Call to Action Tips for Small Businesses

05-21-12 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in Conversion Optimization

Do you ever feel like you just can’t catch someone’s attention, no matter how hard you try? They could be standing right in front of you, you could be screaming at the top of your lungs, but it all still goes over their head?

Consider your small business. If you have low conversion rates, your calls-to-action could be suffering the exact same symptoms; you have something to say, you think you know how to say it, but you just aren’t getting anywhere. Perhaps you’re not saying it loud enough, or maybe you just aren’t being as clear as you think you are. Truth is, you simply can’t afford to let your calls-to-action sit on the sidelines. If your conversions feel like they aren’t where they need to be, you need to start at the source; what are you asking your potential customer to do and how are you doing it?

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Link-Building and Blogger Outreach: Big Tips for Small Businesses

03-27-12 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in Online PR SEO

Link-building is one of the most crucial yet difficult aspects of SEO, especially for small business owners.  But it can be done, and if done effectively, the rewards can be monumental. All it takes is a bit of patience, guidance and a strategy.

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The Quick Guide to Conversion Optimization

02-27-12 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in Conversion Optimization

When it comes to small business SEO, it’s easy to get hung up on certain details. Crafting the perfect content, for example, in order to garner interest and captivate readers. Going hand in hand with creating content is sharing that content via Social Media and making sure that all of our channels are aligning and we’re covering our social bases. And then comes keyword research, analytics, architecture and a whole other slew of SEO practices that we’re constantly reminded to align and perfect.

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Why Email Marketing Still Matters to Your Small Business

01-30-12 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in Conversion Optimization

The popularity of personal computer and Internet boomed from the mid to early-1990s. Whether or not you were a small business owner in that era, one of the earliest things you might recall from owning a computer or using your computer is setting up your email account. While the days of AOL may be more or less over, email has become a crucial component of how we communicate and use the Internet in general.

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The Benefits of Press Release Optimization

10-26-11 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in Online PR

As a small business owner, there are few more important tasks than simply getting the word out about your business. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this, from simple word of mouth to business cards to spinning a sign on the side of the road. Thanks to the Internet, businesses have many avenues to get the word out about their businesses absolutely free. Blogging, Social Media and Email are quickly taking over in terms of how we spread the word on our small businesses, and this certainly going to change anytime soon. In fact, it’s all only going to evolve.

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Who Should I Follow Through Social Media?

09-21-11 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in Social Media

Small business owners are finding great success with Social Media as a tool for marketing. After all, it’s free and it seems like everyone under the sun is on board with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or some combination of the three. Interaction is an integral part of any effective Social Media strategy, either in terms of how you interact with the users that are following you or how you interact with the users that you’re following yourself. Sharing fresh content and posting relevant updates to your followers are considered best practices, but have you taken the time to not only your own activity, but the activity of the people you’re following?

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Three Big Keyword Research Mistakes to Avoid

08-26-11 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in SEO

It’s common knowledge that search engines dominate how users are finding products and services online today, especially through Google who clearly dominates the search engine space. The process of how a user is able to find what they’re looking for has many moving pieces, and when it comes to search engines, keywords represent the most significant part of the puzzle.

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How to Handle Negative Feedback About Your Business Online

07-22-11 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in Online PR

Some people more than others are incredibly concerned about their reputation. Such people go to great lengths to control how they’re perceived to make sure that they aren’t being seen in the wrong light. Protecting our personal reputations isn’t relatively difficult considering there’s only one of us, but what about protecting the reputation of a business?

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Avoid the Four Biggest Twitter Mistakes

07-13-11 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in Social Media

Social Media has become a crucial component for businesses looking to make a name for themselves online today. While the recent rise of Google + and its supposed “war” with Facebook may be making Social Media headlines, one of the most effective Social Media platforms for small businesses has been and still remains to be Twitter. Proven to be an effective tool to acquire new customers and engage with current ones, Twitter is a different breed of Social Media site that doesn’t play by the same rules as Facebook.

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Quick Link-Building Tips for Small Businesses

07-07-11 - Posted By: Brent Barnhart in SEO

Building links is generally considered to be one of the more difficult aspects of Internet Marketing and rightfully so. While you can go to great lengths to write great copy and have an impeccable website and design, link-building simply doesn’t happen overnight. And unlike your copy and design, it’s something that’s generally not under your control. At the end of the day, you simply don’t have free reign over who links to you and who doesn’t. There are steps you can take, however, to encourage more links to your site to help your search engine rankings.

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