All About Webs

DIY SEO: Video Marketing

2008-02-29T09:36:00.002-05:00

If you have business videos to share with the world, either product-related or purely promotional, here's a great way to get them good visibility for relatively little effort.

Note: When embarking on this process, I urge you to choose your video title and description VERY carefully. This technique flings your video (along with your chosen title/description) far and wide and it's time consuming to change anything once it's flung.

Here it is, step by step:
1) Go to HeySpread.com and open accounts at all of the sites they service (about 17 or so). Kind of a pain, but it really doesn't take that long. Just fill in enough info to get an account name and password. Keep track of the credentials for each - username/e-mail and password.

2) Once you have all the accounts, go to HeySpread.com and upload the video you want to promote (do you have it on your computer?). You'll have to buy some credits. It's one credit ($.01) for each site submission. For one video, $.17 (seventeen cents) cover it. Then submit the video to be submitted automatically to each account that you opened.

3) Embed the YouTube version of your video into your blog or website.

3) HeySpread will send you an e-mail with all the links of the video. Now, you need to spread the news by "social bookmarking" each link. There's an easy way to do that, too:
a) Open a Firefox browser (it might work with IE, too, but I haven't messed with it enough so stick with FF for now)
b) Go to socialmarker.com.
c) Under "How To Use It", click and drag the little icon up to the bookmark bar in the FF browser.

4) Still using your FF browser, go back to the list of links e-mailed from HeySpread and visit each page. While on a page, highlight some description text and click your SocialMarker bookmark button, which will open up a SocialMarker submission form. Complete the brief form and submit. Do this step for every link, including your own blog or website.

Voila! You're done. For better or worse, your video will be seen by many!

More on Color

2008-02-28T10:02:00.003-05:00

Color associations can play a huge role in the success of your website. Here are some examples:

Trust: blue and white
Dependability, High Quality: blue and black
Speed: red
Danger: red and black
Cheapness: yellow and orange
Fun: yellow, red, orange, and purple

Get a complete education in color psychology from Joe Hallock's Color Assignment Study. He lays out the whys and wherefores behind color preferences, including references to a particular color receiving bad marks because it might be "out of style" at the moment.

I was surprised at the consistency of color preference across gender lines and age lines. Although there are differences, the same persisted as "favorite" or "least favorite" but with different intensities.

DIY SEO: Page Titles

2008-02-28T09:04:00.006-05:00

A web page’s title plays an important role in search engine optimization. The search engines put quite a bit of weight on the page title, perhaps because it’s visible to users and hopefully gives a true indication of what the page it about. Pay special attention to creating a different title for each page on your site, since the search engines can rank each page individually. Here are some ideas to help.

What is a title “tag?”
The title is the group of words that appear between the tags on your website.
This is what your title looks like in code:

This is how your title appears within a web browser:Most importantly, this is how your title appears in a search engine results list:

Your title may determine whether or not a visitor clicks through to your site from the search results. Just like a headline in a newspaper, the title must grab the visitor’s attention and convince them they’re going to find what they’re looking for at your site.

Keep in mind that words from the search query will be highlighted in your Title and Description. A huge bonus if you choose the right phrases.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty of crafting a good page title.

Mechanics:
1) Include your most important keyword phrase in both your title and description tags. If possible, work in additional phrases, but ONLY if it reads well and stays brief. Ideally, keep the title
2) Your title tag should be around 8-10 words long, or shorter (Maximum of 75 characters, including spaces).
3) The title and description should read easily and just roll off your tongue. Read all of your content, including titles and descriptions, out loud. If you stumble over words, so will your audience; rewrite them.

4) Brand your Titles with your company name/website name at the beginning or end. Keep your branding as short as possible to make more room for your key phrase(s).

5) Use a divider (>, , :) to separate your brand from the actual title.

Do’s
1) Determine your most important keyword phrases. Review your competitors' titles and descriptions. How do yours compare? Make sure your titles and descriptions are more compelling and designed to grab the visitors' attention immediately. Get other opinions on this, as your opinion may be too biased.
2) Your title and description should be considered an "ad campaign" for your Web site. Your page may be #4 in the rankings, but if you've taken time to create captivating title and description tags, you may have just as many click throughs as the #1 or #2 spots who haven't done their homework.
3) Consider working "discounts" into your title to attract more response.

Examples:
Movie rentals - Rent 7 movies for 7 days at one low price!
Movie rentals - Save 20% on all classic movies

4) Consider turning some of your titles into questions. It’s a great attention getter because it makes the reader think.

Examples:
-Where on earth would you go if you had your pilot license?
-What would you do if your career was terminated?
-When should you submit your web pages?

5) Try moving a testimonial into the Title. Hard-driving results with visibility create action.

Examples:
-Download your programs 84% FASTER with Download Magic
-Improve your memory by 200% with flash cards
-Sharp ways to find more new customers than ever before!

6) Consider offering "numbers" in your title to indicate breadth of choice.

Example:
Shower curtains - Over 88 different designs just arrived!
Bathroom shower curtains - Over 12 different Warner Brothers themes.

7) Repeating the Title as the H1 header of the page creates a good user experience, both for keyword targeting and usability. When the visitor immediately sees the same header on the page that they saw when they clicked through, they know they're in the right place and finding what they were looking for.

