Free marketing advice is easier to get than you may think. It is available from a huge number of very high quality, reliable sources. So if you run a small business with a limited budget, there is no reason why shouldn’t have access to some great advice about how to market your products and services without having to pay a penny for that advice.

Here is my list of top sources for free marketing advice for your small business:

Your Local Library

The business section at your local library is packed with books about marketing. Many of these books are aimed at small businesses. They are written by marketing experts and are crammed full of useful information, tips and advice. Find your local library.

Business Link

Business Link is a free business advice and support service, available online and through local advisers. Business Link helps your business save time and money by giving you instant access to clear, simple, and trustworthy information. It is developed in partnership with subject experts within government and relevant business-support organisations to help you comply with regulations and improve your performance. Whether you’re starting up, already running a business, or looking to grow and develop, Business Link can help. Business Link’s marketing advice.

Your Local County Council

County Council’s want local businesses to succeed. For that reason they offer many services to local businesses – often free of charge. Here is an example from my local County Council: Norfolk County Council – Business Library.

This Blog

This blog is updated every Friday and is full of articles about marketing a small business including: tips & tricks, books, ebooks, software, training and useful websites. It is written by Steve Bunyan who owns Small Business Marketing and is aimed primarily at small businesses who want to improve their own marketing.What’s more it is entirely free to anyone who wants to read it.

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If you know of any other great sources of high quality free marketing advice, please leave the details in a reply below for everyone to read.

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SEO or search engine optimisation is a really important part of a small business website.

Let me explain why…

Anyone who uses Google, Yahoo! or Bing (formerly MSN) regularly, knows that they usually provide two types of results (see diagram above):

1. Sponsored links

Sponsored Links (highlighted in red above), are paid for by bidding on specific keywords. Anyone can buy them and they are a huge source of revenue for Google in particular. They are located at the very top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) and down the right-hand side of the pages too. They also appear on various websites as advertisements.

2. Organic listings

Organic listings (highlighted in green above), are on the left-hand side of the SERPs below the top sponsored links. Doing well in these “natural” listings can only really be achieved by SEO.

Why the organic listings are better

Experienced internet users know that the web pages sponsored links point to are frequently of lower quality than the ones organic listings point to. Or to put it another way, clicking on organic listings is more likely to provide the searcher with what they are looking for. This is because for the organic listings only, the search engines return a list of web pages that provide (in their opinion) the best matches for the words you have typed into their search box.

This is especially true with Google because that’s what their whole business model is based upon – high quality results for users from unpaid, natural, organic listings.

By contrast, any website can appear in the sponsored links, just by paying enough money to be there – website content is not a factor for sponsored listings.

So in a nutshell organic listings save users both time and money. No prizes then for guessing why Google’s growth has been so dynamic, or why search engine optimisation has become so important.

So what is SEO?

SEO is a whole host of related tasks, which when carried out effectively, will maximise the position a web page has in the search engine results pages. In other words, better SEO = better search engine listings. This whole host of related SEO tasks falls into 2 distinct areas:

1. On-page SEO

On-page search engine optimisation is about the structure and content of a website and the individual pages it contains. Important on-page factors include domain name, page names, use of meta tags, site structure and navigation, the selection and use of specifically targeted keywords, placement of page elements, use of multimedia elements such as pictures and videos, and even the time it takes a page to load.

2. Off-page SEO

Off-page search engine optimisation is about inbound links to the pages within a website from other websites. Google in particular considers both the quality and quantity of these inbound links a very important factor when deciding which pages should be at the top of their organic search results. It also considers the anchor text (the text that actually appears as a hyperlink) to be very important too. As a general rule of thumb, Google considers off-page SEO to be more important than on-page SEO because they surmise that what others say about you is a better recommendation than what you say about yourself.

What can search engine optimisation do for your website?

Quite simply, the higher your website appears in organic listings, the greater both the quantity and quality of your website traffic will be. Usually, a website needs to appear on the first page to see any real gain and the higher up that page the more dramatic that gain will be. Also, generally speaking, the website listed at number one will get exponentially more traffic than the one listed at number ten. For more about this, read What is a Top Ten Listing on Google Worth to Your Business?

SEO and small business websites

Sadly in my experience, most small business owners still rate the visual presentation of their website above having it search engine optimised. This is perhaps partly because they have always been guided by web designers who have little or no knowledge of SEO, (or worse still, outdated or flawed perceptions of SEO), and partly because they themselves fail to grasp the fact that without effective SEO, their website will never really get more than a handful of new visitors.

