Ok so you have a website now and an SEO guy has just told you it will cost $2000 – $5000 to get your site on the first page of Google. And it doesn’t stop there! Even after you have paid that much, it will take a year or more.
Those are unfortunately the facts of life. Probably you can get some traffic from MSN and Yahoo in 4 – 6 months, but generally the traffic from Yahoo and MSN doesn’t convert as well.
So, what can small business owners do in the meantime, without a big budget, that will increase their visibility?
Here are a few suggestions:
1) Make sure your offline customers know about your website. Publish your URL everywhere.
2) Offer discounts to offline customers when they order online.
3) Who are the leaders in your niche online? Draw up a list and make sure they know about your site. Offer to exchange links, articles, or content. If they have forums or blogs, participate in the discussion.
4) Write articles and publish them everywhere. Use content syndication sites, as well as contacting webmasters and offering them ‘free’ content with a link back to you.
5) Contact friends, customers, suppliers (anybody) and make sure they know about your site and/or link to your new site.
6) Submit your content to social bookmarking sites. Do a search for “Social Bookmarking List” and open accounts and submit your content.
If you use a creditcard and are stuck in a debt problem, solving it by the way of credit card consolidation is not valid solution. Give priority to free business cards that comes at deals like fixed rate mortgages. Believe in timely investments like medical insurance. Abstain from giving into whims to just having a look at homes for sale when you know that you cannot afford it.
