Lorraine O'Neil - February contributor for Business Matters Magazine

  

www.ted.com
Want inspiration? This website is fabulous and is devoted to spreading ideas around the world. As a small not-for-profit organisation TED has been able to attract some of the world's most recognisable people to speak about some amazing topics. Tune in to hear Bill Gates, James Cameron, Anthony Robbins, Bono, Richard Branson, I could go on? There are over 200 people speaking about technology, entertainment, business, science, design and global issues. Have a cup of coffee and check TED out.

www.inc.com
No matter what country you are doing business in, what is happening around the world is invaluable to the business owner. This American website is full of current information on start-ups, finance, leadership, sales, marketing, technology and innovation - all relevant to the Australian business owner. The inc.com website has something for everyone, no matter what industry sector you are in.

www.smartcompany.com.au
Previously an editor and senior writer at BRW, Amanda Gome, founder of SmartCompany.com. au, has developed a site that provides you with Australian business information aimed at the entrepreneur and business owner. SmartCompany is sent on a daily basis to your email and is usually more up-to-date than other types of media. As an added bonus it also provides some useful free ebooks. 

www.xe.com
If you deal with importing and exporting products and services it is very useful to know how much our Aussie dollar is worth. Containing the top 85 currencies The Universal Currency Converter is easy to use and gives you live mid-market rates instantly. They also have applications for your iPhone, Blackberry or Android Smartphone so you can check rates anywhere, anytime.

To view more useful business articles visit Business Matters website.

Many businesses find that although their site is in the Google index, its pages do not show up in searches. There are a number of changes that can be made to improve a site’s rankings for specific searches and/or traffic from search engines to help fix this problem. This is a process known as search engine optimisation (SEO).

SEO involves changing a site’s content and code in order to make the site rank higher in results for relevant searches. The easiest and most effective ways to do this include:

1. Change site copy to include words users actually search for; a ranking for a term that nobody searches for is meaningless.
2. Removing jargon, many sites use complicated industry jargon instead of words people use. As an example, did you know it isn’t car insurance but motor insurance? Neither do most people who use search engines looking to insure their car.
3. Use local terminology; words in different parts mean different things (thong comes instantly to mind). If you market is Americans, using “cell phones” rather than “mobile phones” makes sense. Ditto “vacation” over “holiday”.
4. Be specific, overt and use repetition; you may know what you do, but be sure to state it overtly. “We are specialists who can help you” isn’t as effective for SEO as “Looking for an accountant? XYZ Accountants can help meet your business’s accounting needs”. Don’t over do it, but be sure to use the keywords at least a few times on a page.
5. Build new pages; search engines rank individual pages, and no one page can rank for every search term. Building new pages for specific areas, for example separate pages for divorce lawyers and corporate lawyers, will help a site rank for a larger number of unique and different searches.
6. Get links from other sites; the more links a site has, the more important it is, and the higher its pages will rank. Building links is hard, but getting links from friends with a website and from partner businesses is usually fairly easy. Directories are another good source. The WMS Consulting website lists a great number of directories that can be submitted to, many for free.