The economy has really swept through all industries and just left behind a pile of ruble for many of us. Some don’t mind talking about it and many others are still in a denial stage. Now is a good time to learn the basics of search engine marketing and start applying it to your business while you have some free time on your hands. Much of your competition has probably already pulled back marketing & advertising spending so now is a good time for you to ramp things up online. There is a great deal you could be doing yourself with the extra time you might have right now. I don’t know any business that couldn’t benefit from at least getting online and making themselves a bit more visible.

Here are some simple things you could be learning how to do if your business has slowed:

Keyword Research

Keyword research should be the very first thing you do when you start to think about the online space. Tools like Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery are industry standard keyword research tools that can help you generate new business. Sign up to the free trials and start playing around with the tools and see what you can come up with. You will most likely surprise yourself as to how many potential keywords you could be missing out by not targeting in your industry. Keyword research can often times be lengthy so if you are sitting around not very busy now is a good time to start digging.

Forums

Forums were the very first form of social interaction online and still have a significant role in the online space. Most industries have industry specific forums where you can get involved in communication. Create a an account with a signature and a nice image and start participating in discussions regularly. Remember that you should be adding to the conversation with useful industry info and not spamming the forums with your products or services. If you spam the forums and you will be removed very quickly by a moderator. Plus it’s just tacky.

Link Building

Building links to your website drives power to your site and is not as difficult as it might sound. Remember that it is not about the quantity of links but rather the quality of links. Start launching various business profiles to promote your business to get the ball rolling. Don’t worry about using any software programs that claim they generate thousands of links for you, that stuff is just rubbish. Build your links naturally over time. Research some of your industry specific directories and start listing your business.

Write Something, Anything

In today’s digital landscape content marketing is an immensely important effort to marketing any business. Writing also takes quite a bit of time so if time is what you have start thinking about some articles you can write surrounding your business. Think of different PR topics and blog posts as well because now is the time you can put that content marketing plan in place.

What I am saying is that right now many businesses have slowed down. Rather than sitting around waiting for the phone to ring try reading about how you can market your business online the right way. Don’t wait until the economy cleans itself up and you start to get busier. Do it now before that time comes.