Don’ts
1) Don't capitalize the first letter of every word in the title or description, unless they're proper nouns. The title and description should be very easy to read and just roll off your tongue.
2) Don’t stuff the Title and Description with keywords. How boring! Think headline, attention grabbing.
3) Don’t use the same Title on every page. Create each page title individually to promote each page most effectively.
4) Don’t create a page title that has nothing to do with the content of the page. That’s deceptive and confusing and ends up being a waste of time for everyone.

Bottom line: Write a unique, relevant, attention-grabbing title for each page which incorporate keyword phrases specifically related to that page.. Enjoy increased traffic and conversions as a result. Not a bad investment of time.

DIY: Basic Internet Marketing

2008-01-25T13:08:00.000-05:00

Now that you have your beautiful website, what are you going to do to get people to visit it? I guarantee that the Field of Dreams promise "If you build it, they will come" is NOT true.

I've put together a brief list of techniques you can do yourself, for free, to spread the word about your site and help get people to visit it.

NOTE: None of these techniques should be used for SPAMming. When visiting forums and communities online, be sure to add something valuable and useful to the discussion, not just your website as a "resource" and leave.

1) E-mail Signature - Everyone uses e-mail. You probably send way more e-mail than you know. But what you may not have thought about is creating an e-mail signature line, which automatically gets attached to every e-mail you send. You might put your name or a catchy quote there. You can also put links to your website! Perhaps you've never mentioned your business to the guy down the street, but you send him an e-mail about poker night with your business website link. He clicks through, has a need that you can fill, and calls you up about. The e-mail signature line is a totally non-threatening, no pressure way to spread the word about your business.

2) Forums - Search online for forums related to your business, particularly ones where potential customers or users of the product or service you offer congregate to find out about serviced rendered or how to find someone to render them. Perhaps offer suggestions about how to choose the "right" provider, how to recognize a faulty product, or where to find what they need in their area. Every answer you leave does not necessarily result in a sale, but people will recognize your contribution and seek you out when they're read to make the purchase.

3) Yahoo Answers - Somewhat similar to forums, but with shorter threads, Yahoo Answers offers a forum in which anyone can ask a question about anything. Search Yahoo Answers for your keyword phrases and see what questions you see come up. Can you offer useful answers to the questions? If appropriate, leave a website address, e-mail address, or phone number for further communication. The same rules for useful contributions apply.

4) Social Networking Sites - Everyone has heard of MySpace. Others include FaceBook, Friendster, Bebo, and LinkedIn. These sites typically allow you fill out a profile indicating your interests. They also allow you to create a mini-website customized to contain profile information, pictures, and comments from friends. They provide a default page if you don't wish to customize your own. You can explore these communities searching for people with shared interests or shared experiences. As you make friends, they tell their friends, and word gets around.

5) Blogging - You can set up your own blog online for free - see blogger.com or wordpress.com - and start telling your story to the world. The blog might be a separate entity from your website, or it might be tightly integrated and hosted on the same webserver - you decide. (Hosting it with your website is slightly more technical to set up.) Since by the nature of blogging, you add fresh content regularly, the search engines will (hopefully) visit regularly to find out what you're doing.

That's it for now. These are basic, do-it-yourself ways to start bringing traffic to your site and spreading the word about your business online. There's are many other techniques as well, but this is enough to get you started. Happy marketing!

Color Sells! What's your color?

2008-01-21T12:35:00.000-05:00

There's no doubt that color sells. From cars to air fresheners, manufacturers put careful consideration into which colors sell best. After all, it impacts their bottom line.

Are you considering color in the design of your website? How would you like your website to impact your visitors' senses? Colors can help create that impact for you.

Has it been awhile since you created your website and it's overdue for an update? Consider the "in" colors for your new design. How can the "in" colors be incorporated with your company and logo colors?

Check out the Color Management Group's forecast on the hottest colors for 2008.

How can you take advantage of the impact of those colors on your site today?

DIY: E-mail Marketing (Part 1)

2008-01-15T13:57:00.000-05:00

Now that you have a professional looking website, where are all your visitors/customers?
First, you have to get the word out about your website. This DIY (Do It Yourself) series will cover several ways to get the word out about your website.

First up, E-mail Marketing.
E-mail marketing has the best ROI in the marketing industry because it's inexpensive, immediate, and effective.

With an effective e-mail marketing campaign, you can:

Maintain contact with existing customers to build customer loyalty
Acquire new customers
Educate an audience on services/products
Expose your company/products/services to new potential customers/clients
Increase sales

Things to Consider When Marketing Via E-mail

Personalize your message. Use the information you already have about existing customers.
Don’t push products but concentrate on useful, timely, educational information that they can use.
Include links to products and contact info.
Solicit feedback on their last transaction, asking questions which indicate sincere care and concern for your customer.
After an initial response, send up-sells/cross-sells as helpful suggestions.
Use transactional and service reminder messages as a helpful service to your customers, not as a sales push.

Since e-mail marketing is, after all, just an e-mail, why not just send e-mails about your products/services from your regular e-mail client to a distribution list? While that method would certainly work, here are a few obstacles you might encounter:

You would have to pay someone to create and install the subscription code on your website. This code would have to interact directly with your webserver, which may or may not be set up well for e-mail distribution lists.
You would also have to devise a method to unsubscribe from your list.
You would have no feedback from the e-mail campaign, other than getting bad e-mail addresses bounced back. You would never know how many of your e-mails were actually opened, how many deleted without a glance, how many marked as spam, etc.
You would have to handle bounced back e-mails and maintain your contact list. Easy enough with a very small list, but rather time-consuming when dealing with longer distribution lists (as your business grows).

