SEO, Small Business Websites & Downtrepreneurs

Downtreprenuer [doun-truh-pruh–nur] a person who organizes and manages a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk, because they have lost their jobs and baby needs a new pair of shoes.

1. As different industries falter in the economic downturn (think real estate professions, the auto biz, etc.), people will start to look for alternative ways to make money.
2. The Web offers one of the cheapest ways to start a business.  Get a cheap/free website from someone like Merchant Circle or Homestead and start adding pages.
3. There’s nothing like the thought of poverty to focus the mind on learning how to make the most of what you have.  SEO, SMO and other “free” online marketing tactics will attract these Downtrepreneurs, like moths to a flame.
4. As a result of this influx of stressed-out marketers, SEO & SMO will get more competitive than ever, making it harder for incumbent sites to maintain their rankings (or maybe the bigger sites will just get bigger and the 2nd tier sites will end up killing each other for smaller and smaller pieces of the pie).

So what does this mean for you?

• Businesses that have an understanding of SEO & SMO and are already using these techniques will have an advantage over the thousands of newbies who enter the market over the next year.
• If you do not dominate your keywords via great content, linkbuilding and smart SEO strategy, you are going to see that part of your business nibbled away.
• You better get on it now.
• If you know how to monetize your business better than the newbies you may have an opportunity to use their newfound SEO skills to make both of you money, or you may be able to pick up some strong lead-generating sites on the cheap, as unsophisticated newbies flounder.

Conclusion: Invest in your website and online marketing now* or get ready for some ex-investment banker from Lehman Bros to eat your lunch.

Note: may contain extremely self-serving recommendations designed to promote the author’s business, but cut him some slack as we may be in a depression and his wife just spent a hundred f&#ing bucks for baby’s new pair of shoes.