commitments that, together, will help pack a big SEO punch.

Start engaging

You didn’t create those social media accounts just so that they’d collect dust. Even if your site isn’t totally public-ready, start putting your nose out there in social media. Or, at least your ear. Start following your customers, your competitors (perhaps follow these guys via a private Twitter list) and the people in your niche to hear what they’re talking about. Spend some time learning the social hierarchy and deciphering who sits where in the lunch room. Once you have an idea, open your mouth and start talking. As Scott Stratten often says, if you believe that business is built on relationships, then making building them your business. Answer people’s questions, be helpful, and share who YOU are (not what your business is). Don’t overload yourself, just start out on one or two sites to get your feet wet and help you get comfortable with social conversations. Build out a social listening station to help you always keep an ear in the conversation.

Look toward building social links

Links are important. You know this. And as a small business, paying specific attention to social links can help you earn special credibility in the eyes of both users and the search engines. That means creating content that is designed to be shared, bookmarked and passed along through social channels. It means being aware of the bloggers in your niche and focusing on social PR to keep you on their radar (and mentioned on their blog). It means using sites like Quarkbase to figure out your social popularity and see how often you’re getting blog references, tweeted, bookmarked, etc. You also want to check your competitors’ social popularity to see how you match up. By identifying the outlets that are friendly to your site, you can help target your content more toward their liking. You’ll also find what types of pieces do well and where your holes are.

Get analytics in place

This isn’t listed last because it’s least important, nor because this is where it should sit in your To Do list. It’s listed here because, by now, you probably see there’s going to be quite a bit for you to measure and keep track of. And you’re going to need a way to do that. Setting up Google Analytics will help you tie actions to behavior and give you the insight you need to create a stronger site and, ultimately, a stronger business.

If I was a small business owner fighting to “catch up”, these are the areas I’d first focus on. How about you? What would your own Hurry Up & To Do list look like?

The truth is, as social media continues its rise, there have been a rash of posts explaining how the shiny new marketing tactic can be used as a workaround to having your own site. Back in March, David Port wrote a similar piece for Entrepreneur.com, arguing that the need for a Web site is going away thanks to SMBs ability to create relationships through social media. I know we’ve had this discussion over here before, but it sounds like we need to have it again.

Building a social media presence without a Web site is like getting people hot and bothered over your product and then being too lazy to open the door when they attempt to come in.  What was the point?

As I tweeted yesterday, it’s both horrible and dangerous advice to tell a SMB owner they don’t need an actual Web site. Here are 11 things you can do better on your Web site than in social media. Maybe then we can put this discussion to rest.

Control it.

This is both the most cited and most obvious reason why putting all your eggs in a social media basket is dangerous. It’s true that you can create a presence on Facebook, use Twitter to build relationships and head to LinkedIn to build expertise…but what happens should these sites change course or go away? What if Facebook decides to again take away a SMBs owners ability to create custom tabs? What if Facebook or Twitter changes their Terms of Service in a way that limits your ability to market? What if there was no Twitter at all? Unless you have a way to save your relationships and bring them back to a site that YOU own, you’ve just lost all time you’ve spent there. Hope you don’t mind starting over.

Collect emails.

One of the most powerful marketing channels for SMBs owner is email. It’s cost effective, it’s intimate and it can come with twice the conversion rates of RSS for even the most popular blogs. However, social media doesn’t inspire people to hand over their email addresses. Having a Web site that you can use to build incentive does. Whether you offer customers an email newsletter, blog, exclusives, coupons, discounts, etc, you open the door to a more personal way of contacting and marketing to them. One that is proven to work. While you can use Facebook to collect emails, it’s far more cumbersome and people aren’t as inclined to give them up. Instead, you want to create a site that users can trust and then use it to build your email list. A carefully pruned and collected email list can be one of your strongest sales tools.

Have somewhere to point to.