Instead of rolling your own e-mail marketing system, several companies have already done a good job of it and, for a reasonable monthly fee, they take care of the headaches and give you feedback on your campaign. Here are some of the benefits you get from a typical e-mail marketing service:

Tools for online subscription – through your website or an e-mail
Tools for creating bulk e-mails
Tools for maintaining your contact list
Statistics to give you feedback about your e-mail campaign

I believe the most important benefit of an e-mail marketing service is the statistics feature. What good is marketing/advertising if you have no way to measure its effectiveness?

Ok, so now you know that an e-mail marketing service would be a good investment to get your e-mail campaign off to a good solid start. But how do you find a good service? I cover that in Part 2.

Office Humor

2008-01-14T12:17:00.000-05:00

Anyone who is working or has worked in an office will appreciate these creative quips:

Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace (and elsewhere)

BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard.
SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.
PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.
MOUSE POTATO: The online, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.
STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.
XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.
IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.
PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again. I often feel like doing this to my computer.
ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
404: Someone who is clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested site could not be located.
GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls and subdivisions.
OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an e-mail by mistake.)
WOOFS : Well-Off Older Folks.

Author: Unknown

Online in 2008

2007-12-31T11:38:00.000-05:00

Is this the year you're finally going to get your business out on the internet? Increase your exposure and educate your visitors with a professional website. But, how do you go about doing that?

To get a presence on line, you just need a few things:

1) A domain name - typical cost: $9.95 online
2) Hosting - typical cost: $5-10/month (hosting only)
3) HTML files - this is your actual website - typical cost: $1000 - $2000 (for a professional presence)
4) Seeing your business online: Priceless ;)

Domain Name

Typical places online to get a domain name are Yahoo Small Business or GoDaddy. Just search for your desired domain name and buy one that you like. You might try different TLD's (.net, .org, .info, .name, .us, .tv, etc.) if you don't find your desired name in .com. Depending on your business, another TLD might work just as well.

The most important thing you'll do with your domain registrar is to change the nameservers after you set up your hosting. If you host with the same place as your domain name (which is not necessary), you won't need to change them.

Hosting

Hosting is like renting an apartment for your website. Your website files will be uploaded to your hosting webserver. You'll need to pay a monthly fee for space on this webserver so that your website will have access to the internet. You will probably have access to free e-mail addresses with your hosting account. You will be able to set up e-mail accounts within your hosting account like sales@yourdomain.com. Before signing up for hosting, check to see how you'll access your hosting account information, how much control you'll have over your files, and what applications you can install easily. You hosting needs will depend on your business needs.

HTML Files

You have various options to create the HTML files for your website. Here are a few:
1) Create them yourself by learning HTML, JavaScript, and a basic awareness of PHP or other web development language. Because of the obvious time commitment, this method is not recommended if you don't already have a technical background.
2) Website Builder - Many hosting companies offer a website building program which will help you build a website based on a selection from predefined templates. Although you may be able to get a working website through this process, it most likely take a large time commitment and will not be what you were hoping for.
3) Professional Website Design Firm - For a professional internet presence, this is the best way to go. The big question then becomes how to find the right company charging the right price which understands your business well enough to create the website you need.

Google Sitemap

2007-01-22T22:05:00.000-05:00

What the heck is all the stir about with Google Sitemaps??
If you haven't heard about it yet, it's Google's new method of shortcut spidering. Given the billions of sites out there to spider, Google is looking to optimize all it can.

Traditionally, a site map was a page on your website which listed every other page to make it easier for visitors to find exactly what they were looking for. Second to that, it was a good way to make sure there was a direct link to every page on your site for the spiders.

Google's sitemap is similar in concept, but it's intended specifically for search engine spiders, not for your users. Instead of a regular web page, a Google Sitemap is an XML file which, according to a specific format, lists every page on your site, along with optional information about latest update and relative importance. Google uses this information to decide whether or not it needs to spider your entire site for changes. If your sitemap indicates a certain page has not been changed since it last visited, why waste time checking for changes. That's why keeping that sitemap updated with changes is important.

You can go about creating a sitemap in a variety of ways. If your site is fairly small, the easiest way would be to create it by hand. Find a sitemap on the internet (this one will do). Next, replace that domain name with your domain name throughout. Next, replace the page names with your page names. Be sure to update the 'last modified' field to at least the creation date of your sitemap.

If you have a large site, you might be better served by downloading one of the many scripts which will automatically create the sitemap for you. It will also do updates automatically. The only slight difficulty is that it's a rather techie process and requires command line access on your webserver. Not too terrible if you know what you're doing. If going the automated route, be careful not to have any "spammy" pages on your site which would be found by the script and included in your sitemap. You don't want Google to get mad at you, especially if you told them about your transgression!

I was having difficulty with 3 different sites that Google was not fully spidering. After adding Google sitemaps to all three, Google immediately found the additional pages on two of the sites. The third site has still not been fully spidered. More investigation required there.

Good luck with your new Google Sitemap!

Are You Ready To Go Mobile?

2007-01-14T15:33:00.000-05:00

Interesting article about websites and mobile devices.

People can hardly live without those Blackberries. Do you think that market will diminish anytime soon?

