The Most Important Internet Marketing Advice For A Start-Up
Russ Henneberry | Sep 09, 2009 | Comments 2
Are you gearing up to start a business?
I often have discussions with people that are planning to start a business. They have a great idea for a product or service and they are ready to take the plunge.
If this is you — listen up!
The most important piece of advice I can give you if you are serious about starting a business is:
GET ONLINE NOW!
No matter whether you are one month, 6 months or two years from starting this business — get something online today.
A Website Ages Like a Good Bottle Of Wine — For Google
Maybe you have heard of the “Google Sandbox“, the penalty given to brand new websites by Google. I have seen cases where a website will not receive any rankings or traffic from Google for nearly a year after going online.
Although the existence of the Google Sandbox is only a theory, there is no question that there are advantages to having an older website versus a newer one. When I am evaluating the strength of a website for the first time, one of the first things I check is the age of the website — it is that important.
Your challenge as a new website is that Google has no idea what your website (and therefore your business) is about. Google must be able to categorize your website and organize the content in their index. They will use the information they gather to decide whether to display your site in their search results for particular keywords.
But this takes time.
The Key Is Content – The Answer Is A Blog
The minute you have decided that you will eventually start this business — BUILD A BLOG ON YOUR DOMAIN. A blog will allow you to add content to your website very quickly and easily. Of course, the blogging platform that I recommend is WordPress.
A WordPress blog on your business website will give you the ability to give Google what they need to “learn” what your business is about — assuming you add text to the blog that is relevant to your eventual industry and business.
Installing a blog on your domain is not difficult. Use this set of videos showing you exactly how to install and design a WordPress blog in 23 minutes flat.
Begin adding text, video and images to this blog that is valuable to the market you will be servicing with your new company. You can use the blog to discuss industry news, establish yourself as an expert in your industry and eventually launch your new product and service offerings.
Starting a blog on your eventual business website is extremely inexpensive and will be the best internet marketing decision you ever made.
Related Tiny Business Marketing Posts:
- Analytics Addiction: An Important Weekly Internet Marketing Process ...
- Get Out There! 3 Common Business Start Up Roadblocks ...
- Four Options With Your Online Marketing – Part I – Internet Marketing Training ...
- The Difference Between WordPress.com and WordPress.org ...
- Trust Not Traffic: What Are Your Internet Marketing Goals? ...
Filed Under: Business Blogging • Marketing Articles
I have a friend that started a private practice and created a web page to advertise. He had cards printed with his business information and told everyone he knew to google his site and to tell their friends to do the same, saying that this would boost his position in the google lineup.
Hi Jessica, your friend is misinformed… there is no evidence that the amount of times your site is “googled” will boost your rankings. It’s very unlikely.
Put it this way… if the factor (in this case googling the business name) is easy to manipulate, it is going to be worth little or nothing to your rankings in Google. The major factors in ranking continue to be on-page content and inbound links — two factors that are difficult to manipulate and becoming more and more difficult every day.
I have been writing quite a bit about links lately… have a look around and I am sure you will find plenty of info both on this blog and others concerning links.