Rich Harbeson

The natural reaction in a slowing economy is to pull back, cut spending and hibernate until things get better.  That however is not true for Online Marketing.  While consumers are being more conservative, they are turning to the Internet for answers.  And where do most of them go to get the answers?  Search!  This is why it’s more important than ever to shift your marketing focus online.�
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People are staying in, making home cooked meals, watching TV and surfing the web.  With searches on the rise, now is the time to beef up your online marketing strategy and resist becoming a sleeping bear in the middle of winter.  Here are some quick and easy tips on how to get started.

• Run Sponsored Ads – If you have an ecommerce store or are looking to get some fast conversions, try paid search.  You control the budget, you control the messaging and you even control when and where the ads run.  You can turn paid search on today and start reaping the rewards immediately.  
• Start Optimizing NOW! – The sooner you begin to optimize your site to get to the top of search engines, the better your chances of being there in the near and distant future.  Just think of how many competitors are optimizing their sites or how many businesses are ahead of yours when a user starts a search related to your products or service.  There are some standard search tactics that can be implemented to get your site on the right track.
• Seek Out Links To Your Site – One of the most important tactics in search today is obtaining links to your website.  When a link to your site is found by a search engine it sees that link as a vote for your site.  The best votes are links from websites that are relevant to your business.  You can find directories that have areas related to your business or industry sites that you can ask for a link from.
• Social Networking – You’ve probably heard of My Space, Face Book, Linked In or other popular social networking sites.  This is a great way to build a positive presence for your business online, communicate with customers & prospects, and drive traffic to your site.

Implementing some or all of these steps is a good start to helping secure your business presence online.  And this is just the beginning.  Seeking out a professional search company can be a great extension to your marketing team and overall business strategy to build a successful online presence in today’s tough economy.  So start today by implementing a few search tactics that can give your company the boost it needs in these uncertain times, become the leader and take a bigger piece of the market share while your competition focuses on hibernating.