The big players, Google & Yahoo!, are just getting into it. The results of recent alliances, plans, and projects are just now coming out - new standards to cater to mobile devices. Most existing websites are not compatible with mobile phones, so anyone killing time surfing the net on their phone won't see them. Mobile websites must follow specific standards in order for them to be compatible with mobile phones. In addition to web standards, conventions dictate smaller screen size, smaller pictures, more concise wording to fit on the small screen. Each typical website would have to be redesigned to make the most of the mobile marketplace. Each new mobile website would also have to be optimized and promoted, just like their older cousins.

I would guess that a mobile website is not even on the radar screen for most businesses. perhaps the ROI is just not there yet. Definitely something to consider since you probably have next to no competition out there right now. You can even get listed by Yahoo! Mobile for free (as opposed to $300/yr for terra firma Yahoo!).

Regardless of whether you need a mobile site right now, you can still reserve your .mobi domain name. Perhaps you could even snap up some of your competitors' names (oooh, sneaky!). They just became available September 26, 2006, so you'll have a very good shot at whatever name you want. GoDaddy has them for $15/yr (min 2yrs.).

Blurring the Line Between SEO and Marketing

2007-01-13T19:06:00.000-05:00

SEO = Search Engine Optimization = Gaining visibility in the search engines
Marketing = Getting the message across to your users about your great products; getting them to buy or take action

The internet as a media is much different from traditional advertising streams. For years, companies have been focused on one-way ads - video commercials on TV; print ads in newspapers, magazines, flyers. The only interactivity might be to call a phone number or cut out a coupon.

A website, however, has the power to complete a conversion (an online sale, newsletter sign-up, etc.) without ever involving the actual business directly. A customer can go online, shop, and buy, and the retailer only finds out the next day when they check their sales reports. With that power, a website requires more than just the visibility gained through Search Engine Optimization. It must also be able to convert. SEO helps get a customer to the site; marketing must then take over and convert the customer.

Just as in other types of media, a website must grab your attention and convey the right impression within a split second. Even more than in print ads, when a customer arrives on your website, you KNOW they're looking for something related to what you offer. You just have to avoid driving them away.

More and more, the line between SEO and marketing becomes blurred. Many small companies just have no idea how to get what they want out of their website, so they lean heavily on their SEO company to help them. Because of that, the SEO person must be knowledgeable about usability, marketing, web analytics, conversions, etc. A tall order. Small businesses can help themselves by helping the SEO consultant understand their business, their branding, their message, their image, their customers. No wonder SEO is so expensive!

I'm Getting Visitors But No Business. What Gives?

2007-01-08T05:15:00.000-05:00

Getting visitors o your site is usually the hardest battle, but it's by far not the end of the war. If you've gotten that far, congratulations! Once you have someone on your site, you have to give them a good user experience that will convince them to make a purchase, download your forms, subscribe to your newsletter, or whatever other conversion point you have on your site.

That process can be defined by two large groupings:
1) User Experience - The site design (colors, graphics, layout), content (information on your web pages), and navigation play huge roles in the overall user experience. All of those items combine to give your visitor an initial impression of whether or not they want to do business with you.
a) The site design depends mainly on your industry, the image you want to convey, your branding, etc.
b) The content depends on your business and what information you want to provide to your visitors. Usually, more content is better, but sometimes too much information can prevent a visitor from picking up the phone.
c) A strong, consistent navigation structure throughout the site is imperative to a good user experience. If they ever feel lost or confused or can't find what they're looking for, they'll exit in a flash to look elsewhere.

2) Call to Action - Numerous Calls to Action must be worked into the design and/or content of the site. A Call to Action is a portion of the page compelling the visitor to do what you want them to do, leading them closer to your conversion point. Calls to Action must be visible and obvious, but not overbearing and pushy. Most should be "above the fold"(top half of the page so they don't have to scroll). Putting an action button that the visitor is looking for (like "Buy" or "Checkout") below the fold can lead to extreme frustration. Maybe your Call to Action is an exhortation to "Subscribe Now" or a request to call for more information. Just giving a phone number or contact info on every age is not enough (although a good idea). Giving them something they need is usually a good way to convince them to do it. Perhaps that's great info in your free newsletter. Or maybe it's a discount referral code from the website that they can use towards services if they contact you before a certain date. Whatever it is, make sure you have frequent, prevalent Calls to Action on your site so that you'll be sure to get the business action you're looking for.

Doesn't SEO Come With a Website Design?

2006-12-18T06:54:00.000-05:00

Answer: Not necessarily and probably not.

Since it's easier to ignore SEO when building a website, most designers will not mention it and you'll be none the wiser. Ask your design company about including SEO in the design. If they won't do it (or won't do it well - read on), find another design company.

Some web design companies will offer to include SEO with the site, but it will cost more. If you have that option and can verify that they'll actually incorporate good SEO into the site, pay extra to get the SEO built in. Even if you pay more upfront for an SEO-friendly design, you'll save money down the road, either from redesigning the site to be more search-engine friendly or from increased traffic and business off the bat from good SEO.

