How to increase your brand and exposure online with business directories:

With my first online business I made some very simply mistakes that cost my marketing budget, below is how to advoid these mistakes.

First, if you own a small business you best think about getting a website, this is one of the best ways to market you business and increase sales.

Simple is better, just keep in mind that the website should look professional so that it add to your brand awareness and not make your company look like a 2007 venture.

Now you have a clean website, why is no-one coming to it?

The quickest way to gain visitors is by Google AdWords, please do not make the same mistake I did and start with a large budget and not keep tweaking you keywords.

If you are paying on a cost per click basis, you want to make sure that the keywords will work to convert visitors into customers, keep in mind that not all traffic is equal, you want to target your visitors to people who will be interested in your services/products and not broad keyword that might not convert.

Add your website with keywords to online directories, stay away from the ones who are link spams and directories that do not look professional, you want to ensure that you site is listed on sites that are better or equal to yours.

Keep looking at your stats to see how customers find you website and how they use your website.

Ask you customers where did you find us, this will give you a good idea of how customers who are interested in your products/services will look for your website.

Keep up to date with networking sites, talk with your customers in forums and networking site, encourage your customers to provide feedback on how you can improve and what they like about your current website