There are hundreds of different internet marketing ideas that can be put to use on your small business website, but as with all things in life, quantity isn’t everything. As a matter of fact, internet-savvy consumers will often immediately leave a site that is nothing but a barrage of flash, noise and sales pitches. The key to successful marketing is using the right marketing ideas for your potential customers.

If you already have a website created for your small business, there are very specific services that you can take advantage of to map out your site, your products and services, your customer base and where they all should meet.

One of the most useful tools is the Small Business Internet Marketing Blueprint. Essentially, it is a complete analysis of your website, identifying all issues potentially impacting your site’s performance. The blueprint then moves beyond that to also tell you exactly which online marketing services are right for your business, with specific examples from your website.

A Small Business Internet Marketing Blueprint will answer critical questions such as:

• How friendly is your site to the search engines?
• Is your site targeting the most relevant keywords?
• Is your website turning customers away?
• Is your business getting good links or bad links - and can you tell the difference?
• What do your website statistics say about your site’s performance?
• What can you learn from your competition to gain an advantage?
• What are your customers truly seeking online – and how can you give it to them?
• How can you get your website in front of more potential customers with just a click?
• Where are the biggest online opportunities within your industry and/or locality?

An Internet Marketing Blueprint Service may be just what you need for your Small Business website.

Small Business online marketing is vital to a successful profit margin.  The right website can push a small business over the threshold of “making enough to pay the bills” and into the often fantasized realm of “actually making a profit.” Because of this, most small business owners either throw up a website as quickly as they can to capitalize on potential profits now, or they blow their entire budget on flashy enhancements to make their site pop, only to find their online sales fizzle.

Building a website for a small business can be a simple, organic process if you take the time to think about some very key answers to some very key questions.

The first question is straightforward and classic, and yet without asking it, you risk failing from the start.

What is the purpose of your website?

The answer to this question will determine the direction that your small business will take on your website.

Will your website be used to:

• Provide Information about your business
• Sell products or services
• Generate a Business Brand and Reputation
• Generate Leads

A small business that offers local services will most likely not be using their website to sell products, but to provide information on the business and it’s services and to generate leads and quotes for customers interested in those services. In this case, the website must be used heavily towards those ends.

A small business that offers products for sale must rely more heavily on products, pictures and descriptions as well as a smooth process for sales, exchange of funds and purchase tracking purposes.

Building a website for the online presence of a small business needs to be tailored to the business purpose for successful online marketing.

If you want to build a successful website, whether you are building a site for an existing business or starting an online business, you need to consider these 3 essential factors. How you approach each of these factors will determine to a large degree how successful you are at building an online presence:

• Site Design
• Website Development
• Website Promotion

Website design is all about how your site looks and how easy you make it for your prospects to find your website.

Development is about the functionality of your website. Is it easy to navigate? Do you make it easy for your customers to find what they are looking for and are you effective in converting them to customers?

Finally, website promotion is all about how well you market your website so that prospects can find you. Is it search engine optimized? Do you use social media effectively?

If you want to be successful online, it helps to have a plan. You’ll have to consider all three of these essential factors in your plan. Leave one out and you could very well be leaving money on the table.

Your permalink is the complete long URL that you use for the address of your individual blog posts. An example of a permalink is:

http://www.smallbusinessmavericks.com/internetmarketing/seo-for-small-business/can-a-sitemap-get-your-website-indexed/04/28/2009/

Let’s walk through it line item by line item:

• The domain name URL - This is simply your domain name. If your visitor is sitting on your home page, this is the URL that would show in her browser. In my case, that URL is http://www.smallbusinessmavericks.com/. It’s important to understand, however, that this address is the URL of my website, not the blog.
• Blog Address - If your blog is your website then it may sit on the root domain. That would be the above-mentioned URL for my home page. But if your blog is a part of a larger website then it will have its own folder and will look something like this: http://www.smallbusinessmavericks.com/internetmarketing/. internetmarketing is the name of the folder where my blog sits. Yours will be something similar, but you should name that folder something related to your niche and put an important keyword in it. This will help you with SEO.