How can I tell if they'll do a good SEO job?
Talk to them about several basic concepts of SEO to get a feel for how they work. Beware of Red Flags:
1) Double Talk. If they can't answer ALL of your questions in plain English, Red Flag. Using esoteric industry lingo or attempting to talk over your head means they don't really know what they're talking about, they're trying to hide something, or at least have a severe communication impairment.
2) Ask about page tags - which ones do they think are imported and why? If they focus on "meta tags" and don't mention title tags and page headings, Red Flag.
3) Ask about keywords - where do they get them? If they plan to guess at them or solely use a list you give them, Red Flag. Keywords should be researched thoroughly with tools specifically designed for that purpose, not guessed. (Using a list from you as a "seed" list is fine, but they'll need to expand it.)
4) Ask about content - How important is it to work keywords into the content of a page? If they don't say something like "critically important," Red Flag. Keywords in content, plus page titles and headings, are the most important controllable on-page factors for SEO.
5) Ask about link building - Do they do it? If they say it's included with the SEO package, ask specifically what it entails. Real link building is time-consuming and not cheap. Expect to pay a good price for quality link building. If they say something about "submitting to the search engines," Red Flag. That answer has nothing to do with link building.
6) Ask for referrals. Although some SEO companies consider an SEO relationship to be a trade secret for their clients, most do not.

Obviously, this is a simplified list, but it should give you some idea of what to look for. If you'd like a clarify any points, please give me a call at 770-722-6992, T/F 866-296-1945, or leave your question in a comment.

Lots of Visitors But No Business... What Gives?

2006-12-10T20:10:00.000-05:00

If you already have lots of visitors to your site, you know you're doing something right! However, getting those visitors to actually DO something to increase your bottom line is the next problem to tackle.

If you're getting visitors to your site, you know that keywords on your site match their query so that they probably have an interest in or a need for what you're offering. You probably have well chosen keyword in your content, relevant page titles, and numerous inbound links.

A visitor will make a decision as to whether a website meets their needs within the first split second of viewing the page. Within that split second, you must present your professionalism, trustworthiness, and relevance. Tough order!

Assuming that you survive the spit second survival period, they'll want to find what they're looking for QUICKLY. They'll primarily look to navigation to guide them where they need to go. They may go by images on the page. Typically, they will NOT read a lot of text to find what they need. Their click-happy finger wants to move. Too many words = too much thinking.

This is where we get into the usability of a website. Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think! guide to website usability comes to mind. No matter how pretty a site is, if the user can't find what they need, they'll leave. Discovering the key phrases that visitors expect to find in the navigation of a site is critical to them staying on the page in order to actually discover what you have to offer. Instead of "Products" in the navigation, use "Widgets," or perhaps "Red Widgets."

Another aspect of usability is giving a visitor the reassurance that they're in the right place. If someone comes to your site through an ad (either text ad or image banner), the landing page on your site should contain the same text or image that they saw in the ad. If it's sale ad, don't make them hunt around to find the sale, unless you want them to get frustrated and leave. Give them what they want up front and don't make them think.

The classic trouble area for visitors getting frustrated and leaving is in the shopping cart process. Here you have a visitor who actually wants to buy something (or sign up for a newsletter or whatever your conversion is) and they get frustrated by the process of checking out. Somewhere in that checkout process, they get an error or decide it's taking too long. If you're seeing a large number of shopping cart abandonments, definitely figure out the source of the problem and FIX IT!

Taking a fresh look at your website from a users perspective can help you identify problem areas which might be frustrating your visitors. One way to get fresh perspective is to set up a "Grandma Test." For the Grandma Test, find a friend or relative 60 years old or older and sit them in front of your website. Friends or relatives of all ages could be used for this test. Give them a specific task to accomplish and sit back and watch (no helping!). You may be very surprised by the trouble they experience or the questions they have. Don't take any of their comments personally or defensively; take them as gold nuggets that you can convert into a fatter bottom line.

Know What Works

2006-10-20T15:23:00.000-05:00

I came across an interesting article by Brendon Sinclair from Sitepoint.com today. He was totally honest about the results of a web project he had recently completed - the old way worked better!

His article, "How an Ugly, Mistake-Ridden Web Site Outperformed a 'Better' Site," talked about how he had just recently completed a beautiful new website for a client. The new website replaced one with a "very ugly" design, fraught with typos, and so little information that a customer was required to call the owner to find out anything. It just so happens that this owner is great on the phone and converts 80% of his phone calls. The new website provided so much information that the visitor made their buy decision without consulting the owner, resulting in a much lower conversion rate.

The lesson: Know what works for your business and use that to your advantage on the web. A website doesn't have to be an end-all-be-all of information about your products and services. More content typically results in better rankings and visibility in the search engines, but if those visitors don't convert, the additional traffic is useless. Figure out what works best for your business and find a good web consultant to help you translate that into a website that improves your bottom line.

Just When You Think You've Got It All Figured Out...

2006-10-16T15:12:00.000-05:00

Just when you think you've got it all figured out, they change the rules! Or not.
Since web development is a quickly changing industry, I try to stay up on developing trends by reading various internet blogs and sites. That's when I came across a new post, The Next Generation Website Model, by Jerry Bader, which delineates a "new model" of website content. While the article proposes a viable futuristic view of multimedia content, it also cements a long-existing truth of websites - they must be built for the USER.
Bader presents "Narrowcast Communication-On-Demand" as the new website content format that all users will demand in the future. While his ideas on unique multimedia content which bring the site alive definitely have merit, the idea that the entire web will benefit from that format does not. He proposes various reasons why this format is best, presumably for all users. While he seems to espouse presenting content for the user rather than the search engines, he neglects those users who actually want "reams of text" to meet their need. Some users prefer not to waste time listening to a prefabricated spiel on a product or services when they could much more quickly scan the text to find what they need.
His assertions that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaigns should not limit the presentation of content are right on the money. A good SEO campaign should always put the needs of the users above the needs of the search engines. A lesser amount of targeted visitors which find a useful, content-filled site which meets their needs is much better than a larger amount of random visitors that leave the site as fast as they can click Back. If the users of a site relate better to multimedia content, the SEO campaign must take that fact into account and generate "search engine content" through other means, without sacrificing the end-user experience.
In the end, the best website, whether based on "old school" principles or new multimedia, will be built with the user in mind, giving them the information they need quickly and effortlessly.

