Small firms navigate Web

By Wayne Pollard, Daily Record

Like their Fortune 500 counterparts, small-business owners created web sites because they wanted to have a presence on the Internet.

Unlike larger businesses that constantly monitor their sites' activity, small-business owners are just starting to evaluate their sites' performance. Many are not pleased with the results.

Small-business owners have several misconceptions about Web sites said Bill Treloar, president of Treloar Associates in East Hanover. His firm recommends changes to a company's Web site to push it to the top of the search engine's rankings when Web surfers search for a product or service.

The first misconception is the "field of dreams," Treloar said: Small-business owners believe that if they build a site, people will come.

"Like everything else, you have to market (the site)," he said, comparing a Web site that is not being marketed to a billboard in the woods: business owners are relying on people to stumble across it.

Another misconception is that a business only has to put keyword tags on a site and it will show up in search engines. (A keyword tag is code on the Web page that is "seen" by the search engines and not the site's visitors.)

" The problem is that people abused it (keyword tags) to the point that more than half the major search engines don't look at it anymore," Treloar said.

There are services that can get a company's Web site listed in search engines for a nominal fee. A misconception is that using the services is sufficient, he said." You get listed way down or in the middle of the pack. If you're not in the top three pages, it doesn't do you any good."

Search engine users rarely look beyond the top three pages, Treloar explained.

Visnja Clayton has had her online business, www.ModernVictorian.com, for more than three years. On the Web site, she sells her line of clothing, which is reminiscent of the Victorian era but with modern fabric and modern lines.

"I've done all kinds of things to drive traffic to the Web site," Clayton said. She has bought mailing lists and collected e-mail addresses to generate traffic, but she believes that she could have more purchases on her site.

Having traffic "doesn't necessarily mean that they will buy" she said. The challenge for Clayton is in getting customers to place orders on her site because she makes custom-made clothing. Buying custom-made clothing online is "scary" to customers, she said.

In May, Clayton opened a retail store in the Iron Carriage Antique Center in Dover. The store drives traffic to her Web site. "After they've seen the store, they really want to look at the site."

She knows it would take "big bucks" to market her site and get the results she wants, but "I don't have that kind of money."

To generate more traffic to their sites without spending a fortune, Treloar suggests that small-business owners determine what search terms are customers are likely to use when the search for their products or services on the Internet.

"If you're having trouble thinking of (the search terms), ask people," he said.

Treloar tells business owners to take this test: pick your most profitable service or product (pretend that you don't know its brand name) and use a search engine to see if you can find your company. "If you don't show up in the top three pages, then your customers are giving up before they find you."

Next, he suggests that the text on the business's Web page include a terms that its customers will use to search for the company if they do not know the brand name. For example, if the business sells "blidgets" that are really blue widgets, "blue widgets" in addition to "blidgets" should be included on the Web page. People are not going to search for "blidgets;" they're going to search for "blue widgets."

Bruce Cebula was not pleased with the traffic generated by his site, www.ExtendedStayHomes.com, which offers fully furnished corporate housing with a bed and breakfast atmosphere. One of his locations is in East Hanover.

Although the traffic to his site was lower than he expected, he never considered taking the site down because he relies on the Internet to get customers.

His previous site was an online brochure.

"I wanted it (the new site) to be a marketing tool so that people anywhere could find my site," he said. "I wanted some impact."

Cebula decided to optimize his site; the entire site was rewritten.

To improve his listings in the search engines, terms such as "furnished corporate housing in the New Jersey" were used on Cebula's new Web site. Now, "I'm like a star on Google. My business has increased tremendously."

Cyndi Finnegan, who site is www.NewCareerPersonnel.com, said, "it's really hard to tell how productive it is."

Her Parsippany-based company assists people with finding permanent and temporary work in all industries.

Previously, Finnegan paid $100 on month to be listed in a "known" online directory. (She would not give the name.)

She stopped using the service because she was unhappy with the results; the directory listed companies according to who paid the most, and her site was not listed at the top. Now, Finnegan said she believes that she should not have used the service.

Despite the lack of traffic on her Web site, she has never considered removing the site. "You definitely need some presence on the Web," she said.

Stephen Halasnik has had a different experience with paying to promote his Web sites.

His company, Atlas Human Capital in Boonton, recently launched two sites; www.HealthCareSeeker.com, which places traveling nurses, and www.ExpertSeeker.com, which places information technology professionals.

Most small-business owners he knows do not promote their sites very well; they do not invest in promoting sites. "It's like building a home and not having an address," Halasnik said.

His site for nurses averages 30,000 hits a month and the site for IT professionals averages 5,000 hits. "You have to put money into it," he said.

Like Treloar, Halasnik stresses the importance of being on the search engines. "If you're not on the search engines, then people are not going to find you."

Halasnik spends $10,000 a month to have his sites "well-positioned" in search engines. Every time someone clicks on his site's addresses, he is charged a fee, which is based on his position in the search engine's results list. He usually tries to get the third position (the third name down).

In addition, Halasnik buys keywords to improve his listings in the search engines. For example, he bought the keywords "travel nurse" in one search engine. When a user types in the search term, "travel nurse," his site is listed as the top result.

Like Clayton, Halasnik stresses that traffic alone does not bring sales.

Small-business owners need to determine the return on their Web site promotion investment, he said. "How many people came to your Web site and bought something because of that key word?"

Halasnik's investment in promoting www.HealthCareSeeker.com has made his cost per job candidate high.

However, "we would never get rid of the Web site," he said.

Wayne Pollard can be reached at business@dailyrecord.com or (973) 428-6650.