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Importance of Sales Funnel Congruency

I've seen a lot of business owners set up a marketing funnel, and doing it incorrectly. They have a website, and then set up a Google Ad to drive traffic to the homepage. That's it.Many of these same people give up on Adwords a few weeks later and say "It doesn't work for my business". Setting up a good marketing funnel takes a lot of time, and a pinch of science. The old days of having a single broad funnel are long over. Advertising costs are just too high to make this profitable.You need to first define very specific audiences for your product(s) and/or service(s). Then you need to brainstorm EXACTLY what they would be interested in, and what they would be looking for.These will become individual funnels, and you need to work out a set of unique keywords for each funnel.The next step, is to make sure that you have a unique page on your website for every funnel, that is about the subject of the search, and uses a subset of the keywords you chose for this funnel earlier.It is also very important that the page also has an offer and a call-to-action which is relevant and in the same subject as the keywords and page.The LAST step is to set up a Google Ad for the selected keywords. The ad should be about the subject of the specific funnel, and should send the visitor to the specific page defined earlier.The end result you're looking for is perfect congruency between your ads, your landing pages, and your offers.For example, if someone is searching for "blue suede shoes", they are more inclined to click on an ad that talks about "blue suede shoes" as opposed to an ad about just "shoes". When they land on the web page, they are also more inclined to continue reading if the page is about "blue suede shoes" instead of just "shoes", because this was what they specifically were searching for.Lastly, the visitor will be way more inclined to go for the offer on the page (call-to-action), if it's about "blue suede shoes".This congruency is HUGELY important in website conversions.

Steering a Parked Car

I read a newsletter today which had such a great analogy in it, that I just had to share it.The newsletter was from Perry Marshall - the Google Adwords guru, and he was talking about how we CHOOSE the wrong audience for many possibly successful business models.For example, a lot of new companies will target local small businesses. The problem is that most local small businesses, especially the new ones, have a very small budget.Trying to sell services to them is very difficult, and the amount you get at the end of the day, is small. This is like trying to steer a parked car.I see this every day in the web design industry. There are hundreds of new self-proclaimed web designers popping up locally every year. They do a mediocre job because they have no budget to work with, and disappear quickly. In a way it helps us, because clients that have been burned before by a cheap solution, now understand the value of something done properly.You HAVE to go after the big fish that actually have the money to pay for your services. Otherwise you'll eventually go broke. Trying to help the new small business is noble, but is usually not profitable. Yes, going after big fish is way out of most people's comfort zone. But at the end of the day, do you want to be comfortable, or profitable?Stop trying to steer a parked car.Thanks Perry. That was a classic.

Hardly Anyone Really Wants a Website

One major point I've learned from my clients in the 13 years I've been in this industry, is that hardly anyone really wants a website. However almost everyone walks in the door looking for a website.I accept that for many, it is an industry expectation, and without a website these days, you're considered a troglodyte. For some, flashy image is really important, and having a website is simply a cost of doing business.For most though, people are looking for more CUSTOMERS. They want to increase sales, and improve the bottom line. And there seems to be this expectation that website = sales.This is totally FALSE.There are thousands of web designers that can build you a beautiful website. But most of them don't know anything about business, and the website won't work at the end of the day.A few years ago I had a new client come in, and they had a VERY beautiful website which they paid $50,000 for. However this website was unable to convert visitors into customers.There is a science and a psychology that needs to be implemented on a website to build trust and start a relationship with the visitor. It's too easy to just click away and go to the next website. The other side of the coin is concerned with traffic. Just having a website does not mean people will see it. Online marketing costs are extremely high these days. The Internet is no longer a new technology, and the competition is FIERCE.Whether you employ SEO or PPC or both, Google's first page only has 10 slots available for each, and everyone's scrambling to be there. Pretty much all the websites out there that promise page one rankings for a low fee, are scams. They'll take your money, and you'll reap no benefit.In the middle, between the website and the traffic, is a website's conversion rate. This is a measure of how effectively the website converts visitors into customers. Many people think they have a traffic problem, when they actually have a conversion problem. There's a whole branch of marketing that deals exclusively with conversion optimization. It's all about how to increase the number of respondents to an offer by changing variables in the offer. The entire process can be very complicated, tedious, and expensive. It's NOT a simple “If we build it they will come”.

Another Important Google Update

Google has once again made a more-or-less major update to their search ranking algorithm. This update is important to know about, as it could affect those websites that have used less-than-kosher SEO methods. I realize that the subject of SEO is highly volatile. Google serves the masses and tries to show the most relevant results at the top. People want their websites at the top, and so they do what they can do and/or afford to increase their rankings. Technically there should be no SEO industry, because doing anything to increase your website rankings is against Google's terms of service, and Google wants an “organic” Internet where everything is built for people. This latest update is clamping down hard on web spam, including keyword stuffing and article spinning. You can read more about it here from Matt Cutts:http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html

A Case Study in Split Testing : Part 2 - the Results

A few weeks ago, we started an experiment, testing new homepage copy for Chef Kat. You can read about the setup here. To summarize, we had two versions of the website showing up, and we were tracking conversions from the site, including online booking enquiries and phone calls. One version had the old short-form copy, and the other had the new long sales-letter copy. The new homepage copy was excellent, and we DID expect a noticeable increase in conversions. We were not prepared for HOW MUCH of a difference this would make. We cleaned up the data prior to our analysis and removed all traffic from bots, spiders, crawlers, and other software. Our analysis is based only on HUMAN interactions with the website. Also note that we did nothing to change the traffic TO the website. The only test was on homepage copy. Everything else, including traffic, remained the same. The results are quite astounding and speak for themselves: OldShort Copy New Long Copy Qualified Visitors 177 217 Conversions 5 17 Conversion Rate (%) 2.8% 7.8% That's a demonstrated increase in conversion rate of 277% What kind of improvement would new professionally written copy do to your business?

Google Rich Snippets

Google introduced rich snippets a while ago, and has been expanding on it's usefulness. Basically rich snippets can show up in search results and alter the listing. For example, a search for "SEO secrets" shows the regular page of boring text-only listings, and also this one with a picture of the author: This dramatically increases click-through rates on the listing in the search results. When it comes to authors, I view this as a good idea. To prove authorship isn't terribly complicated, but it's not that simple either. You need a Google profile and set up your links and tags correctly. Then your blog posts and other content you write (author) may show up with your picture and name as well. Google also has rich snippets for recipes, locations, and other items. What I see as a potential problem, is the use of ratings and reviews in rich snippets. For example, a search for "SEO company" shows the following listing mixed in the results: Having these star ratings next to their listing will undoubtedly increase click-through rates, but who's enforcing these ratings and reviews? Couldn't any website owner just add any rating to their website? In short, yes. When we take a deeper look at the last website example (seo company), we see the code in the site that gives them a ranking of 10/10 based on 2046 reviews. We also noticed that the code hides this information from the viewer, and the website does not seem to offer any evidence to support this rating anywhere. So you can add any rating to your website, and influence searchers and their clicking habits. And no-one can stop you. Or can they? One could argue that this is not Google's job to police. I'm pretty sure that almost every country has laws against falsifying reviews and testimonials. If you get caught doing this, there would be rather harsh repercussions. At the end of the day, I guess we'll have to wait and see. After a lot of abuse, this feature may go the way of the dodo bird; or it will be policed more effectively; or nothing will change because the world is only full of good people, and no-one would take advantage and abuse the system (ouch: I think I bit my tongue on that one).

A Case Study in Split Testing : Part 1 - the Setup

One of our clients, Chef Kat, a local Calgary Gourmet Private / Personal Chef, has had a website face-lift recently. You can check it out at www.chefkat.com. Part of the face-lift included a re-write of the homepage copy. The new copy is much more enticing, and uses some excellent emotional tools to elicit action from the reader, however the client was a little concerned that the new copy doesn't point-blank state what she does - like the old copy did. When it comes to the Internet, NO-ONE KNOWS exactly what will work and what won't. There are just too many variables in play, and the human element, makes processes quite unpredictable. Not to worry though. SCIENCE will lead the way. What we needed to do, was let the two different versions of the homepage copy compete against each other. This is a simple A-B split test. We opted NOT to use Google Website Optimizer for many reasons. The biggest reasons though were to not incur the speed penalty, and to have a much finer control of the data. Since the website is a local business and low in traffic, we can manage the data manually, and therefore clean it up first. For example, Google Website Optimizer would tell us how many clicks each version of the homepage received, and how many bookings were placed through each version. This is not good enough for us because we want to remove questionable search traffic to ensure we base our stats on only clean data. We want to remove any search queries about chef jobs, or people looking for recipes, etc. We just want REAL searches involved in our analytics. One issue that came up is that, although most inquiries come in via the contact and booking forms on the website, there are quite a few prospects who phone. So, we acquired a second phone number, and programmed the website accordingly. Now you get a random version of the website (homepage copy A or homepage copy B), and the phone number displayed in all locations is always the correctly corresponding one. One number per homepage version. All of this data is then logged in a database, in pretty raw format. Yes, we will have quite the cleanup and data massage job ahead, but we wanted this to have full control. The website is now quietly collecting data in the background. In a few months we'll go back and find out: How many people saw version A?How many people saw version B?How many bookings (email, phone, or website) came in from version A?How many bookings came in from version B? From this data, we will conclusively be able to tell which homepage copy is better. If one version resulted in more bookings than the other, it implies that the copy is better. Of course we will need a LOT of data to decide this. If you flip a coin 10 times, and you get 6 heads and 4 tails, it does not mean heads is more likely to come up than tails. These things even out over larger numbers though. It is rather unlikely that, after flipping the same coin 1000 times, that you'll get a 600 to 400 disparity. So, now we wait. In a month or two, we should have enough data, and will do our analysis. Stay tuned for our results and findings.

Why your Website may not be Ranking well in Search Engines

Is your site not ranking well in search engines? Can you not be found in Google? There may be a few easy-to-fix causes. Don't forget to get our FREE SEO Cheat Sheet.

New look for facebook Pages

This facebook thing certainly has become popular. Corporations lose billions of dollars in productivity due to employees facebooking. It's even become a verb! I hardly use facebook anymore. Just don't have the time. Now, it's more of a business tool, and once a week I add my blog post. This seems to annoy facebook, and I often get emails telling me that I'm apparently missing out on stuff :-) Today I received an email telling me that there's a new look for facebook Pages. OK - this is more serious. As much as I'd like to think it's just a ploy to get me to spend more time on facebook, it's actually a good move. The new look is awesome, at least compared to the old one. Some of the best new features: Big banner photo Large page tabs across the top Custom images for the tabs of custom apps Being able to star / pin posts A new admin panel that has lots of intelligence The new look is being forced out by the end of the month, so if you haven't updated your facebook Page yet, now's the time to do so.

The Power of Numbers

It has been said that 4 out of 5 businesses fail in the first year. And I have personally met too many solopreneurs that left the workforce to be independent, but ended up broke. Dreams are smashed every day. A big contributing factor to this is that people don't know their numbers, or don't take them seriously. There are LAGGING INDICATORS, such as profit and loss, which are determined after-the-fact, and usually only the next month. There's nothing you can do about them at the time, except to work on your business model and it's future. There are also LEADING INDICATORS, such as number of sales leads generated. These can be influenced immediately, and changes will ripple through, and then be seen in the lagging indicators in your next reporting cycle. The most important and yet most disregarded number in smaller businesses is the COST OF MAKING A SALE. This is even more pronounced with online businesses. The hard truth is that you will not get good SEO for $100 that will deliver millions of buyers to your website. Unless you're in an ultra-thin niche, PPC on Google Adwords will cost you a fair chunk per click. And we all know that traditional magazine, radio, and television advertising is hugely expensive. Because customer acquisition costs are so high, most businesses almost always make a loss on any initial sale. It's the LIFE TIME VALUE of a customer that really matters in your numbers. If PPC advertising is in your marketing arsenal, then we have a great tool for you to play with. Our PPC ROI Calculator asks you for all the important numbers, and will let you know if your model will profit in the long term (or not). Check it out here: Our PPC ROI Calculator

Is Your Homepage a good Landing Page?

This is a bit of a loaded question. Your website homepage should NEVER be used as the landing page for any campaign. You will always get better results by having a special landing page which is optimized for you specific campaign. On the other hand, a lot of traffic DOES come in via your homepage. A good landing page should have the following 3 elements ABOVE THE FOLD: Desperate Problem - state explicitly what your audience's problem is. Make them think “that is EXACTLY my problem”. Irresistible Offer - this is your USP, and should make you stand out from your competition Call to Action - you have to tell your visitors what to do The following 2 elements should also be on the landing page, but don't necessarily have to be above the fold: Overwhelming Proof - often in the form of testimonials or a free trial offerReason to Act Now - it's best if you give them a reason to act now rather than later, and can be a free add-on or discount. So, how does your homepage measure up?

