I wrote an article on 5 Strategies for a More Profitable Business Website awhile back that ended up getting posted on quite a few sites online.  After checking out some of the comments on one particular site, it seems like a follow up article on tracking would be a good idea, specifically focused on Google Analytics.  If you're not using Google Analytics, this free service is a powerful way to get insight into how well your site is performing.  But since there's so much information that Analytics can provide, let me give you a few tips for which metrics really matter and what you should try to improve. 

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Like any good entreprenuer, I've been a subscriber to Entrepreneur Magazine for quite awhile.  If you haven't had a chance to take a look at one of their latest issues, you might want to at least visit their website and read their suggestions for 21 Low-Cost Marketing Ideas.  I think it's pretty telling that 7 out of the 21 tips in that article have something to do with online marketing.  So I figured I'd write a little follow up article of my own to add my take on some of the ideas they suggested. 

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This is a pretty good video covering some of the ins and outs of search engine optimization.  If you're a small business thinking about investing in SEO, this video provides some great insights and things to keep in mind.  Below, I've included a couple of my own comments, along with a few things I don't exactly agree with and one extremely critical piece that was missing from this discussion (but hey, it was a pretty short video): 

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Having a website created for your business is almost essential these days.  It's almost inconceivable that someone would be in business today without one since a website can be such a powerful part of your business marketing and sales process.  That being the case, before you decide to hire a web designer or web design company, there are some key questions every small business owner should ask. 

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I saw this post recently over on the SEO blog at Seer Interactive.  I had the good fortune of meeting Wil Reynolds at a recent industry event and continue to check out the tips and info that he posts on his blog and elsewhere.  Wil makes a couple of really good points in this post where he says: 

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The next step in our local seo quick start guide is to take care of the "on-page factors".  I hate to even use that term because to a non-SEO, it's just jargon...so let's translate that.  The "on-page factors" are all of the elements of your site that affect your search engine ranking that.  Keep in mind that there are elements "off" of your site that also come into play, but for right now, we're only focused on changes we can make to the site itself to make it better. 

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Let's continue with our Local SEO Quick Start Guide with Step 3 - Conducting Competitive Research.  First of all, it's important to point out that competitive research isn't necessarily to decide whether or not you should roll out an SEO campaign.  After all, your market is your market, and unless you're flexible enough to completely change businesses, you probably have to deal with whatever the realities are when it comes to your competition. 

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This is a continuation of our Local SEO Quick Start Guide.  Once you've established what the goals are for your website, the next step is to do keyword research. Nearly everything you do to market your business online is based on the keyword research you do during this step so it's absolutely critical to get this right. The goal is to figure out how people are actually searching for your products/services online or the solutions that your business provides. Here are a few quick steps for doing keyword research. 

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One of the most common problems when seeking out an expert to improve the search engine rankings for your site is that many website owners have a misunderstanding about what it really takes to improve a website's rankings.  Here's a quick example and a quick guide to what you should look for (at a minimum) from a good SEO campaign. 

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