The business landscape is changing and the longtail-esque small business is gaining power.

You may not rule the world by the end of the year but with the tools now available you can get the ball rolling.

And, combining the tools available with your love of your business will give you an edge. You have heart. The big corporations are soulless and that is their weakness.

Not every site needs, nor should have, an on-site search feature. But those that do must be sure that the search isn't just an after-thought. It needs to be more than something to add because you think visitors want it. Adding a search function is not necessarily good for on-site usability. Implementing a search function improperly is often a greater source of frustration than not having one altogether.

For this reason your on-site search function should not be taken lightly. In fact, it's better that no search option be present than one that potentially gives the searcher a ?false impression? as to the availability of products/information on your website. Much time and consideration (and development) needs to go into the search option to ensure that it not only returns accurate results, but is fully comprehensive in interpreting the searchers intentions.

Location

Website search boxes are most often located in the top right corner of the website. This creates an expectation from shoppers, so make things easy for them and place your search box where they expect to find it.

Search options

The search box should default to a "simple" search. If warranted, provide a link to "advanced" options that allow visitors to fine-tune their search helping them find what they want more quickly.

Case sensitivity

The basic or "simple" search should not be case sensitive. If case sensitivity is an issue then this option should be made available through the advanced search option.

Search labels

The search box and/or button should be clearly labeled. Using words such as "go" or "start" are not inherently obvious for search. The word "search" should absolutely be used on or near the search box.

Results query

The original search query should be presented on the results page, both in the search box and as a headline above the search results. This ensures the visitor knows what exactly was searched and allows them to refine it without having to retype the entire query.

Misspellings

The search feature must be intuitive enough to recognize all possible common misspellings. Searchers who mistype their search and don't realize it will otherwise be told their product is unavailable on your site, causing them to leave for another site.

Result matches

Results should display exact matches first, with close matches second. This provides visitors with enough information that a second search may not be necessary. Get them what they want sooner, rather than later.

Result highlights

It's beneficial to highlight (or bold) the words on the results page that were used in the query. Even better if you can continue the highlighting of search words as the visitor clicks through a link into the content page.

Titles and descriptions

Each result should display a clear title and description. This information should be pulled from page titles and meta descriptions or on-page content.

Number of results

Results page should display 10-20 search results at the most, however it's a nice benefit to add an option to increase/decrease the number of results per page.

Number of result pages

Links to additional search result pages should be provided as necessary and located at both the top and bottom of the page.

Zero results found

If no results are found, you must provide clear messages to visitors suggesting alternative searches, refinement options and links to important areas of the website. You should never leave them with "no results found."

(SEG Bootcamp articles are no-frills content designed to bring small business owners up to speed on the concepts and techniques needed to market their businesses online.)

We've seen a couple of posts popping up in our Small Business Ideas forums asking if links from a specific site are being nofollowed or not. With that in mind, I thought a quick tutorial on how to find out if a link is nofollowed might be handy for some of our readers.

There are two primary ways to find out if a link has been nofollowed. You can check the code on the page or you can use a third party extension for your web browser.

Checking for Yourself

If you're the old fashioned kind of person, or don't use a browser that allows for extensions you'll need to look at the code to tell if a link has been nofollowed. To do this, go to the web page featuring the links you are wondering about and then follow these steps.

Step 1: Select "View" and then "Page Source" from your browser's menu bar.

Step 2: Click the "control" and "F" buttons at the same time to launch a search of the source code. To find out if the site uses nofollow at all, use "nofollow" as your search term.

If you want to know if a specific link has been nofollowed, type the anchor text in to the search box to jump to the code for that link. You'll be able to spot the rel="nofollow" attribute in the code of the link if it's in use.

Of course all this takes some time and effort. Since we live in 2008, why not just automate the process like we do everything else?

Using a Third Party Tool

If you don't want to bother checking the code, (and let's be honest, who wants to check the code every time they want to know if a link is nofollowed?) you can always install a browser extension that will dig up this information for you.

The team at Quirk have put together a great little Firefox extension called SearchStatus that will actually mark any link on a page with the nofollow attribute applied. I've got this program running on Firefox.

Here's a quick screen grab of a post over at Andy Beard's blog. Note the text that is highlighted and surrounded by a red box. That red box tells me a link has been nofollowed.

Either one of these methods will help you figure out if a link has been nofollowed, but if this is an issue you find yourself wondering about pretty frequently, I'd suggesting installing an extension like SearchStatus to save some time and energy.

As we head into the new year, small businesses across the web will be looking to boost their presence by sparking conversation, attracting links and driving new sales. If you're looking to walk the path to viral success, consider two statements made by popular marketing bloggers this week.

Seth Godin writes: "Make promises and keep them."

He says that's what good marketing is all about.

It's very easy to overpromise. Tempting to shade the truth a little bit, deliver a little bit less to save a few bucks. Who will notice?

The consumer notices.

If you need to overpromise to make the sale, don't bother. It's not worth it.

It sounds so simple and really, it is. But so many small businesses lose sight of this. They spend their time focusing on making themselves popular instead of making themselves valuable without realizing there's a crucial difference.

I was reminded of that yesterday when Brand Autopsy's John Moore rekindled his "Would You Miss" series. John's series looks at popular companies and asks his readers if they'd miss that company if they went away.

The series was sparked by the book Mavericks at Work which asked the question:

"If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would really miss you and why?"

John asks this question about The Cheesecake Factory and based on the comments of his post, they would not only NOT be missed, but they could easily improve their image by making some minor changed based on customer feedback.