How Do I Sign Up for Local Search

2006-09-12T09:06:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in How Do I Get People To My Site?, Google and Yahoo! Local Search are great free resources for local businesses with a website. These services truly focus on geographically local businesses, since you must have a physical address to qualify for them.

To get started the Google Local:
1) If you don't have one already, sign up for a Google account. (Click on "Create an account now") If you already use Google services like AdWords (pay-per-click advertising) or AdSense (publish Google ads on your website), you already have a Google account; you don't need another.
2) Go to Google's Local Business Center and sign up. Enter all the info about your business, including the street address. Indicate whether you want to verify by phone or snail mail. (If you do it by phone, they really do call in a matter of minutes!)
3) Configure your ad which will appear near the top of the page when someone searches for a business like yours in your area. Unfortunately, they limit the number of categories in which you can list yourself, but what do you expect for free. ;) If your competitors haven't caught on yet, you might be the only business listed!

To get started with Yahoo! Local:
1) Sign up for a Yahoo! account if you don't already have one. If you have a Yahoo e-mail address, you already have a Yahoo! account.
2) Enter all of the information about your business.
3) With Yahoo!, you also have some options for additional paid advertising in local search. The prices vary depending on the "popularity" of your business (i.e., florist vs. archaeologist) and the placement on the page (higher = $$). You can review the options, but understand that you still have the FREE option to use until you can decide on something else.

That's it! You're all set up for Local Search. Bear in mind that the verification process may take some amount of time. Mine took two weeks because my verification was done through snail mail. Your website will not appear in the local listings until after that verification has taken place. Bear in mind that your website will not necessarily appear every time it "should." The frequency depends on other businesses which may be competing with your for a particular search phrase.

Good luck!

What are Meta-Tags?

2006-08-21T05:28:00.000-05:00

I've been on vacation for the last week - had a mah-velous time! But, even on vacation, I got a question: What are meta tags?

First, some background on the source of the question. A couple of my aunts-in-law are so in love with hairless Sphynx cats that they started breeding them. One such aunt-in-law pressed uncle-in-law into service to produce a website for her so that she could sell her Sphynx litters via the internet. Said uncle-in-law, although smart and tech-savvy, was not overly familiar with building a website. After almost a year of playing around with do-it-yourself tools, he produced an effective website explaining the breed and presenting lots of pictures of their adorable cats: Bareskin Sphynx.

As a novice, uncle-in-law wondered what meta tags were (they were mentioned in the tools he used) and what significance they had to being found by the search engines.

Meta tags are simply pieces of code within an HTML file. The most used and well-known meta tags are keywords and description. An example follows:

< name="keywords" content="list of keyword phrases, separated by commas">
< name="description" content="Readable description of your website">

Back in ancient internet history (~10 yrs ago), the Keyword meta-tag was a handy place to put your keywords so that search engines could easily tell what your site was about. That practice, however, was so abused that the Keyword meta-tag now counts for virtually nothing for relevance to search engines. It is still a handy place to store misspellings or particularly obscure versions for your keyword phrases. Now, your keywords must appear within your content in order to be found relevant by the search engines (and hopefully rank higher).

The Description meta-tag does not count towards relevance either, but it can still be important. Depending on which search engine the visitor is using, the Description may appear beneath the title in the search engine results page (SERP). If it's a good, readable description, replete with keywords, the visitor would be more likely to click on it and visit your site.

The title, although not a meta-tag, is an important, sometimes overlooked, tag within a web page. Search engines DO look at keywords within the title tag. Visitors see it, too, both in the SERP and on the page (at the very top of the browser in the blue bar). Relative to other factors in Search Engine Optimization, you probably get the most bang for your buck out of good title tags.

SEO: Cutting Edge

2006-08-10T04:26:00.000-05:00

Yea! Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is finally coming into its own. MSN Careers published an article yesterday featuring its list of "Four Jobs on the Cutting Edge," one of which was SEO.

According to the article:
"Search engine optimizers (SEOs) increase a firm's Web site traffic by improving its search-engine page rankings. This is an especially important task in today's Internet-driven world, where many customers first learn of an organization and its products or services through the Web. Because of a shortage of experts in this relatively new area, many top SEOs receive multiple job offers.

SEOs typically supplement their knowledge of how various search engines operate and determine page rankings with strong marketing skills, as well as the ability to communicate effectively and program using HTML. Most are self-taught, learning the trade by researching trends, attending conferences and seminars, participating in discussion forums, and experimenting with their own sites. Courses and certifications in this specialty are being offered by an increasing number of organizations; however, consensus on the value of these programs does not yet exist. "

Is that why I started doing SEO, because it was a "cutting edge" job? No! I started dabbling in SEO out of curiosity and then out of interest, because it was like solving a mystery. I practiced and gained experience on my own sites, reaping the rewards in the process. And, most of all, I continue doing it because it's fun!

Not four months ago, the president of a local computer company called me up to talk about some possible SEO work. He admitted that he thought SEO was little more than smoke and mirrors after adding a few keywords within a soundly constructed, standards-compliant website.

