News

Online newsfeeds can play a central role in small business online marketing strategies.

The president of Utah-based directory service NewsGroup4.com, LA Gerson, explained that news is an excellent way for businesses to enhance their credibility.

"Businesses are looking to the media to help leverage their brand, gain market share and outshine the competition," he said. "Credibility is critical, along with educating your client."

Mr Gerson added that it is "imperative" for companies to spread their message via the media, with online newsfeeds having the potential to give small businesses a "local, national and global presence".

Newsfeeds in small business online marketing

Online newsfeeds are among the most popular internet-based activities, with users of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets particularly likely to get their news in this way.

Small business newsfeeds that are optimised for mobile and promoted via social media can play a central part in online marketing activities.

Online news has numerous search engine optimisation (SEO) benefits for the site on which it is published. On the one hand, publishing news is an opportunity to include relevant keywords and link to related areas on your site.

But regular updating is also an important factor in how search engines rank sites, so a site that publishes fresh and valuable information frequently should perform better in search engine results pages (SERPs).

The importance of up-to-date content was highlighted again last week when Google rolled out a new algorithm update that takes into account how recently a site was updated.

Announcing the change on the Inside Search blog, Google fellow Amit Singhal said it would affect about 35 per cent of searches and is aimed at ensuring results are as relevant and fresh as the user would like them to be.