How Do I Create Good Content for the Search Engines?

As the Yellow Page and print industries collapse, more and more people turn to the internet to search for their goods and services. Dan Briody writes an excellent article for MSN's new Business on Main section about creating good content for the search engines to pick up:

Search engines look for dynamic, active sites. They want content that changes frequently and builds on itself. They want blogs, commentary, feeds, polls and user-generated content. A blog is the easiest way to start generating relevant content. Be sure to blog about things your customers care about. For example, if you run a real-estate firm, blog about mortgage rates and refinancing options. If you run a restaurant, blog about food. Offer advice, link to interesting articles, record a podcast, film a video.

........ Kathleen Armenta at A Tile Nation uses a free small-business marketing and networking tool called MerchantCircle. More than 700,000 small-business owners use MerchantCircle to host dynamic Web pages, where they blog, network with other small-business owners or offer coupons for products or services. This type of service provides your business with a template that can accommodate all kinds of content. The interface is simple and allows you to populate the content as you see fit. These pages can dramatically increase searchability, particularly for local businesses. “It’s been a great tool for our company,” says Armenta. “It draws people to our Web site, generates a lot of work — and we don’t even pay for it.”

I highly recommend reading the entire MSN article for some important information that every business owner should know. Click here to read "Feeling Lost in Cyberspace? How to Attract the Attention of a Search Engine".

If you're not already creating the content Dan recommends, log into your MerchantCircle account and head to your dashboard to get started. If you have any questions, you can find them in our forums.

Sincerely,
Community Relations