While the basics of good keyword research and a well-built site, designed fro both the user AND the search engines, are still the cornerstones of SEO, many other things go into acquiring the top rankings that bring more traffic, better conversions, and a better bottom line. I'm glad to see someone acknowledging that.

How Do I Get People to My Site?

2006-06-05T05:11:00.000-05:00

These days, with billions of websites out there, standing out above the crowd is not an easy task. Even so, you have numerous tools available which many website owners don’t take advantage of. A few simple steps can really make a difference to your bottom line.

First, figure out how people are searching for your site. Consult Do-It-Yourself Keyword Research for how to generate a fairly decent set of keywords to target. Work those keywords into your page titles, page descriptions, content, and site navigation.

Promote your web site online by searching for online directories related to your business. Be sure to seek out the appropriate location within the directory to submit your site. Prominent directories will reject submissions for the wrong category entirely.

A quick way to get noticed online is to sign up for Google and Yahoo! Local services. These services are free; you just sign up and they verify your local address. Local listing often appear at the top of a search results page when the user types in a city name along with their query.

Another way to promote your site online is to look for online forums related to your business to which you can contribute as an expert. You’ll get an appreciative audience who needs your advice and you can advertise your web site in your three- or four-line signature. Be sure not to be too salesy in forums. Forum readers recognize a sales pitch a mile away and will probably skip what you have to say entirely. Build trust in the community by posting regularly. Warning: this technique can be very rewarding, but it requires a large time investment.

Make the most of your e-mail signature. Everyone reads and writes a lot of e-mail messages these days. Take advantage of that free advertising by including your web site address, along with a brief promotional, in your e-mail signature which gets attached to every e-mail you send. Change the promotional regularly (and keep it brief!) to highlight specials or new products. Changing the text also prevents your regular readers from becoming immune to seeing the same thing and ignoring it altogether.

In addition to tuning your website with keywords and promoting it online, be sure to promote your site offline as well. Include your web site address on all your printed literature — business cards, brochures, newsletters, letterhead. Mention it on your packaging – bags, boxes, gift tags, if appropriate. Include it, perhaps bolded, in all ads, press releases, any form of written correspondence.

Another method of promoting your site is to become known as the expert in your area of expertise. You can hold seminars or speak to local groups about your products or services. In this case, giving back the community helps you by getting your name and website address in front of more people.

You may also create press releases, particularly when launching a new site or making major revisions to an existing one. The press release might go out to local papers, readers of which could patronize your business. You could also do an online press release, which would be released across the country. If you make a press release interesting enough, online or offline, you have a chance to get it noticed and picked up by major news carriers – what a bonus!

Good luck with your traffic building!

Do-It-Yourself Keyword Research

2006-05-24T19:35:00.000-05:00

What are keywords? Keywords are the phrases that people use to search for what you offer on your website. Keywords are important for your site title, description, navigation, structure, and content.

Why are keywords important? For one, search engines use keywords to match your site to the query entered by a potential visitor. For another, visitors want to follow words which they believe will lead to the subject they’re looking for. Let’s say to have a website selling pink widgets (you call them Thing-a-bobbers). If you think people are looking for “Thing-a-bobbers”, but they’re really looking for “widgets”, you may target “Thing-a-bobbers” on your site, so no one will know that you’re really selling widgets.

How do I figure out what keywords I need to use? To some degree, you can guess. But it’s important to walk through the process to expand your original guesses. Otherwise, you’ll miss out on important phrases and the traffic looking for them.

Keyword Seeds. First, start a list of seed keywords. Create this list through brainstorming with colleagues about your products, services, solutions, customers, etc. This is your list of educated guesses on what you think people are looking for.
Use tools to expand your list. Next, expand your keyword list with the use of a free tool, such as Overture's Keyword Suggestion Tool . Type one of your seed phrases into the box. This tool will give you multiple suggestions which include the seed phrase in each result. The numbers listed give a relative value of popularity. Very high numbers indicates that many people are searching for this phrase. Lower numbers indicate that not as many are searching for this term. Delete any phrases which are not applicable to your site, products, or services. Add any new phrases that you think of through this step. Run each of your seed phrases through this tool to greatly expand your list. Remember to add geographic names to your phrases to get more specific. For example, “peachtree city florists” would be a better keyword phrase than “florists”.

Expand further. Third, use another free tool, such as

Google's Keyword Tool, to expand your list even further. By now, you have a decent list of words, so you don’t need to run every phrase through a new tool. Sort your list by popularly and choose the most popular phrases to run through to see if any new phrases or words turn up that you hadn’t thought of.

Think outside the box. Fourth, take some time to think outside the box. Consider your visitors and why they’re looking for you. What problems will you solve for them? You have several different types of visitors, all of which come for different reasons and via different sets of keywords. Consider all of those types and all of those reasons. For example, if you have a travel site, you may have visitor types like “business traveler,” “vacation traveler,” and “relocation traveler.” Taking one of those, a “business traveler” may come to your site looking for a local area map, looking for places to eat in a strange place, looking for a car rental, etc. Which of those reasons are applicable to your site? You may discover an angle to your site that you hadn’t previously considered.