If you’re a band (the ultimate small business, IMO) and you use MySpace as your Web site, where are you sending people for more information? Where are they going to buy tickets, merchandise, your album, or get your true story before it hits VH1? Stop sending people to third party sites. Your own site gives you a place to point people to so they can find out more and then become a customer of yours. If you’re just talking to people through Twitter, Twitter is all you have. That’s extremely limiting. Don’t let someone put you in a box. Claim your turf and then mark it.

Have somewhere for others to LINK to.

You want links, right? You know they’re important for brand visibility? Well having a Web site also gives the people who want to support you a place to link to. Not everyone feels comfortable linking to a Twitter or Facebook account because it doesn’t feel “official” enough. Give them a real Web site. Set up shop on the Web and let people know that THIS is where people should go to get information about what you’re doing. When people do a search for you, you want them to find the REAL you.

Set the record straight.

Having a Web site gives you a place to set the record straight when you have something to say. Have a small ORM fire you need to put you. As a SMB, you probably don’t need a massive online reputation management undertaking. You simply need a place to air what happened. You need a blog or a press section of your Web site to address your audience. Have you ever tried putting out a fire via 140 characters? It’s not pretty. Give yourself some more characters and the peace of mind of having a soapbox when you need it.

Leverage relationships.

If you’re not using social media to create relationships and bring people back to your site, then you’re not really using social media. The point is to go out into these satellite communities and use the relationships to build YOUR community aka the one that exists on your site. Use social media to find customers, to find blog subscribers, to grow your email newsletter and to sell product. Social media is the number one emerging channel for lead generation. You should be taking the relationships you formed on social media and the moving them off. If you never move your social media relationships off Twitter than you’re just out there making small talk about discussing your love for Glee. Fun, perhaps, but not exactly profitable.

Give people what they want.

Your Web site is your best sales tools because it allows you to specifically address your customers. It’s your place to answer their questions, to give them the information they’re seeking, and to make yourself stand out from the pack. Yeah, you can customize a Facebook page and add some new tabs, but your corporate Web site can be completely created around serving your customers without limiting what you can or cannot do. You can put different types of content and resources on one location. On your site you make the rules.

Sell.

Yes. Your Web site is the place where you sell. Not social media. Keep that in mind.

Establish your own authority.

All the effort you’re spending building Twitter or Facebook’s kingdom, turn some of that into building your own. You want to take the connections you make out in social media and use them to build a community on your own site. Because that’s how social media is going to really benefit you – when it’s used to build your own authority. You want your site to become the Must Read hub on your topic. You do that by attracting people and then siphoning them over to your Web site and into your real community. That’s how you grow your brand’s authority and become a major player.

Provide the bigger picture about your company.

While social media is great, it doesn’t give someone the full picture about your business. It doesn’t tell me who you are, how long you’ve been doing what you do, what you specialize in, etc. I get that from your Web site. Your Web site is where I have been trained to go when I’m looking for the full picture about your company.  If I have a customer service problem, I may hit you up on Twitter. However, your site is there to woo me. That’s how you get me swooning enough to do business with you.

It has real analytics

Social media analytics are improving every day. There are ways to track conversions and funnels. However, it’s still much easier to track a conversion that happens on your site than one that happens off-site. You can somewhat track on Twitter and Facebook, but you have a much better ability to follow people if you can get them on your site.

Can you get your site visibility by making sure that your listings are claimed, building out your Google Place Page and partaking in social media? Yeah, you can. But by creating a genuine Web presence (one that doesn’t use a cookie cutter Web template) you give yourself control you can’t get simply by relying on social media alone. Having a Web site provides you a way to speak directly to your audience, to control the terms you’re ranking for and to leverage the relationships that you create on social media. Without it, you’re writing a check you can’t fully cash.

Not just clients either; once you add the word “consultant” to your shingle, everyone from your mom to your UPS driver will start hurling questions at you like you were the Cootie Kid in a grade school dodgeball game. Doesn’t matter what your specialty is. If you call yourself a consultant, people are going to assume you have the answer they’re looking for. Sure, it’s exhausting, but I should you should have thought of that before signing on for the gig.

Well, duh.

