America’s SBDC Blog

A “Forbes 100 Best Websites for Entrepreneurs”

gTLDs: What are these new domains, and why should you care?

December 15, 2014
By Isaac Irvine

If you own a business, choosing a great domain name is one of the most important steps you’ll take to build a strong online identity. A unique address that represents a website, your domain name is the part of the address that follows the “www.” in an address bar or after the @ symbol in an email address. Your domain is how people remember and revisit your site.

You’ll probably have lots of questions when you set out to choose a domain name for your online business presence. Questions like “What keywords should I use? Is this name too long? Should I pick a .com or what?” It’s a big decision.

Fortunately, the continuing rollout of hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to the online marketplace makes it easier than ever before to pick the perfect domain name. These descriptive new domain extensions—such as .lawyer, .guru, .vegas and .dentist, just to name a few—give you a fresh opportunity to register domains that perfectly represent what you and your business are all about.  (more…)

Our Favorite Things: Tips from 2014 – A year’s end wrap up from Google’s Get Your Business Online Team

December 10, 2014
By Whitney Lemon

Happy_Holidays_from_GYBO

Can you believe it’s almost 2015? The final blog post for the year recaps our favorite lessons that can help businesses grow and succeed online.

#1: Start with the website

The majority of today’s consumers start their shopping process online, so a company’s website may be the first interaction with the business. For businesses just starting out, review this lesson about choosing a domain name (your website address, or URL) and determining the goals of your website.

When building a website or making improvements to an existing site, pay attention to the header and footer, the top and bottom of the page. These are valuable areas for communicating important information about the business. Check out the blog post here.  (more…)

How to build momentum for the holidays

November 24, 2014
By Gina Watkins

Hopefully you’ve already started thinking about how you’re going to make this year’s holiday season worth celebrating—because without a doubt many of your biggest competitors have already started generating buzz. While you may not their million dollar TV budgets or a Grammy-worthy holiday jingle to do it, you don’t actually need those things to be successful—you just need the right plan in place and the right tools to help you out.

Following are some easy to embrace tips to help your business build momentum as you head into the holiday season:

Develop a schedule to build momentum

Building momentum will be crucial in determining whether or not this year’s holiday season is one worth celebrating. But you can’t build momentum without a plan for how you’re going to do it. Start by creating a schedule. Map out the weeks leading up to and through the holiday season with specific business goals for each of the big days. The specific holidays you plan to target may vary based on your business and your audience.  (more…)

Get discovered: Two SEO Tips to Get Your Small Business Website Found

November 19, 2014
By Jim Christian

Jim_ChristianLike a prehistoric masterpiece scratched into the far recesses of an undiscovered cave, it doesn’t matter how awe-inspiring your website is if nobody can find it. Search engines are the archeologists of the digital landscape. An estimated 90 percent of consumers searching for local businesses online use search engines like Google® Bing® and Yahoo® to find them. If you want your business website to get discovered, you need to tap into the power of search.

Just about every website owner today understands the basic concept of search engine optimization (SEO): taking steps to attract the attention of search engines in order to drive traffic to your site. Search Engine Land defines SEO as “the process of getting traffic from the ‘free,’ ‘organic,’ ‘editorial,’ or ‘natural’ search results on search engines.” The paid ads you often see at the top of search results don’t figure in.

You’ve likely already taken the fundamental steps to improve your SEO. Your website brims with unique and compelling content. You use relevant keywords all over the place. You optimize title tags and other metadata. You covet backlinks. (more…)

Campaign types to try out this holiday season

November 17, 2014
By Gina Watkins

The holidays are upon us, and for many small businesses, so is the busiest time of the year. With limited time and resources, you want to be smart about where you are investing your time, and ensure that your marketing efforts will drive the best results. Depending on your business, there are a number of different campaigns you could run during the holiday season. The types of campaign you decide to run will depend on the products and services you offer, and the audience you’re trying to reach. You will also need to consider the type of results you’re looking for, and your overall goals.  To help you get you thinking, here’s a list of campaigns types for you to consider trying out this holiday season.

Try a local deal

With a local deal, you can create a great offer, like a $25 for $50 voucher, that customers and potential customers can purchase and redeem at a later date. This is a great way to generate new revenue during the holiday season, and can help bring new customers into your store.

Offer an exclusive discount

The key to a great offer is that it’s compelling enough to get people to act. It also needs to bridge the gap between your customer’s needs and your success. With a service like Constant Contact, you can easily add a coupon to any email that customers can print out or redeem from their mobile device.  (more…)