
"To be honest, Ron," someone said recently, "after 10 years in business, none of our work has come through our website. We earn work the hard way--by hunting for it."
Like too many businesspeople, he seemed to be under the impression that if you build it, they will come. Well, this is no movie (and I'm no Kevin Costner!).
One source recently put the number of websites on the Internet at around 138 million. Another source put it at close to 400 million. Nobody really knows, of course, because there is no central source that tracks these things. But suffice it to say, there are a lot. So, it doesn't make sense to sit back and hope that all of the people who need what you have to offer will eventually stumble onto your site by accident.
And that's my point: If you want people to find you on the Internet, you better make yourself visible.
Two common approaches to help people find you are through Google's Adwords pay-per-click (PPC) program and through search-engine optimization (SEO).
PPC through Google is where you pay to have your ad appear in the "sponsored" section when someone does a search related to terms you've chosen. This can be very cost-effective because you pay only if people click on the ad (hence, pay-per-click). Find more information here.
Also, SEO is critical if you want to snag business online. This is all about making sure search engines find you when people search for things you sell. It's important to know when you optimize your website for search engines that it's about much more than just about putting clever wording that Google will spot. The search algorithms that Google uses are much more sophisticated than that these days. Now, it's all about relevance and credibility.
If you want your website to actually generate business (and who wouldn't?), you'll want to know much more about actually marketing your website.
You can find lots of useful information online about PPC and SEO. (There are millions of websites, remember?)
Or, you could just contact us.