No more excuses: let's get your small business Website whipped into shape. People who are moderately online use the Web as their first search source. Phone books are dead trees; if your business is not online with an easy-to-find phone number, I'm clicking elsewhere. People spend money in browser-based shopping sprees and your Web site has to compete.

Let's whip your site into shape. We've already discussed how you can grade your own site; offered tips for upgrading your site; and suggested ways to increase your search-engine ranking. Let's take the next step and whip your small business Website into first-class shape.

What do your site visitors want most of all from your site?

LET ME SEARCH!
I want a search box, plain and visible, preferably at the top of every page but definitely at the top of the homepage. If you don't have a site search, you can get a great free search tool in phpDig but you'll probably have to pay someone to make it work. It's worth your money. Put it at the top of your list.

TALK TO ME!
Company contact information belongs on every page, preferably in the footer. The footer area should also tell me a mailing address, a fax number and not merely supply a link to a contact page. Think: single-clicking! One click to get where you most want to go should be a navigation goal.

HELP ME!
You can add online help to your site through volusion's Live Chat (free edition) or through the Open Source PHP Lively at Sourceforge (the holy grail of Open Source apps to try). Of course, you have to make an employee available to respond, even if only a few visitors click the icon. Surely, someone sits at a desk during the day. Think how important they will feel!

FEED ME!
I want to know what your company is up to and what new products you have that will benefit me. Send out an RSS feed of new information or products. The nitty-gritty of RSS is here and if you're not into coding, try one of several free Open Source apps to generate RSS from your Web site.

Pheeder claims to be easy to implement and has loads of documentation. RSS Genesis works on any type of server and is PHP4/5 compatible and RSS Feed Creator claims simply to generate RSS feed.

While you're at it, how about offering RSS feeds for companion products that might interest me? There are some free RSS services that enable adding feeds to your site relatively easy and, of course, FeedRoll.

While you're RSS'ing, you can create a feed of any Web page that interests you. Feedity is a free service that will create a feed for any page and alert you to changes or updates to any site's page. Keep on eye on the competition or sites of businesses that impact what you sell through easy RSS reading.

WHOLE PACKAGE ME!
Robert Scoble, an online evangelist, lists his best practices for your business cards. Why not incorporate these ideas into your small business Web site?

1. Start the conversation – make your site engage the visitor.
2. Make it a standard size and shape but be different – that's why you need a Web development firm with creative builds in their portfolio.
   
3. Make sure the basics are easy to find.
4. Tell us what you do. Unless your business is globally recognized, we need to see what you're selling in clear language on the home page.
5. Break some rules but stay on the good side of obnoxious.
6. Highlight your corporate tag line. Don't have one yet? Get one.
7. Use language options if appropriate.

Use the rest of 2008 to build a plan for your small business Web site to move toward as many best practices as possible. A site re-design isn't free and is also not a silver bullet that will increase sales dramatically in the first week. You still have to market your Web site. Stay tuned.

Internet Service Providers are coming at high bandwidth users from all directions, but mostly poorly. Dave Winer once again is at the forefront with his Comcast controversy where the ISP threatened to cut off his service for using "too much" bandwidth but wouldn't tell him how much "too much" was. You can hear the DLS podcast here. Comcast is sending out threatening letters labeling customers as abusers, without telling them how much their download or upload caps really are.

The bottom line for Comcast appears to be: you're using too much. We're just not going to tell you how much is too much, because we're the ISP.

It's not just Comcast, either, back in 2002, CNet wrote that ISPs are considering new pricing plans that would adversely affect file-swapping. Bell Canada customers suffered through a 10Gb cap but complained that the monitoring software wasn't BC's responsibility.

Internet bandwidth usage is growing, some say wildly, for US businesses. Most companies buy broadband with speeds much higher than their workers have at home and with an inexpensive Flash key, a worker can download movies or songs and transfer them to their pockets with little trace, except for that pesky bandwidth usage.

ISPs are accused of bandwidth throttling, or traffic shaping, to slow down people using P2P software file sharing. Bell Canada calls it "downgrading the internet services of bandwidth hogs," and this month the Canadian Association of Internet Providers has asked the Canadian federal regulators to prohibit BC's throttling of Web traffic on their network.

The implications for small business? Last month, Bell informed smaller Internet Service Providers that it was bringing in traffic-shaping policies on the network space it sells to them, effectively downgrading the services these smaller companies are able to provide to their customers. How about US businesses? What sort of bandwidth regulation might they be looking toward?

