Can a small site with a small budget be successful going against big sites in search? - This is one of the popular questions that I’m asked frequently. It is possible for a small business with a small website to successfully run a business online even in the overseas markets. In fact, there are quite a few of them out there doing really well. Here are my advices and tips to small business owners, who are considering reaching foreign markets through search.

Use your limited budget wisely.

It’s best to localize the site for the target market. It’s not just for SEO purpose, but also for the better customer experiences on your website. Now that the engines are pushing websites with the right signals (local language, local ccTLD, hosted in local market, etc.), it’s extremely difficult for anyone to rank well in foreign markets without the localized websites. If your budget is limited and you can only localize 2-5 pages, do that more for the better usability for foreign users. Do optimize the pages for your important target keywords, but you probably won’t see much of the traffic from foreign search engines at least for a while.

Social Media can be your global website.

The good news is that the Social Media Services can provide the place for your global website. You can immediately set up several pages in local language and start finding, meeting, and negotiating with potential customers. Rather than to build links to your localized website, network and connect with people through social media. By linking to your localized pages from the social media sites, you’ll bring traffic to the site where people take actions (download, sign-up, purchase, etc.).

Word of mouth will build the links.

We all know that the link building is an important part in SEO. You may not be able to outsource the link building work, and when you are running a business, you sure don’t have extra time to build the links yourself. But don’t be discouraged. If people come to your site through social media and other channels like what they see and experience on your websites, they’ll talk about it online and offline. As a result, you’ll get the links from people recommending you to others organically.

No one knows about your business better than you.

No one is more passionate about your business than you.You are the best marketing and the sales person for your business. Instead of money, invest your time to talk about your business, products, etc., and to provide the better customer care online.  And, when you do, listen to people and make the improvements where needed.

Educate yourself: SEO and PPC.

After your business starts to doing well online, you may want to localize and optimize the site properly. You may even have extra budget to run a PPC campaign in different markets. Before you step into them, it’s always a good idea to educate yourself about the basic SEO and PPC through training, seminars, and trusted online resources. Also, review stats and read some search marketing related articles about your target market. This would help you when selecting SEO/PPC company. Even if the language is different, the basics are still the same. I’ve seen many businesses failed to select the right SEO/PPC service provider for them, and having to spend more money with other service providers to fix the damages that the previous provider has made.

Small companies have its strength.

Small companies are much more flexible and quicker in adopting the changes, and this is definitely one of the biggest strengths they have. You can make the decision very quickly without having to go through the top-bottom and left-right channels for approval like your bigger competitors do. Leverage this strength throughout your online marketing from SEO, PPC to Social Media.