Everything that follows from here pertains to the individual blog post. There are several ways you can go. First, you must decide whether you want to include the category name in your permalink. I have chosen to do that and you can see the category name in the permalink to the above blog post. It’s the part of the URL that reads seo-for-small-business/. The category name isn’t necessary, but it can further help identify to your readers the nature of your post.

After the category name (should you decide to use one), there are generally three other protocols in popular use:

• Date protocol
• Number of post protocol
• Post name protocol

It is generally accepted not to use all three protocols, but you can, technically. They can appear in any order, but I’d prefer to put my post name closer to the beginning to make good use of my keywords in the domain name. Analyzing the above URL, you’ll see can-a-sitemap-get-your-website-indexed/. That’s the name of the individual blog post. After that, the numbers represent the date of that blog post. The number of post protocol is generally a 3 or 4 digit number, like this: 231. That represents the 231st blog post you wrote on that blog.

Which of these protocols you use for your blog depends on factors that are important to you in perception and ranking with the search engines. However you do it, just know that you have options.

So many small businesses pay a service to create their website, and they think they can place a big check list beside that to-do item and never think about it again. So wrong. Everything online is a process, and thank goodness it is. You can always update your site, add content, tweak your profile and improve your Google rank.

The good news is that there are some great online tracking tools that can help you improve your site, draw viewers, and know which of your webpages draws them in–and which ones are tanking. Knowing your bounce rate can make all the difference.

What’s a bounce rate?
It’s not how fast you can jump on a trampoline–it’s when someone visits your site and literally bounces in–and bounces out. They don’t go any further. They’re a one page wonder. Usually that means they either thought your site was about something else, or you didn’t hold their interest.

When measuring your bounce rate on Google Analytics, be sure to check several things:
Your Page Visits
Time on Site
New Visitors
Each tells you something different. For example, if a new visitor comes to your site, stays less than 30 seconds to a minute and leaves, you’ve got a bit of a problem. It may be in your title, your keywords, or with the graphics of your site, lack of content…in other words, you failed to hook your viewer. Consider making some changes.
If a new visitor comes to your site and stays more than a minute, you can consider this somewhat of a success. Even if they didn’t click to other pages, you held their interest. Perhaps they’ll revisit later. I call this “circling the camp.” Oftentimes, a visitor is itchy–they’re not ready to commit, they want to know what else is out there, but they did circle the perimiter–they know who you are and where you are. Success.

How to improve your bounce rate?
Make sure you page is navigable. Can they find where to click through easily? Are you links underlined and a contrasting color? Is your site too jumbled? Has it been a while since you added new content?
Try improving just one of these areas and watch your bounce rate for improvement.

Be sure to check out your content report and analyze every page of your website. Chances are, you’ve got a wink link. Find out where you’re losing your viewers, and you just figured out where to start implementing a few changes.

Attracting quality visitors to your small business website isn’t easy, and you won’t always know what exactly worked–but your efforts will garner results if you’re tenacious. I bet you thought I was going to say patient, but patience isn’t enough. Dogged determination and hard work are just the beginning and the key to your success is in setting goals, making plans to get there, and then tracking your results so you know when you’re doing something right.

What are your initial goals for your website? Do you want to shoot for sheer volume to start off? Or would you rather judge the online presence of your success by sales? Both are valid.

The first step most website owners use is to sign up for Google Analytics. You need to watch your traffic for about three months to get a good idea of how you’re doing. Are there certain days that traffic spikes? Is it after you send out an e-newsletter or email promotions?

There are two kinds of visitors: one time visitors and repeat visitors. Both are important, and knowing how long they visit, how many pages they view, and how often they return is very helpful to understanding what you’re doing right and what you can improve. The more people who know about you, your products and your services, the more you build your reputation–and this approach will eventually lead to sales.

A couple of great features on Google Analytics you might want to check out are the Visitor Trending section and the Average Pageviews section. Get familiar with this portion of Google Analytics because this is where you learn the most about your visitors–how long they stay, how many pages they visit, and over time, you want to improve your average.

