Imagine the difference that a better Google ranking would mean for you and your business. Granted, you may have to deal with a different set of problems. Maybe hire some extra help, ramp up production a bit. But aren't those a happier set of problems than worrying about making payroll or the rent?

Wouldn't it be easier to land deals when you have customers calling you, rather than having to cold call the universe, or buy tens of thousands of dollars in advertising to scrape up business? 

That's the value of a well designed website --- one that is focused on marketing rather than glitz and glamor.  A website that gets people to call you.  To put you and your business in demand. Where you get to pick your customers and set your prices and terms. 

There are two business cultures online.  One is made up of internet marketers who live and breath the internet day in and day out. These are the cyber space players who may or may not have a physical location for their business.

The second is the Main Street Brick and Mortar Business, where the internet is part of their marketing and advertising, but where the majority of their business is, shall we say, more traditional.

It stands to reason the cyber space players have an advantage online. And they have created an entire industry around the art and science of getting their web sites ranked at the top of the search engine listings. It's how they make their millions.

Now these guys are niche players. They know they can't compete everywhere. They pick niches where demand is high and fulfillment is easy and costs are low. They typically aren't interested in stocking inventory, hiring and firing people,and doing the stuff most main street businesses do.

But that doesn't mean main street businesses can't learn and profit from their techniques. Much of what the purely internet marketing players have learned to get top rankings online is widely known and taught. If you had the time and inclination you  could find and duplicate most of what I know and do yourself. Because most of it isn't rocket science. But like the old joke about the repairman who charged a hundred dollars to replace a washer explained his bill, it was 10 cents for the washer and $99.90 for knowing which washer to replace.

No don't get alarmed, at the end of this page, I am going to ask you to take action, but what I have in mind isn't going to cost you anywhere near a $100.00

Hundreds of businesses have grown up around the topic of search engine optimization, and I am another.  My name is Earl Netwal, and I call myself the Micro Business Specialist.

What sets me apart from many of my competitors is that I'm not out to make a million dollars overnight. My goal is to help a lot of locally based business learn to use the internet to market more effectively. Frankly, many small businesses have web sites that are doing next to nothing for them, and that's a shame.  I know a lot of tricks and tactics that could be useful to you.

It may come as a surprise to you, but if you are a brick and mortar business, you actually have an advantage online. But unfortunately, most small business people are too busy getting product out the door.  Too busy dealing with payroll, and the myriad of other details involved in their business.  Too busy to learn and execute a plan to move them to the top of the Google Pile.

And sad to say, most of you created your web site on the cheap,--- or just the reverse, ---  paid through the nose for a fancy but non productive web site --- created by the techies and graphic artists I mentioned above.

What you need is a look under the hood at your web site by a marketer who knows what to look for. And depending on the outcome, knows which washer to replace, which sprocket to tweak.

And I humbly submit that guy is me, your micro business specialist. I've been self employed most of my life in a variety of businesses. For the past 13 years, I've been self employed online. Initially as an eBay power seller, (I stated with eBay their first year in business) and then on to pay per click, affiliate sales, and a variety of my own publications that I market in a wide variety of niches.

The complete answer to that question is a secret. 

Google and the other search engines don't want the internet marketers to game their system, although they constantly do. So the rules change frequently, but the basics are well known.

There are two major categories of factors. Those that are "on page" and those that are "off page."  By on page factors, we are talking about those things that are on your website. Some are visible, while others are in the hidden computer code. The off page things have to do with links other web sites make to your page and how much juice they carry. While there are a great many things you can do to improve your off page factors, our focus here is on what you can do with your existing website. The on page factors. 

That's the question the WART Analysis is designed to answer.

WART stands for Website Analysis Review Template. 

It is a simple quick look under the hood at your website, to see whether or not your "on page" factors are lined up to maximize your chances to rise in the search engine listings. 

Most small business web sites don't.

This analysis will generate a grade for your site from a D to an A+.

When you get an A+, you know you can focus your attention on "off page" factors.

If you get anything less than an A+, your first priority needs to be getting your "on page" factors cleaned up.