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Most Small-Business Websites Don't Use E-Commerce Or Traffic Monitoring Tools
Sixty-five percent of small-business websites don't accept payments, while 63 percent don't use any traffic monitoring tools.
Posted 4/ 29 11 at 9:00 AM | News, Technology, Online Business, IT Services
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Despite a growing Web presence among small businesses these days, the majority still don't use their company's website for e-commerce initiatives or know the traffic numbers for their site, a new study shows.According to a recent survey of 1,200 independent business owners conducted by Newtek Business Services, the Small Business Authority, 65 percent of respondents reported that that they don't take payments for merchandise on their website. Additionally, when asked about the current state of their website, 31 percent of business owners said they were unhappy with their company's Web presence, while an additional 15 percent reported not having a Web presence at all.
In analyzing the results of the survey, the Small Business Authority, a distributor of small-business services and financial products, noted that factors such as businesses not knowing how to make changes to their websites, or having sites that were created years ago and are therefore out-of-date, would explain the lack of certainty among many small businesses about their Web presence. The company also found that several businesses created their sites at a time when search engine optimization and search engine marketing wasn't a real science yet, and are now requiring a major update to their online presence.
Similarly, the survey reported that many small-business owners did not use website monitoring tools and were somewhat clueless about traffic patterns that drive customers and sales to their business. According to the survey, 63 percent of respondents said they were not using any traffic monitoring tools for their website, compared to 21 percent who are. "It's important that small to medium-sized business owners use the tools that are available to them to compete with big business," Barry Sloane, president and CEO of the Small Business Authority, said in a statement.
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Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Good web designer for small business - www.PamClarkWebDesigns.com - Quality work at great pricing
"Having been an SEO Expert for 9 years now, I can definitely say with a competent SEO Advisor goals of a High Page Rank can be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time"
This is a quote from your paragraph. What is it stating?
In addition, there are numerous grammatical/punctuation errors throughout your paragraph. Please review and correct your information before submitting it as a subject-matter expert.
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This is in reply to your comments my post regarding E-Commerce, SEO and Internet Marketing. Your comments are in ( ).
("Having been an SEO Expert for 9 years now, I can definitely say with a competent SEO Advisor goals of a High Page Rank can be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time" This is a quote from your paragraph. What is it stating?)
I am glad to elaborate on the sentence you brought to my attention. However, if you have a lot of experience with E-Commerce and SEO you should realize how difficult it is to write a small amount of information and get a lot of advice to people who are not using E-commerce or SEO. The “art” here is to work with a client so they understand the basic and “ethical” process of optimizing their site. I do not provide “cookie cutter” process for each client or the same price for each client, as factors regarding their previous SEO efforts for the site (if any), submission on a regular basis to the Search Engines, Compliant WC3.org validated code, correct indexing of site, relative content, good navigation and quite simply, the inclusion of “the basics” of Meta Data in their site determine the process and the time factor.
I have an abundance of clients which trusted their SEO Advisor and paid hundreds and even thousands of dollars to have their sites Optimized only to find they “have no SEO/SEM”. As I analyze their sites for the first time I find myself in complete shock to see with all the time and money they have spent for their website’s SEO efforts have obtained nothing! They have been a “victim” of an SEO thief and it is truly a shame of how many are out there. They make completely false claims, lie to the client about how quickly they will get them to the top of the Page Ranks, take their money and leave them hanging with a website that no one finds! And again, “a reasonable amount of time” is dependent on what is needed for the individual website, however I have brought some sites to the top of the Search Engines in under 90 days and have some which are more complicated and took months to gain rank and a continual ongoing process to maintain this rank.
SEO Maintenance is also somewhat overlooked, both by the SEO Advisor and the client. Once a website has reached a High Page Rank you cannot just sit back, discontinue working on the SEO and think you are going to stay at this same Rank! Not true; you start all over again. The fees, of course at this point are very reasonable, but necessary and I find this to be on the most difficult aspect while working with clients and I completely understand. Once a client realizes that other sites are still working on their SEO, new websites have built rank and their site starts to drop it shows the proven theory of continual maintenance.
There are many factors which are included in the process of building Page Rank in the Search Engines. Clearly, a website with a lot of competition for the same product or information and optimizing for the identical Geographic (such as the USA) is going to take more time to reach their goals than a website which is working on SEO for a small City and a unique product or information (or "niche" market). I realize this statement may be broad, however with the complexities of SEO it would be virtually impossible to write all the intricacies and processes of Optimizing a website since the task at hand is different from one website to another.
After 9 years experience of “hands on” SEO, SEM and Internet Marketing I can say with certainty it takes hard work, extensive up to date knowledge of how the Search Engines work, and continual research to be successful with building Page Rank and Marketing for our Clients. I have been fortunate to have brought each and every website I have optimized to a Ranking on Page 1 or 2 of the Search Engines. Quite a lot of my sites are not only ranked on Page 1, they are page 1. I believe in working honestly and ethically with my clients and involving them in the process in order to build confidence and an understanding of the process and a realistic time frame to meet their goals.