Let's pretend you read this column and agree that it's time to embark on a Web site overhaul for your small business. You understand a little about Web 2.0-ness, want some interactivity, are considering using new online tools and have created a real job for the webmaster to do site updates. What's on your Web Overhaul Due Diligence To-Do List? What steps should you take to ensure that your site gets architected, designed, programmed, launched, and updated correctly?

HOMEWORK – let's start browsing sites and making favorites/bookmarks out of the ones that catch your eye. Note that you like the drop-down menu in one and the fading background in another. Make a "how did they do this?" list of snazzy features to ask your designer about implementing. In fact, build a spreadsheet and make column headings such as: URL, feature, forms, Flash, menus and more so you can keep your design notes and questions in a handy electronic document to share with all the design firms you interview, and we want you to talk to more than one.

Almost every small business has a Web site and a high percentage of those sites are mired in Web 1.0 parameters. Perform a site self-checkup to determine how Web 2.0 your small business's online presence is. We're talking about all of your online presence and not simply your Web site. Here are 10 ways to grade your business's Web 2.0-ness.

1. Last update – if you haven't updated your Web site yet in 2008, it is definitely old web and not going in the Web 2.0 direction toward interactivity. When content doesn't change, your site is nothing more than a brochure online.
   No updates yet in 2008? Give yourself a C.
   
2. Who, When Where – if you aren't regularly checking your site's visitor trends, possibly using Google Analytics, then you don't know who is visiting your site, when they are paying attention or where they are coming from. You could run a promotion and never know if anyone online saw it. How old-web is that kind of thinking?
   No site stat research when marketing is everything? Give yourself a D.
   
3. Buy me! – does your site scream BUY SOMETHING rather than equally illustrating why your product or service is essential? Show us some case studies, success stories or testimonials in addition to pitching your product.
   No examples of your product's usefulness to buyers? Give yourself a C+.
   
4. No response – when is the last time you paid attention to website-generated email or calls and analyzed how much web-based contact your small business receives? Are you considering how to raise your online contacts through different, not necessarily more, online strategies?
   Not planning how to garner more online contact? Give yourself a C. If you don't yet know that Google Forms can be used to collect survey data, mark that down to a C-.
   
5. Still breaking the law? – if you are sending unsolicited email through your personal email program like Outlook, then you're probably violating the 2004 CAN-SPAM Act and fines are $10,000 per instance. It's time to invest small business dollars in a compliant email application. Start with Constant Contact and research from there.
   Still blasting from a personal email application? Give yourself an F because it's toying with disaster.
   
6. Feeding time – have you resisted adding an RSS feed to any portion of your small business presence because you really don't understand what RSS is? Get one your kids to explain it and then generate a weekly updated online feed for your business.
   Not feeding your customers yet with good information? Give yourself a C-.
   
7. Remote access denied – if your staff still has no intranet and your sales force can't find up-to-the-minute pricing and forms, try the new Google Sites and get everyone on the same online page. Add a calendar and share it with your staff to give your business more bang for its virtual buck.
   No online sharing? Degrade yourself to a D-. Information is king.
   
8. Identity Interrupted – does your logo designer know who your PR and Web firms are or are they each operating in an information vacuum? Worse, are you still trying to figure out if you need any of the above? Get your old logo converted into a high-resolution graphic and share it with your Web designer to pull together your branding and small business identity online and in print.
   Using a Publisher-created logo online? Give yourself a D+.
   
9. Anti-social – very few small business owners know what Twitter is and fewer use it. Are you closing your ears to comments made about your service or your product? Why not Twitter and send a "track [your company name or product]" message or at least use a Twitter search engine to see what's been tweeted. What else should you track? See what Cameron Olthuis, Jeremiah Owyang or Joseph Jaffe suggest.
   No ears on? Give yourself a B- only because Twitter is sort of new but not for much longer.
   
   
10. Remote island – spend time with one or two quality small business blogs a week by subscribing to their feed and figuring out which posts are important to your business. Try Small Business Resource for starters.
    Don't know how to subscribe to a feed? Give yourself a D+ because RSS is simply not new; it's everywhere.
    

The end of the first quarter is upon us and you've probably just paid first-quarter taxes. Now is the time to score your online presence and raise your grade during the rest of this fiscal year. Got more grading areas? List them in comments, please.

Does your small business listen to customers' complaints? Do you have a way for customers to get in touch with kudos or complaints? According to Jeff Jarvis, learn how to love the customers who complain by learning how to listen to them. The first way small business should listen now is through online feedback.

Most online enthusiasts know the online advocate Jeff Jarvis's Dell Hell story. Powerful blogger has hellish customer service experience and tells his story online. The world commiserates and the term Dell Hell becomes a metaphor for bad customer service. Cable companies and AOL have had their brands besmirched by bloggers telling their dramas in text, in photos and worse, by viral video. Your product may be the next one reviewed online.

