Internet Marketing
for Small Businesses
Lilly Buchwitz, MBA, CEC
University of New Brunswick
October 1, 2001
Overview
Part I
search engines
Part II
visibility
Part III
email marketing
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Part IV
everything else
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
What you need to know
about search engines
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
There are only nine search engines that matter.
Understanding how search engines work and how people
use them will help you “get found” on them.
You must carefully prepare your Web site before you
submit it to the search engines.
Submitting your pages to the search engines takes less
than 10 minutes.
The only person who can submit your site to search
engines – effectively – is you.
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Search engines that matter
AltaVista
Google
Inktomi
Fast
Excite
Hotbot
Lycos
Northern Light
Direct Hit
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Directories that matter
Yahoo!
Looksmart
Open Directory
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Submitting to Yahoo!
 If you’re a business you must pay to be
included in the Yahoo! Directory
 one-time fee of $299 (click here for link)
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
How search engines work
database
submit URL
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
How directories work
database
$$$$
submit URL
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
How people search
 start with broad, general terms
 narrow it down by adding more specific
words
 not likely to search for your company name
 almost never search for the words
“welcome to”
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Preparing your site to get found
(this is the hard part)
Choose 10 words that describe your
business, service, or products.
Take your time.
Think like a searcher.
Let’s look at an example…
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
beer
wine
Toronto
brew your own
brew on
premises
make your own
wine from
grapes
Using your keywords:
html title
 The html title of the page is what you see at the top of your
browser when you are on that page.
 It’s what displays as the link for your listing on a search engine.
 Keep it under 75 characters.
 Make each title relevant to the page it’s on.
 Spend the most time writing the title for your home page.
 Also, write a title for the starting page of each major section of
your site.
 For all other pages, either use the same title as the major section,
or use breadcrumbs.
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Using your keywords:
meta description
 The meta description tag describes in a little more detail
what’s on your page
 It’s what displays below the title in your search engine
listing
 Keep it under 150 characters to be sure it doesn’t get cut off
 Make each description relevant to the page it’s on
 Try to entice potential visitors with clever copy, so they’ll
click
more…
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Using your keywords:
meta description
 It’s not really about ranking, it’s about describing your page
to potential visitors
 Not all search engines use it
 Here’s how it works:
<meta name=“description” content=“This is
a description of my site”>
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Using your keywords:
meta keywords
 The meta keywords tag can be the same for all the
pages on your site
 Not all search engines take this tag into
consideration when they rank sites
 Use a list of words and phrases with no commas in
between (search engine spiders are programmed to
read only a certain number of characters in the
keyword tag if they read it at all)
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Using your keywords:
meta keywords
Here’s how it works:
<meta name=“keywords” content=“beer wine
toronto brew on premises brew your own
beer make your own wine make wine from
grapes”>
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Using your keywords:
ALT tags
 every image on your Web site should have a
carefully written ALT tag
 the ALT text is what visitors see if they move
their mouse over an image
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Using your keywords:
file names
don’t use abbrv.
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Using your keywords:
on every page!
 Work your keywords into the copy of every page on
your Web site, as many times as you can without
making it sound ridiculous.
 This may seem obvious but it ain’t necessarily so.
 Focusing on your keywords when writing the copy
for your pages also helps reduce jargon.
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
What NOT to do
 Don’t load your meta tags with irrelevant keywords.
 Don’t repeat your keywords several times in a row.
 Don’t hide text on your pages by making it the same
colour as the background.
 Don’t use a string of keywords for the title of your page.
 Don’t submit exact copies of pages with different file
names.
 Don’t send email to search engines.
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Submitting your site
(this is the easy part)
 Bookmark the submission pages of the search engines that
matter, or bookmark this page
 Highlight the URL of your page, press CTRL/C, then go to
each submission page and paste in your URL. You can
submit one page to all the search engines in less than ten
minutes.
 If your site is small enough, submit all your pages this way.
It will be an hour well spent. If your site is large, submit the
first pages of the main sections of your site — the pages
with titles and descriptions.