Systemization and Business Systems

The importance of good business systems is crucial to any organization. If you haven’t read the E-Myth by Michael Gerber, I highly encourage you to do so. Organizations lacking good business systems are wasteful, have a hard time retaining and training people, have cash-flow issues, and have quality issues and resultant customer complaints. Top leaders will tell you that you need to systemize (or systematize [sic]) your business for better efficiency. More important gains are control, and consistency, where each customer has the same experience each time, with the same level of QUALITY. Most business owners understand the theoretical importance of this, yet most business owners don’t know how to create good business systems, or even where to start. There are a fair number of software and online packages available that let you define and run your business systems to a point, but they all are separate from your operational business systems. This makes acceptance, use, and compliance, very difficult. The best business systems are those built directly INTO your operational systems. This removes acceptance out of the equation, and forces use and compliance. If you have to use a system to do your job, that system should also control HOW you do your job. Very simple really. This translates into your website as well. If you have very clearly defined paths that visitors and users can take, with only certain options at each point, you are better able to guide them to the desired outcome (which to you would be income ) The downside is that such systems usually are custom solutions or ERP’s, and this often translates to a larger up-front investment. The pay-off in the long run is well worth it though. One of the most memorable quotes from the E-Myth is “Work ON your business, not IN your business.” Whichever route you choose, make sure to make time to work ON your business.

Should you be Advertising on FaceBook?

Social Media is still making a big stir. Most people have heard of social media, and think that it’s essential in their marketing, but have little idea of how it works. For most people, and especially B2B companies, we recommend to stay away from social media. It can waste a lot of time, and bring little in terms of results. However, inside of the FaceBook social platform, there is a rather interesting advertising platform. Although similar to Google Adwords, the Facebook Ads platform is quite different, and not nearly as mature. One of the coolest features of FaceBook Ads is that you can target specific interests, which are extrapolated from what individuals “Like” on their profiles. Traditionally, you would usually target search terms in your PPC campaigns. This means that people searching for your genre of services specifically, get to see your ad. On FaceBook, your approach would need to be different. Since ads are not search-based there are no keywords to select. However the interests you choose, will determine WHO sees your ad. This makes the advertising platform less suitable for targeting people looking for you, but more suitable for growing awareness. It is an amazing tool to grow your opt-in list, if you run a contest or give-away, and advertise this on FaceBook. Forget about getting “Likes” on FaceBook. Use FaceBook to get email addresses. This is way more powerful in the long-run.

Google Adwords Re-marketing

Google introduced Re-marketing to their Adwords platform quite a while ago, yet it still seems to be a little known feature. Re-marketing is INCREDIBLY effective though. With regular PPC, you have ads showing, which people see when searching for specific search terms, and when they see your ad, you hope that they will click on the ad, get to your website, and enter your marketing funnel. The gist of the Re-marketing system is that anyone who DID come to your website through your PPC campaign, becomes part of a very select audience for the Display Network. This lets you run secondary ads that only these people will see, giving you additional chances to capture their attention, and getting them into your marketing funnel. I have seen this implemented most effective with hotel websites. I searched for a hotel in New York, saw an ad and clicked through. But then I don’t book a room, and continued my journey on the Internet. Suddenly I saw all sorts of ads from this same New York hotel offering enticing specials, on just about every website I went to. This is a good marketing practice, and can SUBSTANTIALLY increase your revenues from Pay-Per-Click.

Is Google’s Quality Score really that Important?

When Google introduced Quality Score (QS) in their Adwords PPC platform, it created a lot of buzz. And lots of buzz there is still. The theory is sound. Your ad should be consistent with the search terms, and with the landing page. If someone searches for “blue suede shoes”, they would be more inclined to click on an ad about “blue suede shoes”, and are more likely to stay on a page about “blue suede shoes”. It’s all about RELEVANCE. However, we often use related terms in our campaigns, because they logically make sense. For example, it makes logical sense to also target “blue leather footwear” if you sell blue suede shoes. The Adwords platform will report a low QS on many of these related terms, because they don’t closely match the ad and the landing page content. Next to some keywords, you’ll see the message “Rarely shown due to low quality score”. What Google WANTS you to do, is to create a separate ad for blue leather footwear, and have a landing page that talks about the same. This would be a LOT of work, and doesn’t make too much logical sense. Why have a page about blue leather footwear which is basically identical to your blue suede shoes page, just calling a spade a shovel? The real question is: Does it REALLY matter? After investigating a boat load of keywords with a reported low QS, we found that they were indeed showing up in search results, and showing up in their intended prominent position. They were also getting the clicks and converting as expected. If we were to tune these keywords for a better Quality Score, we may actually reduce our Cost Per Click by a very small percentage. But at what effort and cost? And we MAY reduce the CPC - it’s not a guaranteed thing. The bottom line is that, unless you’re in a hyper-competitive niche, you should not get too hung up on Quality Score. If it ain‘t broke, don’t fix it. Sidebar: Since writing this blog post, I had a personal one-on-one call with our Google Agency Strategy Team Representative, and she basically told me the exact same thing. Straight from the horse’s mouth, as they say.

Finding your best Keywords

When embarking on either a PPC campaign, or an SEO effort, the question of keywords usually comes up (it should anyway). Keywords are not words in the traditional sense, but rather phrases. Although “Key Phrases” would be a much better term, for some reason “Keywords” has persisted. What are the keywords your customers would use to find what you have to offer? There are quite a few keyword research tools on the market, ranging from free to very expensive. Probably one of the best ones is still the keyword tool inside of Google Adwords. These tools give you suggestions based on historic search trends, and you will often end up with a HUGE list of keywords. However, these lists are not indicative of current and local trends. A much better way of determining your BEST keywords, is to let the masses tell you. A rather quick way to do this, is to set up a very broad PPC campaign, and then to monitor the actual real-time traffic and the keywords that were used by searchers who clicked through to your website. Of course, you should track conversions as well. This gives you incredible insights on what people are REALLY searching for. Having real data or real search terms also gives you valuable insight on which keywords you want to AVOID. These you set up as negative keywords in your PPC campaign. After a while, you can then analyze the volume of keywords, and start SEO campaigns on selected keywords that have proven well in PPC. From the Lab Many years ago, we thought that “Calgary web design company" is a great keyword, and a much better keyword than the generic “Calgary web design". The logic being that anyone looking for web design is not necessarily looking for a company to do their web design work. After we re-generalized our campaign and watched what the TRUE searches were, we learned a few things. 1) Even though “Calgary web design” is a more general keyword, it is the highest converting of all keywords. Expensive, but effective. 2) There are a lot of negative keywords we missed, like “tutorial” and “classes”. Searches including these words are not our target market. Just FYI, the tool we used to understand our traffic is our own real-time visitor traffic monitor : globi footprints.

Why Search Engine Optimization is NOT Cheap - the Truth about SEO

A lot of people are surprised to find out that real Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be rather expensive, especially since there are so many websites promising top rankings for a very cheap price. But WHY is SEO expensive? Let’s take a look at the big picture. Google’s most important (internal) requirement, like with EVERY company, is to be profitable. If you don’t make money, you go out of business. How does Google make money? Mostly through advertising revenues. Google Adwords generates an insane amount of money for Google. How does advertising make money? Google gets paid to show sponsored messages to it’s audience. This means that the bigger the audience, the more opportunity to generate advertising revenues. In Google’s case, this is mostly through the use of their search engine. So, in order to have the largest audience for their search engine, Google must return the best and most appropriate search results to it’s searchers. This is Google’s most important (external) job. To provide the best search results. In other words, to help people find what they are looking for, better than any other search engine does. When you do a Google search, you are rewarded with a results page, which contains 10, and only 10, organic search results or listings. Yes, there can be Adwords ads, and possibly Places listings too, but the most important point is that there are only 10 organic listings. These are the ones everyone shoots for with SEO. This is the end of the rainbow, where the pot of gold lies for many companies. Currently there are almost 380 Million websites on the Internet, and roughly 55 Billion web pages, almost all of them looking to be on page 1 of Google for one or more search terms. That’s a lot of competition. Let’s say, for example, that you’re a web designer in Calgary. Your main search term to be found may be “Calgary Web Designer”. When we do a search for “Calgary Web Designer” and look at the page 1 results, Google tells us right at the top of the page, that there are “About 2,160,000 results”. So we’re competing with over 2 million pages. The Yellow Pages online directory has about 140 web design companies listed in Calgary, so it would be safe to say that there are at least 300 web designers in Calgary, including all the work-from-home guys. So we’re realistically competing with 300+ other businesses to be on page 1. This is not even taking into account any companies outside of Calgary who do service the area. 300 websites competing for the only 10 spots on page 1 of Google. So there have to be 290 losers. Now, I’ve seen claims of guaranteed page 1 rankings for $99, and even guaranteed #1 ranking on Google. If these claims were true, then it would be easy. Just pay $99 and get on page 1. However, when 300 companies pay $99 to different SEO providers to be on page 1, we’re back to the original problem. There are only 10 spots on page 1. Remember what Google’s main job is: to provide the most relevant search results to the searcher. Google doesn’t care about you, or where you think you should, or where you want to rank. It’s about the searcher. So we have 300 companies feverishly generating good content that Google will like, and obtaining high quality links that try to convince Google that each website is important. But we’re STILL sitting with the same problem. 300 websites competing for 10 spots. Of course, all 300 are competing to some degree, but not to the same degree. The websites that get the highest ranking, do the most work and/or pay the most for SEO. For any given keyword, the effort and cost to rank highly, is directly proportional to the competition for that keyword, and how deep the pockets are of those ranking the highest. If you’re a local business, getting to page 1 may not be too complicated or expensive. If you have less than 10 competitors, then it may even be easy and cheap(er). However, if you have more than 10 competitors, you will have to invest more in SEO than the current holder of the 10th ranking. You cannot win a race by starting last and trying less hard than those in front of you. The same competition sets prices for Pay-Per-Click ads, and other media. If there is limited space, the higher budgets will displace the lower ones. For many companies, the Internet is no longer even a viable marketing medium. If you sell something Amazon sells, and has sold for 10 years, it is highly unlikely, no matter how much money you have, that you will ever out-rank Amazon and their long-term affiliates. If you sell books that Amazon sells, you have even less of a chance, because Amazon is selling books at a LOSS. Books have become their loss leader in order to sell TV’s and make a better profit on electronics. The bottom line is that you should be wary of outlandish claims, and do your homework. Sometimes we are tempted to go for the cheap magic pill in the hopes that it will work, but in SEO, if it’s not done correctly, it could actually HURT your ranking.

The Online Marketing Cycle

It’s still amazing to see how many people believe that the Internet is a magical sales machine. I don’t know if this is why there are so many get-rich-quick schemes online, or because of it. Marketing, whether online or offline, hasn’t changed in hundreds of years, and likely won’t for decades. Only the tools have changed somewhat. This graphic shows the traditional marketing cycle, with a slight skew to the online: Traffic(T) > Conversions(C) > Monetization(M) > Traffic > etc Traffic: Whether this be website visits, television commercial views, radio ad listens, magazine ad reads, walk-by sidewalk traffic, etc. It’s the first step and means someone gains awareness of you via advertising. Conversion: This is where interaction occurs and a relationship begins. Whether it’s a website visitor filling in a form, or someone picking up the phone to call you. In marketing speak, the suspect becomes a prospect. Monetization: This step is where a purchase occurs, and you monetize your initial investment in traffic. For the cycle to continue, you need to invest some of your profit back into obtaining traffic. I think where most people get hung up, is in the mistaken belief that Internet traffic is cheap or free. The truth is that quality traffic is rather expensive.On the Internet, you need to promote the right keywords to the right audience, and have a good website to convert your visitors into customers. The most money is made by companies at the top of page 1 of Google, and many companies are competing to get there. The most effective marketing method on the Internet is still Pay-Per-Click Ads – Google Adwords more specifically, and for many, Facebook Ads work quite well as well. The old adage of "You get what you pay for" holds very true on the Internet.

Free SEO Cheat Sheet for Download

We’re almost in 2012, and yet Search Engine Optimization still seems like witchcraft to many. At the heart of it, SEO is not difficult or complicated. For on-page optimization there are a few must-do’s, and when it comes to off-page optimization, it’s mostly just a lot of grunt work. We just published a one-page SEO cheat sheet that explains the most important on-site concepts, and SHOWS you visually via an example. Whether you’re doing your own SEO, or engaging a professional, this cheat sheet can help you evaluate how good the effort is, and more importantly, that everything is on the up-n-up. You can find the Free SEO Cheat Sheet here.

