Small Business Shift

A custom web design is often expensive, and sorting the good designers from the bad can be a challenge. There is an alternative, in the form of high quality templates designed for use on business websites. They can save you money and take away the risk of getting a design you don’t like.

Visual Website Optimizer (VWO) aims to make it simple for anyone to test different variations of their website. This is a focus for many successful Internet companies, but has traditionally been difficult for most small businesses.

There are a variety of ways to market on Facebook – today we’re going to look at the company’s paid advertising system, Facebook Ads. This can be a great venue for small business marketing, as it’s relatively simple to setup, can accommodate small (or huge) budgets, and provides options for precise regional or demographic targeting.

Facebook introduced its new Places feature last week. Designed to compete with the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla, Places allows Facebook users to “check-in” wherever they are at. I’m going to take a look at what Places is and how to claim your business’s Places page.

I’ve been experimenting with Google Tags for about a month, and have some data to share.

Google announced today that they are now allowing businesses to respond to reviews on Google Places. This is great news, because online reviews are increasingly important for consumers. The ability to respond gives you some control over how your business is portrayed.

The following article is something I hope to have become a regular part of this site. I’ll be conducting brief interviews with small business owners, trying to find some insight into how they’re using the Internet to help their business succeed. This first Success Story is with Bill Leikam. Bill is the president of Leikam […]

Call tracking numbers are the most convenient way to track lead sources – but also harm rankings in local search.

Universal Business Listing is a service that lists your business in a wide variety of places across the Internet. This can be helpful, both for driving traffic to your website and increasing local search rankings

Consumer reviews, left at sites such as Google Maps or Yelp.com, are becoming increasingly important (and will be even more critical in the future). The question is, how can you get more of these valuable ratings?