Then it occurred to me that I’d already written an article like that about four years ago when I was still doing corporate work and was just a columnist for Search Engine Land. It’s still worth reading, despite its old age. So rather than rewrite the whole thing, I’ll just link:

A Small Business Year-End Web Site Checklist

I cover things like “Review your email routing,” “Review and test your contact forms” and “Review your domain record.” Those are important things that often get overlooked but should be checked at least once a year.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

A Year-End (or Year-Beginning) Checklist for Small Business Websites

I circled the wording on the front there — “Important Information Enclosed” — because it’s basically a lie. I’ve received this same envelope from Charter numerous times in the past (and similar envelopes from other companies, too), so I wasn’t fooled this time.

But I recall the first time this envelope arrived. They suckered me in to thinking there actually was important information inside — something was wrong with my account, or maybe I’d mistakenly missed a payment or some such thing.

But when you open up the envelope, the “important information” is actually a sales pitch.

They want me to upgrade from my current Internet-only service to the full bundle of Internet, cable and phone service. This may be important to Charter, but it sure as heck isn’t important to me.

Why Am I Writing About This?

Like I said, it’s not technically about online marketing. But it is about trust. Every time I get this envelope from Charter, I trust them a little less. And, to tie this back to things I have written before, there’s nothing more important than trust when it comes to growing and sustaining a business (online and offline).

Someone in Charter’s marketing department decided it was okay to call a sales pitch “important information.” Don’t be like that with your customers.

End of sermon.

And, by the way, I actually love Charter’s Internet service and have recommended them to a lot of local folks. My Internet connection has never been faster nor more stable than it’s been since we ditched the phone company’s DSL and switched to cable Internet. So, yeah, envelope falsehoods be damned — they’re still getting my business and I’m still recommending them to others. But it’s still not a good idea to chip away at my trust with every sales pitch they send.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

Are You Lying to Your Customers?

The company, Heylen, has painted the parking spots like this at three of its stores, according to Retail Detail. And, as that article points out, it’s probably pretty tough to actually enforce the Facebook Fans-only rule on those parking spots.

But, you know what? I don’t think that matters if that gets enforced.

What matters, in my mind, is that a furniture store has found a creative way to both reward its Facebook fans and attract new ones. It’s different. It’s unique. It’s memorable. It’s the kind of thing you might tell a friend.

Heylen’s online marketing manager, Christiane Peschen, says this is just one aspect of the company’s focus on social media. They’re promoting Heylen’s social media presence throughout the store(s) as you can see in this Flickr photo set.

Peschen says the company promotes its Facebook and Twitter presence on store receipts. And they’re planning show which piece(s) of furniture have been “liked” the most — this’ll be indicated both in the stores and in Heylen’s catalog.

Thumbs up from me. I like it — especially the parking spots. Very memorable.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

Creative Small Business Marketing, Episode 7

The Four Simple Steps to Online Success

1. Have a well SEO’d website.

Sometimes SEO doesn’t matter, but those cases are rare. For most businesses with a website, search will be the number one traffic source. If you haven’t spent much time thinking about SEO, read about How To Get Started With SEO. You’ll have to decide if you want to hire a consultant or do it yourself. That article will help.

If you decide to hire an SEO consultant, please ignore sales pitches for cheap SEO and learn the costs, expectations and realities of small business SEO.

(I sell a highly-regarded and very inexpensive SEO e-book that covers everything you need to know about on-page SEO. End of sales pitch.)

2. Have a great and active blog.

Online success demands a content strategy. For most, a blog is the perfect way to execute a content strategy. (Quality articles posted regularly on your website might be an acceptable substitute.) Blogs are a great way to train the crawlers to visit your site consistently. A great blog will bring you more search engine traffic because they help you get more links and indexed pages.

Don’t worry about how long your blog posts should be. Write stuff that your target audience will find interesting. If you need blog content ideas, try things like Delicious.com or question-based keyword research tools.

3. Be active and interesting on appropriate social networking sites.

Social media should not be your primary online asset; it should promote your primary business asset, i.e. – your website and blog. Don’t spam or try shortcuts; you can’t buy your way to thousands of committed fans/followers.

More importantly, don’t focus on how many fans or followers you have. It’s better to have a small group of loyal fans than a huge following of people who don’t care about you. Understand why we like and follow businesses on social networking sites, as well as why we stop liking and following.

If you’re still unsure about social media, watch a video that shows what social media is all about.

4. Have great products or services.

If you want customers to love you and tell their friends and co-workers about you, you can’t be average or good enough. Online buzz — what we’ve always called “word of mouth” — comes from being remarkable, from having great products and/or services. As I say in the SEO Success Pyramid,

Great search marketing won’t hide the fact that you have a lousy product or service.

That’s true. You may sell a few people on your average/lousy products or services, but it won’t last long. There’s nothing more important than having your customers’ trust, and providing great products and services is a great way to earn trust.

One More Thing…

Let me clarify what I’m talking about: Online success takes planning, commitment, hard work and patience. It’s not easy — far from it. But it is simple.

If you cover those four things above, the sky is the limit for your business.

(Social media stock image courtesy of Shutterstock.com. Used with permission.)

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

In 2011, Online Success Is As Simple As This

In an analysis of that data Steve King of Emergent Research says “we do think over the next 5 years Facebook is going to become the primary website for roughly half of all small businesses that are online.”

Don’t be one of those small businesses. As I’ve said before, social media should never be your primary web asset. It can disappear at any time and leave you empty-handed.

Better advice: understand and optimize the web equity that you own and can control for eternity.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

Don’t Be One of These Small Businesses

As Mike says in the text, “The many elements of an online presence can build on each other and work together for a business. The process is best done in an environment with more control rather than less. Because of the changing nature of the Internet, a SMB’s marketing investment should always reinforce and strengthen the elements over which they have the most ownership.”

You can read Mike’s blog post about it, or just go straight the download/embed page where you’ll find several versions at your fingertips.

Highly recommend reading and thinking about this idea of building out marketing pieces that you control for the long haul.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

SMBs: Do You Know What “Web Equity” You Control?