July 21, 2005
The Importance Of Publicizing Your Web Site

By Alice LaPlante

Your Web site is one of the most critical aspects of doing business these days. Increasingly, doing a local Google or Yahoo search is how potential customers find you. A 2004 survey by The Kelsey Group and ComStat Inc. found that although traditional ways of finding local businesses still won out, the percentage using Internet search was growing exponentially. The Yellow Pages were still the No. 1 way to find a business (75 percent); newspapers were next (73 percent), followed by white pages (58 percent). But search engines were used by 57 percent – quite an impressive figure – and that number had jumped 10 percentage points in the past year. And, most importantly, the frequency of usage was highest for search engines as compared to traditional ways of finding a local business.

In a separate survey, the researchers found that 25.1 percent of commercial searches (that is, searches for something to buy) were local. 71% of respondents used search engines seven or more times per week and 25% used search engines 30 or more times a week. Even more interesting, a full 64% of people said that search engines were the "main way" they find things on the Internet.

This week, we have our latest Accidental IT for you, a hands-on feature on how to publicize your Web site. One misconception that early Web enthusiasts fell into was that simply having a Web site was enough to get business. The truth is that the "old school" rules of advertising and attracting customers still apply, and unless you're able to motivate people to visit your Web site, you've spent a lot of time and energy developing a site that only you and your development team will see. A follow-on to a previous Accidental IT feature on building a Web site, this article features tips and tricks for getting the word out there now that your business is now online.

We also have an excellent feature on backup strategies for small businesses. This TechBuilder recipe points out that anyone who has had the misfortune of losing an important file -- and that's just about everyone -- knows they need a solid backup solution. The average cost to professionally recover lost data from a crashed drive is $400 to $1,200 for every 2 GB, even more for difficult recoveries. Yet for many, the backup ritual is both confusing and time consuming. As a result, critical backups are either put off to a more convenient time or begun with good intentions but then dropped in the interest of something deemed more important. Invariably, impromptu backups (those that rely on humans) have proven to miss important data. In the end, these kinds of backups are often not much better than having no plan at all. The good news is that these common mistakes can all be easily avoided with a little planning and the right components. We show you how.

Finally, we have the results of a Small Business Pipeline survey on vacations. Almost a third of you aren't able to get away for vacations this summer, due to the pressing needs of business. And for those of you who do get away, a large percentage will have to stay in close touch with the home office. Check out what your peers are saying about leisure time (or lack of it).