My subscription to the online version of the WSJ (Wall Street Journal) continues to be one of the best investments I’ve made. 

In the small business section, Kelly Spors always impresses with her insightful articles, easy for the neophyte or layman to understand.

The last time I quoted her entire article directly from the WSJ with apologies if that was in some way breaking copyright laws, or otherwise usurping some journalistic protocol.  I’d just provide the link, here, but it requires the subscription to see this material, so that’s why I’m copying and pasting in my blog, and why I want to give full credit to Kelly and the WSJ.

The article actually was written a few months ago, but still hits the mark for those of us constantly seeking to tweak our online presence.   Here ’tis:

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In Search of Traffic

For small companies, just having a Web site isn’t
enough anymore. To be successful online, they must learn to harness one
of the Web’s most powerful tools: search engines.

After all, search engines like Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft
Corp.’s MSN are often shoppers’ first stops when they’re looking for a
product on the Web. So it’s crucial for small businesses to show up
prominently in search-engine results — and that’s a complicated job.

Search engines don’t disclose their ranking formulas,
making it tough for small companies to figure out how to boost their
site’s results. Even worse, big competitors can afford to pour lots of
resources into that same effort — putting small companies at a bigger
disadvantage.

The good news? While the exact ranking formulas
are a mystery, there are plenty of clues about how to improve a site’s
position. Add lots of relevant descriptions to the site’s text,
including the search phrases for which you want a high ranking. Have
other sites link to it. Offer a blog or other informational content for
customers. And if these efforts prove too complicated for a business to
handle, not to worry: A whole industry has sprung up to help companies
improve their rankings.

Small businesses are discovering other search
strategies, as well. They’re getting smarter about ads, for instance.
Pay-per-click ads that pop up for general search terms (such as
"clothing") tend to be very expensive — so companies are buying ads
for much more specific terms to cut costs. Many businesses are also
focusing their efforts on search-engine pages devoted to their own
geographic area, instead of trying to compete against businesses
world-wide.

Here’s a guide to the best ways for small businesses to nab better search results.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF

Placing high in search results for common search
phrases — known as natural, or organic, results, to differentiate them
from paid ads — is getting ever more crucial. Studies show that Web
users predominantly click on the top four results for any particular
search, and then move on, says Shar VanBoskirk, senior analyst for
Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. Very few dig more than
three pages into results.

One basic way to secure a better search-engine ranking
is peppering a site’s text with carefully chosen keywords — the kinds
of phrases people would use to find the site with a search engine. The
search engines like it best when the keywords appear naturally in the
site’s text, such as product descriptions, says Aaron Wall, a
search-marketing consultant in Oakland, Calif. So a good strategy is to
add a generous amount of useful content that uses the keywords
frequently, such as beefier descriptions or informational articles.

The keywords on each page should also appear in that
page’s title tag — the blue bar that appears at the top of each page.
Less important, though still helpful, the keywords should appear in the
metatags, the invisible text that gives information about the contents
of a page. Some Webmasters try to game the system by hiding keywords in
text that blends into the background, but many search engines now
penalize such practices with lower rankings.

Smarter use of keywords was one of the first
strategies Allan Dick employed to boost business at Vintage Tub &
Bath, a Hazleton, Pa., company that sells reproductions of
old-fashioned bathtubs online. A few years ago, Mr. Dick, who helps run
the 30-employee company with his brother, found he could increase
traffic by using certain words in the product descriptions on Vintage’s
Web site.

For instance, adding more content and product
descriptions that used common search terms — words like "tubs" and
"vintage tubs" — frequently seemed to boost its ranking on search
engines. "It was dawning on me that if you were wording things in a
certain way, people would find us," says Mr. Dick. "It was, ‘Aha,
there’s a certain method to this.’ "

But that was just a first step. Mr. Dick bolstered his
efforts by attending search-marketing conferences to learn about search
rankings and new optimization techniques. And the work seems to have
paid off: Last year, his company had sales of $10.4 million, up from
about $8 million in 2005, and well above its $1.4 million or so of
revenue in 2001. It recently surfaced as the No. 2 site in a Google
search on "tub," out of 35.4 million results.

THINK MORE NARROWLY

The big choice for small businesses is which search
phrases to focus on. Some companies concentrate on just a few phrases,
while others tackle 20 or more. The best number depends on factors such
as how many different products are sold on the site, the number of
pages on the site (each page can usually hold only a few keywords) and
how much time or money a company is willing to spend redesigning its
site to attract search engines’ attention.

