While many retailers are cutting costs, others have found the economic slowdown as an opportunity to increase market share. According to Internet News, almost half of retailers surveyed have no plans to cut back original budgets, while 24 percent will spend more on their online business than planned originally. Companies that plan to spend more will increase investments in areas of search (80%), e-mail marketing (65%) and social media marketing (60%) to help grow their businesses due to the pullback in consumer spending. Four out of five retailers surveyed said that they thought the web is the best suited channel to survive the recession, with one-third claiming the economic downturn has enabled the capture for greater market share.

To help optimize business strategies for retailers, new tools are making their debut in the industry. In order to withstand the recession, online retailers are learning to make smart spending decisions by doing more with less and taking advantage of new, innovative tools and techniques that have made their debut into the industry. New, innovative tools and techniques are launching to help retailers come out of this recession in a positive manner and effectively tap the power of social media, tribes and networks. The current goal for these online retailers right now is to get their hands on these tools to help accelerate sales, better resonate with prospective customers and thrive in a down market.

Content and links are 90% of how to get placed at the top for searches.
Having your keywords in your meta tags is no longer the best way, it’s all about great content, and using the key phrases your readers would use.

Step 1. Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and type in the phrases that you think your target customers would use. It will give you the data on that keyword, and also provide you with additional keywords to consider.
Those are the ones you’ve probably over looked and in some cases, never even thought of, but when people use a search engine, they don’t always use the same words or phrases you are thinking are the best keywords for your site or product.
Try as many specific keywords and phrases as you can think of, and keep looking at the additional keywords to consider. You’ll be surprised at how many words you never thought of.

Step 2. Content, content, content.
It’s been said many times, content is king, and when you’re trying to gain a larger audience, great content will bring them in and keep them.
Make it search engine friendly and real-person natural content. Let it flow as naturally as possible.
Most search engines can tell the difference between content aimed at people or aimed at search engines. Make the most of your content.
In your first sentence, your number one keyword should be placed. Place your number 2 keyword at the top of that first paragraph as well.
Repeat this using one keyword for every paragraph you write.
For your last paragraph, use the least used keyword first, and end the last paragraph with the most important keyword, your number 1 keyword.
Try not to repeat your keywords more than 3-4 times per content article.

Step 3. Get great inbound links and monitor your site.
Having quality inbound links can account for 75% of search engine hits.
Then you need to monitor your site to see where you are in the search engines, and where you will be for those keywords.
Investing in a good SEO tool will pay for itself over time because it will do all the monitoring for you, saving your hours upon hours every week.