Search engine friendly ecommerce is all about building roads on the internet that customers use to get to your site. The enabler is the search engine they choose, such as Google or Yahoo. Most Small Businesses have blogs and you should work on your blog once or twice a week for optimum results and use keywords that describe your business and what products and services you offer. This is really the simplicity of it.

In addition to that and what we are going to be talking most about today is that more and more small-business owners are using Social Media to promote their business. That’s the good news from a survey done by online-marketing firm Vertical Response. Indeed, business owners should be embracing Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. The survey results indicate there are two items that need to be addressed immediately: Tracking results from the use of Social Media and the glaring lack of use of LinkedIn.

While most business owners use Facebook and Twitter, they do so without having any idea of their effectiveness. The most important tool you can use to gauge your internet outreach is Google Analytics. It is chock full of information that will help you refine and tweak your use of Social Media and indeed, your website. In his article, 5 simple metrics to track your Social Media efforts, Jason Miller offers advice and encouragement that will benefit you today.

Jason writes, “While we all know how important it is to market through the various social networks, it is vital to track and measure your efforts for success.” This is critically true, as more time and money are being spent on Social Media by Small Business as each day passes.

The lack of use of LinkedIn is surprising. Only 6 percent of Small Business people use it, according to the Vertical Response survey. Carol Tice, writing in Forbes magazine, puts it eloquently: “My experience as a solo owner of my own freelance writing and coaching business is that LinkedIn is the online phone book for hiring solopreneurs. Heavyweight companies do searches on there every day, looking for providers to hire.

Seems foolish not to have a presence on LinkedIn, especially when the platform demands so much less of you than Facebook or Twitter. A weekly status update and maybe a few questions answered or comments made in groups, and you’re good. But only six percent of owners said they’re on LinkedIn once a week and others were there even less.”

So, it’s very important to establish and maintain both your ecommerce site as well as your Social Media presence. Effectively doing so will grow your business, perhaps in ways you’ve not thought of.

At AbleCommerce, we can assist merchants with ecommerce software and hosted sites beyond your wildest dreams. Contact us and let’s have a discussion about it today.