Next, visit the New vs. Returning Visitors section. Here, you’ll learn everything from bounce rate, unique visitors, and time on site. It’s like having a webcam showing you which items a customer picks up, and which ones they bring to the register to purchase. You won’t begin to understand it until you’ve let some time pass as you track your website’s visits.

As you get comfortable with Google Analytics, you can begin to make form a solid plan of action. You can brainstorm about ways to build viewer loyalty and gain those wonderful return visits, as well as reaching out to new viewers that help spread the word about your business and business website.

Something great happens as you continue to build your online presence. You become proud of what you’ve accomplished. You set goals and then get to celebrate achieving them–and every small success cheers you on.

Emails are the number one feature used by people who own or work on computers. Even more than surfing the web, email is a simple and effective online tool. The key for small businesses is to maximize how they use emails and e-newsletters–and the first step is to make sure your emails get read.

Email layouts are crucial now. You’re competing with so many other emails that the best way to stand out is to have a brand look that is professional and delivers the message of who you are and what you have to offer–every time.

Using quadrants and columns are a great way to present information that allows your viewers to digest your message in bite-size pieces. But don’t stop there. Images, also referred to as graphic files add a finesse to your email.

Want to use a logo that’s a graphic or a photograph? Turn it into a JPeg, (or JPG), a GIF, or a PNG. These are the easiest graphic files for a computer to store. Be sure to keep your file size down to 50K. Keep your resolution down to 72 dpi–or 300 if your email or e-newsletter will be printed.

Remember not to embed your images in your email as a file or attached file. Why? Because you’ll wind up in junk email folders. Instead, create an image reference line of HTML. Another way to handle this is by using your ESP (email service provider). You can store your images on the server and upload them as needed.

Speaking of HTML, make sure your text is written in HTML, but sent in plain text. Sounds crazy, I’ll give you that, but an email that’s doesn’t have HTML design elements is going to come off stilted–boring and difficult to read. But most emails come in plain text so that various computer speeds can read the emails easily.

The rest is common sense:

Emails and email newsletters are still the best way to reach your viewers. Do all emails get read? We all know the answer to that–but if your email is a pleasure to look at, easy to read, and contains great content, then yours is likely to be marked “read.”

All of us get business emails. Typically, they come in plain text and we convert them so we can read them easier. Colors, images, and text come in place. We orient our eyes and scan the boxes and rectangles that hold bite-size pieces of information. We figure out what the email is about–what they’re offering, teaching, providing–and we do this effortlessly. Within seconds we decide–save the email, click through, order, or delete…

It only takes seconds to scan a good email, and at any time you could lose your audience, or you could glean a connection or a sale. Email layouts make this entire process easier, more efficient, and hopefully more effective.

Ever heard of heat maps? EyeTracking.com, FaceLAB.com, and Eyetools.com are just some of the tools used to track eye movements, pupil size, eyebrow and other facial changes that occur when people view online sites, landing pages, and emails. Major companies have utilized this innovation and have improved their connections and sales dramatically. What these tools have shown is that there’s a pattern to how we view online material, and the basics, such as user-friendly layouts can be used by anyone to optimize their site and increase sales.

Great Email Layouts Include quadrants that make it easy for the reader’s eye to follow.

Viewers usually start in the left hand upper quadrant, then go one of two ways–straight across, or straight down. The bottom right quadrant is always last. So make sure that your most important message or content is in the left upper quadrant.

What makes a viewer go across–or down? It depends on what you have anchored. A good visual is more appealing than text, usually, so if you have something important to say, consider using a graphic to accompany it.

You don’t have to divide your email into exact quadrants. I also get rectangles across the top or down the left side, (so that you are forced to read straight across) as well as other configurations. Figure out which layout you like by checking out other business emails, e-newsletters, and websites. Determine what goes best with your message.

Most important: Get a look, (colors, layout, graphics) a logo, a name, and identifiable contact information and stick with it. This is branding in a nutshell. Make sure that this information is always in your left-upper section/quadrant.

Your next most important task is to deliver something. Let your viewers know what this email, landing page, website is all about. If it’s an email or e-newsletter, make sure it’s in the subject line. Mention it again within the body of the email and make sure it’s near the top where the eyes tend to land. Be clear about what you want them to do–click through, call, learn about a promotion or a sale, inform them of something important to read or know about a product or service update are all important messages you want your viewers to know about.

