Greensburg — On the third Wednesday of every month, the Greensburg/Decatur County Chamber of Commerce and the Greensburg/Decatur County Public Library collaborate to host a Marketing Mixer. This is a one-hour informational session that is designed to help business owners discuss with one another ways to successfully market their companies.

Because a website is generally a must-have for any business today, ETC's web division was proud to host last month's marketing mixer. The Ensuring Efficient Websites session was led by Tom Barker, ETC's newest Web Applications Developer. Having worked in information-technology for a major Aerospace Defense Contractor, as well as small, family-operated businesses, Tom is well-versed on the topic and offered up many tips for ensuring a top-notch site.

According to Barker, if you want a strong web presence, the content of your website is of the utmost importance. It's a search engine's job to do what the name implies: to search the web for specific information. These engines scan your site's content Ñ including verbiage and images Ñ for key words. As a result, using smart and pertinent phrases and pictures will help increase the number of hits on your site. Consider this: if you run a car dealership, your site should include keywords about the specific makes and models that you sell. Over use of a generic term like 'car' lumps you into searches for anything with the word 'car' in it: box cars, model cars, race cars, etc. Instead, use specific words to allow the search engines to drill down to your site more efficiently.

Barker also noted that cross linking websites is important. Make sure your site links to others' sites, and that the linkage is reciprocated. If you own a car business and your cars use a certain brand name tire, add that local tire dealer's link to your site. Then be sure to approach the local tire dealer and ask him to include your business on his site, as well. You can also find free cross linking opportunities with sites like yellowbook.com and dmoz.com. These will list your business for free, so be sure to take advantage of their offer.

After explaining the importance of keywords and the importance of links, Barker suggested that the two entities, together, are also important. Search engines don't like generic 'click here for more information' references within your site. Instead, stating 'click here for additional Ford dealers near you' gives the search engines another content-rich key to go off of.

Other suggestions Barker offered up included listing your local phone numberÑnot just your toll-free numberÑon the footer of each of your web pages. Search engines use that numerical information as a clue to list and rank your business geographically. And of course, keeping your site fresh is always important.  Because sites are available 24/7, they are always available for viewing and need to be given frequent attention.

Those attending the Marketing Mixer also learned a quick tip about bookmarking favorite websites. Many of us ask our computers to remember, or 'bookmark,' websites that we visit often. We save these to our personal computers as our favorite websites, but lose quick accessibility when we don't have our personal computers at hand. Barker shared information about publicly bookmarking your favorite sites. Through websites like delicious.com, tagfoot.com and faves.com, you can share your favorites, or even view those of others, from any computer.

Regardless of who is designing your website, make sure it is all that it can be.