It used to be that I’d get questions about computers, networking, UNIX, customer service, marketing – any of the things for which I have been recognized for my opinions, or even expertise. Nowadays, the conversations tend to go more like this:

Person A: “Hey, what do you think about this bundle offer I got from my cable company? I can get cable tv, internet and VOIP phone service for an incredibly low price!” *

Netmeg: “Well… that *sounds* like a deal, but… weren’t you just telling me that your cable TV goes out several times a month?”

Person A: “Yea, but…”

Netmeg: “And weren’t you just running off to Panera the other day because your internet had gone down for the second time this week?”

Person A: “Uh…”

Netmeg: “Wouldn’t it be something if it turned out the reason the phone service is so cheap is so you can’t call and complain when the TV and internet go down?”

Person A: “$#*%&^!” [ hangs up ]

* for six months; new subscribers only; substantial penalty for early withdrawal; void where prohibited.

Well, duh.

I call this type of consulting “Hope For The Best; Expect The Worst.” While it’s always good to keep a positive attitude, you have to know that from time to time the universe will conspire to hand you your ass at the worst possible time. It’s inevitable. And it’s your responsibility to be ready with your roll of duct tape when it does.

Unfortunately, most people don’t identify their single points of failure until after they’ve failed, when of course, it’s too late. Ok, it happens. The important thing is to learn from it.

If your job and your life would be utterly screwed without a working computer at all times, then you better make sure you have a spare available to you in case smoke and fire and jello start pouring out of it, or your laptop gets stolen. If the future and well being of your employees and/or clients reside in the contents of that computer, you better have lots of external hard drives lying around to back things up to. If your business requires reliable phone service, then don’t tie it to an unreliable carrier to save a few pennies.

Well, duh.

Nothing made me madder this past week than seeing articles in the tech press recommending small businesses consider using Google Voice (along with the other free Google tools) because “the price is right”. THERE’S NO SUPPORT. Got that? NONE. You can’t even send Google an email these days unless it’s on a very narrowly pre-approved issue. To my mind, it’s just flat out irresponsible to recommend this product to companies for something as vital as their *phone service*, and leave them unaware of how Google operates. And I sure as heck wouldn’t advocate staking your business on it.

I came to this philosophy late in life. From the very first time I accidentally poured a glass of iced tea into an uncovered IBM PC AT, nobody on the planet has fried more computer equipment in more weird and wonderful ways than I have. My wall at the office looks like the side of a WWII fighter plane; my partners have taped little pictures of keyboards to the wall to note my many “kills.” And it only took ten years until finally, after the cable modem went down six times in two weeks, I realized that for about $15/month I could get a low speed DSL line installed to tide me over when Comcast failed. My phones are separate from my internet, and I can get my hands on a gas powered generator in 35 minutes if I have to. But this is all the product of many many many fails, where I thought surely I would never pull myself back up.

Well, duh.

Find your single points of failure. Prioritize them in the order of how close to suicide they’d bring you. And then back them the hell UP. Obviously you can’t buy duplicates of *everything* – but you can always devise a plan.

I’m going to leave you with a catchy little song by the great philosopher Mel Brooks. I have borrowed his title for this post; I hope he doesn’t mind. His take in the song is actually the opposite of what I’m using it for so there’s no real reason for me to include it except that I’ve always loved it, and love the movie it came from. And if you think for ONE MINUTE that this entire post was written as an excuse so that I could drop that link -

Well, duh.

If not, what about the stats from the new a Discover Small Business Watch poll mentioned by Denise O’Beary last week that corroborate Ad-ology’s numbers and adds in that more than 45 percent think it’s a myth that people even need one?

Is the discussion about why SEO is important for small business owners still unimportant? I don’t think so.

For me, these numbers do a lot to paint a picture of where many SMBs are in the Internet marketing learning curve. Yes, we’ve seen small businesses do some amazing things in social media. I actually think they’re some of the best unofficial social media marketers out there because they still have the heart, the ears, and the passion that many larger corporations have lost. But as the numbers offered by eMarketer and Discover show, not everyone is at that point. Some are still fighting getting their feet wet.

