I’ll keep this simple. Hold on to your hats here. I am about to lay some truth on you that is not even close to new and has been said for years now. The reason I have to say it again is because apparently many SMB’s are hard of hearing.  Should I type it in caps so you can read it easier? Here it goes ……. IMAGES HIDE YOUR WEB SITE FROM THE SEARCH ENGINES! There I said it …..again, just like thousands of search marketers before me. Apparently, there is some selective hearing going on the SMB world as well as the web design world. Images and the search engines still don’t get along. If you are wondering just how well your site does when it presents itself to the search engines be sure to check out SEMCheck, the low cost search engine optimization tool.

A pretty site that has all these cool looking images and flash components may look nice but it’s kinda like having a great painting but putting on display in your attic. No matter what your web design guru says about all the design elements that will make your visitors go ‘ooooooh aaaaaaaah’ those design tricks are not helping your business. The business of the web happens through the search engines. If no one can find you then you could have the Mona Lisa of web sites but it won’t matter because if no one sees it, then no one knows your services, then no one buys your stuff, then you sit and scratch your head asking “Why s no one doing anything through my site?”

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I have pretty much worn out my cry of ‘SMB’s are under served’ in the search marketing world. I have said it enough times that there is no special attention given to the company that may want to ‘go it alone’ regarding search engine optimization (SEO), paid search (PPC), blogging and other social media. I think the best way to handle this is to give the SMB all the information they need. What I am going to do over the next few weeks is touch on each of the areas that my SEO audit tool, SEMCheck, hits and why it is important to the search marketing health of any website. Today it’s about content.

Content will always rule for the simple reason that it is the true information that searchers seek thus there can never be enough and what exists can always be improved upon. Many small businesses have sites that are woefully short on content that will satisfy the search engine’s requirements. SEMCheck uses a simple cut off of 350 characters of readable text on the home page as a bare minimum. When I say bare I mean bare. You really need more than that. The first paragraph of this post was about 451 characters alone!

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Ok, it is truly time for the SMB’s of the world to take this internet marketing thing very seriously. If you have been dabbling or have considered dabbling in the past it’s time to get in the game for real.

Why the urgency you ask? Well, the Yellow Page sales people are coming! Run for the hills! Hide the women and children! There will be no prisoners taken because these are desperate times for Yellow Page salespeople and their companies alike. To find out more on the state of the industry check out my post on Marketing Pilgrim today.

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I am in transit coming back to NC from Las Vegas following my trip to PubCon which is presented by Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld. Thanks for putting on a great conference. Also, Thanks again to Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim for his invitation (it’s good to have friends in high places ) Well, if you are an internet marketer of any level I would suggest that you make your way to the next event in March in Austin or next year’s west coast event. It’s hard to measure the value of events like this when you are so close to it still. I have a notebook full of notes that will keep me busy for a while.

While I liked the event there was only one session looking at SMB’s (it was how SMB’s should approach PR). The session itself was not necessarily referencing SMB’s and in a way I was disappointed. Of course, it’s virtually impossible to give information that relates to everyone across a wide spectrum of businesses but I think SMB’s do require a different treatment across the board.

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I am about to prove that everything, literally everything, that you do in your business, for your business or to your business is under scrutiny all time. I suspect you all know that already. To what degree is this impacting your business is the thing you need to consider. In this day and age it is possible for people to have a good or bad experience with you and your business then almost instantaneously rave about your service or go stark raving mad about the lack thereof. That’s no different than ever before. What is different is how many people now can hear their gripes through the internet and how quickly it can happen.

I am living this right now. I am flying to Las Vegas for PubCon on US Airways and my original flight had ‘mechanical’ problems. Red flag number one. The second one was when they paged Passenger Hussein over the loudspeaker. That one is a whole other issue for sure but still enough to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. OK, back to the story. I had a connecting flight through Philadelphia (sorry Eagle fans but the Giants are just a better team this year ) which was certainly in jeopardy due to this delay.

