Unlike the thousands of other website out there, this series of articles will give you a layman’s overview of traffic generating principals without getting too technical. Working with contractors, I try to encapsulate information regarding online marketing, simplifing it to easily understood discussions and checklists.

What are some of the sources for you website to gain new visitors?

By clicking on the image, it will open to a larger view that is easier to read. At the end of this brief article, you can download a copy in Adobe Acrobat’s pdf format.

In this example, the shaded area is what we are all used to when it comes to marketing our small businesses. If you continue to market your company with only these, you won’t be as successful. To survive in business today, one must embrace all of the tools in our online toolbox.

In the next article. Small Business Owner’s Overview of FaceBook, we will start introducing you to individual items shown in the chart above.  Real world examples and simple steps to increasing your online presence and gaining new customers.

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A simple, yet very effective way to increase traffic to you website is to have a sitemap. So what is a sitemap and how do you submit it to the search engines?

A site map (or sitemap) is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for web design, or a web page that lists the pages on aweb site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site. – Wikipedia

Site maps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found. This is an important point. 70% of all contractor websites do not utilize this simple strategy! I say this from experience working with a large number of contractors who have either built their own websites or who have had companies build them in the past.

So how can you take advantage of having a sitemap on your website?

5 Simple Steps to Submitting a Sitemap

1. Get a Google username. If you aren’t already signed up for Gmail, I would strongly suggest you do so now. Having a Gmail account allows access not only to their email program, but a whole plethora of web services such as, Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, AdSence, Google Local, etc. You can sign up for your Gmail account here.
2. Create a sitemap. This is as easy as going to XML-Sitemaps.com Entering your website address in the form, downloading the generated sitemap and uploading it to your web server or website hosting account.
3. Submit your sitemap to Google. With your Google username and password, log on to Google’s Webmaster Tools and add your site. During the process, you will be asked to enter the location of your sitemap usually it will be something like “http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml” (replace yoursite.com with your website’s address)
4. Submit to Yahoo - Yahoo Site Explorer works on the similar lines as that of Google Webmasters Tool. Sign up, add a site, verify your website & add your sitemap as a feed.  Hereby, Yahoo’s searchbot can have access to your sitemap.xml file.
   Visit Yahoo Site Explorer at http://www.siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
5. Ping the Search Engines – Copy and paste the following URL’s and remember to change the YourSite.com to your website’s address.
   • Ping Google – http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=http://www.YourSite.com/sitemap.xml
   • Ping Yahoo – http://search.yahooapis.com/SiteExplorerService/V1/updateNotification appid=YahooDemo&url=http://www.YourSite.com/sitemap.xml
   • Ping Bing – http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?sitemap=www.YourSite.com/sitemap.xml
   • Ping Ask – http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http://www.YourSite.com/sitemap.xml
   • Ping Moreover – http://api.moreover.com/ping?u=http://www.YourSite.com/feed.xml

Take these simple steps to increase traffic to your website!

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Here’s to your success!

Whether you have a website or not. You are on the internet! Homeowners are increasingly turning to the internet for advice and reviews. Websites like Yelp, Angie’s List, Merchant Circle, Facebook and Twitter have become rich sources of information.

I don’t know about you, but when was the last time you flipped open the yellow pages? For me, unless I have seen of, or heard of, a particular company in my area, it is rare for me to get a number from the book.

Most consumers these days without the advice of family and friends, turn towards the internet as their primary source for research.

Which brings me back to the websites like Yelp and the others. These websites have one thing in common, they provide consumer reviews for restaurants, companies and service providers.

The chances are your construction company has a listing and you may have reviews.

Without getting into a lot of techie mumbo jumbo, you need to take the following 5 Simple Steps. In future articles, I will explain for you the merits of each service and how best to position your company.

1. Get a Gmail Account
   Gmail is a web based email service that you can sign up for free! With a Gmail account you will have access to
   • Google’s Local Business Center – Local Directory and Map functions for local searches
   • Analytics – Provides valuable information on your website’s traffic
   • and more
2. Take Charge of Your Company’s Listing on YelpYelp is rapidly becoming the premier source for user reviews and business listings on the internet.With a Yelp Business Owner’s Account, you can upload photos and logos, highlight featured services that your company provides and other useful information for your clients.A powerful feature for you, the business owner, is you can see how many times potential customers are viewing your listing.
3. MerchantCircle Provides a free listing for business owners. Here you can edit your business listing to show hours of operation, highlight services and offer coupon specials.
4. InsiderPages Simply put, another business directory with user reviews. But what I really like about this service is you can solicit, even bribe your customers into giving you a review. Unlike most review/directory sites like Yelp, who frowns on solicited reviews. InsiderPages encourages it!
5. Capture Your Twitter Username Twitter has had explosive growth even to the point that advertisers poke fun at the cliche type messages people post (called Tweets.) Well I’m not going to tell you to start Tweeting your diet. I will tell you, Twitter has an important business aspect which I will delve into in a future post. Realize too, companies like Milwaukee Tool, Porter Cable, Greenlee and others all have Twitter accounts. The important thing right now is to at least capture your username before you lose it forever.

So there you have it. 5 Simple Steps to promote your business on the internet.

Be sure to sign up for our updates in the top right hand corner of our website. We will be actively posting similar articles to help you gain more customers. In addition to the articles, we are in the process of creating step by step videos to walk you through the steps we recommend.

The last thing I want to do is overwhelm you in the techie mumbo jumbo. You will be able to accomplish these steps and many more without the need to spend the Big Bucks to have someone else do it for you. In the end, for a little bit of time and effort, you to can be well on your way to having more customers and money in your pocket.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Vogel, founder of HomeBuildR, helps Residential Contractors and Small Business Owners attract more clients. Be sure to sign up for email updates and lots of free tools for your business.

NOTE: Are you looking for fresh content for your ezine or website? Feel free to reprint this article as long as it’s kept intact and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint or link to david@homebuildr.net