Are you Farming or Hunting?

As business owners, our primary responsibility is to the bottom line. And to have a bottom line, you need sales. Like primitive man went about obtaining needed food, we need to generate sales leads. For food, our options were hunting and farming. If you’re hunting for leads, you go after specific prospects and try to convert them into sales. And like our ancestors, after a kill, we would eat until the food runs out, get hungry again, and have to hunt all over again - if we were to survive. If you’re farming your leads, you nurture them over a period of time, and convert them to sales when they are ready. Like our ancestors, we have a more consistent crop, and would only be hungry while waiting for a portion of the crop to ripen and be ready to eat. There are many methods of lead generation, and it’s not so much the method you use per say, as it is what you do with the leads, that makes the difference between hunting and farming. Neither one is superior, as both have pros and cons. But just like with food, survival and prospering are a lot easier with a combination of both. Don’t neglect your lead farming.

Small Business Accounting on a Budget

The other day I had to do some research for a client, who was in need of an accounting package. Most small business owners who know the fundamentals of accounting, start with Excel. When you become an Excel Power User, it’s amazing how much you can do with this package, including full cycle accounting. The problem with using a spreadsheet though, is that, as the volume of data increases, it becomes more and more tedious to keep your books up-to-date. For PC, there are a few well-known and effective Accounting Packages for small business. The most well-known are probably QuickBooks, and Simply Accounting. These products are quite complicated though, and maintaining the infrastructure is not the easiest (you need an IT person handy). There are a LOT of online applications available in the market now, which allow you to manage your accounting from anywhere. This is the great advantage of the web and cloud computing. Some of the more obvious choices online are QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books, and FreshBooks. These are really great accounting suites, and they do pretty much everything most businesses need. However, they are not cheap. If you are transitioning to online accounting, and your business grows, there’s little doubt that you’ll eventually end up with one of the main offerings. There are features you will need one day. ERP Solutions, or Custom Accounting Software, is often an end result in larger companies. The flexibility and control of having fully integrated systems is just awesome. Not to mention the money you save in labour, where you would traditionally need 2 or more people just to handle your books every month. However, if you’re just transitioning away from Excel accounting, which is essentially free, the step up to $30/month or $50/month could be considered hefty. If your budget is very tight, I have found two great-looking alternatives. You could consider them as stepping stones to the larger packages.For a total investment of $0 (yes, absolutely free), there is Wave Accounting. Wave Accounting looks incredible, and the feature list is impressive. It seems to be very easy to use, and could be the total answer for many small or home businesses. I don’t understand how they can do this for free, AND have an advertising budget (they have Google Adwords Campaigns), AND be profitable, but Wave’s been around for a while, and seems to be sustainable. I would expect there to be a lot of marketing flying your way though. They acknowledge that their revenue model is based on affiliate commissions, so they need to sell a lot of stuff to you, to make money. On the other hand, if you’re ready to pay a little, there’s Kashoo. For only $9.95, Kashoo delivers an equally impressive interface and feature set. With backing from Canada’s largest small business tax preparation and planning firm, FBC, Kashoo looks to be set up to succeed in the long run. Both Kashoo and Wave offer guest access for your accountant, and all the main features needed to run a small business. Whichever option you choose at the end of the day, be sure that you regularly make local backups of all your accounting data. Losing a span of accounting data can be catastrophic to many a business. Update: It looks like Intuit has a basic, entry-level version of QuickBooks Online available for only $12.95 per month. Only 3 bucks more than Kashoo, and with Intuit’s backing, plus easy upgrade path to more feature-rich plans, this may be the best choice of all.

Marketing that Makes an Impact

Just in case I haven’t said this often enough, I’ll say it again: “you have to build a list for effective marketing”. Only few businesses understand this and implement a list building funnel. Of these, most try to do it in the most cost-effective way possible, which usually means digital delivery of some content (free report, e-specials, etc). However, I have seen some great list building strategies over the years, and want to share two of the most impactful ones here. Seminar CD & workbook A few years ago, I was on the website of a high-profile marketing guru. They were offering a previously recorded seminar on CD, along with a workbook to implement the strategies covered in the seminar. This was a physical package of considerable size, and had a real CD. This really impressed me. Even though the materials were previously generated, the reproduction and shipping costs cannot be insignificant. The waiting time added additional suspense. It was an impressive experience, setting this company apart from the rest. Hotel Post Cards An old hotel in Vegas has blank post cards in every hotel room. The guest is encouraged to share their experience with their friends, and the hotel offers to pay for the postage - just leave the completed post cards at the front desk. At first glance, this seems like a mildly effective marketing strategy. People tell their friends about you, and it just costs you a postcard plus a stamp. However, if you look deeper into this, it’s an amazing marketing strategy. The hotel also collects the contact details of your friends in the process, and sends them very personalized special offers. There is a huge difference between a special offer along the lines of: Dear Homeowner, Our hotel is offering free dinner and a $100 gambling credit to all guests staying 2 nights or more, over a weekend. To take advantage of this offer, simply call 800-555-5555 and Dear John, Your friend, Bob Johnson, recently stayed at our hotel and really liked his stay. We are currently offering free dinner and a $100 gambling credit to all friends of previous guests, if you stay 2 nights or more over a weekend. To take advantage of this offer, simply call 800-555-5555 Art meets Science Marketing is as much art as it is science. Think outside the box, collect as much data as you can, and be creative with the use of this data. And don’t try to do everything via the Internet. Because this channel is easy to access, everyone is using it. This makes marketing way more competitive, and therefore expensive. Very often, an offline campaign delivers more bang-for-the-buck than an online one.

Are you Building a List?

It’s been shown over and over again, that it takes 3 to 7 exposures to a marketing message before prospects take action. Most visitors that look at your website, leave, never to return.One of the best ways to re-connect with visitors, is via email, and in order to do this, you have to get their email addresses.Your website should be adding people to your list all the time. Note though, that the old days of “sign up for my newsletter" are gone. The Internet has grown, spam is ever on the rise, and people are much more skeptical. You have to offer a good incentive for people to give you their email address.Some great ways to entice visitors to join your list is via free reports, specials, and webinars. Always make sure that what you’re offering in exchange for their contact information is of great value.Even if you already have a website, if your website is not building your list, it’s never too late to change this.

Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors

I stumbled upon the Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors published by Search Engine Land. It is an excellent infographic showing various factors and their effects on SEO.Click the image to enlarge it, or view the original article at searchengineland.com.This is very interesting, and you should take particular notice of the penalties that can get applied. Many cheap SEO services employ tactics which could actually damage your rankings.I totally agree with Jill Whalen's thoughts about spamming the search engines. It's not good. You should focus on creating quality content for your visitors, and generating real exposure for quality clicks.

Responsibilities of a Website Owner

For many business owners, a website seems to be a temporary project. Once established that there is a need for one, they hire a company to design a website, publish it, and then forget about it.Only a few understand how important a website can be in your entire business and marketing process. They invest a good budget, plan a manageable and measureable strategy, and then have the website developed. After publishing, they actually do use certain elements of their site on a semi-regular basis.One day though, the proverbial crap hits the fan.A functional website consists of loads of code. The chance of all the code being perfect, is less than zero. Just look at how many updates you get every month for Windows or your web browser. The more complicated any piece of software, the more bugs it has, and the more maintenance it requires.Then, there are cascading changes in environment. A necessary update to your hosting server operating system could introduce problems with the web server software. So, the web server requires updating, which could introduce problems with the hosting platform software, requiring this to update in turn.All these updates happen continuously in the background to ensure that your website stays as secure as humanly possible. However, every now and then, these changes will break your website.When there are major version changes (eg PHP4 to PHP5), it can often require an almost complete re-write of your website to ensure functionality and security.It’s big trouble when it costs money.Sometimes we assume everything’s OK, and suddenly we realize that a major piece of functionality is not working for some reason.If this broken piece is part of your marketing or sales strategy, it’s going to cost you. You start to sweat, and try to think how long it’s been broken. How many leads or sales have been lost? It becomes a panic to try and fix the most important parts as quickly as possible.Once proper functionality is re-established, we relax, and quickly forget about our website again.Why?Testing of your website should be part of your operational procedures. Even if your website has nothing more complicated than a contact form, it should be tested at least once a week.You should make a detailed list of EVERY functional scenario, documenting the expected outcome. This list should then be used on a regular basis to test the overall functionality of your website.And don’t forget about little details. The smallest changes can break too. Whatever system you may have implemented to prevent canonical issues (redirecting domain.com to www.domain.com) need to be tested too.

Google Sidewiki is Closing Down

In the latest news from Google HQ, their Sidewiki project is shutting down. Sidewiki was an attempt by Google to allow anyone to comment on any web page. The theory was good. If you can get real comments from real people on about web content, it could add a lot of value. But, people being what they are, may not use the service as intended. Immediate panic was created by the initial fear that people would mostly just use Sidewiki to leave negative remarks. After all, society loves to complain. This would be very damaging to any web property, and there would be no control mechanism for the website owner. Can you imagine if you have an excellent business, but just one unhappy customer posts negative remarks about you on your homepage for everyone to see, and there’s nothing you can do to remove this? Panic. However, it seems that the almighty Google doesn’t have a perfect track record for launching new ideas. I have to commend Google for trying new things, and allowing their employees to incubate ideas. This is how advancement happens. Sidewiki just seemed to fail. Whether it was doomed from the start or not is hard to tell. It was never well known about, and user-acceptance was low. Should we WAVE goodby to Sidewiki? (yes, that pun was intentional).

Google Instant Preview makes Image in Web Design most Important Ever

Google’s instant preview feature is changing the search landscape once again. Now, when viewing a page of search results on Google, there is a grey tab on the right of each search result listing, and when you hover your mouse-pointer here, the right-hand side of the screen will show a graphical preview of the destination website. The instant preview also highlights specific pieces of text, which contain your search terms, showing you why this page may be relevant to your search.The fundamental shift that this is causing in the search process is that searchers no longer need to even commit to a click to your website, before they can judge it.Before, you could get away with a less appealing website because the searcher would have to click through to your site in order to see it. Having committed even that little bit, visitors tend to hang around a little longer to see what your site’s about. Not much, but a little longer.Without having to even commit to a click, your site can be judged very quickly, and searchers can choose not to become visitors even more easily.Even from a small thumbnail image of your website, you have to stand out from the crowd now. Your site has to not only be appealing to your target audience, but has to show a benefit statement clearly, even on a roughly 400 pixel wide preview.Searchers now need to be compelled to even click through to your actual website.And, this applies to sites using Google Adwords as well. Even PPC advertised websites have the instant preview feature (for now anyway).There is also a significant impact on your analytics and website statistics. There is no way of telling if someone previewed your website. In theory, a preview with no further action is akin to a click-through with a quick bounce. Shouldn’t you as website owner be aware of this? This information can help make decisions leading to a better website.

