Have You Googled Your Small Business Lately?

Although low-cost domains and affordable web design are readily available, a recent survey by Warrillow shows that the majority of small businesses don’t have an independent website – in fact, 59% are without this resource.

With more and more people searching for local businesses on Google (ie. “Denver, CO florist”), it is important for small businesses to be on the first results page – if not the first result on the page – for their respective niche or at least their company name.

So, if a small business doesn’t have a website, how can they rank on a search results page or create a valuable online presence?

One of the most overlooked avenues to get on results page is to utilize social media. Visualize social media as virtual real estate – the earlier a small business can get their hands on a variety of properties, the better the chance they will reap the benefits when the area begins to develop more.

Here are a few valuable properties within social media that a small business should consider investing their time and efforts in:

* Social Search Directories – There are a variety of directories – such as Yelp, CitySearch, and even YellowPages – that allow users to search for businesses, get their information, and write reviews. Adding reviews to a typical “online phonebook” can help create a community around a business and give the business an opportunity to address any negative feedback.
* Even search engines such as Google and Yahoo are beginning to show interest in the value of these communities. They are beginning to populate and enhance their results with results from social (and local) search directories. In addition to those results, search engines are creating local business centers to make adding your business as simple as possible. Blogs – With free tools available like WordPress and BlogSpot, creating a small business (or personal, for that matter) blog has never been easier. Blogs have broken through the stigma of being trivial and have become a credible source of providing information, establishing expertise, and increasing position on search result pages.
* This resource gives small businesses a chance to highlight specials, give customers niche-related information, or anything else that has potential to bring people into their store – this is an opportunity to get creative. Social Networking – Although most small business owners are still using these networks forpersonal reasons, there is huge potential for small businesses to connect with their consumers and like-minded industry professionals.
With business networks like LinkedIn and FaceBook becoming more popular, small business owners have a resource to share ideas with other small businesses, create business profiles, and interact with consumers.

Just because a small business doesn’t currently have the resources available to create and maintain a website, doesn’t mean it can’t have an online presence. Social media gives businesses an opportunity to be found by large group of consumers that are looking to be well-informed. Not only will current and potential consumers be able to find the small business they are looking for, the small business will be able to proactively interact with them and respond to questions or concerns.

Web Design - 6 Critical Elements Your Small Business Website Must Have to Survive

A great number of small businesses have a website because everyone else does. Keeping up with the crowd if you like. If this is the reason that you have a website then there is a very good chance that your website is not performing as well as you would like. There is even a very good chance that your website has not been updated in a while. So, what are the 6 key elements to getting your website to perform?

The first thing that you must have on your website is great content. People search the internet for information, so you must ensure that your website contains great information relating to your business sector or niche. Google will reward you with a better ranking for having lots of great content on your site. You probably already have access to lots of great content about your business. Nobody knows your business better than you. A number of articles of 500 to 1000 words about various elements of your business will really give your site a boost. You may also choose to outsource this element of your site to a ghost writer to create content for you.

A Blog is a great way to give you site a boost. Blogging is not just for nerds. A blog helps to create a community around your website. People can contribute their ideas to your blog making them feel a part of your business. A blog is also a great way to contribute new content to your site. Google will reward you for this new content with a better ranking. There are a number of free blogs available that can be easily incorporated into your site.

Video is a key element for any website. Videos on your site let you interact with your visitors at a more personal level. The internet is often a faceless medium coming out of a computer screen. As a result of this people tend to be a little more wary dealing with a business they do not know over the internet and it can take a number of interactions to establish trust before people will purchase from your site. One way to overcome this is a video message on your site to indicate that there are real people involved in your business. Video is also a very effective means of teaching people how to do things and sharing high quality information on the internet. This also helps with the credibility of your website.

Email capture is vital for your website. It can take time to establish trust and credibility with your site visitors. If you have a site that sells product people will often not buy from you until they have visited your site a number of times. Give away a free report or a free subscription to your newsletter in order to get them to leave their email address with you. This way you can keep in contact with them on a regular basis in order to establish trust and credibility and to keep them coming back to your site.

Business details are vital to give you credibility. Your physical location, a phone number, details of the real human beings involved in your business are important, and often overlooked elements of your site. If all your customers can find is a web page and an email address then it will take longer to establish credibility with them.

The layout of your site is vital for keeping people involved. Is your site easy to navigate? If you are selling product, how easy is it to find the product that you are selling? If your visitors are leaving your site quickly then there is a very good chance that your layout is not engaging them or it is too difficult to navigate. Your layout should be clean and easy to follow. Many sites have too many widgets and gadgets and are too busy, and so people leave because they do not know what to look at next.

So, out of a score of 6, how is your site currently performing? Great content or needs improving? A blog so that people can get involved in your site? Video? Email capture by giving away a free report or newsletter subscription? Physical business details to establish credibility? Layout?

Small Business Plans For Childcare Centers

Are you thinking of engaging into another business? Thinking of what type of business to venture into? What about opening a childcare center. You can browse into different small business plans for childcare centers. Remember, parents nowadays are always on the rush on going to work and even work 2 to 3 jobs in order to sustain the family's needs. Most often, both parents are working and their kids are left behind with the babysitters who are paid on per hour basis. These parents are only after the welfare of their kids. Therefore, a childcare center would be a better business and can cater to the needs of the many working parents out there.

With childcare centers, parents are assured of that their kids are in good hands and are well taken care of. There will be no fear or worries on what might happened with their children. With small business plans for childcare centers, you will be guided on what you should know before starting such business. First, knowing if there is a need to put a center, meaning if there is an existing demand for such service. You cannot put up a center, when all of the people living there are all single or married but do not have kids. When there is a demand, then it is all up for you to supply the service. However, take into consideration if there is an existing childcare centers. Be sure to know what are the services they are offering in order for you to formulate what unique services you can incorporate into for you to compete with other childcare centers.

An important thing to consider that you can get out from small business plans for childcare centers is the financing. Next is, where to get the needed capital in order to finance your business, it might be a loan from the bank, your savings or invite your families or colleagues to team-up with you and invest in such business. No matter how brilliant your business idea is, if you don't have the needed capital to run it, all of your hard work will be put to nothing. Be wise enough and think the best option where you can get the capital.

Before you start digging and trying to ponder to start a childcare center as your business, it is best to gather around small business plans for childcare centers. Weigh things over and discover which how to maximize your capital and convert it into a profitable business.