What are SMB owners losing by NOT having a Web site?

Customers.

Small business owners need to realize that people aren’t using phone books for anything other than door stops anymore. As of last week, all three major search engines are skewing search queries towards local even when a user doesn’t include a local modifier. SMB owners need to not only create a Web presence, but to control it, as well.

It’s possible to create a Web presence without a full site thanks to things like Yelp and other social media outlets. However, you don’t control any of those. You have no say on how they’ll let you connect with customers. You can’t create an email list on Twitter. By relying on *other* sites to house your conversations you’re severely handicapping yourself.

Without a real Web site, you lose your ability to:

• Differentiate yourself
• Create authority and street cred with customers and within your industry
• Spread ideas
• Get social
• Take advantage of Universal Search’s ranking power
• Benefit from the engines bias to show local results
• Share your company story and information
• House your own community
• Save costs by answering frequently asked questions
• Target your specific neighborhood (defined by zip code, points of interest, ideas, etc)
• Build an email list.

Where should a small business owner start in building a Web site?

Identify the purpose(s) of the site: Not all small business Web sites have the same goal. Some want to simply promote the product, while others are looking to promote their ideas or build an active community. Give some thought to what you want to accomplish before you consider anything else. You’d be surprised how it changes your perspective.

Get your domain: In most cases, the domain name you choose will probably be very similar to your business name, however, that’s not always the case. Back in 2008, I detailed how to pick a kickass domain name. I think the advice there still holds.

Get hosting: This is typically where small business owners start eyeing the door. They’re cool with coming up with a wicked domain name, but for some reason “hosting” sounds scary. If you’re a small business owner, there are plenty of very affordable hosting options available that will get you up and running for less than $10 a month. Your hosting plan should also allow you the opportunity to create a [you@domainname.com] email address – make sure you set that up to give you some added street cred.

Hire someone to design it: You don’t need a fancy, feature-heavy Web site in order to promote your small business on the Web, but you do need one that looks professional. If you can’t do it yourself, hire someone to give you a hand. And hire doesn’t necessary mean “give them money”, never underestimate the power of free pizza and “real life work experience” to a college student.

Create your content: Again, you’re not Sears or CNN. You don’t need a huge Web site over flowing with content. You just need to give potential customers some place trusted to land that tells them who you are and what you’re about. That means creating (at minimum) your Home page, Product or Service pages, an About Us page, and a Contact us page to share information about who you are and what you do, but also to localize your business through content.

Get listed: Claiming your local business listing in Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, BOTW and all over third-party sites is important enough that I do include it on the Setting Up Your Site list. If you’re not sure if you’re site is already listed or what info the engines have about you, the appropriately-named GetListed.org is your window into that world.

Marketing it: Like the design stage above, you may want to outsource your marketing efforts to professionals who can help you create a social media plan or a marketing road map. However, if you’re willing to get your hands dirty, you may not have to. There are plenty of easy ways to build buzz for your small business site without hiring a full-fledged Internet marketing company.  Matt McGee offered some great tips on what he’d do if he was just starting out again.  You may not even need people like us.

While the number of SMB owners creating Web sites is up 36 percent over the past two years, that number really needs to grow in the next year. The search engines’ obsession with local has made your Web site an even bigger part of your business and marketing plan. Make sure you’re treating as such.

Robert Scoble must be bored because he’s back causing trouble heralding that 2010 may be the year that SEO isn’t important anymore for small business owners. Sigh. Really? We’re doing this?
Fine. Let’s go there.

Robert uses social media and Google’s new ‘advancements’ with real-time search to make the case that SEO isn’t important anymore. ‘Traditional SEO firms’ are dying, he says. Of course, he doesn’t really mean that SEO, itself, is dead or unimportant. He means that SEO is now more than just tweaking and touching your own Web site. He means that SEO has evolved and grown to incorporate a lot of different aspects of marketing and a whole new slew of tools (like Twitter and Facebook). According to Robert, SEO isn’t important and SEM should be renamed OM for Online Marketing to represent the ‘holistic approach’ that small business owners need to take. I guess the term ‘Internet marketing’ we’ve all been using for a gazillion years wasn’t encompassing enough.

