Small Business SEM

If you’re a local electrician or general contractor, how great would it be to have a feature and a link on, say, the Home Depot web site? That’s kinda what happened to guitar teacher John Tuggle. Gibson Guitars found his video guitar lessons you YouTube, and added him to their web site. How’s that for [...]

Quick lunchtime post here: My latest Search Engine Land column is online today — it’s a profile/interview of Pink Cake Box, a small business using a blog, Flickr, and other methods to market successfully online.
As I say at the end of the interview, I’m looking for more small businesses to profile like this in the [...]

I have a story to tell you. I was chatting with Andrew Shotland today and shared this with him, and realized it belongs here on SBS, too.
First, the background
About a month ago, Andrew wrote a post about Freecycle, a network of local mailing lists where people essentially give away their unwanted junk to others on [...]

“SEO is like traditional marketing.”
That’s the opening sentence of a “secret” I share in an article published tonight on the Small Business Trends web site. It’s always difficult to come up with a secret. One person’s secret is another person’s old news. SBT Editor Anita Campbell told me the target readership is small business owners [...]

Imagine the attention, traffic, and who-knows-what-else you’d get if your small business was featured on CNN. Sounds like a pipe dream, but it’s not.
CNN Headline News is starting a new segment called “Small Business Success”, and they want to hear your tips and advice for succeeding as a small business.

Is there anything specific you’ve [...]

If your small business is service-oriented, expertise is your product. It’s your value proposition and what sets you apart from your competitors. The better you market your expertise, the better you’ll grow your business.
How To Position Yourself as an Expert
The SEO/SEM industry provides great examples of selling a service-based business. Here’s a quick list:
1.) [...]

I’ve had a few conversations this week about the limitations of the SEMMY awards. I’m well aware of some of the great articles, authors, and sites that are under-represented. And I’m thankful that those people have accepted my omissions with grace.
Those conversations have led me to do a lot of thinking this week about visibility, [...]

Many of the best search marketers own or work for small businesses. They share great advice and articles about SEO, PPC, social media, local search, and more. But these folks also share a lot of great advice for small businesses indirectly — by the things they do in their own businesses. Here are eight pieces [...]