Small Business SEO | Small Business Social Media

Mobile Marketer is reporting that 21% of users in the U.S. connect to the Internet PRIMARILY via “devices other than their laptops” (read as handsets, smartphones and netbooks).

A full 14% connect primarily via their smartphone or handset.

A full 56% of U.S. users in general have connected to the Internet via their handset.

“Additionally, the study found that on-the-go mobile audiences like to shop. Forty-nine percent make purchases online while on-the-go, while 47 percent use the mobile Internet as their primary source for making a purchase.”

Read that quote again. Almost HALF of users accessing the Internet via their handset made a purchase while on the go.

Is your business reaching this quickly growing group of tech-savvy and cash rich consumers that love to search and buy online with their smartphones and handsets?

If not, NOW is the time to get your mobile marketing strategy in place.

This isn’t a trend folks, this is reality. Users are quickly shifting to the mobile web to search and buy.

If they can’t find and interact with your business – from their PHONE – you are going to miss out on a boatload of sales in the coming months and years.

Anyone that has used Twitter knows that it can quickly turn into a HUGE time waste. We also all know that time is one of our most scare commodities, and wasting time wading through automated posts of nothingness and narcissism ain’t cool. So what’s a brotha to do?

Luckily, Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide has posted an excellent outline to manage your time on twitter. She lays out a strategy that will limit your Twitter time to no more than an hour a day while still getting some benefit from everyone’s current social/marketing/spam-o-rama-ding-dong micro blogging platform du jour.

Make sure to read Jennifer’s Twitter user’s guide post in all of it’s awsomeness.

For those of you looking to secure a domain name for a NEW website or blog, make sure to follow these basic rules:

Pick a domain name with your main keyword phrase in it.
This is a simple way to get a nice boost right out of the gate.

Example: Your site is about purple widgets, so some good domain names to consider would be:
purplewidgets.com
bestpurplewidgets.com
yourcompanynamepurplewidgets.com
toppurplewidgets.com

If you are really stuck coming up with your domain name, the free tools at NameBoy (www.nameboy.com) or GoDaddy (www.GoDaddy.com) may give you some fresh ideas.

Always, always, always grab the .com version of your domain.
It is much better to have a less than perfect .com domain (purplewidgetsreviewsandinfo.com) than to have a perfect scenario secondary .net/.org/.info domain (purplewidgets.info). Dot coms look better, are more easily remembered, and are expected by Internet users.

Do not fall into the trap of cramming every possible keyword into your domain and separating them with hyphens.
purple-widgets-reviews-and-purple-widget-information.com will not win your any favors in the SERPS anymore. This tactic may have worked for a boost once, but those days are long gone. Keep your domain name on target and a reasonable length of 3-5 words.

Register your domain for multiple years.
This makes you look more legitimate in Google’s eyes, as many spammer domains are registered for only a single year. Spend the extra $10-15 and register your domain for 2-3 years at a minimum.

Do not register your domain as private.
This is another spammer favorite. Choose a ‘normal’ public registration option for all of your domains. You won’t get any more spam in your inbox than normal.

Choose a reliable hosting provider that doesn’t host a bunch of spammy sites.
This isn’t particularly fair, but you can be penalized for having your domain hosted on the same server as a bunch of spam/porn/gambling/linkfarm sites.

This is pretty easy to avoid by choosing a reliable (yet cheap) hosting provider such as 1and1.com (www.1and1.com) or Blue Host (www.bluehost.com) to host your sites. I highly recommend them both.

Finally, a quick note for those of you who already have a live website or blog and are considering changing the domain name solely for SEO purposes. DON’T.

Unless your domain has been blacklisted by Google, or you are facing some sort of legal/copyright infringement action against you, I DO NOT recommend changing your existing website’s domain name. The negatives greatly outweigh the positives. Keep that old domain name intact, and keep on reading to discover how to optimize your current domain to increase your traffic.

These handy SEO tips are an excerpt from High Rankings Traffic, my new two ebook set of my 12+ years of SEO and Social Media knowledge in an easy to read and implement format.

Stop paying insane fees for SEO and Social Media and do it yourself
with the help of my High Rankings traffic system.

Himanshu Sharma has posted another great article on his blog summarizing the different aspects of link building. Check it out… it’s worth the read!