Type "stage drapes" into a Google search box on the Internet and the first result that pops up after the ads is Sew What Inc. of Rancho Dominguez.
That hard-won visibility has helped the theatrical drape maker land new clients around the globe, including rockers Neil Young, Tom Petty and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Sales rocketed 45% in 2005 to $2.4 million and are on track to almost double to $4 million by the end of this year, company owner Megan Duckett said.
The company even made it onto the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in May, or, rather, its drapes did. A custom set of retro red velvet curtains trimmed in gold by Sew What is the backdrop for the legendary artists who appear in a photo illustration for the 1,000th issue of the music magazine.
Duckett credits her company's dramatic sales growth to a careful redesign of her website, (www.sewwhatinc.com), 18 months ago. The redesign, her third, included using a Web marketing strategy known as search engine optimization that can boost a company's rank in the results of an online search.
"It's now my third true love," Duckett said. "Husband first, baby second and optimization third."
Optimization uses key search words and website content to try to edge out the competition in search engine results. It can be used to make a company show up higher in the results of a so-called organic, or regular, search, as well as in the pay-per-click results. Those are the ads that show up alongside the nonpaid results.
Optimization can be a powerful tool, particularly for small businesses.
"It doesn't matter how great your website is. If nobody can find it, it is doing you no good," said Duckett, who started sewing stage drapes on her kitchen table in 1992.
Making it easier for customers to find a company via a search engine such as Google -- which has about 50% of the online search market -- or Yahoo has become a big business.
Spending on search engine marketing hit $5.75 billion in North America last year, according to industry group Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, based in Wakefield, Mass. That's a 44% increase over 2004 levels. By 2010, the group expects spending to almost double to $11 billion.
Marketers are spending big bucks to figure prominently in search engine results because research shows consumers increasingly turn to the Internet to learn about products and services before making a purchase.