I could certainly write a book on SEO/SEM and Internet Marketing and maybe someday I will, but in the meantime it is much more fulfilling working with clients and their websites to reach successful SEO and Marketing for their websites. Even though it is very long hours, hard work, many hours of client communications, research, analytics; it is an exciting challenge, one website at a time!
YOUR COMMENT:
(In addition, there are numerous grammatical/punctuation errors throughout your paragraph. Please review and correct your information before submitting it as a subject-matter expert.)
Reply: I did not claim to be a typing “expert” and yes there is ONE typo in the first sentence. I guess I rely too much on Word since it corrects typos and grammatical errors. I write all my WebsiteContent, SEO text and all documents in Word in order to avoid these problems. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Again, I am happy to answer any additional questions. Feel free to reply here or send me an email at:
Tammy Ogle
Foxx Multimedia
foxxmultimedia@aol.com
www.foxxmultimedia.com (under redesign)
As a Professional Freelance Web Developer, I fina a lot of small business owners believe it is very difficult and expensive to use E-Commerce with their websites. They are so very wrong! With all the choices in programs, platforms and E-Commerce building sites costs are much more affordable than you think.
You will also find the process is completed in Stages so payments for the site are spread out over several months which gives the Small Business Owner the ease of budgeting the costs.
What a lot of Small Business and E-Commerce sites do not keep in mind is Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Marketing. It's a must for any website which relies on "Searches" for potential customers to find their site. SEO too may be done in a Phase process, so again fees may be spread out through most months after the site is done. Having been an SEO Expert for 9 years now, I can definitely say with a competent SEO Advisor goals of a High Page Rank can be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time.
My company, Foxx Multimedia (www.foxxmultimedia,com) is available for any questions you may have and would love to hear your questions and can provide suggestions and services to help you make this start for your Business!
Foxx Multimedia
foxxmultimedia@aol.com
www.foxxmultimedia.com
we find that most SMB's miss this point >> It's not about JUST BEING online, it's about being FOUND online… if you just build It ....No One Will Come !
SEO Facts:
85%++ of website traffic comes from a search engine
As much as 60% of all sites are not properly optimized to rank high in the search engines, so optimizing your site puts it ahead of your competitors who don't
The ROI for SEO is very good in comparison with other marketing methods such as direct mail or banner ads
9 out of 10 web surfers visit a search engine, portal or community site each month. They also revisit frequently, nearly five times per month
62% of search engine users click on a search engine result within the first page, and a full 90% of search engine users click on a result within the first three pages of search results
There is still a segment of users who think "industry leadership" is a component of what search engines use to rank search engine results, online marketers can use this perception to their advantage
Only 10% of search engine users click on results beyond the third page
86% of search engine users report they feel organic listings are more relevant than paid listings
86% of search engine users report that they trust organic search results over paid results
references: Search Engine User Behavior Study
Regards
Andy Alagappan , COO Epromotionz.com
281-570-5804 . 832-677-4620
Proven strategies for On Line Branding : over 1000 + projects done !
Search Marketing , SEO services , Web Site Marketing
Lead generation & Social Media Optimization.
www.seoguruhouston.com www.SEOhoustonblog.com .
We just re-did our web site, it took two months to do it. No body knows your business as well as you do. Web designers work with the material you supply them, hence you need to check your competitors, and gather all the good points, put them together and have the designer do the navigation. A lot of web designers have stock material used in your industry, you may want to avoid this to make your site unique. There is no need to pay thousands of dollars for a web site. If you do your research, save it all and have an idea of what you want in terms of script, color, pictures, fonts, font size, navigating between pages, it should not cost more than several hundred dollars to have a nice web site.
These are the keywords we used to start our research:
1. W3C Compliant Code
2. World Wide Web Consortium
3. What Language (XTML, XHTML, CSS....)
4. Complying with Web Standards
5. Indexing Sites
6. Structure of Web site
7. Separate HTML from CSS
8. Search Engines will not index due to errors in the code,
bad SOE practice, and improper web site set up.
Arjang Tagavi
Hollywood Limousine
Los Angeles, CA USA
Very helpful.
Thanks
This worked for us.
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Susan: What kind of discount will you give me if I am able to point out a discrepancy in your website advertising post?
I would welcome what you have to say. I'm am always open to learning. If you can provide a valuable statement, a discount could be provided. Thank you!!
P.S. I ALSO BUILT ONE FOR MY CHURCH
VIEW IT@ WWW.SCOTTUMC.ORG
Pam, you may want to check your "How It Works" page on your website. There is a mispelled word!!
"thesw skills. Because we"