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It’s often assumed that standards are for big business and are not really useful to smaller organizations. In fact it can be easily argued that the opposite is the case.

Standards are especially important to small businesses because they put you on a level playing field with larger organizations. The national and international standards are a route whereby everyone can access well-worked out, peer-reviewed best practice. Many standards spread current technology and best practice widely, which helps open market entry to smaller businesses.

Increasingly SMEs are adopting standards and benefiting from streamlined processes, refined products, extended markets and differentiation from the competition. As markets shrink these factors are becoming more important than ever. Competitiveness is becoming more important than ever and standards are a proven route to increased competitiveness and a stronger business.

* Using standards to reduce operating costs
* Standards for better products
* Standards for better customers
* Standards for a better brand
* Extend your markets
* Reduce your risk

How can you start to take advantage of using standards?

Download Small business guide to making standards work and read Small business case studies and then become a BSI Member.

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Businesses should leave the intricacies of search engine optimisation (SEO) to experts in the field, but should maintain control over the strategy as a whole, according to a commentator.

Melanie Lindner made the claim in a discussion on SEO on the Forbes website, which included comments and tips from SEO professionals.

But she advised that businesses can gain from understanding the process themselves and so having a degree of input.

‘While most entrepreneurs probably should farm out the programming of their sites, they shouldn’t turn over the design process altogether,’ she said.

‘Getting the biggest return on your online investment hinges on understanding what works and what doesn’t, so you can give the coders as much smart direction as possible.’

Another industry commentator, Galen DeYoung of Search Engine Land, provides tips on copywriting to help improve website rankings for business to business websites.

He believes that articles on these websites should focus on one topic per page and use generic rather than brand-specific terms for keyword-focus.

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