Both John and Seth's questions got me wondering about our own business here at Search Engine Guide. Do we make promises and keep them? Would we be missed if we were gone?

I'd like to think we make promises and keep them, but I can think of a few instances where I've dropped the ball on series that were popular with readers. (Probably a good example of aiming high, but not so high as to be unrealistic.) That serves as a good reminder that I need to put a little more time and effort into planning out my more ambitious projects this year.

That said, we've always worked hard to make sure we're serving an under served market. Based on email and conversations with readers, I'd like to think we're doing fairly well on the "would you be missed" front. I know I'd certainly miss Search Engine Guide if it were gone. There's never been a better job or employer.

2008 is a new year and a new chance for you to change the way your business is perceived. Things like blogging and social media give you a new outlet to listen to what your customers are looking for and to talk with them about how you might address those needs. Do it well and you may find yourself with an unexpected viral campaign launched by newly created customer evangelists.

I'd highly suggest heading into the new year with Seth and John's lines as part of the checklist for any decision your business makes.

"Are you making a promise you will keep?"

and

"Are we building a business people would miss?"

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for many small business sites (well, any site, really) when it comes to search engine optimization is the lack of text on their web sites. After all, it's well known among SEO's that search engines cannot read the text in an image. Or can they? Bill Slawski walks us through a few new Google patent filings today that may point to a change in this long standing rule of SEO.

Bill writes:

How easy or difficult is it for a search engine to recognize text within digital images and video, and index that text?

Three new Google patent applications explore that topic, and describe some ways in which Google might try to capture information from text within images.

Capturing Text from Street View Images

This patent filings don?t address text found within headings and logos, but rather much more complex pictures, including street scenes of the kind that might be taken for instance, when filming streets for something like Google?s Street Views (video).

While much of the patent talk focuses on identifying the text within photographs taken of street fronts and shops for services like Google Street Views, it isn't a big stretch to think the engine might be able to port this technology over to graphics on a web site.

If you look at it from the perspective of my Pinocchio Effect theory, it makes perfect sense.

If you're not familiar with the Pinocchio Effect, here's the general idea:

You see, deep down, search engines want nothing more than to be real boys (or girls). That's right, it's that simple. As search engine engineers gain more and more ability to tailor the algorithms, their ultimate goal is to help the search engines make choices the way that people do.

One of the primary things human beings can do when looking at and valuing the content of a web site is to read the text made up of graphic files. I can visit an all graphic or all Flash site and read the content just fine. (Assuming I'm using a browser that will display the images or Flash.) Search engines have long been unable to read any text contained within an image.

If people can read the text and make judgements based off of it, search engine algorithms will naturally be looking to do the same.

According to Bill's post, it looks like Google may be well on the way to getting the technology in place to pull this off.

It's important to note that nearly every example in Bill's post is based more on being able to tie text to photos of store fronts and such than of graphic text blocks on web sites. That means chances are good that we'll see this coming into play in areas like Google Maps, Google Street Views and Image Search before we see Google attempting to actually index any content contained in the graphic text blocks on a web site.

That means you need to continue to make sure you're offering up your site content in a format that both humans and search engines can read. It also means you might want to run outside and make sure the address numbers or your business name's sign aren't crooked.

While many small business owners are flocking to social media and social networking sites, others are scratching their heads and wondering why they should waste their time. Those head scratchers might want to take a look at an article out today over at eWeek that explores the trend of small businesses using social networks as sounding boards and referral services.

The article starts:

The owner of an online lingerie business posts a request on a social networking site to find an ethical, effective search engine optimization company. Within 24 hours, she receives nearly two dozen suggestions from other small business owners. With that information, the small business owner can reduce the risk of going with the wrong company.

The owner of a small trucking company explains in a post on a social networking site that because of late payments and financial setbacks, he is having trouble getting a loan. Immediately, several people respond, offering advice on which Web sites to visit and how to get out of financial trouble. Some of those responding are even loan officers, ready to lend a hand.

These are just two examples of how small businesses are using online social networking?the forums most often associated with teenagers or individual users?to ask questions, get advice, and make valuable business contacts.

While there's no doubting the amount of time that can be wasted on social networks like Facebook and MySpace, there's also little doubt about the potential value for those who have learned to leverage sites like LinkedIn.

I've found myself turning to LinkedIn more and more frequently as I come up with a company or industry where I need a contact. In fact, just last week I was trying to find a contact in the marketing/PR department of a fairly large company. I went to LinkedIn and ran a search using the marketing/pr title and the name of the company. When the results popped up, I could quickly see if anyone in the position I needed to contact was an established contact of someone in my network.

There was, and with a quick email to a friend, I was able to get in touch with the person I wanted to speak with. Before LinkedIn, I would have hunted around for ages before finding the contact and I wouldn't have had the credibility that comes with being introduced by someone who knew both parties.

Mike Gotta, principal analyst at Burton Group sees this type of value in small businesses using social networks as well.

"It [has] always been the case that business success is intimately linked to how well an organization taps into its relationships across employees, customers, partners and suppliers," Gotta said. "Social networking is just a means to that end?it helps humanize the organization [and] allows people to establish relationships and participate from a community sense."

Keep in mind, joining a social network like Facebook or LinkedIn for the purpose of making business connections is not time consuming. Think of it more as a virtual rolodex that happens to let you flip through the rolodex of your business associates as well. Use it when you need it. Focus on getting your work done when you don't.