If you think this is a challenge only for super-sized businesses, think again. Word-of-mouth is your friend for getting new customers and it's your worst enemy for losing them. Are you prepared to welcome and respond to online complaints from customers? If not, get on the train or be left behind.

There are free different online tools to help you listen to your customers.

1. Blog – there are so many free blog platforms that rehashing them seems antiquated. Get a free one and practice. Just don't forget the small business blogging guidelines.
2. Be Social – Hang out where your customers do, on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter (to name a few). Get a space and name it and then spend time there interacting with your customers.
3. Feedback – at the least, add a contact form to your Web site. If you don't have one, get a free one (free might include advertising).
4. Virtual Helpdesk – add a virtual helpdesk to your site. If your product requires support, use a system built to do that (not free but good) or take the step to open source helpdesk software here, here and here.
   
5. Talk – get a free chat applet to let you converse online with customers. The easiest way is to use one hosted on another server. See a list of free chat applets here or here. Think about posting a time you'll be online and send email invitations to your customers for a customer chat.

Follow a successful model. Google's customer policy is one we use ourselves: Give people what they want, not what you think they want. In most cases, we know more than our customers do about Web technology but if we don't listen to them and meet their online goals, then our Web site will, well, suck, no matter how pretty it is. (Sure, we go beyond what they ask for but always point out exactly where "what they asked for" resides. They want site stats? We give them stats for free but add Google Analytics and send the link to those reports repeatedly and have a handy list of "how to interpret" links to attach.)

Deal with customer complaints by making them part of your growth strategy. You can listen to and then resolve a complaint, but unless you fix the problem that caused it in the first place, you have no strategy except a mop and bucket.

When we first instituted our online help desk which was designed to track work, billing and ensure that customer problems were resolved (plus keep track of quote requests, the new business we wanted), our less-techie customers couldn't figure out how to register for free and open a support ticket. After internal incredulity (it seemed so simple to us!), we put a one-page step-by-step guide together to get even the least-geeky client using the system, which was our goal all along. We also provided everyone with a simple script to help customers over the phone. Their real, unvoiced complaint? We over-estimated our customers' ability to use the "easy" system. We could have trashed it and gone back to the old way – email. Instead, we used their complaints to solve the underlying problem and now 80% of our clients, and all new clients, are using the online tracking system.

It is a far better business strategy that your customers complain to you (and you fix the problem) than if they start their own "your-product-sucks.com" site or tell well-read bloggers so they can tell the entire online world just how bad your customer service is. There's plenty of room in the comments for you to tell your worst - and your best - customer service experience. Admission is free.

Small business people don't travel without laptops. On July 24, 2006, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided that US Customs and Border Patrol Officers had the right to search and seize a person's laptop computer, computer discs and other electronic media (iPods and more). Personal and proprietary data is at risk, as is your notebook itself (some are not returned). The EFF has recently filed a suit demanding that Homeland Security disclose information on why it chooses to inspect some laptops and other electronic devices at the borders. On the government side is the argument that these search and seizures are aimed at and are helping prevent child pornography.

Most astounding to laptop owners is that the number of searches is increasing but intelligible reasons for the searches remains almost nil. If your machine is searched, expect no justification or details on what they were looking for or what they downloaded. Rummaging through a computer's hard drive, the government says, is no different than looking through a suitcase.

According to ComputerWorld, border agents need no evidence to seize your notebook computer, can search anything and can keep your machine for days or weeks or more. How can a small business owner who likely keeps a lifetime of work on a notebook travel safely anymore?

Registering domain names and enabling your managing those domains is what a registrar should do. Making those tasks logical and intuitive is gravy for personal users but is the deal-breaker for small business. It still amazes us that businesses register domains based solely on price without foreseeing the nickel-and-diming a registrar does or worse, prevent you from fully managing your domain. You probably won't find out the hidden costs until you're ready to launch your new Web site.

If you have a single fun or personal domain, skip this article. If you're in business with an online presence, there are five services a registrar should provide without charging extra. But first, let's talk about price.

Low price is no longer the decision-maker
Domain registration varies from about $8 to $35 per year but rock-bottom pricing can no longer be your sole criterion. It's bait-and-switch: you get the domain for a low price but you're charged to do everyday tasks. Look beyond the price and itemize the services that you can do for free at a low-cost registrar. A low registration price does not guarantee you're going to get services you need without paying per additional service. As managers of almost a thousand domains, this is our list of the five can't-live-without features a registrar must include in the registration price.