Google is Scraping your Website to Rank it

How search engines work has been debated for over a decade now. The old-school SEO techniques of keyword meta tags dropped away years ago, and this has become generally understood now, although many people still insist on adding keyword meta tags “in case”, even though it's a waste of time. *sigh*Algorithm updates have plagued the SEO industry since the beginning. The tricks of the trade had to change each time a search engine changed. Very few understood what TRUE SEO is, and algorithm changes haven't really affected them.Fundamental Principal: Search engines are trying to deliver quality content to searchers – NOT get your site ranked. Since there is so much trickery going on, search engines need to weed out all sorts of junk. And they spend most of their resources fighting all this trickery and weeding out spam.Looking at recent changes in the Google UI, I suddenly had an epiphany. Google is scraping your website.This is very different than caching a copy. Google is actually scraping. When googlebot comes along and spiders your site, it doesn't save each page like it did in the good old days. Google RENDERS each web page and THEN decides what's on it.Google may not even look at your HTML code AT ALL. Why would they?I think this is fantastic.How better can you tell what humans see on a page than to render it?Disclaimer: I have not seen any concrete evidence of this. It is purely a theory, but I see enough anecdotal evidence to this effect. I hope that the men in black won't come hunt me down for spilling the beans :-)Here's my evidence.This screenshot shows search results for “buy pet accessories”. Looks just like it did in the old days.But, Google's new UI let's you see a preview of each site:And in each preview, it SHOWS YOU WHERE KEYWORDS ARE THAT MADE THE PAGE RELEVANT. See the red outlines? And the call-outs to the right restating the text in these areas?This is exactly as a human would see the page, and now their algorithm can be changed to look at the rendered page instead of HTML code.You cannot hide content and stuff keywords anymore, and it takes no hard processing power or fancy algorithms to keep up with the latest tricks either. Simply render the page and THEN look at it. Brilliant!If it's not already the case, this will have significant impact on the use of HTML and CSS as far as text goes.Some people have resorted to making their H1's small so that they deliver impact to the search engines without changing the experience to the human. This was complemented by making text that's important for humans big with CSS, while leaving it a plain paragraph.For example:CSS-styled span: Welcome to XYZCSS-styled H1: Best widgets, widgets for sale, we sell widgets.Traditionally, search engines would consider the H1 more important. That's why people do this. But it's WRONG. Anytime you do anything with the INTENT solely of influencing the search engines, would be considered trickery and spam.But now, since Google is rendering each page before evaluating it, perhaps they can use the ACTUAL TEXT SIZE to determine importance.From a logical human perspective, surely BIG TEXT is more important than small text???Is this why Google got into the browser game in the first place? Why else would they develop Chrome?Let's see how well this page ranks in a few weeks for:Google Scraping

Use Facebook Fan Gates to Increase Your Social Presence

The internet is a funny thing. Trends come and go, and we need to re-align our marketing accordingly on a constant basis.The old days of email have been dying for a long time now. But social media is still on the rise. Networks like Facebook and Twitter can be beneficial in your marketing strategy.A few years ago, it was popular to build email lists. Give away something of value in exchange for the person’s email address, so that you can send future offers and follow-ups.A similar strategy these days is with Facebook fans. If you can grow your fan-base, you have more people listening in on your status posts.The workflow is the same: offer something of value in exchange for becoming a fan of your business Facebook page.This is called a Fan Gate. Visitors who are not a fan see something different to fans, enticing them to become fans, and once they click on the well-known “Like” button, they now have access to whatever you’re using to entice them to become fans.I have seen this strategy work very well for hotels, offering discounts to fans, and professional services, offering free reports and info videos.Compared to the email route, there is less resistance to people liking you, because they can always unlike you, and it’s only a one-click process. Of course they have to be logged into their Facebook account at the time, and they have to HAVE a Facebook account (but who doesn’t these days?).If you want to see this process in action, see our Free Report link (Why Most Websites Fail ) on the left. You now have the option of being emailed the download link, or getting an instant download by liking us on Facebook.There is speculation in the market about possible SEO benefits as well. The more people like you, the more important you must be to Google, right? I’ve read this in many posts now, but have yet to see believable evidence.

Google's Ranking Algorithm Updates

We've been in the SEO industry for over 12 years now. Search Engine Optimization isn't rocket science, and mostly just hard work.Over the years, I have created a mental image of what goes into making and running Search Engine. Simplistically, they spider and index the web, and return results based on user search criteria.There's a lot of misinformation being spread about Search Engines, and usually a pinch of common sense can help separate the good from the bad.One comment I see too often is that getting links from bad neighbourhood websites will get you banned from Google. If this were the case, wouldn't we all get links to our competitors from bad neighbourhoods?Please note: I said "will get you banned", not "will influence your rankings". There are experiments that show that such links could have a potential slightly negative effect on your rankings, so do your link building with caution.The other day I was taking a learning day, and was brushing up on the latest SEO info. Not surprisingly, there's really nothing new. Very surprising to me though, was the number of algorithm updates Google implements.In 2010, Google implemented 516 updates to their ranking algorithms.Even more surprisingly, in 2010 Google tested over 13,000 algo updates.That's a LOT of updates to a landscape that usually takes weeks to show any changes.

Website Wireframes, Storyboards, and Functional Specs

I'm still amazed to see how many business people go shopping for a web developer for their new project without having a proper website specification.A good website spec not only prevents problems down the road (such as scope-creep and unforeseen intrinsic design issues), but also allows vendors to properly price their proposals. If you don't tell possible development vendors EXACTLY what it is you're looking for, you're going to get a very wide range of prices and options, and I can almost guarantee you that the quotes on the low end are missing things and will end up in trouble.We've been asked by many clients for a sample specification, so we thought we'd actually publish one on our site: Sample Website Specification.

Creating the perfect Web Application

We’ve all become very familiar with web applications, and most of us probably use many different web apps each day. From communicating with GMail and Google Talk, to wasting time with Facebook.On the more complex scale, we have accounting applications like Freshbooks and project management with Basecamp.The modern web app is highly functional, and often pretty. Access from anywhere is the greatest selling feature. The second, but shared feature, is pricing. For the user there’s no big initial capital outlay, and for the vendor there is a recurring income stream.No wonder this has become a highly competitive market as well.However, web apps can be hugely frustrating. Maybe 20 years ago we were a more patient people, but these days, lag time is the biggest pain. We all expect any app to be instantly responsive.This is what makes desktop applications so great. Regular software runs locally and therefore is super fast in contrast. Also, since desktop apps don’t require an internet connection, you can run them offline with ease. For example, you can download your mail with Thunderbird, and then without an internet connection, read your mail and respond to messages. Once connected to the internet again, your responses are sent, and any new mail is downloaded.This is how the perfect web app should be written - with both the web app AND a desktop client.Your desktop client should cache all data locally so that you can work super-fast when in front of your own computer, and the web portal should provide enough functionality for you to be productive if you have to access it from a browser on another machine.You may even add in mobile apps which are designed to work on small-screen / limited functionality mobile devices.After all, the USER EXPERIENCE should be the most important thing.To deliver a multi-client, central database system is more complicated and time-consuming, but the end result should put you miles ahead of the competition.

Announcement: New Client Portal

We're pleased to announce the launch of our new client portal.Our TaskFlow system has been dramatically improved over the last few months to allow us to better serve you. Starting September 1, the new client portal will also be in effect.The new portal is much easier to use, and allows our clients to quickly log tasks that need attention.As with the previous portal, you have the option to request an estimate on any web development work before we proceed, letting you control your budget.Not only can you see your own tasks, but all tasks created by others in your company. Additionally, you can see the progress on all tasks that were initiated internally by a Globi developer.Future versions of the client portal will also include a full billing and invoice history.

Another reason for Multi-Provider Fail-Over Hosting

Amazon did it again. Another outage of their elastic cloud, and EC2 was down for over 4 hours yesterday.Some big websites online properties went down for a long time.Now, Amazon like most other hosts, offers a credit for breach of their SLA's, but does this really make amends to the business owner, who's website was down for so long?Putting all your eggs in one basket is often a bad idea. Cheaping out on hosting is usually a bad idea.I realize that EC2 was designed to be self-healing, and in theory it's a great concept. But in practice, we've seen outages above their SLA's twice this year alone, and the on in April was MAJOR.If your business relies on it's website, you need to get Multi-Provider Fail-Over Hosting.

How Important is Image in Web Design?

Recently, I was at a business networking event. These events can be a little interesting at times, but are boring most of the time. Seems like everyone’s running around handing out business cards and not really interested in anyone else.While I was only attending as a guest, I didn’t try to sell anything - not like anyone was going to be receptive anyway. I just tried to mingle and talk to people.At the end of the event, I walked over to the nearest bar and had a beer, chuckling over how these people were trying to market themselves.I had this large wad of business cards that people basically forced on everyone. Having finished studying the label of my beer, and running out of other reading material, I turned to this pile of cards.It was amazing how diverse these cards were. Some were really professional and well polished. Some made a few fundamental mistakes in use of colours and fonts. Some tried to be clever and failed miserably. One in particular, was transparent and had holographic foil - really cool and “trekkie”, but it was hard to read - fail in the real world.Then I found the gem amongst the rocks. A card to terrible and cheap, I felt embarrassed for the person who was handing them out.This card was obviously printed on a cheap ink-jet printer, most likely with recycled ink cartridges. It was printed on DYI stock and perforated edges.Now, I’d like to give this person the benefit of the doubt. Not everyone can afford $100 for full-colour professional business cards, or $50 for Staples to professionally print and cut single-colour cards.But this person was selling highly priced ERP consulting services. I know the industry well, and the hourly rate for a consultant this industry is in the $100 - $250 range. Per Hour!So how can this person expect to sell himself into a high-value service, if the image he portrays with his business cards is of a home-based individual who can’t even afford $50 for professional cards?I see this almost every day on the Internet with websites. Professional service companies like accountants and lawyers who charge a hefty fee, but have a website that screams, “cheap”.If you want to attract a certain level of business, you have to portray the appropriate image.It does not have to be overly flashy and expensive, but it needs to be appropriately business-like and professional.You only have one chance to make a first impression. Make sure it’s a good one. Online or Offline.

Local Calgary Search Engine Optimization

For many website owners, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is out of their reach. It can be very slow, extremely expensive, and with spotty results.But it really all comes down to the keywords you need and the competition for those keywords and phrases.For example, if your business sells cowboy hats, and your website, as an extension, sells cowboy hats on a national or international level, then competition will be high.If you go to Google and do a search for “cowboy hats”, Google will show “About 5,130,000 results” under the search bar. This means you’re competing with over 5 MILLION pages for this keyword.Naturally, this could be a very slow and expensive process to climb the rankings. When there is high competition, there will be some competitors with deep pockets who have been doing SEO for a while. This can be even harder to compete with.But in a local market, things change. Let’s assume your company sells cowboy hats in Calgary (just in time for the Stampede).Doing a Google search for “calgary cowboy hats” only returns 378,000 results. Although this is still pretty competitive, you stand a much better chance of getting good rankings in a shorter period of time.For local businesses, SEO is a very good marketing avenue, and if done right, your rankings will stay for a long time.

Web Design Pricing - How much does a website cost?

People often ask: “how much does a website cost?”.This is a complicated question with a complicated answer.Good websites are not commodities. They don’t come pre-packaged at a given price. (bad websites sometimes do).You really should have a very firm grasp on what your website should do for you and your business before you can get any comparable price estimates from different vendors.If you haven’t already, get a copy of our free report: “Why Most Websites Don’t Sell”. This report outlines some very important considerations for the development of most sites.We also have a Web Design Pricing Calculator / Estimator to give a general idea of how much you can expect to pay, depending on what it is you’re looking for.At the end of the day, it really comes down to how much time it will take to build the site. A good basic brochure website can take 20+ hours of development. It requires specialized skills and specialized software.If anyone offers you a custom website for $200, you should consider their math. Even if it’s only a hobby designer who has little overhead and marketing costs, they could live off $50 per hour. But this would only give them 4 hours to design and build your website. So either they will deliver an inferior product and cut corners, or there’s a catch which will surprise you down the road.The old adage, “buyer beware” always holds true.At Globi, we aspire to maximum transparency. We will give you all the details of what’s involved, and work with you to find a best-fit solution.Our proposals outline all the deliverables, and give you an itemized breakdown of how we get to the final amount of hours and price. This will help you understand what all is involved, and also help you compare to other vendors when you are receiving competing quotes. Did they include what we did?

Zero-Downtime Fail-Over Website Hosting Test Results

Website Downtime is a fact of life. Even the biggest (Amazon, anyone?) suffer from outages. Hardware fails, humans make errors, etc. There is no way around this.Well, maybe there is.Globi Web Solutions is implementing Zero-Downtime Fail-Over Website Hosting , which will ensure that our clients' websites stay up no matter what.We have built a fail-over capability over multiple providers, networks, and geographic locations. Even a major catastrophe cannot stop your website from being viewed.Test Results:We did a test to see if the fail-over technology lived up to expectations on June 20, and this was the result:16:15 - added infinite loop to kill a single website16:16 - received notification of site down16:19 - resolved to secondary IP - cache showing OK16:52 - fixed website16:53 - received notification that site is back up16:54 - resolved to primary site - everything back to normal We're extremely happy to announce that everything works even better than expected, and we will be rolling this out to our clients shortly. For more details, check out http://globihosting.com/failover_hosting.php.

Live Website Visitor Tracking

Globi Web Solutions is pleased to announce today the release of Version 2 of our Footprints Product. Globi Footprints allows you to monitor visitors on your website, and see where they came from , how they found you, where they click, how long they stay, etc. Most website analytics packages are great for high-traffic websites, as they analyze a load of data and distill it into averages and trends. However for low traffic websites this does not work because there is not enough data to have any statistical significance. With Globi Footprints, you, as human, view individual visitor behaviour, and can intuitively decide what may be causing their actions. Just like no human can replace a machine for large calculations, no machine can replace a human when it comes to making educated guesses and gut instincts. Globi Footprints is included free with all our marketing campaigns. For more information, see Globi's Live Website Visitor Tracking or footprints.globi.ca.