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Man, it has been quite a week. We have a new President elect. We have record stock market drops (vote of confidence from the Street or profit taking before cap gains tax increase? Neither is good…..). I found out I will be going to PubCon next week. What you say? Frank is going to PubCon? How didn’t this get through the AP wire ahead of the other minutiae of the week? I know……I too was stunned.

Anyway, I have been given a great opportunity to go to PubCon as a contributor for Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim. Thank you Andy for your gracious offer although I haven’t seen my “all expenses paid’ clause (What gives?!  ;-)  ).  Because of this great deal I will be posting pretty heavily over at MP and doing some stuff here for FT as well. For the tens of you that follow this blog I first say thank you and ask you to tell your friends, neighbors and pesky relatives about it. Now that the dust truly has settled I am looking forward to providing internet marketing information that anyone can use for their small or medium size business (SMB).

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If all goes like it should and there are no lawsuits or whatever that will contest the outcome of today’s election, tomorrow morning we will all wake up and guess what? Nothing will be any different. Doesn’t matter who wins. Doesn’t matter what happens during the night. Tomorrow we all need to get up and go to work or whatever it is we do. We will need to slog through the ‘hip hip hoorays’ of the victors and the ‘it’s the end of the world’ of the loser. Notice that last comment works regardless of who wins or loses! I love it!

When the dust settles though, you are still a small or medium business owner. You are still a marketing professional trying to beat the competition for a smaller group of customers. You are still looking at the internet and saying “Despite all this bad news this thing really works for business”.

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A HA! You probably thought that I finally gave in and started talking about the election and not internet marketing for the SMB’s of the world. Nah. In all honesty, I think this election is already over so I am just waiting for the fanfare and hoopla to die down then we’ll see what we have actually purchased for at least 4 years. The results of the election are neither here nor there for me though. I believe that it’s the attitude that all small and medium businesses should have. Sure we may get taxed more or whatever but what can you do really? Stop doing more business because you will pay more in taxes? That’s what accountants and lawyers are for. Let them sift through the wreckage and tell you what’s up when it’s all said and done.

Back to business. I say it’s time for change because I am going through some currently and it is pretty exciting. I am in a new arrangement with my business and it has opened some really cool doors for the future. I will now be featuring my SEMCheck tool (www.semcheck.com) more prominently with a new site design and new functionality that will benefit SMB’s and agencies alike. I also now have more freedom to deliver services in a way that are truly customizable and designed to meet a client where they are currently and not where SEO’s usually meet them which is where the SEO is most comfortable.

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There I said it. I have seen it more and more in recent months even on some of the projects that I have been involved in. The traditional model of SEO delivery is completely broken. In fact, in most instances it downright stinks.

Are you providing SEO on a monthly schedule of ‘deliverables’? Are you receiving monthly ‘deliverables’ that have been outlined in a contract that lasts more than one month? If so, I will go so far as to say that you are probably not getting what you need or what you have paid for.

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In the WSJ today on page A8 of the print edition the headline reads “Google CEO Backs Obama”. In and of itself, that’s fine because it’s a free country and I am grateful for that freedom. Now, I immediately go to the fact that there are business and political implications here for sure and that makes me a little queasy. What got me kind of riled up though is the sub headline which reads “Schmidt to Hit Campaign Trail but Says Company is ‘Neutral’”. Huh? The head of one of the most powerful companies on the planet is campaigning for a candidate and the company is neutral? I guess I am insulted because it is my hope that the folks at the Google Plex don’t think that we ‘commoners’ are that stupid to buy that spin.

To be completely transparent, I know how I am voting. I am not a swing vote person so this doesn’t sway me. So my official position is completely clear, here it is: I don’t think that either ticket has what it takes to be the ‘savior’ that everyone is looking for. I believe there are serious and potentially catastrophic flaws on both sides of this election so I take literally no solace in whoever ends up in the office. I will respect the office because we are called to do that as Americans but I think we are simply voting for which set of screw ups we want to deal with and tolerate for the next four years. Cynical? I suppose but we are talking about POLITICS after all.

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