How do you plan for business IT disaster? Your business has Heimlich maneuver posters displayed, signs for first aid on the wall, evacuation routes for fire prominent near the doors and took out damage insurance coverage on your notebook computers. You just missed one small piece of the puzzle: business recovery. Without it, a small business cannot withstand even one natural or employee-induced catastrophe. It's estimated that 25% of all small businesses cannot withstand a natural disaster. Is yours one of them?

Here are five disaster situations and what you "coulda shoulda" do to plan for them.

FIRE EARTHQUAKE TERRORISM FLOOD WATER DAMAGE TORNADO: Are you scared yet? Do you have the backup hardware in place to survive and be up and running within 30 days? In the late 90s, 5 buildings went up in a frightening blaze in a nearby city and I pulled up-to-the-minute financials off a smoldering server via dialup (we got 'em, but it was harrowing). Is your backup drive in place and tested? Do you have a readable tape backup from yesterday in an off-site location that you know about? If not, make sure you have (a) good data backup systems and (b) a backup drive and 7 tapes (one to keep off-site) and are paying someone to be in charge of rotating them daily.

Hints:

• Backup to a second drive, NOT to your computer's hard drive. Good software will not allow same-drive backups.
• Shut down Outlook at night or your email will not be backed up.
• Burn the data on the tapes or portable drive to a DVD once in a while.
• Windows Vista SP1 lets you create a recovery disk. Create several and store in different places.
  
• If your CDs or DVDs are damaged, use CD Recovery Toolbox instead of drinking hemlock .

Start out 2008 with a business bang! Get free online tools to help in everyday and long-term technology chores. Here are some suggestions for the best free small business tools available for a 2008 launch for your business.

Keep track of your software licenses
Every time you buy a Microsoft Office or Windows software product, or one from Adobe (like Acrobat) or those expensive graphic suites (like CS3), you get a serial number usually attached to the CD case. After installing the software, does the box (with that critical serial number inside) wind up on a shelf somewhere? Resolve to undertake a software licensing program in 2008 and keep track of your serial numbers with a copy of those numbers off-site, perhaps on a portable USB storage device that is password-protected. Use a spreadsheet and note the software title, date and place of purchase, serial number, on which computer it was installed and where the original or backup copy is. Reasonably-priced shareware is here and some free apps are here. Check out KeyFiler, an online solution.

Q: Who doesn't know about Google docs http://docs.google.com/?
A: 73% of Americans.

Q: Who doesn't use Google docs?
A: 94% of American computer users.

Q: How come?

In a word? Platform. Google Docs (still in beta, still free and still without commercial interruption) is a leap forward into online office applications and requires a paradigm shift for desktop-comfy workers. Working online is new and uncharted territory where few business users have gone before.

Owning a corps of loyal followers can codify a new product or dissuade newer ones from taking your market share. With perhaps one of the most recognized names among all levels of online users, how does Google fail to own the market already for its online docs with American users when more expensive suites like Microsoft Office are ubiquitous among US small businesses?

Every year, small businesses struggle with the customer appreciation gift. Should we give one to every client? Only to new clients? What about long-term clients? Should we order pre-printed (and clever) cards? And the big question: how much is this going to cost?

Saying thanks to our clients in a better fashion is something we set out to do last winter during the re-creation of our branding model. We rebuilt our logo, changed colors, formalized templates, printed letterhead, stickers and designed mail-ready new-client packets and generally upgraded our schwag. It was time for us to have something to hand out besides business cards.

That's why we don't send out holiday gifts anymore; heck, we don't send out "winter holiday" cards anymore. Instead, we thank our clients all year long. With a simple Access database, we keep track of each client who's referred business to us and we send a handwritten note (on those new branded and printed cards we designed) and a small gift card to an omnipresent store. First referral? A five-dollar Starbucks card. Second referral? A somewhere-else gift card. If a referral turns into business? A larger Target or Paneras card is coming your way inside a handwritten custom-branded notecard. If you're local, it might be a lunch gift certificate at a restaurant (also a client).

Now that we've harangued you to upgrade your Web site, take advantage of business blogs, read your Web stats/, incorporate search engine tips and use Web 2.0 themes, it's time to choose a Web design firm to make all of the above happen for your small business. Google "web design" and spend the rest of your natural life clicking links or narrow down your search around some specific best-practices criteria.

Have you tried to move big files by attaching them to email? Are your attachments disappearing? With the advent of reputable and long-needed antispam services, it's getting more difficult to move large files with email (as well it should be; email was never designed to transfer huge attachments or executables). Many email servers will block executable files (ending in .exe), Access (.mdb) and even compressed (.zip) files. It's time to get with the program and use free services to send big files or pay a small amount for a business account.