Make sure you reference the purpose of this email in that left hand quadrant and tell them where to go to retrieve it. Give them a place to click or tell them where this information is listed within the body of the email or on your website. Make it easy for your viewers and don’t bury it in too much text.

These simple techniques make your email, e-newsletter, and even your website viewer friendly. Don’t you enjoy getting an email from a trusted business that you appreciate and respect? When you open that email you know what to expect–quality services or products and helpful information. You trust them to deliver good content again and again. Don’t you want your emails and your website to be anticipated?

A hit is a hit is a hit…or is it? How many hits does your website get? You’ve probably been asked that before, and even if you can brag you get a million hits a month, does it mean what you think it means? How do you measure traffic on your small business site, and more importantly, how do those hits turn into sales?

To understand how to track your website traffic, you have to understand what a hit is.
A website “hit” isn’t as simple as you think. It’s not when someone types in your website name, or find you on Google, Yahoo, or MSN and clicks on your site. That’s not the only definition of a hit.
A hit is a file–and your webpage may contain one, or one thousand. A hit can be an image, written content, or order form. One of your webpages could contain many “hits.”

But what matters is not how many hits you get, but if the hit leads to interest–a sale, a contact, or a networking opportunity. A simpler page with only one hit might just do the job.

Ways to Gauge Your Site Traffic:
Visits, Pageviews, Unique Visitors, Time, and Referrers.

These five tracking tools are essential to any website owner. You need to know who comes to your site, how many times they return, how long the stay, and how they got there. Take a few minutes and visit your dashboard and take note of who your visitors are. This knowledge can help you create a website that’s worth visiting. and is a great marketing and networking tool.

“Do you really want everyone to like you?” That’s what I told my teenagers when they were feeling the need to cave into peer pressure. Sometimes trying to fit in costs you your true identity. It’s the same for small businesses. Sometimes we try to cover too much territory. Our true power lies in what we’re good at. You’ve earned the right to call yourself an expert–by hard work, dedication, and doing one thing well.

If you haven’t honed in on your area of expertise, ask yourself:

What makes my company unique?
If I had to only do one thing, sell one item, what would it be?
If I had to let go of one line of service or product, what would it be?
What do I do/sell that no one else does? (Or very few)
What services do I offer that fills a real need or void?
If someone introduced me/my company at a party, what would they say?
What other business is the most like mine?
Does my website really state your expertise?
Do my keywords reflect my products or services accurately–or are they only close but not spot on?
What segment of the market have I not quite tapped into yet?
What do I enjoy doing the most? What’s easy for me?

Once you answer a few of these questions, then make sure you input these changes into your online marketing, local marketing, and traditional marketing plans. What good does it do to specialize and then not let people know what you’re good at!

Ways to promote your expertise:

Do a news release (also known as a press release)
Start a separate website that focuses on your expertise–and list is as a separate page on your main site. Besure to list your new site on the various directories. Go to OpenDirectory.com and register your site. Now that you’ve learned a thing or two about websites and SEO strategies, implement your knowledge.
Begin to blog about your expertise–what you have to offer, how you got to be good at this one area, and focus on how you can help others.
Change or add pertinent keywords and keyword phrases
Pitch yourself to a radio show. Start using your voice and stating that you’re an expert in a given field. Don’t consider it arrogant. If you’re really good at something, then it’s a service to offer your advice and direction to others–as long as it’s presented in a way that’s helpful.
Do a search on your area of expertise and check out the competition. You should have less now that you’ve narrowed your focus. What are they doing right? How can you tweek your site to offer something slightly different?
Mention your expertise when it’s appropriate on your social media–especially in your profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Author Marcus Buckingham reminds us in his book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, is that we shouldn’t try to be good at everything. Our brains are even hardwired at birth to begin to pull away from the less strong connections, and that our neurons bundle around one strong cord–that’s how we begin to specialize–and why some of us can play the piano and others can whiz through calculus. By fleshing out and then promoting your expertise, you begin to define your small business and discover your true market.