A couple of things:

• Robert Scoble is smarter than he’s pretending. I hope.
• Ignoring SEO is a really good way to kill your Web site, evolved world or not. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Had I not spent all last night working on finishing my SEO Trends for 2010 post for SmallBizTrends (Hi Anita. I know I’m late. It’s coming!), I probably would have just rolled my eyes at Robert’s ridiculousness and moved on. Actually, had I not spent the past year BEING a small business owner and writing about small businesses, I probably would have ignored the post. But that is how I’ve spent my year – fighting to calm SMB owners’ fears about SEO and stressing how important it is to get their sites up to speed. Hell, if Robert Scoble is going to attempt to undo that.

The reason that Robert’s post forced me to take the bait is because of how dangerous it is for him to make that claim. Many small business owners are leery to get involved with search engine optimization to begin with, having been scammed for years. Telling them that SEO is now irrelevant in the new world of social media and real time search is basically handing them the lighter fluid to torch their own sites. It also attempts to put their fate completely into sites that they do not own, nor control. Smart.

Hey Robert, are you going to pay their mortgage when their businesses go under from lack of visibility or from a change in TOS they didn’t seem coming?  If not, don’t help. Stick to videos.

Why Robert Scoble is Wrong about SEO

As a small business owner, search engine optimization will remain important to your site until the days that people stop searching. And if Google has anything to say about it (and I think they own the world at this point, so, they get a say), the importance of search and optimizing that search will always take center stage.

Yeah, SEO now means incorporating a lot of marketing aspects. It’s about building a brand. It’s about building a community. It’s about showing up in blogs and articles and video (all stuff that can be, what’s the word, “optimized”, BTW). But that doesn’t cancel the rest of it out.

For a small business owner, search engine optimization means keeping up with the new stuff, but it’s also a lot of the basics.

• It’s about making your site accessible for users.
• It’s about filling out your local profiles and making sure your site is listed so you even have a chance to appear.
• It’s about using the right categories.
• It’s about Web citations and customer reviews.
• It’s about understanding the local ranking factors.
• It’s about creating a site that attracts the right users and moves them along the conversion path.

That’s all basic SEO for a small business and all stuff that SMB owners need to be paying attention to if they care about their sites. To say that SEO isn’t important is irresponsible and it’s not fair to SMB owners who have been busting their butts to get their sites in order. In my upcoming Trends for 2010 post, I’ll outline some of the major opportunities for small business owners for the coming year. Areas where I think they need to be dedicating time and attention.  And part of that post mentions just how ABSOLUTELY important it is for SMB owners to pay attention to the basics. The “simple” SEO stuff that people who live and breathe the Internet like Robert Scoble take for granted.

Robert should know better. It’s just misguided for him to say that SEO isn’t important for a small business owner and to advise them not to worry about it. It’s irresponsible because, at least in some circles, Robert Scoble still has some street cred. People might actually believe him. And frankly, that’s scary. On a lot of levels.

SEO matters for anyone who wants to be found in search, especially for a local business who’s already facing an uphill battle against big brands. That’s not going to change, regardless of the moves and dances Google and the rest of the engines decide to play.   Keep an eye out for the new trends of today, but don’t let go of the solid SEO basics.  Even if dinosaurs like Robert Scoble tell you to.

"Look, Mom! I'm reviewing my matchy winter wardrobe!"

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (not that one. The one with snow.)! Or it’s at least the most hyped time of the year. It’s when your customers are most primed to open up their wallets and use “the holidays” as their excuse to spend obscene amounts of money. To lend credence to this, the stats are in for Cyber Monday (PDF) and show sales up 13.7 percent from last year with the average dollar amount spent up nearly 40 percent. People. Are. Buying. Why not use that momentum to help you boost customer reviews and site testimonials over the next two months? It’ll give you something to be jolly about long after the holidays have passed and the shiny trees have been taken down.