Pay Per Click Money-Saving Secret

It has been well established that Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is the most effective advertising and marketing strategy for pretty much all online campaigns. It is especially useful for marketing your local business via your website. Most people set up a list of keywords, an ad, and let the system run. This is essentially how to start, but there’s so much more to do in the long run. If you just let your ad run, Google will keep driving traffic your way, and charge you for it. Being such a nice company, Google will also continually suggest new keywords, and improved (higher) budgets. This gets you more traffic, which we all seem to like. However, most people do not look at the QUALITY of their traffic. You HAVE TO look at the ACTUAL search terms that people entered to trigger your ads. This data can give you some incredible insights on what you’re paying for, and where you’re WASTING YOUR MONEY. For example, we have a client that is an interior designer. Naturally, "Interior Designer" is one of the main keywords to bid on, and this being a highly competitive market, the bids are quite high. Good marketers will set up their campaign with a well-educated guess on negative keywords as well. We don’t want to pay for traffic if people are searching for "free", "ideas", etc. The best insights come from looking at the actual search terms though. It is important to regularly look at this data, and then re-evaluate the keywords, and refine your negative keywords. If you’re paying for traffic for people searching for "interior design classes", then you can save a bunch by adding "class" and "classes" to your negatives list. Such campaign refining will allow you to reduce your spend and eliminate low-quality traffic. I personally have a live stream of actual searches which I look at when the phone rings. That way I already know what the person was searching for when they found our site, and called the number.

Website Hosting Bandwidth - the Truth

A long-time pricing argument in website hosting has come up again recently with a client. We offer business-grade hosting to our development clients, and our pricing is a little over industry average, but that's because we have all of our servers with Rackspace, and we pay for quality hardware, superb service, and high-quality, redundant bandwidth. Still, every now and then, a client will look at some of the big-name shared hosting providers out there. They see the offering of UNLIMITED bandwidth, for a very low monthly charge. I just want to get the truth out there on this subject. When they offer unlimited bandwidth at a low price - it is sales speak - meant to trap you into their marketing. Firstly, their servers have metered bandwidth. That means that each physical server is only able to put out so much bandwidth every month. Let's say, for example, that a server is metered at 1 Megabit per second. This server would only be able to serve 1 / 8 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 30 / 1024 = 316 GB per month (30 days) maximum, if it were running at peak load 24/7. Now, let's put 200 - 1000 customers on that same server, and you'll be lucky if you can use up 1 GB in a month for your individual account. (Some of these providers' websites even state that the average per customer usage is well under 2 GB per month). Does it still sound like a bargain? Yes, you'll never pay for overages on your bandwidth, but your website will be sloooow at times (and forget about decent phone support - at that price it's just not feasible). We do not recommend such hosting for your business. Your business website should be up all the time, and should be super-fast and responsive. How would you feel if your cellphone provider offered you unlimited minutes for a low monthly fee, but if more than 10 people are talking at the same time, the sound will cut in and out constantly?

Calgary Pay Per Click Marketing Weirdness

I would like to start this post off with a disclaimer. I'm about to present a recent experience with Google, but in no way do I intent to paint Google in a bad way. We still recommend Google's Adwords as the most effective marketing strategy for your website. Last week I did an experiment for a client. We had maxed out the number of clicks they could get from the local Calgary market based on keywords for their industry. As with most of our local clients, we have 2 campaigns running for this client. One is only running in Calgary and uses the more generic keywords for their services. However, since IP Geo-location is not perfect, there is a second campaign running Canada-wide, with the same keywords, but with Calgary as a modifier. This way, if you search for "service offering" from a known Calgary IP address, the ad is seen, but if you're on a weird IP, you'd have to search for "calgary service offering" - which you'd be used to, because your search results would usually be wrong anyway. After some brain-storming, I came up with a set of related keywords, which although not representative of the service offered, they are in a similar genre, and one can conceivably argue that anyone searching for such keywords would be highly interested in my client's services. So, I added these keywords to Google (in the Calgary-only campaign), and set a budget of $0.025. Hey - this is an experiment, and therefore shouldn't be too expensive at first. Google reported that the minimum page-1 bid needs to be $1. I thought this was weird, and when I searched for those keywords locally, there was NO competition. What's with the minimum page 1 bid? For those who know Google Adwords well, don't get me wrong. I am fully aware of quality score, and Google's slap to try and reduce spam and arbitrage. Anyway, so I sucked it up and changed the bid for all keywords to $1 as Google wanted. I was expecting all keywords to start running, and for ads to start showing. What did happen? Nothing. The Google interface just updated itself, and said that now the minimum page-1 bid is $1.25. WTF??? OK. So I changed the bid to $1.25, and refreshed the campaign overview. Wouldn't you believe it? The new first page minimum was now $1.50. So, I upped the bid to $1.50. Now it went up to $2. I upped the bid to $2. Then it went to $2.25, which I despondently went up to. Only at this point did SOME of the keywords start running. Now, it's really difficult to try and explain to a client that they need to pay almost $2.25 per click when there's absolutely NO competition for those keywords. Google's response to all this, naturally, is that their algorithm is there for our protection, and that we don't really pay $2.25 per click - that's just the max bid. But if you do the math on how click prices are calculated, you get VERY CLOSE to the max bid, so don't kid yourself here. Google's team is also very good at pointing out that those keywords need to generate a history in order for their quality score to improve and minimum bid requirements to drop. But at who's expense? As I started out on this post, I'm not knocking Google. Just presenting an observation. Sometimes system policing hurts the one with the smaller budget.

The Painful Truth about Website Ownership

It's amazing how many people still believe that the Internet is a cheap avenue to make a big fortune overnight. Even for established business, there seems to be a thought that you can create a website for a few buck, and then you'll get all this traffic of people who will buy your product and service, making you rich. Building the Website Building a GOOD website takes a lot of time. Image is VERY important, and you only have one chance to make a good first impression online. And highly skilled graphic designers are not cheap. Add together many hours x market rate, and you can get an idea of what just the design of your website will cost. However, it's not all about design. The words on your site are equally important, if not more important. You have to build a rapport with your website visitors almost instantly, and gain their trust. This is done with your copy - and once again, GOOD copywriters are not cheap. Marketing the Website Too many companies completely overlook the marketing aspect. For a website, Search Engine Optimization is a good strategy to build traffic in the long-run. Optimize each page, and keep adding pages and content, ever-growing your online presence. This is very time-consuming, and takes a long time to show any results, but it is really worth it in the long run. For immediate results, Pay-Per-Click Advertising is your best strategy. Yes, you pay every time someone clicks on your ad, and the per-click price can be pretty high in competitive markets - this is why it's so important to have a good website with convincing copy that effectively converts visitors to buyers. And if your campaign is managed effectively, it will continually be improved, increasing the number of visitors and buyers for the same or lesser marketing spend. Conclusion A website is just like a brick-and-mortar business. You have a large capital outlay to build your location, and once you open your doors, there will not be a flood of buyers, unless you market effectively and consistently.

Search Engine Optimization May be a Necessary Evil

There is a definite problem in the search engine optimization world. Yes, every website owner with a vested business interest wants as much traffic to their site as possible. After all, traffic means business - if the site can convert properly. But most people resort to "black hat" SEO techniques to get website traffic, and the "industry" looks down on this. "White hat" SEO tells us to do ethical things only. If search engines work for the general populace and try to deliver the most relevant results, then we should be creating relevant content for people. Logically this makes sense. The big problem though is that search engines cannot decipher relevant content in the broad sense. They work on algorithms and generally only see text. Humans are incredibly complex beings, and we make decisions based on emotion to a much higher degree than logic. But, all the text arguments in the world can be over-shadowed with a single picture. If a 100-page website with 20000 words of relevant text cannot drive you to take the action you really want to, but a few images, or a single video can, then the search engines will fail you. Don't get me wrong - I'm not endorsing "black hat" SEO techniques by any means. Spamming the engines for your desired end-result is wrong (and creates a junk-pile of sites for others to sift through). I'm only pointing out the short-comings of computerized internet police. This is unfortunately something we have to live with - on both ends. Web searchers will not find the best results because machines are incapable of filtering them, and business websites will never get optimal exposure through search engines because they will be incorrectly filtered. It's not so "black" and "white" after all???

Custom Web Design as an Affordable Fixed Expense

Today Globi Web Solutions announced the introduction of a new small business offering: LeaseYourWebsite.ca. Get a Professional Custom Website for a fixed manageable monthly payment - no big up-front investment requirement. Plans start at only $45/month. This is perfect for small business who need to control their cashflow, yet require a professional online presence. For the start-up business, the initial cost of a website has been a barrier to getting your web presence off the ground. Even after it's built, the cost of online marketing to make contact with your market can be prohibitive. Now you have a better option; Lease Your Website. www.leaseyourwebsite.ca

Introducing Managed Mail - HUGE Mailboxes - less Spam - less Problems

Globi's Managed Email Hosting gives you the power to securely manage email from any web browser on the device of your choice-no licenses to keep track of or software to download. On Your Desktop Works with your favorite desktop software like Outlook, Thunderbird, Entourage, or any POP/IMAP client. On the Web Login from any internet connection to send and receive mail or manage your calendar and tasks. On Your Mobile Check Globi Email on your BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android, or other mobile device. Featuring 10GB mailboxes for as little as $3. For more details, see www.globihosting.com/managed_email.php

Official release of our New Content Management System

Globi is extremely pleased to announce the release of our latest Content Management System, codename Companion. Based on the winning concepts of our version 3 SideKick, the new Companion CMS still encapsulates all of it's content, but is re-written from the ground-up. The new Companion CMS allows the highest degree of flexibility for managing website content, and can cater for almost every site concept and layout. Out of the box, Globi's CMS has all the features that the previous version had, including editable areas, website sections, web pages, and customizable collections of similar information. The collection concept is excellent for managing simple controlled information like news, blogs, specials, etc. The CMS has also been designed in such a way as to allow a plug-in architecture. Future plug-ins will include shopping carts, membership databases, file repositories, and much more. If your site is not powered by Globi's Companion CMS, give us a call, and we'll give you a test-drive.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in Web Design

When the Internet was first started, it was a collection of informative sites. Institutions lavished it with information for the greater good, all in the name of progress. The day the Internet was opened to the general public this all changed. It became a canvass for the techies to show off their prowess and the wanna-be's and artists to show off their creativity. I can't recall how many times I've been approached with the line: "look what we paid two thousand dollars for, and compare it to what my 16 year old neighbor did in one afternoon. Isn't the kid's so much better?" This invariably makes me cringe. Too many people out there have purchased some or other site creation tool, and are now calling themselves web designers. I have witnessed students graduating from "Web Design School" filled with knowledge of the latest bleeding edge technologies, but totally unaware of the Internet's demographics. The last thing you need is for half of your site's visitors to turn away because they can't see your site, or don't like what they see and/or hear. Sound is a big consideration. While you may think it's a cool effect to play a sound every time a certain event happens, others may not. Any visitor that comes by your site in an office environment will shun you for sound - when people are unproductive at work, they don't want everyone to know what they're up to. Music is even more controversial as musical tastes are as vast as the Sahara desert, and to date some browsers still crash when introduced to a midi file. Colours are another big consideration. Not all browsers see all colours, and not all people have 20/20 vision, therefore a site's colour scheme needs to be extremely contrasting. A positive colour scheme is dark writing on a light background (like pages in a book), and a negative scheme is light writing on a dark background. These days it is standard that business sites have a positive scheme, while entertainment sites may have a negative scheme. Many research studies have been done on human ergonomics, and black text on a light background has consistently been proven to be the easiest to read combination. Falling in line with the choice of colours, are fonts. The easiest to read fonts are the Verdanas and Arials of the world, with Times New Roman and Courier close behind. Most others are quite hard to read, especially Script-style fonts or anything in italics. Font size is another consideration, as well as allowing dynamic resizing of fonts for those visitors with less than 20/20 vision. Fancy graphics are another consideration. While broadband Internet access is growing, the vast majority of visitors will still come to a site through a dial-up connection of 28.8 to 56K. To increase speed, many of these visitors turn off graphics on their browsers, which means these users cannot navigate sites that have a graphic-only navigation system. Furthermore, large graphics take time to download, and seeing that the attention span of most surfers is down to about 5 seconds, chances are modem users won't stick around and wait for a large graphic-intensive site to load. An intuitive navigation system is the most important quality a site can have. Sites that try to work on the 'arty' concept and rely on strange icons that don't clearly state what they do, don't retain visitors. For the person that created the site, it might make sense to click on the picture of a postman's cap to send e-mail, but to the average visitor it won't. Most people need to be told directly what to do in order to elicit an action. A general rule-of-thumb is to do what the corporate giants do, but scaled-down. Most of the large corporate sites have the same look and feel, and these sites are the ones training the general public to use the web. If all of them use a simple picture of a house to represent 'Home', then you should too. This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as design considerations are concerned. As there are different people with different abilities potentially looking at your site, they are using as diverse a collection of computer equipment and software to do so. You should decide early on in the design process who your typical audience is, and then design your site around that. After all, you don't want all 38 million AOL users to get stuck on your intro page because they can't do Java?

