I think it is safe to say that many small business owners
don’t understand how to leverage the marketing power of their website. Many of
them may indeed have a website, maybe built by their nephew for free or close
to free, but rarely are these sites built to attract online consumers and drive
new leads to their business.
In order to receive a maximum return on your investment,
your website must be given some regular TLC. This is because outdated, poorly designed websites
can fade into obscurity faster than your laser disc collection. In a way, websites may be similar to a billboard advertising.
Overtime a billboard will get faded by the sun, ripped by the wind, and
eventually the advertisement itself will become outdated. Your website can
become outdated as well.
The Key is Organic
Search Engine Optimization 
Organic search engine optimization is a process that builds your
website up over time to rank high in search engine results pages for keywords
related to your business without paying for it. If someone
doesn’t know your business name, but is looking for your products or services,
they will not type your business name. Instead, they will type keywords related
to your business category(e.g., little rock lawn service, affordable wedding
photographer, trustworthy automotive repair).
A website that isn’t optimized to attract category searches in
search engines will not bring you new business. Since most consumers looking
for businesses online never go past the first or second page of search engine
results, your website may render itself worthless as a lead generating tool if
it doesn’t rank high in search engines. Just take a look at the heat map image from a google search engine results page. The heated colors are areas were people looked the most in this particular study.
Consequently, your website must rank high on search engine results pages for keywords rather
than your business name in order to attract new traffic. Organic search engine
optimization can do this for you. The sort of TLC required to do this takes a lot of time and effort. If this is something you feel you simply don't understand or have the time to understand, you should consider highering a professional search engine marketing firm to do this for you. Otherwise, your website may have a simila fate as your tattered billboard on that lost highway outside of town.