Last week I facilitated a panel at the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owner (NJAWBO) Annual Procurement event entitled "Savvy Web Marketing to Boost Your Bottom-line”. We covered topics such as search engine ranking strategies, pay-per-click campaigns and the use of Web 2.0 tactics that included Viral Marketing, MySpace, Linkedin, YouTube and Blogging. That is a lot of information to cover in a one hour time frame! We answered questions like:

What are the benefits of Blogging for business? How do I know if I need a blog on my web site?

I hear that the easiest way to be in the top few positions on Google is to pay for my keywords. How much do I need to spend?

I have had my site up for a few years and I feel that I am not getting the traffic that I should be getting. How do I know and what can I do?

I want to start tweaking my site so my ranking is higher in Google for specific keywords; what are the most important thinks I need to do?

You can see the audience diligently taking notes. They were soaking up the information like sponges. Businesses are relying on their web presence more and more to drive profits to their bottom line. They know there online marketing investments provide long lasting benefits that out perform that full page trade ad waiting to hit the recycling bin.

I was approached by a business owner, after the marketing panel session, who unfortunately had a beautiful web site but with poor search engine ranking. The design platform that was chosen by her web designer did not follow SEO (Search Engine Optimization) best practices. She had already spent a great deal of money on the site and now was trying to figure out what to do next. Unfortunately this case is not uncommon. It is so important to know what you want to achieve with your web site before you begin the process. A solid web strategy should be built with these goals in mind and not the latest technology craze.

Labels: SEO, web marketing