Determine volume and competitiveness. Lastly, find out how competitive your keyword phrases are. Broad keyword phrases are usually very competitive, i.e. lots of sites optimize for them. Ideally, you want to target keywords which are more specific and less competitive. Adding geographic words to your phrases goes a long way toward making them more specific. For phrases which don’t lend themselves to geographic specifications, consider other modifiers to narrow the phrase. Using a free tool like

Google's Keyword Tool, you can see which keyword phrases are most competitive among Google AdWords advertisers. Sometimes, competitive terms aren’t necessarily worthwhile. For example, “financial advisor” and “investment advisor” are very competitive (as indicated by Google’s Keyword Tool, but “financial advisor” doesn’t get as much traffic. That would make “investment advisor” the better of the two phrases.

Other tools. You may consider using one of various paid keyword research tools, such as Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery to help with your keyword research. These tools help you do these same steps in much less time. They also provide extensive databases which give you the latest data for determining competitiveness and search volume for your keywords. Although most charge a monthly subscription fee, some offer a free trial or a one-day subscription.

Web Marketing Seminar

2006-04-19T05:34:00.000-05:00

We had a great seminar last week. Too bad so many people missed it! :D
We discussed everything from search engines to advantages of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), but the discussion only got as technical as the participants wanted.
Everyone took home some tools and tidbits to get them started on improving their web presence.

If you missed it this time, don't despair. We'll probably have another one in a couple of months or so. By that time, you'll already be a leg up after reading this column. :)

Design Lessons Learned From "Less Than Perfect" Websites

2006-04-06T11:24:00.000-05:00

Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder. Our illustrious editor brought an article, "The Surpising Truth About Ugly Websites," to my attention which showed that precept true on the web as well, with a twist: “Beauty is in the balance sheet.” Many websites exist which place design behind other factors, proving that form does not conquer function. Some of these websites might be considered “ugly” (i.e. craigslist), others simply “less than perfect.” Plenty Of Fish, for example, a free online dating service, might be considered “amateur” by elitist web designers. However, it reportedly brings in $10,000/DAY in advertising revenue. That’s over $3 million in a year. I’d call that pretty darn close to perfect!

What factors are these successful websites proving are more important than pretty design?

1) Trustworthiness. According to the article, these websites immediately convey a sense of trust to the user. Plenty Of Fish has in its header, “Put your wallet away.” Their less-than-perfect designs convey a small-town feeling of trust that’s difficult to get from a WOW site.

2) Ease of Use. Even more importanta than trustworthiness, these “less than perfect” sites are simple, inviting, and easy to use. They make no attempt to dazzle with brilliance or accomplish anything but their basic purpose. If people easily get what they need from a site, they’ll come back. Why wouldn’t they?

Design Factors

Although graphic design falls behind trustworthiness and ease of use, I believe both of these factors must be considered in the overall design process.

The design process of any website MUST consider the immediate message conveyed within the first 8 seconds of viewing. Most people make a judgment call in that amount of time; some bail based on that call. Perhaps your impression is “great deal” or “unique opportunity.” Conveying trustworthiness within that tiny time frame is no small feat.

The design process MUST also consider usability. Even if a visitor wants to buy your product or use your service, usability issues create roadblocks to that conversion. Sometimes it’s as simple as making them scroll for a “Checkout” button that causes them to throw their hands up in the air and abandon the shopping cart. Navigation which seems painfully obvious to you may read like Greek to a user.

What can I do about it?

The easiest way to get a clue about usability is the “Grandma Test.” Find your nearest grandparent, maybe your mother, maybe your 60 year old neighbor, sit them in front of a computer, and give them a specific task to accomplish on your website. Simply give them the task and let them go. No coaching! This simple test will provide great insights into the usability and trustworthiness of your site. Just try it and see!

Web Marketing Seminar!

2006-03-31T08:42:00.000-05:00

Just to let you know, I'll be holding a FREE Web Marketing seminar at the Peachtree City Library on Tuesday, April 11th, at 7:00pm.

It's open to anyone wanting to learn more about making the most of their website.

The seminar will cover the basics about search engines, organic/paid listings, plus a little about traffic statistics, and debunk several myths about websites. In short, you should walk away with some good ideas about which direction you need to go to get more out of your website.

If you don't have a website yet, the seminar will give you enough information to ask good questions while going through the process of acquiring one.

I hope you can make it!

How to Start Blogging

2006-03-30T21:28:00.000-05:00

So, how do I get a blog?

The easiest way is to use Blogger, a free, easy-to-use service from Google. Just follow these steps:

1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/ .
2. Click on the big orange arrow – “Create Your Blog Now”
3. Follow the instructions to create your account.
4. Follow the instructions to name your blog.
5. Start blogging!

You’ll be up and blogging immediately! In addition to posting to your blog, you’ll probably want to set at least a few settings on your account:
Under Setting…Comments, scroll down and click Yes for “Enable comment moderation?” Enabling this option will make sure you see every comment before it gets posted. There may be some unscrupulous people attempting to post to your blog, so you can thwart their attempts before they get to your blog.
Under Template, you’ll want to edit your Link list to get rid of Google News and Edit me. Don’t be afraid of the code; just look carefully for something that says “Links”. It might look like this: The “h2” or the “sidebar-title” might say something different, but that’s where your links are listed. Once you find them, you can just delete them. Or you can add your own links. To create your own link, follow their link as an example, replacing their web address with whatever web address you want to link to. Also replace the link text. It will typically have “Google News” as the text for one of the links.

There’s lots more you can do with your new blog, but that’s enough to get you started and hopefully not overwhelm you.

Although Blogger is free and easy, it also seems to be getting slower by the day as more and more people sign up for their own free blogs. I wonder how slow it will get before Google does something about it.