In this world of Web 2.0 and social media, Facebook and Twitter, there is a lot to know – maybe too much. Frankly, it can all be a bit overwhelming. In fact, you may be tempted at times to avoid trying to keep up with all of the latest technological developments out in “Internet land” and just stick to what you know well. You know what? This can actually be sound advice.

If you are feeling like you are on information overload and find yourself doing anything BUT making the necessary efforts to promote yourself online, try shifting your attention to what you already have right under your nose: your good-old, standard, traditional, Web 1.0 website.

So, while you are sorting out all of this new-fangled Web 2.0 stuff and trying to figure out what direction you or your company should take, try the following 7 ways to make your site work harder for you in a down economy:

1. Update your images/photos to something a bit more current. This is a quick and easy way to give your site a makeover while spending next to nothing. (iStockPhoto is a great place to start).
2. Write in your blog. Don’t have an on-site blog? Do the next best thing and start a FREE off-site blog. Just go to Blogger and set one up. Then, in your blog posts, insert relevant links to content on your website.
3. Read all of the content on your site out loud. This is a great trick to find out if it reads smoothly or if it needs a bit of tweaking. Be brutally honest with yourself.
4. Find some great content out on the Internet (for news stories on almost any topic, I like, for example, AllTop.com). Create a simple Resources section on your Home Page (or elsewhere on your site) and post links to the content you found for the benefit of your visitors.
5. Install Google Analytics, one of the best darn FREE software products available today. It helps you figure out site visitor behavior, traffic sources, and lots of other good stuff. Bottom line: this software helps you figure out what’s working and what’s not. And, it takes just minutes to install: you just put a short bit of tracking code that they provide onto every page of your site that you want to track.
6. Request backlinks from other sites: find sites that cover similar topics/industry niches to your own site. Then, e-mail their webmasters and ask them to link to your site. This is a great way to build backlinks. (If you are serious about SEO*, use this fee-based service (Linkvana) that allows you to create your own backlinks on other, high PageRank sites).
7. Refresh your content frequently: be sure to update/refresh your site’s content every 1-2 weeks at the minimum. Search engines love fresh content!

* Another hot SEO tip: you can get FREE SEO advice from yours truly, including a FREE “spot analysis” of your site, by visiting: Custom-SEO-Audit.com.