Is Your Business Online?

Each and every web site should have a purpose - a reason to take a look. There are a number of different styles and formats out there to suit each individual style and need. Some sites may be nothing more than electronic business cards. Perhaps it was deemed necessary to have a site, yet no clear purpose has been defined yet. The company that owns this site is 'hip' to internet, but either lacking in direction or resources. This site is doing nothing more than a little extra name branding, and probably costing the company money at the end of the day. Some sites, on the other hand, are giant electronic billboards. They don't offer much interactivity, but do shout a message at the viewer. The purpose of these sites is name branding. They contain important company and product information, as well as rich advertising and sales pitching. If presented properly, these sites can usually create more sales than the cost of their upkeep. Other sites available are libraries of information - schools of education, areas of research, or expertise. This is an ever-increasing trend; by giving out free information and educating the general public, companies are projecting an image of being experts. This public image will invariably lead to sales and can generally increase a company's bottom line favorably. In addition to this, as they attract a large audience and encourage repeat visits, revenues can also be gained sometimes by selling advertising space on these sites. Electronic stores are another method of web site use. Companies with these sites usually sell products as opposed to services, which they actively advertise and sell thereby making it possible to take and process orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The electronic order fulfillment store becomes a business on its own, complementing the "bricks and mortar" store, and in some cases, replacing the actual physical store. These sites can provide great revenues provided, of course, there is a product and a demand for that product. Then there are the sites that provide development tools exclusive to specific organizations. Like intranets, they exist to allow online collaboration for many people using shared resources. Teams can work together seamlessly even though they may be physically far apart. Although not many sites do this exclusively, many sites have these utility portals for company employees to use. With these tools, a web site's value shifts from commercial use to productivity. The majority of web sites are simply designed to make a statement. They cost money and/or resources and ultimately have little or no gain. Luckily, a large chunk of these sites are personal sites - a canvas for the paint of society's imagination.

Do You Need Social Media?

Social Media has become a major part of many successful websites' marketing strategy. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs... why should you consider them for your website? Simple; they drive more traffic to your site. Inexpensive marketing Everyone can use more traffic. The most common way for new visitors to find your site is via search engines such as Google and Bing. Search engines can find and display your site because they periodically read and catalogue each page on your site in a process called indexing. More pages of relevant content mean more opportunities for a search engine to bring up your site during a web search. Blogs in particular are a fantastic engine to produce new pages with targeted keywords at no additional cost. Each page or topic can also be given unique keywords and meta tags to tie into your marketing strategy. Beyond feeding search engines, social media also gives you new opportunities to interact with your customers. You don't need a large marketing budget to grow word-of-mouth promotion of your business; you just need to give your loyal customers opportunities to forward your words to their friends. This is a very slow way to bring in new traffic, but the only cost is time. ...but do you have the time? The flip side of low-cost marketing is that not everyone can afford the time; often their time is better spent growing the business in other ways. The investment of time needed to keep a successful blog or Twitter feed running can be considerable. Unless you feel passionately about your topics and are willing to sacrifice several hours per week to stay on top of it, you may be better off hiring someone to do it for you. Visitors are unlikely to connect with blogs and twitter feeds that don't provide a steady stream of new material. Know your audience Not every site will benefit from the inclusion of social media, and you should consider your target market before adding them to your marketing plan. Know who you are trying to reach before taking the plunge. Younger audiences have grown up with the immediacy and intimacy of mobile devices. Frequent updates from Twitter or Facebook can be easily absorbed and passed along to their friends if they see value in your updates. On the other hand, a more mature audience will rarely appreciate frequent interruptions. Blogs allow for longer posts that are well-thought out and can showcase your experience and expertise. If your readers appreciate what you have to say, they'll be back. Other factors beside age should be considered, such as the disposable income and lifestyle of your intended audience and how you want them to perceive your business. Keeping your customers appraised of new offerings, changing technologies and special offers can be an excellent opportunity to increase brand loyalty.

Website Design for Mobile Devices - Important for Your Business

More and more people are accessing your website from a mobile device or PDA. Can your clients grab the essentials of your business from a screen the size of a credit card? Mini sites that are built to load quickly on smaller displays are becoming a necessity. According to IDC, there were more than 450 million mobile Internet users worldwide in 2009, and by 2013 that number is expected to double. We've read recently about the upcoming "death of the PC" with a healthy dose of skepticism (rumors started by Steve Jobs) but there's no doubt companies need to adapt to the rapidly-changing playing field by catering to the mobile crowd. Making your site PDA-friendly sites can take two approaches. The first is to modify your existing site to a flexible framework that will resize to fit in smaller screens, and coded so it won't display large images that would otherwise slow the download speed to a crawl, or force wide pages that are unreadable in a typical browser screen. This means your mobile visitors will have access to all of the features and information available to your PC visitors. But that's not always a good thing. Limited screen size and bandwidth can frustrate your visitors. Alternatively, a smaller, streamlined version of the site can be built which will display only in mobile devices. These mini-sites are built with speed and convenience in mind, with a minimum of pages and text. The site is pared down to the essentials. Images are used sparingly if at all. From the first page your visitors should know where to find you, how to contact you and other essential info to get them in touch with you.

Website Content is King for SEO

I'm still amazed by how many people come to us asking to be in the top of Search Engines for words and phrases not really related to their sites. If a particular phrase is not in your site, how can you expect search engines to rank you for it? And forget about Meta Tags - they're history. Search Engines after all work for the individual searchers. By getting the public to use them for searches, Search Engines gain popularity, traffic, and hence power. This is vitally important to understand. It is therefore in their best interest to return VALID search results. If I as a surfer search for "widgets" and end up with a list of sites about "gadgets", I will soon stop using that Search Engine. The more text you can have on your site, the better, as you can cater for a much higher list of search phrases. So if you sell "widgets" AND "gadgets", make sure you mention both.

The Power of Testimonials

Traditionally, testimonials are something that we seek to get, not offer to give. If we have many great testimonials endorsing our products and services, then that helps sell them. There is a great value in giving testimonials too though. People will want to publish testimonials you give, and along with that can be your email address and/or website URL. This is exposure for YOU. So, next time you're happy with a product or service, why not write a quick testimonial?

Globi's Insider Secrets to Online Marketing

A website is a great sales tool, and if done correctly, can greatly and scientifically improve your bottom line. 1) Do use online chat When someone comes to your website, your sales agents will be informed. They can then track the visitor through the site and pro-actively initiate a chat. Some variables to consider and tweak in the process are (a) how long to wait before initiating a chat Give people a chance to look around to pre-qualify them a little more. An immediate chat request may scare them off (b) which landing pages take priority Some landing pages are more important than others as they lead to better conversions 2) Do use Pay Per Click Pay per click (PPC) campaigns are the easiest way to get loads of pre-qualified traffic to your website. Make sure that your PPC campaigns don't land on the homepage, but rather on a specific page so that your online agents can see. PPC-generated traffic should take priority on chats as you've paid for this traffic (refer to 1b above). 3) Do use Google's Conversion Tracker If you know the single most important conversion factor for non-human involved sales on your site, then installing the conversion tracker can show you which keywords are giving you the best ROI. No point paying for clicks if they never purchase anything 4) Avoid bad Geography Set up your PPC campaign to avoid countries which are not in your target market, or which lead to poor conversions. 5) Time is Money When your sales agents are available and online, your conversion rate will be much higher and therefore this would be the best time to maximize your PPC campaign. You can reduce your spending or even completely pause your campaign during non-manned hours, and increase your budget for your manned hours. This also ties into your market targeting. If most of your business is in North America, then your return on investment would be much higher during those times of day when North America is online. 6) Measure, Measure, Measure It is vitally important to track every part of your campaign to be able to prove which methods and variable combinations work, and which don't. At the end of the day your campaign should be like a money-making machine. Once it's tuned, you will know exactly how much money & effort to pour in to get your desired result out.

More Phishing Scam Dangers

There is a scam technique out on the web called "phishing" which attempts to lure people to seemingly legitimate sites where they require people to log into what they think is their real accounts. However, the scammer has now gathered legitimate login information from that person's real account, maybe even their bank accounts. Yicks! The latest scam though is phishing for Domain Names where hackers are now attempting to steal domain names and profit off the traffic by redirecting them, or holding your domain name hostage for ransom. Here is just one example of how scammers attempt to sway the reader into taking action. "First_Name", I have also included below some Quick Tips to keep you and your confidential information safe. See screen shot below As with anything, it is important to do your own due diligence on such emails, but here are some hints that can help weed out the scams more quickly and in turn protect your private data: 1. Typically legitimate service providers know your name and use it in the body of the email. Simply appearing in your email address though does not count. 2. Know who you have accounts with. If you get an email claiming to be from Enom about your domain name, but your domain name is with GoDaddy, then it's likely spam. 3. Pay very close attention to links in emails. In the Enom example, they link off to enom.com.sys53.biz - this is NOT enom.com. 4. To be safe, NEVER click on a link in an email. As with a previous QuickTip we sent on a Google Adwords scam, embedded links can be redirected. If you think that the email may be legit, go to the website where you hold your account, and log in manually. 5. Finally, stop these messages from even hitting your inbox by utilizing a decent spam filter. Your Globi Developer can set up your Globi email account with a Postini Enhanced Spam Filter. This is the cat's meow of Spam and Virus Filters. Seriously - it's so good in fact that Google just bought the product for $625 million. For you though, it's just a mere $7. a month and worth the piece of mind of not having to receive nerve racking spam like the one above.

Google Adword Scam Warning

This scam is a nasty one as they are trying to prompt you to share your bank account info! Warning of recent Spam Scam using Google Adwords renewal. At first glance, it will appear to be a Google AdWords renewal notification but if you mouse over the link (see screen-shot below) you will notice the 'fieu09.cn' redirect in the actual link, as opposed to the text visibly displayed in the email. Please note, as a client of Globi's, if Globi is running any Google ad campaigns for you, we would receive and address any Google communications on your behalf directly.

Your Website Keywords and SEO

Many moons ago, the talk on the street was that in order to have your site found and listed highly in Search Engines, they need keyword meta tags. Now, this may have been true when the Loan Ranger searched for his horse, but not anymore today. Keyword meta tags are hidden in the source code and are supposed to describe the content so that Search Engines and other programs can categorize the information. The problem is that the information is hidden and therefore open to abuse, which quickly became the case. Search Engines work for the surfing public - not the website owners. If an engine does not return relevant information that people are looking for, it will soon be used no longer. Websites should be primarily targeted to humans, and not Search Engines. If you want to be found for the phrase "Omaha Candy Apples" then that phrase needs to be liberally found throughout the visible text on your site (as opposed to hidden in some meta tag). Give your site the title "Omaha Candy Apples" and use the same for the heading and then wherever you can. Any user who finds this site will surely know what it's about.

Favicon Icons for Your Website

A Favicon (short for 'Favorites Icon') is an icon associated with a particular Website or Webpage. Most browsers actually support Favicons and usually display them in the browser's URL bar, next to the site's name in lists of Favorite bookmarked pages. Although they may have been gimmicky in the past, they now serve a great importance in helping visitors differentiate your site when they have multiple sites open. In the past, most browsers used to open up each site in a new window, however lately the tabbed interface has been adopted where each site is in a separate tab but in the same window. Since a site's Favicon is usually shown alongside its title on the tab, it makes it much easier to pick out your specific site from the tab bar and consequently keep your website front and center to the other sites that are open. Does your site need a favicon, This is a quick 1 hour task so feel free to contact myself or your Globi Developer directly to get your own Favicon displayed.

What Causes Yellow Contact Form Fields?

The other day, we had a client contact us enquiring about how to get rid of those pesky yellow fields in their website's Contact Form. These are caused by Google Toolbar's auto-complete feature. Of course, the client wasn't expected to know this and assumed that their developer simply had no taste in color. From our end, thinking this anomaly was client-side, we were almost ready to dismiss this update as impossible, however, with a little further digging on our part, we were able to find a way to work around this. Through a little bit of scripting, Globi has been able to create a solution to make it possible now to override this random yellowing of Contact Form fields. And the good news - it's a quick solution! So if you've decided that you too are tired of the random yellow fields on your Website's Contact Form, just give us a call and in less than 1/2 an hour we can solve this anomaly for you too!

Is Your Copyright Out of Date?

Is your Copyright Date so... last year? Remember we're quickly approaching 2009 now and your website should at the very least show that you and your company are on top of things. A great reflection of that is in your Copyright date that generally appears at the bottom of your website. This is just a half-hour task for your Globi Developer to update, so please be sure to contact them now to get your website into 2009.

