With this month’s newsletter, we usher in a new era; we are now using a new format for our monthly newsletter that more closely ties our website content and our enewsletter content. All small business owners, whether Professionals, B2B or B2C need to think really hard about how the web and new media (think social networking) are going to drive their business in the future. Fading fast are old ideas about print media. (Have you noticed the size of your favorite newspapers and magazines?)
In January 2010 when we look at search engine market share, we see Google at ~65% , BING! continues to gain share at ~11% and yahoo slips to ~17%, ASK and AOL make up another ~7% (for more details see http://bit.ly/acNZF7 ). For a more jaw dropping impact, Google had ~2.7 Billion searches per month in the US in March 2006 and ~6.8 Billion in January 2010. Total searches in the U.S. alone, in January 2010 were over 10 Billion (see it here: http://bit.ly/as8xYq ) that is about 33 queries per month for every man women and child in the US.
What this tells us is that more and more people are using the web (search engines) to find things. Flights, Painters, Lawyers, Doctors, you name it; people use the web, search engines, to find it. It was once said that you couldn’t eat anything produced on the web, but you can bet that many people are looking at a restaurant’s menu online, and deciding on dinner before leaving the house. Decisions are being made based on your website and how well you present yourself. And it’s not just about looking good to the human eye; you need to look good to the Search Engines as well.
You may have heard the term Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Search Engine Optimization (SEO), these are terms that relate to how your website ranks for organic search. Organic search results are what appear in the body of the page. Organic results are considered much better than paid advertisements as they carry more weight. Pay Per Click (PPC), think Adwords by Google, is used to increase your rankings in Paid search, or advertisements. These usually show up to the right of the body, sometimes on top and/or on the bottom of the page. These are not prized as highly as organic search results. It is said if you are not in the top 4 or 5 organic results or paid results you might as well throw in the towel as no one will see you.
The question every small business owner needs to be asking him or herself is “am I mapping out our plan to for the company’s future on the web”? You can bet your competitors are. The flip side to that coin, might be “can I get to the internet when I need to”? We can help on either issue.
For more information go to our website http://www.sf-it.com or call us at 678-353-3222, x105.
Thank You,
Mike
Mike Gonsalves
President
StrategicFusion, Inc.
Your Dedicated IT Department
Support: 678-353-3222 Option 1
Direct: 678-990-8595
Mobile: 678-644-4453
Email: Mikego@SF-IT.com
Web: www.SF-IT.com
Computer issues? Please send email to: HELP@sf-it.com