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Wait…
(this is also the hard part)
 it can take from two weeks to four months for your
site to be included in the database
 it can take weeks after that before you see your site
appear in the search results
 every time the database is re-indexed, your ranking
will change
 re-submit every month and monitor your results
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Don’t pay someone else to
do it for you
 no one else understands your business as
well as you
 it will take more time for you to explain your
business to a stranger than it will to do your
search engine optimization yourself
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Paid placement and
Paid inclusion
 Yahoo! = paid inclusion
It’s worth the investment
 GoTo = paid placement
Save your money!!
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
 If you can afford it,
pay to be included in
Looksmart directory
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Part II
visibility
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Link Popularity
 a.k.a. “visibility”
 it’s what made Yahoo! the most popular
site
 AltaVista, Inktomi, Hotbot, Northern
Light, Excite, and Google all use it in
their algorithms
 quantity, quality, and relevance
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Determining your site’s
link popularity
 search for unique words/phrases on Google,
AltaVista
 use AV’s link search – type
link:http://www.mysite.com into search field
 download and install Google’s toolbar
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
More about visibility
 Your goal is to get as many sites as possible to link to you
 Make a list of every Web site that’s in your space but not a
direct competitor
 Find their email address and write a brief, friendly letter
suggesting a link exchange
 Get your partners, vendors, friends and relatives to link to
your site
 Submit those pages that link to you to every search engine
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Part III
email marketing
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
The information strategy
People come to your Web site
looking for information
Make sure they get it!
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
The newsletter strategy
 A newsletter is arguably the most powerful
marketing tool there is.
 People who subscribe to, or pick up, a
newsletter usually read all of it.
 Whatever your business, you are an expert.
 Give people information!
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
The education strategy
 Present information about your product, your
product category, your industry, in an
objective, informational way.
 Teach your prospective customers.
 Give them valuable information.
 They will appreciate it, and come back for
more.
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Rules for email newsletters
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
get permission
frequent
regular
brief
include “why you’re receiving this”
include options for unsubscribing
suggest they pass it along to a friend
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Email marketing tools
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Part IV
everything else
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Specialty directories
 Search for “directory” and “search engine” on
Yahoo! for a list
 Search for your keywords on all the search engines,
and see what you find
 When you find a directory specific to your business,
check it out to make sure it’s appropriate
 Then (and only then) submit your site
 You may have to pay for a listing — and it’s
probably worth it
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Banner advertising
 Banner ads are the first thing people think of when
someone says Internet marketing
 Banner ads are actually online advertising.
 Like all forms of advertising, they’re expensive.
 Banner advertising doesn’t fit into the marketing
budget of most small businesses.
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Banner advertising
 What about link exchange programs?
 Well, you get what you pay for.
 Even if you can run your banner for free, you still have to
pay someone to design it for you.
 So, should you buy banner ads? Maybe.
 A short campaign to support a product launch might be
worth the investment. Especially if you can offer a free trial.
People click on ads if they feel there’s something
worthwhile at the end of the click.
 If you’re going to run a banner campaign, make sure your ad
has a strong call to action.
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Sponsored content
 sponsorships are static ads
 relevant to content of page
 think: advertising Calloway golf clubs on a
golf news or golf info site
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Run a contest
 best way to collect names and email
addresses
 give people something in return for
subscribing
 partner with another business; you both
benefit
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Include your Web address
on everything!
 business cards
 brochures
 signs
 yellow pages ad
 t-shirts, hats, pens
 your car or truck
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Measure your success
 How many people (unique visitors) come to your
Web site
 How many times (in a month) they come
 Where they are coming from (referring URLs)
 Whether they subscribe to your newsletter
 How many calls you get saying “I saw your Web
site, and…”
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Resources
World Wide Web Marketing, 3rd ed., by Jim Sterne
Ecommerce: Critical Success Factors That Will Make or
Break Your Online Business
by Nick Jones and Russell Field
Web Marketing Today
Internet.com
iMarketing News
Search Engine Watch
E-commerce: Impacting the Way We Do Business
Nashville, Tennessee, October 1, 2001
Lilly Buchwitz
University of New Brunswick
Thank you
Let me know about your successes!
lilly@buchwitz.com
http://www.attcanada.ca/~lillyb