Small Business Shift

As a small business owner, you’ve always had to know a bit about everything. It’s time to add online marketing. The goal of this article is that when you finish reading, you’ll have enough knowledge to read more in-depth guides (or talk to a salesperson) without ending up lost. There’s a lot of information here, […]

Google’s local ad options come and go all the time – in just the last couple years they’ve tried all of these: Google Tags Google Local Listing Ads Google Offers Google Location Extensions Google Boost The first two are discontinued, the third is in testing – just #’s four and five are widely available now. […]

Google announced a new service called Hotpot (notice it is “Hotpot” not “Hotspot”) a month or so ago. This could be important for local businesses, because Google plans to use Hotpot for tying together local business reviews and social data, which should make online reviews even more powerful in determining the success of a company. […]

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.” – Wikipedia

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.

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?

The search engines use links between websites to help determine which are the most important. Your business can benefit from this, by looking to attract links, and appearing before your competitors in relevant searches.

There are a variety of website builders that let you create a free website. Most people will struggle to create a great site – but for ultra-small companies, there may be no other choice. This guide is for you.

Google allows you to use it’s world-leading email program, gmail, on your own domain ([email protected]). This is the best business email setup available for small companies.