Get a jump on the web

CASH-strapped small businesses know a website will open them up to the world - but too often they skimp on marketing and it fails.

Internet expert Jasmine Batra said it did not have to be so difficult.

"A website can be such a level-playing field and small business can compete against the big corporates," she said.

Ms Batra, the director of Arrow Internet Marketing, said there were measures businesses could take to optimise their presence on the internet.

Her own company was ranked first for searches on google.com.au for "SEO (search engine optimisation)company" thanks to clever use of optimisation.

Ms Batra said experts could identify what people were searching for and how best the small business could tap into that demand.

One step was to find out what search words people were using when looking for goods or services.

It helped, she said, to put yourself in their shoes. For instance, were people searching for "used baby goods" or "second hand baby goods".

She said when websites were developed they generally had access to tools to track who was visiting the site.

Traffic statistics can not only show how many people are visiting but how long they stayed.

Ms Batra said people should look at this information at least once a month.

"I like to look at my traffic stats every week," she said.

"There are lots of insights in them. If you were running a retail store you would be interested to know how many people walked in the door."

She said people could install Google Analytics which would help them find out where their visitors were coming from and how they interacted with the site.

She said it also was important to manage the content of the site, keeping it up-to-date and relevant.

Google has more than 300 criteria when ranking websites. Blogging, RSS feeds and repeating key words were all advantageous and would optimise a site.

It was pointless for a business to spend a lot of money on a site and not market it Ms Batra said.

"They need to be spending money on the online marketing of the site as well," she said.

It was also important to identify your target market.

If, for example, you were targeting Generation Y, you might be interested in pursuing bookmarking and social networking sites such as MySpace, Flickr and Del.ici.ous.

"There are a lot of opportunities to make the most of it," she said.

She said some businesses might find Pay Per Click promotions, such as Google AdWords, effective.

Businesses might like to run Google Adwords in the short term, at particular times of the year in their business cycle.

But she said it was important for businesses to know how much the service was costing them and how much it cost to get each client or sell each product.

Some clients offering professional services had found Google AdWords beneficial.

Ms Batra said one of her clients, which sold solar panels, had been able to work out that using AdWords it cost it $30 to sell a $1500 panel.