Remember that with over 90% of the UK search engine market and millions of searches every day, Google is a potentially huge source of income for small businesses, so to maximise the effectiveness of your website and cash in on this vast market, you should always aim for a balance between looks and SEO.

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Everyone knows that the best place to be listed in the search engines is the number one spot on Google, but what is that number one spot actually worth to your business and how does that compare to the number two spot or the number three spot?

The list below explains the average percentage of search engine traffic (or clicks) distributed to each of the listings on Google.

• The number 1 ranked website on Google gets 42% of clicks
• The number 2 ranked website on Google gets 12% of clicks
• The number 3 ranked website on Google gets 8% of clicks
• The number 4 ranked website on Google gets 6% of clicks
• The number 5 ranked website on Google gets 5% of clicks
• The number 6 ranked website on Google gets 4% of clicks
• The number 7 ranked website on Google gets 3% of clicks
• The remaining clicks are shared between all the other sites listed on Google

Data Source: Market Samurai

Each and every keyword or key phrase will generate a specific amount of traffic and the above percentages are the percentages of that traffic each of those top ten listings can reasonably expect to attract.

The keywords and key phrases that will generate the most traffic are very frequently not the ones you might expect, so be sure to do your keyword research BEFORE writing your web pages or blog posts. The best tool I have ever found for keyword research is currently offering a free trial to all new users and unlike some others, their free trial is the full working version of the software. So if you write web pages or blog posts it can make choosing the right keywords for your pages and posts an informed choice rather than guesswork. Even better, unlike most other keyword tools, this amazing software focuses on which keywords are likely to be most profitable for your business, not just those that generate the most traffic.

What is this software? Market Samurai.

Market Samurai comes with a full video training course and contains all sorts of invaluable information. So, if you’re serious about writing pages that generate high volumes of traffic from the search engines including Google, Yahoo! and Bing, I thoroughly recommend it.

Download your free trial of the full working version of Market Samurai today.

Remember that in the UK, Google currently has about 90 percent of all search engine traffic (and this figure is still growing), so combined, the top ten listings on Google mentioned above account for approximately 90 percent of all internet searches in the UK.

Now you can work out for yourself exactly what a top ten listing on Google is worth to your business.

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Here’s a great little book for anyone running a small business who wants to understand how to use Twitter for marketing.

It will take you through everything you need to know about what Twitter is and how to use it for business – all in just 10 minutes a chapter.

10 minutes is all you need to learn how to…

• Set up a Twitter account, including a complete profile
• Create an avatar appropriate for your Twitter persona
• Effectively communicate (or tweet) with @Mentions, Direct Messages, and Retweets
• Exchange online resources within the 140-character limit
• Keep up with what people are tweeting about through various tracking methods
• Include images, audio, and video in your Twitter feeds
• Set up and tweet from your desktop independent of Twitter.com
• Update your Twitter feed from your Google Phone
• Update your Twitter feed from your BlackBerry
• Update your Twitter feed from your iPhone
• Maintain and expand your Twitter networks
• Find additional support for all your Twitter needs

Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in 10 Minutes offers straightforward, practical answers when you need fast results. This is the go-to guide in teaching yourself Twitter faster than you can tweet. By working through 10-minute lessons, you’ll learn everything you need to know quickly and easily get into the fundamentals, and then reach into more advanced applications of the social networking site with tutorials that go beyond the basics.

The book also contains warnings to help you avoid common pitfalls and notes to provide additional information.

See larger image Sams Teach Yourself Twitter in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself...in 10 Minutes) (Paperback) By (author) Tee Morris List Price: 9.99 GBP New From: 3.64 In Stock Used from: 4.58 In Stock

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Many small businesses believe good Google listings are beyond them. This simply isn’t true. Find out how to be able to say “Google Loves You” and your website.

1. Domain Name

Choose a domain name that contains two or three keywords that are the most important keywords for your website or blog. For more details read Choosing a Domain Name.

2. Page Name/Post Name

Like your domain name, the name you choose for your page, post or article is very important. It has two components:

• The first is the page URL (e.g. for this page your are reading it is http://www.small-businessmarketing.co.uk/google-loves-you),  this tells Google and the other search engines what your page content is likely to be about, so it needs to contain the keywords main keywords for the page it relates to.
• The second is the page title. This is the title for the page that will be displayed to your visitors. This needs to tell your visitors what the page is about and is very likely to be similar to the page URL. (e.g. for this page you are reading it the page name is Google Loves You: 10 Top Tips for a Google-Friendly Website).