Image Verification to Fight Spam

If your email address is attracting far too much SPAM and you're thinking of just throwing in the towel and changing your email address all together, then this might be of interest to you... Image Verification to Fight Spam Firstly, for the sake of staying in contact with past , present , and pending customers, it's not in your best interest to change your email address. But, not to fret. There are three easy things you can do: 1. Remove all clickable email addresses from your website. Easy! 2. Put an Image Verification Solution onto your Contact Page, like this: 3. Get a decent Spam Blocker. Globi swears by Postini. These are all easy solutions to implement within 1.5 hrs or less. As always, talk to your Globi Developer today or just reply to me directly to save yourself from the SPAM.

Social Media Marketing and Your Website

Today's high traffic web world can prove to be quite elusive in making your company seen and heard amongst the millions of other sites competing for the same business. People can put anything they want on their websites to drive traffic to them and hopefully catch that client they've been waiting for. But have you stopped to think about whether these efforts are really helping you to make an impact to interest viewers, and to ultimately draw them in to spend money with YOU? Enter Social Media Marketing - one of the newer phases of popular sales methodology being used online. Only problem is that there seems to be no clear cut methodology or systemization to this loosely defined sales tool. It's like a free-for-all in the web marketing world with every person having a different take on what will and won't work, what the objective of it is, and how it can maximize your website's efficiency. So let's arm you today with a few key points for you to consider for yourself in order to earn your own fair share of the pie in this online arena. Social Media Marketing (SMM) combines the goals of internet marketing with social media sites such as MySpace, YouTube, Site Pal, and MyVirtualSalesPerson as well as many others. The SMM goals will be different for every business or organization, however most will involve building ideas or brand awareness, increasing visibility, and possibly selling a product or service. SMM may also include online reputation management. How you choose to do it is entirely up to you, but here are some general rules that can be of benefit to you when planning your online marketing campaign using Social Media: Research You've heard me say this before, but I'll say it again "Do your research!". To create an effective Social Marketing Campaign, you must first do your research and know your target market. As the owner of your business, you know what you wish to achieve, however, the site viewer is not interested in this in the least. They're interested in how you can benefit them for the best price. In order words, your site must meet the visitor's needs first before the owner's needs. One way of doing this is to provide the most appealing brand you can offer. In order to do this, you must provide your visitors with immediate solutions to their needs, and answers to their questions, and the information they desire. Customer Experience Find a way to create a powerful, lasting customer experience. When a potential client visits your site, you have to provide them with enough stimuli in a quick enough time to make that visitor want to stay on your site and not click over to another one pulled up in their keyword search. So, how do you do this, you ask? Perhaps you can use video and sound. The technology exists nowadays to maximize the viewers' experience. We are a visually stimulated culture, so perhaps put some thought into ways in which the viewer of your site can be 'caught', drawn in, and sold on whatever it is you have to offer. Some common ways of achieving this are with authoritative information, entertainment, humor or controversy. But be careful when planning on using audio files and video on your website. If not planned properly, they can be a huge waste of time and money. If they fail to capture the target audience's attention, you may as well have not invested any of your money in the first place. Be wary of experience overload as you do not want to overstimulate your audience. Too much, and your message is lost. Too little forethought and your message doesn't come through clearly enough to snag the viewer. It's a balancing act really, so know your audience and what they are looking for. On the plus-side, using video and audio files are an inexpensive way to advertise your product, brand your company, and compete in the online marketplace. Remember that if you are going to use these strategies, your media files must contain information critical for search engines to find, index, and display in search results. Build Relationships It's imperative that you use your Social Marketing Tools to build relationships with your viewers. The bonus of the web is that we can deliver our message informally so that the viewer feels a connection with the company. Rigid professionalism goes out the window in favour of a more comfortable, friendly, person-to-person approach. This lack of formalism breaks down corporate barriers and helps the viewer feel connected to you, your company, and your product. It's realism in its truest form. So don't waste your time with videos or sound clips that look and sound like they came from the annals of corporate literature. Be down to earth in your message delivery and watch people flock to your site. It gives them something to trust in, something to feel safe with. Why? Because it's human, it's real, and they can relate. Allow potential clients to see your integrity. This unique voice is what will set you apart from the many other companies also vying for the same business online. Networking Quality Effective Social Networking is about quality, not quantity. Make your web presence count. Do not create a website that overloads visitors with too many experiences or the novelty will wear off and you will be left with a website that does little to attract business and drive sales. Essentially, what I am saying here is do not spread yourself too thin with all of the online social marketing tools that are out there. Choose one or two very powerful tools that will best capture the essence of your message or your business and maximize its potential. Remember, it's better to be in one great place, rather than in too many so-so places at once. Build your own presence effectively. Too much will be your downfall. Call to Action Lastly, use Social Marketing Tools to convey your business's Call to Action and ask for that ever important Sale. The marketing tools you choose must create a need with potential clients. Show that your company, product, or service solves a problem that they, the viewers, have. Most importantly though, before you use these Social Marketing Tools, realize that you need to anticipate objection before it occurs and provide solutions in innovative ways so that they can't say no. Use your Social Tools to kindly ask for the Sale. You will be surprised how an effective, well-thought out marketing tool can provide you with the Sales your company is seeking. For example, by using a Virtual Sales Person your company will have the power to influence, motivate, and persuade prospective clients to believe in and buy your call to action. So, you can use Social Marketing Tools as an online employee of sorts, you could say. Let these tools do the work of a salesperson and watch the traffic increase to your site. In short, Social Media applies to everyone. That's why businesses should harness the Social Marketing Tools available to them to give their business a competitive edge within the web environment. If you hope to survive in the virtual world of business, you must stand out. So make sure you do your research, employ the tools effectively, don't overkill them on your site, and always provide quality over quantity. This combination, I believe, will provide your business with the edge it needs to stand above competitors and see a return on your call to Action.

Website Hosting Comparison - Business-Grade Hosting vs Cheap Hosting

One of the most competitive markets in the world these days is website hosting. Costs can range from high-price selling to major businesses, to low-price selling to the basic consumer. With thousands of web hosting providers in this racket today and hundreds of web hosting resource sites loaded with host advertising, bogus recommendations and dishonest host lists, this seemed like an ideal subject to delve into. So how then do you find out what you are really signing up for when you choose who to host with? For your benefit and convenience we have outlined the mystery below from the professional data centers (discussed in blue) as compared to the cheaper hosting services (in red). Host with the Most First off, there really is no room for surprises when you choose to invest your money on services that are vital to your business functions. There are so many unrealistic claims on the web today that are only making these claims in an effort to procure your business. For example, vendors like GoDaddy can offer hosting for under $4 per month, and advertise it as a 5 GB of space / 250GB of bandwidth service. This is not a personal attack on GoDaddy, but simply an example of questionable claims. There are tonnes of vendors in the market offering hosting for around $5 per month with equally unrealistically large promised limits. So let's trace this hosting service from the browser's PC to the website and see what's really going on. Your Internet Connection Firstly, there's the internet connection. Major data centers have multiple redundant connections to the internet to ensure continuous uptime and load-balancing over these pipes to allow for maximum traffic throughput. Consider for a moment a 5-lane high-way going in either direction. Traffic just flows but it has an investment to it. On the flip side, it is possible to connect a computer to the internet with a single phone line connection. It's a cheap service and if it goes down, there's no back-up. Also, there are no "additional lanes" to balance traffic over in rush hour. The Hosting Server Along the way, traffic is routed and possibly balanced, and eventually gets to/from the hosting server. Big businesses have multiple servers to host their websites in multiple geographic locations to ensure continuous uptime and good response times. They also use real servers, and there's a huge difference between real servers and what some hosts advertise as dedicated servers - many of them are actually just cheap desktop PC's. It is very possible to use a cheap PC though, and cram many websites onto it. At $4 a month per web client, it is simply not possible to ever finance a real server, so a cheapy would have to be used, and enough sites have to be hosted on each machine to cover the cost of the data center, machine, bandwidth, and support overhead. Servicing, Repairs, and Support Cheap machines mean cheap parts and little to no redundancy. If a hard drive blows up (and they do), then the machine needs to be taken down for service resulting in website down-time and likely lost data and potential lost business. Proper business-grade servers have redundancy built in, so that if a hard drive were to crash, the server can continue to fully function until the hard drive can be replaced at an off-peak hour - often with no noticeable downtime at all. The hundreds of sites that share the physical machine, also need to share the bandwidth and throughput of that machine. If too many sites have too much traffic at the same time, then all the sites on that machine will suffer. Maybe we should read between the lines a little more; The 250GB bandwidth limit advertised probably means that you won't get billed extra for the first 250GB, and not that you're guaranteed 250GB. Let's face it, no PC with hundreds of sites will be able to deliver that unless most of the sites are totally inactive, which is another point the budget hosting providers rely on. Oh yeah, and we mentioned support earlier. Most adults work for a living, and need to earn a certain amount to survive (not to mention government minimum regulations). At $4 per month, it would be silly to expect a lot of educated human help that's actually insightful and of any help in any way. Hosting Plans In all likelihood the cheap plans are sold as a loss-leader, in the hopes that people will upgrade to more profitable plans, and they probably try to sell you on the back-end, meaning lots of advertising and promotions in your inbox. At the end of the day, that's business, and what they're doing is classic over-selling. Hotels do it. Airlines do it. So why not Web hosts? For people and personal websites, this is a great fit, and even through all the noise of complaints, it's a thriving business. There's nothing really wrong with this business model, just make sure you understand what you get for your money. Take your time to know that the host you choose is reliable and capable of handling your specific needs. For serious businesses though, I'd think twice about entrusting your business website's dependability on anything less that proper business-grade servers.

The Value of Links and Linking

We have all seen them. Almost every web site has a page called 'Links'. What purpose do they serve? Why even bother to include them on your site. Some companies use them as a further reference for topics they think may interest their visitors or to direct visitors to sites that compliment their company's services. Well, there are two other very good reasons for having links on your site that you may not have considered and one reason is to provide mutual advertising for your company and the company whose link you feature on your web site. If you want to include a link to a company that you know can benefit your visitors, contact that company and ask them to add your company to their list of links in return. "I'll link to you if you link to me". Reason two is link popularity. Many modern Search Engines place a value on your site directly proportional to the number of sites that link to it. The more sites that link to your site, the more important your site must be, and therefore the higher in the search results your listing should be. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Top 5 Points for Planning your Website

I was so surprised when even just the other day someone approached us wanting a website and specifically requested to have the words 'Under Construction' proudly displayed on it. I almost fell over! For a moment, I pictured myself as Bill Gates having just mistakenly walked into a seniors' workshop on "Surfing the Web for Beginners" one door down from the International MIX06 Conference that I was supposed to be speaking at. Well, I couldn't believe that anyone would still believe that this short-sighted method of getting on the web ever really worked. Anyway, as many of you know, Globi would never have endorsed such methodology and not just for the professional reputation we must uphold but to protect the interests of our clients for what could be one of the most colossal mistakes they could ever make on the web. It should never be considered that a well designed site, with zero content is ever going to appeal to a potential customer. Worse yet, seeing 'Under Construction' is the #1 quickest way to loose a visitor PERMANENTLY! Additionally, if the same visitor does happen to come across the site again and it is STILL 'Under Construction,' it will give a bad representation of your whole organization and how it is managed. If in the end, it is absolutely required to put something up on your website, then at the very least have a more professional paragraph that outlines some of the company's exciting developments along with a definite deadline date to invite visitors to come back. And then, by golly, it better be so when they get there because remember, our word is the only thing we have to show people that we live by integrity and can be trusted with their business. Points to consider in preparing to launch a new website: 1. Plan: Decide what the initial goals of your website are, what you wish to gain from having it, and how you wish to budget your site development and growth over the next two years. Doing your research and planning what your website content will consist of is key to receiving the final outcome you expect from your website. One of the best ways to do this is to create a storyboard. Although this process can be lengthy it is of great benefit to you in the long run. It will aid you in the creation of a solid Request for Proposal (RFP). If your RFP is not solid, then you will receive a variety of quotes from vendors, which will be based on their interpretation of the RFP and their perceived risk. A well thought out RFP, on the other, hand will show exactly what your expected outcome is. If you gave it to multiple developers or web companies every one would give you a quote based on exactly the same end product. With a solid RFP, you will also receive the end-product that you expected. 2. Target Audience: Be aware of who your visitors will be and how you will appeal to them. Before finalizing any design and content for your website, take the time to get to know your audience. Who will be visiting your site? What are these people looking for? What are their needs? Their interests? Perhaps you may even want to consider if these people are educated or uneducated or their geographic locale and if that matters to you, or what is their socio-economic status? Will this have any bearing on how you design your site? How can you appeal to this demographic? You must adapt your website content and graphics as specifically as possible to the visitors that you wish to attract to your website. You will need more than a superficial knowledge of your target audience. 3. Content: Gather the information you need to share with your target audience and have it ready for your web designer. Trust me! Waiting for client content is where the biggest development delays occur. There needs to be a balance between content and clicks. This means that if the website is full of too much content, your audience may lose interest very quickly due to too many clicks to find the information they need and because of information overload. Having to read through heaps of content can disinterest even the most avid web searcher. So, make your point, convey your information, and be precise. 4. Pages: How will your information be managed and broken out over the site? Don't rely on your designer to interpret your content and guess. He WILL get it wrong. Once again, this comes back to planning and research. Make sure to create a sitemap. Sure, you may not know what information will fit best on each page, or what the best design layout is but at least provide your designer with an outline of how you would like all of your information laid out, what the information groupings will be, and where information should be placed. Your designer can decide what is best graphically for your site but only you are the expert of your own business and its information. If you rely solely on your designer to group information and lay it out for you, you will not necessarily be pleased with the end result. Do your homework and take the guesswork out of the process. 5. Action: What do you want visitors to your website to do? All websites have a persuasive purpose whether it be to get someone to subscribe, to sign up for something, to inquire on a topic, or to buy something. It is imperative to focus on what your call to action is for your website. Try to do this by categorizing what the three most important things that your website allows people to do? Focusing on the task, on the action that you want people to take, is a great way of achieving clarity. It allows you to cut through the filler content and get a greater focus on the most pertinent content. The web as a whole is continuously under construction. Just like each of our businesses, we are growing and expanding continuously and therefore it is understood that we are forever changing and developing it. Don't you think it would be a wise choice to research and plan for that development now?

