Ask yourself these questions: 

• Are you satisfied with your current website? 
  
• Is your website user-friendly and easy to navigate? 
  
• Do you have control over updating and editing your site?
• Are your visitors turning into customers?
  
• Does your website comply to current web standards? 

If you answered No to ANY of these questions, Let us give you a FREE Quote on getting your website updated.

Over 85% of people contact businesses they find in local searches. That's why 100% of businesses need to be online! Your local business has many options, to remain current online such as a website, business facebook page, social networks, videos, blogs, online ads, etc.  Even for businesses with a limited marketing budget, there are ways to promote your business online. Here are 10 free ways to promote your business online:

1. Google Local: Create an account... Enter your company name, address, phone number and website. Verify the information with a postacard or telephone call. In a few weeks you get a map listing for your company name or industry and town.
   
2. Google Coupons: Coupons are a great way to bring new customers into your business or remind old customers that you’re still around. Google has a free coupon tool that puts your coupon on relevant local searches.
   
3. Yahoo Local: Yahoo local is a directory organized by category and geographic location. You can get a basic listing in Yahoo Local for free. People searching for your business or industry can find your listing.
   
4. YellowPages.com: Yellow Pages have a strong brand name and recognition, and are still used by many people today. They offer a few levels of listings the most basic is free.
   
5. Press Releases: Doing something newsworthy? You can always submit a press release to PRWeb or PRLeap.com. Be sure to check out their tips like 25 Action Words for Writing a Newsworthy Headline and Why Localizing a Press Release to a ZIP Code and City Matters.
   
6. Free Blog Promotion Tools: Does your company have a website or are you thinking of adding one? Websites like Technorati.com and mybloglog.com can help you gain exposure, visitors, readers, and subscribers to your blog.
   
7. Free Directory Advertising: It doesn’t get any easier than trying free advertising. Go to BOTW.org and sign up for a free 60 day advertising listing.
8. LinkedIn: Join LinkedIn and get connected with people you know and make connections with people you don’t through introductions. Look at the new Questions and Answers section and try and be genuinely helpful. Follow the axiom of ‘Givers Gain’ and you may generate a few leads for yourself from your goodwill.
   
9. Email Signatures: Be sure to add your URL to all of your outgoing email. Try adding your mission statement, network links, or a catchy phrase to help people understand what you do. Change it a several times a year so people notice it again.
   
10. Syndicate Your Content and Ideas: Take advantage of article distribution Services like EZineArticles, ISnare, and IdeaMarketers to spread your message and approach. Use them to bring leads to your site by offering things like free ebooks or PDF’s that they can download after entering their contact information.

Can a small business brand itself? What exactly does that mean?

Branding is a term that dates back to ranchers adding a symbol onto their cattle and other livestock in order to claim ownership. If your bulls had a Circle K on their backsides and wandered off, then anyone who found the bull later could identify it by its brand. The Circle K became a recognizable symbol that signified the ownership of an asset.

Today, business branding has come to mean the same thing with regard to particular products, services, intellectual property, and business processes. 

What do you think of when you hear or see the words McDonald's, Coca Cola, ExxonMobil? Can you picture their logos? Does the Golden Arches immediately come to mind when you think about McDonald's.

Your small business can enjoy the same benefits of branding. Create a logo or an image that is associated with your company name. Put it on all your marketing collateral - both print and digital - and use it to claim ownership of all your business assets. Over time, you can plant that symbol into people's minds and "brand" yourself upon their conscience. Branding is good marketing no matter what size your business.

Talk to some online marketers and SEO is everything. Talk to others and they know nothing about it. My philosophy is somewhere in the middle.

I think SEO is important. It isn't everything, but it is important.

Let's look at domain names, for instance. Many successful online companies have built solid brands without keyword-based domain names. Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, Bing, eBay, Facebook ... just to name a few. Have you noticed that all of these companies are in the top 10 most trafficked websites online? Facebook is No. 1 and Google is No. 2.

That's not to say that these websites aren't SEOd. They have certainly considered SEO in their overall marketing plan online, but they don't put SEO as the point to emphasize against all other points. There is something to be said for branding as well.

When you build your online presence, think about SEO, but don't think about just SEO. Think about your overall marketing goals and how SEO can fit into that.