Content is King-This is one online truth that hasn’t changed. How do you continue to add fresh, interesting content to your website without hiring a full time copy writer or creating a ton of content by yourself?

Creating exciting new content that will help maximize search rankings, increase visits and grow your business can be a challenge, especially for small businesses. Here are some tried and true strategies for helping you create new content online that will create your brand, improve search and inform your customers.

#1 Start a blog already! Okay, you’ve heard me say it over and over again, that’s because it works. 100% of our clients who have a blog are glad they did. It solidifies their understanding of their brand, explaining who you are and what you do helps that message to remain clear for you and your team. It’s informative for your customers. One of my clients, Columbia Gorge Winery Cathedral Ridge Winery, just celebrated the one year anniversary of their blog and it has become a great source of information about upcoming Winemaker Dinners and Events, food and wine pairing recipes and new wine releases. It helps with page rank because it’s fresh content. It’s fun. In the words of Starsky in the Starsky & Hutch movie-DO IT! DO IT RIGHT NOW!

#2 Ask for product and service reviews-I have a client who sells trailer hitches and bike rike hitches. They use content online to teach people how to properly use their hitches, but they also use it to get product reviews which they share at the product level (great way to improve conversion).

#3 Use content as a way to be helpful-Content online doesn’t always have to be about selling or promotion. Hitchsource used their site to explain how to replace the glass on your iPhone. Nothing to do with hitches, but enormously helpful information for their customers and friends.

#4 Be an authority in your industry-Avery created a direct mail guide that gave great information and resources for creating direct mail, it was a great help to their customers and it was included in the dma.org website.

#5 Create synergy between your business and your passion-My neighbor and talented Columbia Gorge photographer, Vlado (Photovlado.com) focuses on Wedding and Portrait Photography, but he is a skilled Windsurfer and does sport photography mostly for fun. He includes some great wind sport shots on his website, fun for him and his visitors.

#6 Use content to make your site sticky-We are at the tail end of a massive redesign for our hood river real estate client. We are using personalized content, such as a message board, to do lists and email alerts when the status of a property changes (price changes, sold, etc) to encourage customers to use the site for searching for properties. Every real estate site has an RMLS, but they’ve used content to streamline the process and provide information only available from their site. (Site launches next month, we’ll keep you posted on results!)

#7 Do a podcast-This recommendation is meant to inspire. We are launching our first podcast next week. We’ll keep you posted on this effort as well.

The key is to use content as a way to keep you innovating and communicating with your customer and the benefits are limitless. Happy content developing!

The web is an amazing tool for connecting people and ideas all over the world. With the web we truly have a global economy, a limitless think tank and abundant idea sharing. But don’t forget about local. From a search standpoint, it is becoming harder and harder to get page 1 placement. If you participate in local search you’re narrowing your range for reaching out to your potential customer with local search.

The best way to start participating in local search is with the search engine’s own tools, Google Local and Yahoo Local Search. Sign up for an account today, complete your company information, Google and Yahoo (and other engines) will verify that you’re the business owner and your local search reach will go live. But don’t stop there. Go local with your business relationships when possible. Only a small percentage of my business is local, but it’s a great way to raise awareness about your business, potentially do some bartering for products and services and network with local businesses in a more powerful way.

I’ve had a local (award-winning) winery as a customer for 4 years (Award Winning Winery, Cathedral Ridge Winery). They are great people with such love and passion for their jobs it’s hard not to get excited about the product and how we promote it. I take a percentage of my fees in wine, this allows me to understand all of the wine, how we promote it and to truly be an evangelist for the product.

We’re creating a site for a local Icelandic Horse Ranch and the owners also own a mercantile called Red Feather. They carry beautiful furniture, clothing, lamps, etc. We do a percentage of our project in trade (yes I have a gorgeous slate lamp and a lovely new pair of boots) but more importantly I spend time learning about their philosophies and how their business objectives for the mercantile and the ranch merge to create a powerful brand.

We’re doing some search marketing and optimization for a neighbor who is a Czechoslovakian photographer. Hood River Wedding and Portrait photographer, Vlado Skelnar, creates amazing, artistic photography. We’re swapping senior and family portraits for search and direct mail advice and this has allowed me to learn about his style and product so I can promote the business on and offline.

Recently I was looking for a new hosting company, someone local with time in the industry and a great reputation. I queried my friends at SEMPDX (our local search engine marketing organization) and one of my colleagues, Search Commander Scott Hendison, owns a hosting company, PDXTC Hosting. We’re very happily using their services now.

Invest in local business, even if it’s only a small part of your business. Don’t miss an opportunity to create understanding and awareness of your business by sharing who you are with other business owners, either through networking or bartering. Sure it’s a global economy, but it’s a lot of fun to foster business relationships locally, you don’t just grow your business, you share a handshake and a smile (and maybe a bottle of Reserve Pinot Noir;)