It’s also important to weigh how competitive the
search phrases are. Instead of focusing on generic search words, such
as "books" or "mortgages," that already have hundreds of businesses
wrangling over them, small businesses often fare better focusing on
longer, specific phrases, says Mr. Wall.

For instance, he suggests that a used-book dealer who
has a book signed by Mark Twain might try optimizing its Web site
around terms like "rare used books" or "autographed Mark Twain,"
instead of just "books." Another advantage of this approach is that
more-specific search terms generally elicit higher customer-conversion
rates — turning visits into sales — since shoppers are more likely to
find what they’re looking for.

There are other wording tricks small businesses can
use to get better results. Businesses aiming to attract a high-end
clientele might add the word "professional" to the search phrases
highlighted on their site. Or a business might try to boost the search
ranking for its top-selling brand name instead of just the generic
product type. But "the focus should always be on coming up with terms
that customers actually use to find your business online," Mr. Wall
says.

Many online forums and free tools can help businesses
learn to optimize their sites on their own. Yahoo’s Keyword Selector
Tool lets users see which terms are typed into search engines most
often. Other free tools, such as Google’s Analytics software, keep
track of a Web site’s visitor numbers, keywords used to find the site,
and customer-conversion rates. Other free tools available online can
track which other Web sites link to a business’s site, make content
suggestions and scan the site for keyword density, or the percentage of
the text in which the keyword is used.

One final wording tip: A business’s domain name also
plays into search rankings. If the domain is "couch.com," the site will
probably rank much better for the keyword "couch" than if the domain
name is "tomsfurniturestore.com."

BE THE EXPERT

Loading up on search terms isn’t the only way to
improve a site’s search rankings. Search engines are getting more
sophisticated, experts say, and increasingly they’re rewarding sites
that offer high-quality, useful consumer content. For instance,
becoming an "evangelist" on your industry and posting helpful consumer
information on your site is likely to boost its popularity and ranking.

Take Ice.com,
an online jewelry business based in Montreal. Besides selling jewelry,
the site includes a diamond-buying guide, a checklist with steps that
couples should take before their wedding, a blog and a feature where
readers can ask questions about jewelry. The site recently showed up
11th in a search for "jewelry" on Google, and seventh for "diamond
jewelry."

GET LOTS OF LINKS

Another big factor in search-engine results is the
number of Web sites that link to a company’s site that are highly
ranked by the search engines. The more such sites, the better. Many Web
sites that do well in search rankings spend time "link-building," or
trying to coax related sites to post links to them. Sometimes companies
contact Webmasters directly and try to forge relationships, or they get
a link in an online search directory such as Yahoo Directory, which
costs $299 a year. Having interesting or informative content such as a
blog also boosts the chance of getting links from another site.

The words used by other sites in links also factor
highly into search results. Let’s say another site links to
tomsfurniturestore.com, which specializes in couches. If the other site
uses the word "couch" in its link, it can help boost "tom’s" ranking
for the keyword "couch."

Keep in mind, though, that no two search engines are
the same. "Google’s algorithm tends to place more weight on the
authority and trust of the site," such as the number of links, Mr. Wall
says. "Yahoo and MSN place more weight on the page content."

Vanessa Fox, a product manager for Google, says the
search engines "all have different things that we’re looking for in our
page results."

GET SOME HELP

For many small-business people, optimizing and asking
for links can get technical and time-consuming. So an industry has
sprung up in recent years to help businesses with their search results.
These companies — called search-engine optimizers, or SEOs — come in
many flavors. Some are full service, handling everything from
redesigning a Web site to writing content to determining which keywords
are best to persuading other Web sites to post links.

Others are more like consultants. They provide
Web-site audits with recommendations on how to better optimize the
site, but the client’s Webmaster must implement the changes. Some focus
on specific aspects of search optimization, such as writing "search
friendly" text or link-building.

But businesses should be careful when hiring an SEO,
because not every company offers the same expertise, says Ryan Allis,
chief executive of Virante, a Durham, N.C., search-marketing consulting
firm. And the results can never be guaranteed, given the changing and
sometimes mysterious nature of search-engine rankings.

So businesses should take bids from several SEOs and
ask to see the work they’ve done for previous clients, Mr. Allis
suggests. An SEO should also be willing to give regular reports showing
how its efforts have affected the business’s search rankings for
various search phrases.

