At Effex Agency we spend a lot of out time talking about social media and search engine marketing for our Melbourne, Florida small business clients. We often hear about how overwhelming it can be to do even basic research. Articles are written every day by countless blogs and websites on the ins and outs of being seen on the web.

Don't be overwhelmed, and definitely don't give up in frustration. Regardless of your budget, personal computer knowledge or the nature of your business, there are things that will work for you online. Just keep these tips in mind.

By having a professional website, you're ahead of many of your competitors.

As of 2010, 75% of small businesses did not have a website. That statistic seems unbelievable but it's true. Even taking into account "small businesses" that are individuals working as independent contractors, that's still a lot of people working to grow their business, effectively, in the digital dark.

Out of the 25% of small businesses who do have websites, many of them are sub-par; poorly built by a friend who "does websites on the side", hosted on free platforms that display ads or creating using outdated techniques. What this means is investment into a great website and social media presence can put your business on top in a marketing arena that will only continue to grow.

There's a social network for everyone.

Maybe your business is in a niche field, maybe you deal entirely business to business, maybe you're a manufacturer and theres really just no way to make plastic injection moulding interesting. Thats okay, theres more out there than just Facebook and Twitter and there are ways to make social media work for you without getting thousands of followers.

There are specialized communities on the web for literally anything, some exist within larger social networks while others are their own thing. Effex Agency can help you find the places you need to be for your business. We can research communities, groups, hashtags and more to find your followers and create a strategy that will connect you with them.

Your small business isn't competing against the whole internet.

One very important thing to always keep in mind when marketing online is you are not competing against everyone else. Search results for general terms are all dominated by superbrands, usually national chains with teams of people working on blogging, social media and SEO. You have no chance of competing with that. Luckily, you don't need to.

Local search is growing. Many users already search locally, searching for "web design melbourne florida" instead of simply "web design" for instance. Now search engines use location data now to find businesses that are local automatically. Thats means you don't need to beat the big box stores, your on a level playing field with other small businesses in your area. You may not be the next big thing on the internet, but you'll get enough traffic to run a successful local business.

Let Effex Agency help you figure out the web. Our experts are here to help. Give us a call at 321-872-8932 or contact us using the form below.

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