Online business is never has a dull moment. Each day brings new opportunities, applications, scripts and ideas that you can integrate into your program. Sometimes it can be overwhelming when you look at all you can do!

Unfortunately, all too often onliners become complacent. They just want things to work and in one fell swoop. They don’t want to have to upgrade, modify, tweak or change. And things should remain the same — for years.

In that case, it may be best to rethink why you are online! This is interactive technology after all and you need to be involved. This includes you to be flexible and open to new concepts and different ways of doing things. Not to mention new applications and Web site features you can always be adding or upgrading to give you the edge.

Business as we know it has changed forever. Those who ride the wave and embrace the change will reap the benefits. Only those willing to be involved and go with the ups and downs, the rights the lefts of what works today but could be old news tomorrow, will succeed in a rabidly competitive environment. For those who are complacent — they will not be found, not be taken seriously and will not succeed.

So, get to it! Try something new! Learn some new things. Who cares if it is frustrating — that’s part of how you learn. It doesn’t hurt; really! Surf online and look at what features and functionality you can add to your site to enhance user experience and make their visit one that will convert. Upgrade where necessary, apply new methodologies — and if they don’t work — try some more.

No one person is the epitome of an expert with this gig. Each and every one of us is learning every day; and that won’t change for the foreseeable future! That is simply part and parcel of doing business online!

At your service,
Judith

You mean business if you:

• Have well-written content that is grammatically correct and spelled properly. Your Web site is chock full of information that talks to your customer’s desires and needs.
• Have excellent photos and graphics that will represent the quality of your products and services — no clip art for you!
• You understand your profit margins and what you can sell your wares for to make money while remaining competitive.
• You have a marketing plan and budget to ensure you get the network visibility necessary to get found and produce orders/inquiries.
• You make sure your Web site’s design and layout is conducive to your company being perceived as a credible, legitimate and professional enterprise.

These are just a few of the details that I see are minimized or disregarded on a daily basis. Do you mean business?

When your site was in development your consultant should have worked with you to determine what the keyword phrases were that your target market would likely use to find a site such as yours. If they didn’t, you now know for a fact that your site is not in a position to have a chance to pull relevantly for your targeted keyword phrases.

See, optimizing a site when working with those who really know what they are doing, begins even before a bit or byte of code is typed. Your top keyword phrases need to be considered during the design process to give you a running start when you launch.

Several times each week I get contacted about why a site isn’t pulling for a phrase that either isn’t searched (or researched) for properly or wasn’t considered during the development process. Time to do some educating on how search engines work and a bit of tweaking on the site to compensate for new targeted phrases!

Ever wonder how you rank with Google, Yahoo and MSN? Check out Marketleap who has some free nifty tools that can help you can get a better idea of even if you are being found by the phrases you want and how the search engines list your site differently.

Then, get to work optimizing your site!

At your service,
Judith