While most new small businesses levitate to Pay-Per-Click services like Google Adwords, Yahoo! Overture, and Microsoft Adcenter for increasing their web presence, these can be huge money wasters with very little pay-off – obviously this all depends on your goals. To flip it back around (not to confuse), DO try these services out, but do it conservatively – don’t invest a ton of money into them and geo target your ads if possible. Yes, they will generate traffic, but getting users to buy your product (or convert) is far more difficult for a new business. You will have more success with Pay-Per-Click as your brand becomes stronger and more trusted.

Biggest Struggle for Small Business Websites: Brand Awareness and Trust. Your site needs to be visible across the internet – this is also huge for search engines. Consumer’s are more likely to purchase from a recognizable brand. There’s a reason why you see the same old car ads sometimes.

Some basic techniques to generate traffic for your small business website:

1. Before you start anything – you must have a measurement tool to track your visitors. Try Google Analytics (free).

2. Submit your website to the major 3 search engines:
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx

3. Make your website visible to your target audience. Submit your website URL to complimentary websites, blogs, and directories (focus on specific places where your audience will be). Ex: If you’re selling cakes, request a link (or submit an article linking) to your website on some big name cake websites.

4. Update your website often with fresh content. Give people a reason to comeback and tell others about your website. Start a blog to increase exposure.

5. Optimize your site for SEO (search engine optimization). This is almost a whole different topic, but you can start here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/

http://searchengineland.com/070628-074149.php

6. Submit your site to geo-targeted services and business directories. Ex: https://www.google.com/local/add/

http://www.yelp.com/

7. Submit your site to business directories and vertical industry directories. Ex: https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/
http://botw.org/
http://www.squidoo.com/
http://www.moli.com/

http://www.dmoz.org

8. Get involved in social networking and spread the word:
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.stumbleupon.com/

http://del.icio.us/

9. Submit Press Releases to get your small business in the news.
http://www.businesswire.com

http://www.prweb.com

10. Research tips on adapting your small business to the web successfully:

http://searchengineland.com/070628-074149.php

11. Keep researching creative and innovative ideas to increase exposure…

Related Links:

• 21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques (Search Engine Land)