Then there are fees. The prices for SEOs can be
bewildering to many small-business owners. Costs can range from $500 a
month to several thousand — for what often seem to be almost identical
services.

Submit Express Inc., an Oakland, Calif., SEO, charges
a "setup" fee of $2,500 to $10,000, which includes keyword research,
optimization and link-building, says Chief Executive Pierre Zarokian.
Then clients can pay a monthly fee ranging from $750 to $5,000 for
continuing optimization efforts — mostly link-building, he says.

The fees vary depending on how much work a site needs
and how competitive it is already, says Mr. Zarokian. For instance,
propelling a site from No. 10 to No. 1 in the search rankings may be a
lot easier than moving it from No. 10,000 to No. 10.

BUY ADS

Ads are another consideration. Marketing experts
advise that most businesses are best served by complementing
optimization with some paid ads on search engines. It also can be a
faster route to getting good exposure in search engines.

Most major search engines now offer paid ads, such as
pay-per-click ads, where the Web site pays a set fee every time someone
clicks on its ad. Google and Yahoo let businesses bid on their
per-click fee for particular search phrases to garner a better ranking
for their ad.

Paid results appear right next to natural
search-engine results, usually under a "sponsored ads" heading. As with
search results, businesses should try to end up in the top few paid ads
for common search terms. If the per-click fee is too high for popular
phrases, they should focus on more-specific search phrases, which
usually cost less — and convert to business more. For example, the
average suggested per-click fee for ranking in the top three paid
results for "tennis rackets" recently was $1.38, according to Google’s
AdWords Keyword Tool. But "graphite tennis rackets" cost only about 43
cents.

For some small-business owners, paid ads aren’t a
complement to an optimization strategy; they’re an alternative to it.
They don’t want the headache of learning about search-engine
optimization or hiring a firm to do it, so they rely exclusively on ads.

That’s the case with Geoffrey Searles, owner of Apollo
Piano Co., a piano refurbishing and tuning business in Grafton, Mass.
Last September, he began running pay-per-click ads through Google’s
AdWords program. He bid on about 25 keywords such as "piano repair" and
"antique player pianos," and capped his monthly expenditure at $200.

Since then, his site has had an average of 270 hits a
month, compared with about five a month before he started using ad
words. The ads have cost him about $575 total, and he estimates he has
received at least $20,000 extra in work. He likes the ability to
control his monthly spending and stop the ads when he has enough
business. "It’s just been so successful that I haven’t gone any
further," Mr. Searles says.

THINK LOCALLY

Small businesses should also consider focusing their
efforts on one corner of the Web. Many small, locally based businesses,
such as dry cleaners and restaurants, don’t need Web traffic from
around the globe. Instead, they want people in their area to find them
easily online.

The solution: local search. These listings pop up,
sometimes with a map or customer reviews, when somebody searches online
for a business type in a particular geographic region.

Type in "Olympia, Wa., pet groomer," at Google, for
instance, and you’ll get the option to see "Local search results." This
calls up a map of Olympia and a list of local pet businesses, with
their locations marked on the map.

Google, like other search engines, draws these local listings from third-party directories and other sources.

For companies that want to buy ads accompanying these
local listings, the competition is much more limited than with general
searches, so the price is lower. Local search also can be particularly
useful to small businesses without Web sites. Some specialized local
search engines — such as CitySearch.com, YellowPages.com and
Superpages.com — even provide a free, basic page for businesses that
can include basic information about the company, like phone number,
hours of operation and address.

A good way to get started in local search is to make
sure all the local search directories include a listing for the
business and that all the information, such as phone number and
address, is accurate. Most local search directories also let businesses
embellish their local search listings. Google’s Local Business Center,
for one, recently began letting businesses post photos, and many local
search directories let them post hours of operation, services provided
and coupons. Businesses can also buy pay-per-click ads in local search
results.

Another consideration: If a local business has a Web
site, the owners should be sure all the information there is clear and
accurate. Search engines extract some of their local search listings
from location information found on Web sites. So it’s important for a
business to include its address prominently on its home page — with
the state name spelled out, since many search users spell it out when
searching. Businesspeople should also include the city and state in the
site’s title tag to increase the odds search engines will find it.

Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineLand.com,
an online forum on search-engine marketing practices, says focusing on
local search is easy and can pay off for many businesses.

"Local search is still kind of open, and many
businesses don’t realize it’s an option," Mr. Sullivan says. "So
there’s a lot of opportunity for that right now."

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CourVO

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