As recently as 10 years ago a small business would probably concentrate on supply and demand for the local area, adding value to the business would entail local advertising, keeping prices keen so as to keep ahead of local competitors and keeping an eye on local trends. The internet has brought massive changes and for any small business to succeed in the modern business world then concentrating only on the local market is not enough. To stay ahead of your competitors there is a need to ensure that your business is visible at all times of the day and night, all year round and all over the world - and that means keeping up with technological advances, a website to market your business successfully is therefore a must.

A simple example of the importance of website marketing or a small business is best illustrated by an experience recounted to me by a friend who is not very comfortable using the internet. She realised quite late one evening that she had forgotten to send flowers to her daughter who now lives in Australia. Rather than wait for the following morning to take a trip into town to visit a local florist with an 'interflora' franchise, she decided to give online shopping a try, and used a search engine to find florists in Perth, Western Australia. She then visited various business websites that featured in the first two pages of the results, found one that had a professional, easy to navigate site - and obviously, attractive and well priced flowers on offer. She was mindful of the security of her credit card so used a secure site to pay for the flowers, and once ordered successfully the flowers were delivered by the florist the same day, result - happy daughter!

The florist in Perth managed to stay ahead by having a superior site which was easily found by the search engine being used, in this case Google. Specific relevant keywords and keyphrases had been installed and therefore optimised successfully for the search engine which is how they were found. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is key in making sure a business is found on the internet. You can have the most beautiful site created by a website designer, but without the expert skills of a search engine optimisation and website design company such as Consultancy Marketing then your site may never be found by the major search engines. The key to successful optimisation is not always installing the keywords that a business owner may find relevant, it is about trying to ascertain which words that those searching for are most likely to use, and to hopefully promote search engine cache. If for instance R.J. Jones Limited, a greeting card wholesaler based in Durham was to install keywords 'RJ Jones, Durham, greetings cards wholesaler ', how would someone searching for 'Christmas Cards suppliers' find the company? This also highlights the need for a continuous SEO service, if the keywords installed had been changed to 'Christmas Cards suppliers', what results would then be found for 'wholesale Valentine's Day Cards'?

It is without doubt true that the methods that people now use to buy goods, services, events and experiences is changing. Demographics are important for all markets, and the use of services like 'Google Analytics' will assist with knowing your market a little better which in turn will help for planning for future marketing. As a small business it is essential that you concentrate on your core business, man hours are precious and the use of professional people to assist with the day to day running of the business are critical, accountants, solicitors, electricians etc., and now of course add to the list website marketing, without the services of a reputable website company with your best interests at heart then your business can not hope to succeed in today's global market.