How Do You Market Your Business Online? Powegians Get a Lesson

The Word of the Day was "focus" among some of Poway's business people Tuesday morning.

In a presentation titled "Web-Based Strategies to Grow Your Business," attendees got tips from Poway businessman and owner of B2 Software Kevin Gyberg.

Having a website attractive to search engines such as Google, gaining customers through the Web and the type of language to have on your website were among the various topics Gyberg touched on, but the major takeaway from the morning was the importance of an online presence.

"If you do not have a website, you do not exist," Gyberg said. "If you're typing something into Google and the business doesn't have a website, they're not going to get your business."

A group of 10 business people gathered at the Hamburger Factory to gain tips from Gyberg at the Poway Chamber of Commerce's monthly breakfast.

Gyberg, who started his company in 2005 but worked in Web-based consulting for 20 years, said business owners first need to "focus."

"Focus is the word," he said. "Focus on demographics, products and keywords. Just focus."

He said Poway business owners may be getting calls from marketing companies offering their services and promising owners they could be at the top of Google or other search engines. But he urged business owners to focus first on what message they want the average online user to get from their company.

"There are a lot of companies that can get you on the first page of Google," he said, "but the question is, do you even want to be on the first page of Google?"

While these companies are most likely offering just "pay-per-click" advertising, Gyberg gave tips on how to organically attract Google.

Organically making your way up to the top of search engines using Search Engine Optimization practices is key, but not fooling companies like Google is important, he said.

"Google is a company trying to provide the best service to their customers, just like the rest of us," he said. "They only want the most relevent searches showing up, and the way to impress Google is to focus your pages. You have to put yourself in the shoes of someone who is searching the Web. If you can't immediately speak to your audience, you can't sell to them."

First, Gyberg said, business owners need to consider their websites as their "online brochures" and the most attractive brochues are "clean and clear."

"Make your website work in today's competitive market," he said. "If you give someone your card, chances are they will look at your website before they pick up the phone to call you."

He said company websites looking to attract more customers need to have minimal text with keywords and few images. He also said to have Web pages that focused on the different services and noted the homepage, because of its generality, are the least important Web pages.

Moreover, Gyberg said business owners needed to consider the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and evaluate how many customers they're gaining from the Web and work toward increasing that number.

Emphasizing how valuable the online world is to the average business owner, Gyberg used examples of Amazon and other successful online stores which have created a "niche."

"We see people who are kind of behind who are playing catch up and then we see the other end of the spectrum of people who always want to be at the forefront of technology," he said. "The people playing catch up should know they gotta do something, they gotta do it now.

"If you don't have an online presence, customers will find a business with one."

Quick Tips:

• Consider your website your online brochure.
• Identify what you do and your demographics.
• Keep your text to a minimum.
• Perform a key word analysis to know what people are searching for when they search for your product.
• Focus individual pages on two-three keywords.
• Promote your website with newsletters and mailers, and ask credible websites to link to you.