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Many small businesses are not getting the results they expected from their Website and online marketing activities. They put up a Website and promote it as best they can. Yet, they seem to hit a wall. Their site never appears within the first three pages of search engine returns for their keywords. In effect, they are invisible on the Internet. Or despite a healthy flow of traffic to their site, sales never seem to increase.

Under these circumstances, online marketing can be a frustrating experience. Every small business person has at one time or another has said to himself, "I wish I could get someone knowledgeable to look at my site and tell me what to do." And following that intuitive thought is exactly what they should do.

There are several ways to get an outside opinion of your Website marketing activities. The first and most obvious is to examine your site statistics. Most Web hosting vendors provide Website analytics today. If not and even if they do it is worthwhile to install the free Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics ), as it provides a wealth of useful information and can be integrated to track your pay-per-click advertising as well.

Another way to learn more about how your small business Website is perceived by visitors is to simply ask your friends, family and some customers to go through your site and give you comments and suggestions. This informal approach often yields valuable insights into the flow and appeal of your business Website. Sometimes, we get too far down into the trees to see the forest.

Alternatively, you can place a survey on your Website asking for customer feedback on their experience while surfing your site. Just go to Google and enter "free online survey poll" in the search box, and you will find a ton of free and low-cost services that offer a means to easily add this function to your Website. Best results will be achieved by placing the survey or poll on the Home page and offering some incentive for its completion. Structure it so that it is easy and fast to complete, yet ensures that you will receive useful information. Use ratings ("on a scale of 1 to 5") or Yes/No click-button answers to solicit most responses. Some open-ended questions are encouraged too ("What suggestions can you offer to improve this Website?"). Finally, it is nice if there is supporting software to automatically tabulate the answers and provide graphical statistics for ease of interpretation. Typically, online surveys and polls are easy to set up, usually just requiring the copying and paste of an automatically generated script into your HTML code.

If you are willing to pay for it, a more comprehensive approach is to employ a knowledgeable consultant to appraise your small business Website. Among other things, an Internet marketing consultant will evaluate your site from the perspective of its search engine optimization, load times, unique selling propositions, attention factors ("stickiness"), ease of navigation, ability to quickly locate what a visitor is seeking, content and layout, incentives, whether it guides visitors to take the actions your wish, ease of purchase (for e-commerce sites) and your current online promotion activities. When finished, consultants usually issue a report with recommendations for improvements. This service typically costs several hundred or even thousands of dollars.

Pacifica Endeavors offers an Online Marketing Appraisal service for small businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups at a much lower price. One of their online marketing experts examines your Website, then provides a formal report with insightful recommendations for enhancing it and your Internet marketing promotion. The price for this service is $99.95, with turnaround within a few days. Details can be found at www.smallbizsmartmarketing.com.

Whatever approach you select and you can do all of them any action on your part is better than ignoring a stagnating situation and letting your online marketing languish. Most small business people are pleasantly surprised when they see that minor changes to their Website and online marketing activities result in a noticeable increase to the bottom line.

Al Kernek

Al Kernek has thirty years of hands-on marketing experience in both Fortune 500 firms and entrepreneurial start-up companies. He has an extensive background in marketing, Internet marketing and the use of e-mail newsletters to promote products and services.

His credentials also include a master's degree in business management, numerous courses in high-tech marketing, plus many industry and company awards for outstanding achievement.

A licensed real estate broker, Al has also published a book for real estate agents interested in email newsletters. Another book, "Put Your Business Online," is directed towards small businesses and entrpreneurs as well.

Among his many interests is a passion for bike riding along the California coastline, good mystery and horror novels, and charitable works. Al is a Toastmaster who resides with his wife and an assortment of critters in San Diego, California.