It is an investment nonetheless, and because of this, the kinds of businesses that go for search engine optimization more readily are ones whose products or services range in the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per sale. With a sale or two stemming from SEO efforts, they can cover their investment. The types of businesses that fall into this category include engineering firms; attorneys and law firms; contractors such as those in roofing, basements, and home additions; and real estate agents and brokerages.

What is SEO?

What is SEO, anyway? In the context of business, SEO is a marketing channel wherein a business finds ways to make their web pages more visible to potential customers who are searching for business services via search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. When I talk about SEO for small business, I’m really talking about SEO + lead generation (for businesses where a human will make the sale) and SEO + e-commerce (where the sale will take place on the website itself). SEO without lead generation or e-commerce doesn’t have a big part in business.

How can I get started with SEO?

SEO starts with defining terms and phrases that are important to your business – terms that prospective customers might type into a search engine if they are looking for a product or service like the one you provide. (Developing a list of target terms is part guessing game, but bear in mind there are objective ways to validate those guesses.) An example target phrase is “Civil Engineer in Reading PA.” A small business can have dozens, hundreds, or thousands of potential target terms and phrases, depending on the variety of products and services offered, and the region in which they are offered. A good SEO specialist will walk you through the process of defining a list of target terms. This person will also likely scan your competitors’ websites for terms you may have overlooked.

Developing content for SEO

The next step is to plan content development around the target terms and phrases. In simplest terms, your web pages have to contain the terms you’re targeting, and those pages have to be visible to search engine spiders so that they’ll be searchable as part of a search engine’s index. If a search engine doesn’t know about your page, it can’t list it in a search engine result page (SERP).

Now you need to develop that content, get it onto the website, and make sure it’s visible to search engines. There are some rules of thumb. Use plain text to convey the terms in the page (not Flash). Use key terms in the title tag. Wherever possible, think one page per target term (or concept).

When will I see results from SEO?

How much time will it take to get results? This all depends on the uniqueness of your target terms and the uniqueness of your content on the internet. Whether there are 10, 100 or 1000 competitors in your business space, it’s likely that some of them are doing SEO, and furthermore it’s likely that some of those have been at it for quite some time, which could make the road more challenging for you and your search engine specialist. A good SEO specialist will be able to help you navigate more competitive situations, where you’ll need to explore advanced techniques like back linking.

One thing to remember is that when a website hasn’t been created with SEO in mind, it can be (though isn’t always) very costly to adapt it to the point where it can get results. For this reason, it’s important to consider SEO as part of any new website project, assuming SEO is a desired part of the marketing mix.

Should you outsource SEO?

To outsource or not outsource? If you happen to have someone on staff who understands and can execute an SEO effort and get results, you might consider starting there. (But I’ve found few small businesses who have this option.) If you need to go outside, consider a specialist who’s done SEO work in your field (e.g. civil engineering, roofing, real estate, etc.), and watch out for conflicts of interest (same product space, same geographic region).

While this article can’t possibly cover all aspects of SEO or an SEO project for a small business, I hope it provides some guidance and help in thinking about potential next steps and what questions to ask.

There was no shortage of sailboats on the Chesapeake Bay that day, from small ones to large ones and everything in between.

Sailboat in the bay at Annapolis

Sailboat in St. Michaels

There were engine-powered vessels of all sizes and kinds, too.

Trawler in the bay at Annapolis

This Bayliner Sedan Bridge looks like it’s been mounted with a sailing mast, but really that’s just the mast on a sailboat that’s hidden behind the vessel in the foreground.

Bayliner Sedan Bridge in St. Michaels

When we arrived at St. Michaels, a bagpiper was waiting on the lawn in front of the lighthouse. He was there to help a ferry guest celebrate her birthday.

Bagpiper at St. Michaels Lighthouse

Boston Whaler 16SL getting prepped for launch

It had a few family friendly features, including lots of seating and bow safety rail. It handled well on calmer lakes, but as any 16′ boat will, it got a lot trickier in bigger water like the Chesapeake Bay. Some of the nicer features included a bimini top, glove box, CD/Radio/Mp3 player, and swim platform with ladder.

Here’s a picture of us bouncing along a deserted Blue Marsh lake in 2010. Dad is driving, while Mom and Tara hold onto the kids.

Boston Whaler 16 SL on Blue Marsh Lake

As we started talking about spending more time on the Chesapeake, it became clear that we needed a bigger boat and, more importantly, a newer and more reliable one that would enable us to spend worry free hours on the Bay as a family. We decided on a 2011 Tidewater 196cc, a center console design with lots of room for the kids to move around.

Foxes in Chester County PA

To the rear of the shed is a large horse pasture where we’d see them playing in the mornings and at dusk. They also played down the hill in our side yard, less than 100 yards from the porch that our two dogs occupy.  They lived there for about 4 weeks before moving on.

The village’s original log house, its logs now plastered over, is to the east of the intersection.  Here is a photo.  Part of the plaque on the cabin reads “Land Grant from William Penn.”

The area was settled during the Revolutionary War.  Mills and agriculture were primary industries.  From the township’s website:

The water power of the Township provided industrial opportunities for early settlers. There were several mills in operation in the early to mid 1800’s. In addition, the early settlers found opportunities in agriculture. The land area adjacent to the Schuylkill River and Pigeon Creek provided exceptionally productive land for farming. It should be noted that a vast portion of these areas of the Township are still utilized for agricultural purposes.

Not far from Snowdenville is the modern ghost town of Frick’s Lock, which lies abandoned along the old Schuylkill Canal, in the shadow of the Limerick Nuclear Power Station.

It was no easy job, but we did end up converting the unfinished attic into a huge master suite, with large walk-in closet, cathedral ceilings (yes, 13′ at the peak), central air conditioning, a large bath, knee-wall storage, skylights, provision for a kitchenette, wiring for home theater and surround sound, and projector and screen mounts.  Here are some pictures we took just after it was finished.

Victorian attic suite window bay

The photo above shows the front window bay. We replaced the original 1913 windows with modern double-hung windows. The window molding we chose was a simple wide square molding, a departure from the rosette-based molding in the rest of the house. The full-width window seat (here and in the bathroom, which ran along the back of the house) hid the air conditioning ducts serving the 2nd and 3rd floors of the house.  Running the width above the windows is the box-in that hid a 77″ diagonal home theater projector screen.  The projector was mounted to a false beam that’s just outside this picture.

Victorian attic dormer

The dormers were tricky to frame and drywall, but turned out OK in the end.

Victorian attic suite bathroom

The bath ran the width of the back of the house. We ran the ceilings all the way to the peak for a big, open feel. We framed in a brick chimney that ran up the center of the back wall. We installed a 4-piece fiberglass shower.

Victorian attic suite sink

We installed a simple single bowl sink with drawer storage at the bottom, and a recessed triple-door mirror/medicine cabinet over top.