Altitude on Small Business Tools

At the root of all business is marketing — making people aware of your company, services, and products —- and in the age of the Internet that is mainly done through the use of Search Engine Rankings.

Making sure you’re found on Google is at the top of the list of many entrepreneurs and business owners. The question is, how do you do that successfully?

Here are 5 ways you can begin to increase your search engine rankings:

1. Search Engine Optimization – This is the tried and true traditional method of ensuring your website is at the top of the search engines for specific keywords that have been researched and strategically placed throughout your website headers and copy. There is a knack to SEO (acronym) and not everyone knows it. If you’re up for the challenge, have some time to kill, and want to explore the ins and outs on your own, go for it. Otherwise, you might do better working with a consultant that has some experience in the area.

2. Using Web 2.0 Tools – Web 2.0 technology has literally taken over our world, between social networks, blogs, internet talk radio shows and the like, we have become totally immersed in the interactivity of online networking. On the one hand, we may look down the road and find that we wasted a lot of time, but have a lot of new friends, have voiced our opinions, and inadvertently shared a lot of personal information in the process, but let’s hope that we’ve gained some new business as well. The neat thing about many of these Web 2.0 tools is through the use of key words and their popularity they’re great for increasing search engine rankings. More friends = more knowledge of who you are = more likeability= more business? Let’s hope!

3. Audio and Video Marketing – A pullout from Web 2.0 tools is the use of audio and video for marketing. This one if for you podcast lovers and YouTube fans. But what can we say, many individuals have built six figure businesses and achieved some levels of fame in the process. Marketing with audio and video is a new phenomenon that business owners are beginning to awaken, too. And why shouldn’t they? Marketing with Audio and video along with the use of Web 2.0 tools is a great way to get yourself found.

4. Content– Oh yeah, that’s what we meant in #1 when we mentioned copy (your content). Good content entangled with good keywords equals higher search engine rankings. Content can be used on your website, for articles to be submitted to directories, in blogs and more to give you a boost in your rankings.

5. Linking – As far as we can tell, linking still works. When people link to your website and your information you get bonus points from the search engines. Ultimately they assume, there must be something worthwhile if everybody sending a link to you. Get it?