When business owners discuss search engine optimization with us what they are basically saying is they want to bring people to their website “now!” and it doesn’t really matter how they get there. Well, it does matter “how” you get people to a site and it also matters “why” you trying to drive them there in the first place. A lot of emphasis with regard to discussions on SEO is about a website’s page rank and being at the top of the list on a Google search.  But in reality, if visitors go to your website and aren’t satisfied with what they find there then they don’t ultimately become customers.  And getting customers is what the SEO game is really all about.

The most obvious reason to optimize a website is to improve traffic in the hope those visiting the site will be convinced to buy your product or service. However, it is important to determine who the intended audience will be so the content of the site is most attractive to the targeted audience. The target audience is the group you want to convert into an actual customer.  They aren’t just surfing the net checking things out, but are on a mission to buy and it is the buyers who you want to take an interest in your website.

Through proper SEO analysis, website content can be revised to what will attract visitors who are searching on specific keywords and keyword phrases. This is what targeted traffic means – getting people to view your website to see the content. As in traditional marketing, when you create a business, you have to tell people about it. You don’t just open shop and hope people find out about you. Your product or service needs exposure and since there are millions of people online, it especially crucial to have targeted exposure.

The benefits of properly optimizing your website will not be immediate. It can take a month or longer for your site to rank well in the major search engines. Even though there is some initial one-time work for SEO, there are still ongoing SEO tasks that need to be maintained. Securing a high ranking position in Google for instance, is not permanent. Your competitors will not sit back idly and let you have all the glory. If you invest in the initial SEO tasks now, but not in maintaining your presence in the major search engines, then your investment is a waste of your valuable time and money. This is why we offer a quarterly review of traffic results, so the strategy can be revisited, reviewed and revised where needed.

Even now as you read this, your competitors are raking in the visitors for keyword phrases that apply to your company’s products and services. The reality is, most of your competitors have likely implemented an SEO campaign and are profiting because of it. A well-thought out SEO strategy will set in motion the information search engines need to identify what your website pages are all about. That’s what on-page optimization is all about – setting up your pages to make relevant data clear to the search engines. If it is clear to the search engines, then your site will get traffic and hopefully that traffic will convert into some of your best customers.

Gallop Web Services will work with you to create a presence in the major search engines with a goal of generating targeted traffic.  There is no guarantee traffic will be converted to customers, but we will work with you to attempt to make that happen.

Old, outdated browsers can interfere with how a website looks and–more importantly–may be a security risk.  Go to www.whatbrowser.org to see if you have the latest browser versions installed on your computer.  Current versions of the major browsers are Firefox 3.6,  Safari 5, Google Chrome 7, Internet Explorer 8 and Opera 10.63.  If you are using an old version of Internet Explorer and are blocked from updating your browser yourself, try the Google Chrome Frame plug-in. It will bring into IE some of the capabilities of Google Chrome.

On September 27, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (H.R. 5297). The legislation contains several provisions designed to ensure that small businesses have access to adequate credit. The Act also contains targeted short-term tax relief for small businesses.

Specific tax changes include:

• Increased IRC Section 179 expense limits — Effective for 2010 and 2011, the maximum amount that a business is able to expense under IRC Section 179 is increased to $500,000 (without the legislation, the expense limit would have been $250,000 for 2010 and $25,000 for 2011). The $500,000 limit is reduced if capital expenditures exceed $2 million. The Act also temporarily expands the application of Section 179 to up to $250,000 of certain real property (for example, qualified restaurant property).
• First-year “bonus” depreciation extended — The Act extends the additional 50% first-year depreciation deduction that was in effect for 2008 and 2009 for one year, to qualified property acquired and placed in service during 2010.
• Small business stock exclusion increased — The Act temporarily increases the exclusion percentage for qualified small business stock purchased by individuals to 100%, and does not treat the excluded gain as an alternative minimum tax preference item. Therefore, subject to certain limits, you’ll pay no regular tax or alternative minimum tax on the sale of qualified small business stock acquired at original issue after September 27, 2010, and before January 1, 2011, provided you hold the stock for at least five years.
• Small businesses get enhanced general business credit — Eligible small businesses (generally, non-publicly traded corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships with gross receipts averaging $50 million or less) will be able to carry back excess general business credits up to 5 years (instead of 1) in 2010, and will be able to use the general business credit to offset both regular and alternative minimum tax liability.
• Health insurance costs will reduce self-employment tax — If you’re self-employed and pay health insurance premiums for you or your family, you get a break on your 2010 self-employment tax (the tax that you calculate on Form 1040, Schedule SE). That’s because, for 2010 only, the deduction you get for the cost of health insurance for yourself and your family will apply in calculating your earnings for purposes of self-employment tax as well as in reducing your income for income tax purposes.
• Cell phones no longer listed property — Effective 2010, cell phones are not considered listed property, significantly reducing the substantiation rules and depreciation limits that apply when cell phones are used for business purposes.
• New reporting requirements for rental property expenses — With some exceptions, starting in 2011, if you receive rental income from real property, you’ll be required to file an information return (Form 1099) when you make payments totaling $600 or more to a service provider (such as a plumber, painter, or accountant) for rental property expenses.

Portion of nonqualified annuity can be annuitized — Beginning in 2011, if you have a nonqualified annuity (an annuity that is held outside of a qualified retirement plan or IRA), you can annuitize only a portion of the annuity, provided the annuitization period is for 10 years or more, or is for the lives of one or more individuals. The portion of the annuity or contract that is annuitized will be treated as a separate contract, and the investment in the annuity will be allocated on a pro-rata basis.

To find out more about it, go to www.lindajblack.com

It’s so important to have well written, website content that is written not only for your intended audience but the search engines as well. Here is a short, very good explanation of how Google search engines work.

If you are self-employed and your business is a sole proprietorship, single-member LLC, or sole-owner S-corp, you can indeed deduct your health insurance expenses for 2010. This one-year provision is not a part of the health-care reform bill that passed in March, however. It was included in the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act that President Barack Obama signed into law just last month.

“In this economic climate, any kind of bottom line tax savings is helpful,” says Kristie Arslan, executive director of the National Association for the Self-Employed, a Washington-based lobbying group. “This is one of the few small business provisions that’s been passed where business owners will actually see lower taxes on Apr. 15, 2011.”

Her organization has championed the deduction for more than eight years and unsuccessfully tried to get it included in the health-care reform law.

he new provision corrects what Arslan calls a fundamental unfairness: Self-employed individuals cannot deduct the full cost of health insurance premiums as a business expense on their payroll taxes, as other business entities can do.

Although the new law authorizes the deduction only for 2010, Arslan says it’s “a foot in the door” for self-employed individuals, who pay both the employer and employee portions of the payroll tax—a self-employment tax totaling 15.3 percent. Employees typically pay half that amount (7.65 percent) and their employers cover the other half as part of their payroll taxes. The new deduction exempts solo business owners from paying self-employment tax on the portion of their income that they spend on health premiums. “This is a step in the right direction. We’re hoping to extend it and make it permanent,” Arslan says.

See the full article on Bloomberg Businessweek