How can you use the holidays to prime your customer reviews and testimonials for 2010? Here are a few suggestions.

Hold an In-Store Holiday Event

The holidays are nothing if not an excuse to party. Spruce up those testimonials for the New Year by holding an event now that’s dedicated to celebrating your love for your best and most loyal customers AND encouraging them to share their love for you. Promote the event as a holiday bash and let invited guests know they’ll also be featured in promotional materials for their site. Once they’re there, take lots of photos that you can use for testimonials, get video interviews of people saying how much they love your company (you’d be surprised how much people love you when you’ve just sponsored a free party), and encourage them to Yelp their experiences with a free Internet station. Is it the most subtle way of getting testimonials and reviews? No, it’s really not. Will your customers care after you’ve just given them a free meal and an excuse to get all dolled up? No, they really won’t.

Offer Free Expedited Shipping

People go insane over shipping during the holidays. Like, literally insane. Monitor Twitter and blogs for people complaining about your competitors’ annoying or frustrating shipping options and then jump in and offer to upgrade their shipping at no cost if they come and make their purchase with you. Once they do, get creative and send them a one, two punch to encourage them to come and leave reviews. It really is all of the little things that make your customers fall in love with you; it’s not the fancy features. If you can find simple ways to make your customers’ lives easier and offer them up without hassle, you’re going to win over a lot of frustrated shoppers. Feed them warm and fuzzy and you’ll get warm, fuzzy and good reviews right back.

Offer holiday incentives for customers who have left reviews

Do not offer people discounts for good reviews. I’m pretty sure Matt Cutts would have my head if I advised this. However, you can use discounts, offers and other incentives to encourage people to provide feedback. For example, if you’re looking to get reviews or testimonials for your site, why not throw a comment card in with your customers’ orders and offer them 10 percent off or a free sample when they bring it back filled out with their critique of your service? Don’t ask for positive reviews, just ask them for their honest opinions. If they really hate you, they’re probably just going to toss the card the minute they walk out of the store. And if not, then they probably would have looked you up on Yelp and blasted you anyway.  At least this way you also remind the people who love you. ;)

Ask

I know, the horror, right? But “asking” your customers to leave reviews doesn’t have to mean “begging them” to leave reviews. As we saw up above in the “one, two punch” link, sometimes throwing in a simple “thanks” card and asking happy customers to leave reviews is a really powerful action. Why? Because happy customers often don’t think to leave reviews. The people who have an axe to grind and a mission to ruin your online reputation will take the time to seek you out on review sites and leave something scathing. The happy people usually just go on with their day. You’re probably going to be sending a lot of emails and mailings over the new few weeks. Why not throw in a quick card, flyer or a text box inside an email newsletter to remind customers of how they can do their part to support your business? Distilled’s Tom Critchlow posted some interesting local search data yesterday which suggested that Google was looking at actual review star ratings when determining relevance to a query. Do yourself a favor and find ways to naturally collect reviews from happy customers, clients, and partners.

Create a post-holiday contest

The best customer testimonials show people actually using and enjoying your product. Think about it: What was a bigger selling point for the BlendTec blenders – the copy on the Web site or the videos of them mashing crap up? It’s the videos! Because they allow you to see the blender in action. Reviews and testimonials work the same way. Use the excitement associated with the holiday season to also take advantage of people’s love of user-generated content. Hold a post-holiday content asking your customers to submit video, audio, images, mashups, whatever, or of themselves enjoying your product. Maybe it’s a kid opening up that bike for Christmas or photos of his dad teaching him how to ride it and showing Bobby all decked out in his helmet and elbow pads. Not only will you get some incredible testimonials to use on your site, you’re also engaging the people who already love you and showing new customers how beloved you are in the community. You’re creating buzz around your brand.

Things like local citations and customer reviews are being increasingly important in helping the search engines determine who should ranking where and acting as social proof for customers still on the fence. Now that the holiday season is upon us, people are overly excited to buy. Do your part and get them excited to review, as well. It’s one way you can start 2010 off with a bang.