In the olden days, we "Old Net Folks" used FTP (File Transfer Protocol) and there are plenty of free apps still around if you're willing to learn something new and your recipient can get permissions set up for this method of transfer. Figuring that (a) you don't want to learn anything new and (b) your recipient's sysadmin raises one incredulous eyebrow at the request, here are some free or low-cost ways to move big files around the Internet.

Small business travelers depend on out-of-office technology and are frustrated at almost every turn in using it when they need it the most. Having a great notebook is one thing; having a table to put it on so you can type apparently is another.

What are the travel frustrations for business users and what can they do about it?

Most travel challenges involve not having a decent place to use your notebook. Airplane travelers are shunted into tiny seats with seat backs that, if not in the upright condition, prevent you from lifting the top to see the screen. Want to check the seating configuration and potential screen room? SeatGuru is the hub for finding exact seating specs on all major airlines. Today you have to know the plane model to see the seat map, limited or full recline, reduced legroom, misaligned windows, in-seat power port locations and where the head is. The color coding on SeatGuru's graphics is invaluable.

As an infrequent flyer who'd rather take the train if it went where I needed to go, the best part of train travel is the big wide seat with lots of legroom and an electric outlet at hand. SeatMaestro provides airline seating information plus if and where electric outlets are available on your flight. Find your plane type here and then look for the power and other resources. You can review an assortment of airplane power adapters for PCs and Apple's to-die-for accessory: the AirPort Express Base Station that creates a wireless network from any broadband network – a common hotel and conference room setup.

Hotel wifi can make or break your stay and not all wifi is equal. In fact, you better check out where in the hotel your room is to get the best reception and some hotels have problems connecting certain brands of computers. Dell's wireless card is a known issue with some hotel chains' wifi. HotelChatter has an annual report of the best and worst wifi hotels. They even compiled a wifi heaven, or the best of the best hotel wifi. Did you know that corner rooms often provide the best wireless reception?

Worse than for-pay hotel wireless is having nowhere to plug in your computer or other toys. How many times have you tried to move a bed that's nailed to the wall just a couple of inches so you can recharge your mobile technology? Hint: pack an extension cord with a multi-plug for hotels that skimp on the reachable outlets or consider a Solio charger for under $80. It's easier than trying to pack your own lamp to pump up the dim lighting many hotels provide in the official room workspace.

Speaking of workspace, airports used to have small workstation areas with a telephone, table and chairs for a traveler's convenience. Nowadays, business travelers are often strewn all over the floor (usually near electrical outlets) trying to use their airport dead time to do something productive. Say "airport wireless" to a business traveler and step back in anticipation of the tirade:

• Why don't all airports have wifi and why isn't it all free?
• Why do I have to pay three different wireless carriers on a single trip with one plane change?
• Why do I have to sit outside a private club to catch seeping wifi?

Find airports with wireless connectivity and pricing (if not free) at TravelPost. Their guide includes 219 airports with wireless connections and free wifi.

If you're a serious business traveler, you might want to attend the Travel Technology Show in London, February 5-6 , 2008. If you want more and geekier travel gear, check the TravelGearBlog.

After surveying some harried but experienced business travelers in the seats next to, in front of and behind me, we've started a wish-list for travel technology that goes beyond free in-hotel breakfast. We want:

1. Tables and chairs in airport waiting areas (electric outlets would be a plus)
2. Brighter lights in hotel workspaces
3. Unblocked (and more) electric outlets in hotel rooms
4. Better and more reliable hotel wireless speed
5. A place to print documents in a hotel from our rooms
   
6. In-flight Internet ['nuff said]
   
7. Firewalls that don't block useful sites or prevent VPN connections

What's on your list besides an overpriced but ultra-cool laptop bag?

I haven't met two small business owners in a meeting where one doesn't ask how to get his or her site to the top of the Google search results list. There are transparent reasons for wanting to be first: you get more clicks, your business seems important, clicks convert into business, and your Internet traffic can skyrocket. What's the magic formula for getting to the top?

There is no magic formula
Disappointing as it is, there is no single solution to move your site's rank to #1 in Google. Now that you're over that impractical wish, let's find out how you can increase your page rank and stay away from what will get your Web site tossed from consideration.

Optimize your Web site
Sometimes called SEO, Search Engine Optimization (or SEM, Search Engine Marketing are related but not the same), is a marketing tool more than it is a technology process (so put it in your advertising budget). People type queries (search terms) into search engines and Google delivers results. If your site is optimized for your key product or service, then why isn't it at the top of the results? Common problem: your site hasn't been optimized and search engines cannot find it. You want examples?