3. Text Content

After the domain name and post name above, the text on your page is the single most important factor in getting your page listed well by Google. Your page text should contain the keywords that you want it to be listed for.

There is a lot of discussion among web designers about keyword density, (i.e. the number of times a keyword appears per 100 words on a page). My view is that Google cares less about this than it does that the content is of value to the person reading it. In other words, I believe that so long as your chosen keywords are included within the text, you should write the page content to please the reader, not to please Google.

The detail of Google’s search engine algorithm is a closely guarded, but I’m convinced that Google Bot (the programme that crawls your web pages) is very adept at reading and can distinguish good, reader focused content from keyword density targeted nonsense.

In short, include main keywords in the text and write for your reader.

Always remember though that if you want your reader to actually do something once they have read your page then should consider skilled copywriting (i.e. it needs to be written with a specific end result in mind. That end result would usually be that the reader takes some specific action like phoning you, filling in a form, clicking the ‘Buy Now‘ button, etc. To find out more about our copywriting services Contact Us, or telephone us on 01263 722764.

4. Inbound Links and Social Bookmarking

Google places a lot of importance upon inbound links so inbound links are good, but not all inbound links. For more detail about inbound links this read Inbound Links: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Social Bookmarking and Social Networking in a Nutshell and Google Hates Links Pages. Ignore inbound links and Google will ignore your website. Why? Because Google figures that other people saying your website is good (by linking to it) is much better than you saying your own website is good.

5. Keywords Meta Tag

Google pretty much ignores the keywords meta tag. To find out more read Google doesn’t use the keywords meta tag in web search by Matt Cutts, (one of Google’s  own software engineers) and watch the video it contains. Other search engines do still use the keywords meta tag, so you should, but for most purposes Google will completely ignore it. The keywords meta tag should include the keywords from your text content at point 3 above and any common misspellings, or variations of them. Never use any word more than 5 times in the keywords meta tag on any given page (keyword stuffing) and above all, remember Google ignores the keywords meta tag anyway.

6. Description Meta Tag

In the Matt Cutts video as mentioned above, Matt clearly states that Google does use the description meta tag. The description meta tag should clearly and concisely describe your page content and in doing so, include your main keywords for the page. In total, including spaces the description meta tag should be no longer than 160 characters and it should be as informative as possible to a potential visitor – remember it may be the one thing that convinces them choose your page over your competitors’.

7. Un-Crawlable Content

Google loves text and there is no substitute for text. Search engine crawlers or spiders will read your web pages in order to decide how they should be listed in their search results. Crawlers can read text, but cannot read any of the following:

• Images

  If you use images be sure to use the alt tags properly to give a concise, textual description of what those images contain.

• Videos and Audio Files

  Include text on your page to describe the content of the files, or better still, a full transcript of the video or audio.

• Flash files

  Unless you know how to optimise flash files properly for search engines, simply don’t use them. If you must use them include a fully descriptive text transcript of their content in the page and never use them as stand-alone page content (i.e. graphically attractive, animated home pages with little or no text).

• JavaScript

  Most crawlers cannot read JavaScript so keep it to a minimum on your pages. Better still don’t use it at all.

8. Page Load Speed

Google has recently changed its search algorithm. Google’s new search algorithm ‘Google Caffeine’ includes among other things a test for page load speed. Google believes that pages which load faster give the user a better search experience and therefore Google now says page load speed is an important factor. Find out more by reading Introducing Page Speed at Google’s Webmaster Central Blog.

9. Blogs

Google loves blogs because blogs contain lots of fresh, new and unique content. Adding a blog to your website and then writing new posts regularly will keep Google Bot coming back. Make sure the posts are relevant to the content of your website. Then, if you have followed all of the steps above, Google will list your blog posts well and before too long you’ll be getting lots of new visitors from Google who are interested in what you have to say and what you have to sell.

10. Cloaked Links

Many bloggers in particular like to cloak their affiliate links from readers. They do this to turn what is very obviously an affiliate link into one that doesn’t look like an affiliate link at all. They do this for various reasons, but mainly to increase click-through rates and therefore boost their own affiliate income. Google takes a dim view of this practice. Make your links look like what they are regardless of their purpose.

To finish up, it’s worth mentioning that changing a whole website to encompass all the above points might take you some time. Don’t be daunted by this. Set out a careful plan of things to do, prioritise it and then make lots of small, gradual improvements over time. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in day! This approach will allow you to get on with what you do best while improving your website too.

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