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Starting your business is only half the work. Once things are up and running, business owners often find having the competitive advantage isn't so advantageous when nobody knows about the products or services being offered. Simply put, nobody stays in business long without proper advertising and publicity.
Good news:
Communicating with the public at minimal cost is absolutely possible when making proper use of the Internet. While it does take a bit of patience and commitment before finally elbowing your way through the sheer inundation that is the World Wide Web, the results will be worth the effort as your business takes its highly-visual placement at the front-lines of the digital space.
So, how do we logistically use online communication tools to communicate with our audiences? It seems the Internet pundits talk of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to achieve that goal, but this may be too narrow a term. SEO can be highly confusing to the everyday entrepreneur; therefore, going forth without professional knowledge, here are a few tips to make the most of Virtual Space Optimization (VSO), a broader yet more complete picture of the subject.
Search Engines: Google organic searches
In order to reach the top of the results in Google organic (unpaid) searches, your website needs to be filled with appropriate tags and keywords. From pictures to pages and navigable menus, you need keywords and short descriptions included in the HTML code (the backbone of your website). Using Flash or Java Script may create visuals on your page that are beautiful to the human eye; however, search engine algorithms don't have the luxury of understanding them. So, make sure you couple both types of programming languages.
In addition to keywords, your page titles and descriptions (what will appear in Google searches) should be short yet loaded with important keywords. In doing this, people will know what your website is about in less than 200 characters.
Review sites: Google Places, Yelp, Angie's list
You wouldn't let strangers run your business; likewise, you shouldn't let them run your virtual space. You need to control these areas to ensure the release of accurate and desirable information to current and potential customers. Your business should be present on Google Places and other similar review sites (two excellent examples are Yelp and Angie's List). Once you have listed your business on these sites, encourage reviews. This will help your rankings and generate more leads with search engines. Bottom line: the more present you are on a popular virtual platform, the more your business will appear in searches.
Blog search engines: Technocrati
Having a corporate blog is important for many reasons, and Technocrati is a fantastic resource for improving your VSO. Technocrati is the most popular blog search engine around and, in addition to regular search engines, the site allows potential customers to find out about your business through a supplementary avenue. Your blog will ultimately bring traffic back to your website, ultimately helping your general ranking and presence on the web.
Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google +1
Social media being this omnipresent beast, you must own it to tame it. Start by incorporating sharing capabilities with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Google+1 buttons ("add this" buttons). All these platforms will affect your VSO in a number of ways as your social web begins to come to life. Social networking connections will begin appearing tied to Google links in Google organic searches; these links reference that one of your social connections on Facebook has clicked or used a certain service in the past.
In conclusion, going digital and improving your VSO is not only a vertical issue, but one that should also be integrated horizontally. That means it should be present on all levels of business, while still providing a wide range of channels of communication. For your stakeholders, this will serve as an avenue to express themselves in terms your business, and ultimately, will help your reputation. The end result: increasing your VSO will inevitably be beneficial in boosting your bottom line and ensuring as best you can the good health of your business.
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