Globi Sidekick CMS Allows Easy Website Updates with Improved Stability

NEWS RELEASE Globi "Sidekick" CMS Allows Easy Website Updating with Improved Stability May 31, 2007 (Calgary, AB) - The Content Management System (CMS) has become a popular method of allowing users to keep their websites dynamic and up-to-date, but site owners increasingly expect more from their CMS and its administrative interface, according to Andreas Huttenrauch of Globi Web Solutions in Calgary. While a CMS allows website owners to easily update content including images and articles, the new challenge is content stability, or the ability to add fresh content without damaging the look and function of the site, says Huttenrauch. To this end, Globi has made improvements to its CMS, Sidekick, which now permits greater stability through error-free website updating. While Content Management Systems have been around for the past four or five years, the trend towards their usage is increasing among businesses such as those in the hospitality and other industries that must refresh their content on a monthly and even weekly basis to stay competitive. "The CMS has become an invaluable tool to organizations where the marketing department requires autonomy from the IT department to manage its own website updates. But today's site owners want more stability, more professional integration, and more expandability," suggests Huttenrauch. A wide variety of CMS products exist, ranging in price from only a few hundred dollars for basic updates of text and photos, to hundreds of thousands of dollars but until now, none have offered the much needed stability of Sidekick, notes Huttenrauch. "Sidekick does not easily compare to commercial content management systems because it has two distinct built-in usage layers. Most commercial content management systems allow anyone to install and configure them, however, with Sidekick, Globi performs the initial installation and configuration, ensuring that the CMS is installed correctly and properly integrated with the website in the most logical and stable manner." Making changes to a website can be rather costly when employing the use of a developer for each small change that needs to be made. A customized CMS such as Sidekick can allow site owners to self-manage and update the more active portions of their website without incurring errors, explains Huttenrauch. "Any number of user tested problems can occur with the typical CMS, such as lost information, broken formatting, or simply too much creative control in the hands of the site administrator. One of the ongoing problems with standard content management systems is that they are frequently used beyond their designed capacity and can result in ongoing editing of errors that require extensive re-design and programming changes at considerable cost." Sidekick features three primary benefits beyond many commercial content management systems: 1. Ease of use. One need only click to add new pages, and no knowledge of HTML is needed. 2. Content is separated from design into two layers, so no errors are introduced through incorrectly formatted content; and 3. Sidekick features a collections platform which groups like items, such as an archive of articles, and permits them to behave or display in a similar manner. Globi Web Solutions (www.globi.ca) of Calgary, AB, is a private web development company providing website design, programming, maintenance, database integration, research, search engine optimization, hosting and marketing solutions. Globi helps small and medium sized businesses become more profitable and maximize their business potential by lending its combined years of experience to every project it undertakes. For information, contact: Andreas Huttenrauch Globi Web Solutions www.globi.ca Phone: 403-229-3800

Your PPC campaign and Day-Parting for maximizing ROI

This is a very good subject. Something in fact that Globi implemented long before Google even brought it to the table. While Day-Parting has been around for about a year now, it is still surprising how many people are still throwing their money away when they can be maximizing what they are already spending to drive traffic to their website. What is DayParting? In broadcasting, day-parting is the practice of dividing the day into several parts, during each of which a different type of radio programming or television programming apropos for that time is aired. Programs are most often geared toward a particular demographic, and what the target audience typically engages in at that time. For example, rush hours are often particular dayparts for radio stations. Traffic reports are usually given at these times, and rarely at others. On TV, mornings are often filled with children's programming (especially on weekends), while late-nights are attractive mostly to young adults. How does this relate to the web? Simple: Advertising! As you may be aware, Pay-Per-Click is the most cost-effective form of advertising available at the moment. The concept is to show ads which advertise your product or service, and you only pay when someone clicks your ad which takes them to your website. What most advertisers do is they set up a PPC campaign, and then let it run ad-infinitum, simply paying their Google invoice every month. The savvy advertiser may notice certain trends though. What days are most purchases happening? What time of day are most conversions taking place? These are very important metrics to understand when it comes to PPC advertising. Applying day-parting to PPC advertising is simple: If you know that your product sells best during specific hours of specific days of the week, why then would you pay for clicks 24/7? Just turn off your campaign in off-hours, and you'll save a bundle, which you may be able to contribute to boosting your campaign during peak-hours. Of course you can do this manually every day, or you can focus your energy on other money making ideas and automate your Day-Parting.

Web Design to Personalize Your Business Web Presence

With modern technology being as advanced as it is, there is often no need to leave the comfort of our desk to do business with other people. We can carry out many functions without ever having to meet with associates or leave the office. This can seem all too convenient. Yet, have you considered the repercussions to not knowing who it is you are doing business with? Even just having a face to the name can add so much more to your business communication and relationships. 'A picture speaks a thousand words.' We have all heard this saying, more than once, I would imagine. But consider for a moment how very true this statement really is. A picture can tell you so many things. And in business, this is true even moreso. We are a visually stimulated culture. Just look at the web. It is an eyeball to the world. In the web world, we still want to know who we are virtually shaking hands with. The Eyes Have it! By nature, the most successful ad campaigns are those that use people in them. We can't help but instantly draw our attention to the eyes looking back at us. This is precisely the reason why every business website should contain the faces of those that the world is going to do business with. It's important to display your organization and members more translucently. This serves to cultivate a customer's ease and comfort to be able to help potential customers feel that they can relate to the people that they are entrusting their time and money with. Two Ships in the Night This subject was also brought up while visiting our Manhattan clients. Do your customers know you? Would you know if you were having lunch next to each other? Can they pick you out of a line-up? Can they meet you in an airport and wave hello at first glance? They should be able to. And when this happens, it means that you and your business have come to mean something deeper to them. And to you, it means that without your clients knowing you, how can you get to know them? It is an integral relationship-albeit one that may be generated across computers, websites, cities, and even countries. The New You I need to firstly introduce a hard subject here and one that perhaps a few people might deny but, let's face it - we're getting older! So please let go of that outdated, younger version of yourself that is posted on your website. Hey, let's face it, we are all getting older. So avoid the shocked look when people finally do meet you. Besides, it's time to embrace your age with the wisdom you've earned - it'll only do you credit in people's perception of your industry knowledge. Let's Keep it Together Now While you might think that you have a lot of attrition, just get a group shot and see how fast it gets out of date. Do you want to spend more time updating your site every single time faces need to be added or removed? We are all busy enough in today's business world! Keep it Professional The digital camera world is reeking havoc on what people are interpreting as professional photos. But trust me - we can all tell! So make sure you use a professional photographer who understands lighting, who will eliminate the shadowed halos that appear on back walls, and who will display you as a professional organization worthy of doing business with. So, as best said, let that picture speak a thousand words - for both you and your clients! Without knowing who you are dealing with, can you truly foster a great personable and workable business relationship that maximizes your needs as a client? Be known and get to know those you do business with. It will only foster harmonious, personable, and lasting business relationships.

Security on the Internet

For companies having a site on the Internet there are a few security issues that one needs to be aware of. Although one can never eliminate all the risks, being aware of them can go a long way in protecting your online identity. Simple Web Site Having a web site is an effective marketing tool for many businesses, but what if someone gains access to the site and changes the site without permission? This can and has happened. Most access to a web site is via ftp or telnet which should be removed or at least disabled when not required. Some ftp servers have been known for a while to be vulnerable to buffer overflow exploits. Telnet opens a window to an attacker so he can hijack a user's session - thus effectively stealing his account. Both use an open channel to pass the password, therefore anyone on the route between you and the server can use a network sniffer and get your password. This can be avoided by using ssh. If you still want to use the ftp and telnet capabilities, you can use ssh as an encrypted tunnel for all your network activities. Content Management Systems (CMS) A great way to make a site updateable without getting a developer involved is by the use of Content Management Systems. In various forms, these CMS systems allow site owners to log into a secret administration panel and change certain predefined sections of the site. If someone were to get access to the username and password for the CMS administration section, they could change the site just like the site owner could. Unfortunately this is the price one pays for the added convenience of a CMS. It is recommended to keep usernames and passwords in a safe place, and never share them with anyone. Also check your site periodically to make sure the content hasn't been changed. Globi Web Solution's Content Management System can be configured to automatically e-mail the site owner when a site change is made as an added safety measure. e-Commerce e-Commerce has boomed in the last handful of years. The convenience that the Internet has brought about has made it possible for companies to sell products to a worldwide audience without the overhead of a brick and mortar storefront, and for consumers to purchase products from the comfort of their living rooms. There are certain risks to the consumer when it comes to credit card processing due to the fact that transactions are authorized without signature verification. The good thing about credit companies here in North America as opposed to Europe is that the customer is always right, so you can dispute a payment and get your money back - so the merchant is at risk of loosing money. In Europe it's always the customer who loses. For the merchant, the risks are charge-backs or fraudulent card use. Either way it's the same result - no payment, but we're talking about individual sales. If card processing is outsourced, then at least the rest of the income is secure. Most 3rd party card processors have rather stringent verification processes in place to reduce fraudulent card use. To reduce fraud, it's a good idea to phone the customer and confirm his info if the billing address is different from the shipping address. For extremely high-ticket items, one could even go as far as to require a signed fax order as this would be the required proof-of-sale to counter a false charge-back. To protect customers, it is highly advisable to not store credit card numbers wherever possible and to use a 3rd party to authorize payments. Should your database of credit card numbers fall into the wrong hands, it could have serious implications to your business. Conclusion Inevitably there are a few risks associated with the Internet and being online, just as there are in owning a storefront. The important thing is to keep in mind is that these are acceptable and manageable circumstances. Out of all the preventative measures one could take to eradicate all risk, there is still a comfortable level at which to reap the benefits of having a presence on the Internet!

How to Get the Best from Your Web Developer

When was the last time you spoke or just communicated with your Web Developer? How quickly do they respond to your inquiries? Do they respond to your inquiries?! As in any profession, there is a certain standard of practice that has to be met, and the area of Web and Software Development is no exception. I couldn't tell you how often I hear these words, "I don't know what's happening with my web site - my web guy hasn't got back to me yet." "Well, have they received your request yet?" "I'm not sure - They haven't returned my call yet." Ouch! We're talking about your business web site, right? Which essentially means that your business is counting on this service. So let's go back to where it all started: Some time ago, you were tossing around the idea of getting a web site when you heard that your neighbor's nephew had bought the software and figured that he could probably put together a site for you. "That's great!" you think because you don't know (or shouldn't have to know) the first think about Web Design, Hosting Services, or what the heck an I.P. Address is! "And hey - this kid is going to help me get my business a web site for less the half the cost of a professional!" Stop! That may have been fine 9 or 10 years ago just after the National Science Foundation removed the ban on commercial traffic in 1991 thereby opening cyberspace to the public. Which allowed anyone who had even an inkling of how to use technology to draw a pretty picture on the computer or make it do "cool things". However, now a decade later, I'm sure even you can recall seeing some pretty out-there things on the internet that make you say "What were they possibly thinking?!". So what about your professional image that's being put on the line here? Let's carry on with our story: You quickly realize that the world wide web is here to stay and the neighbor's nephew has gone off to DeVry College, realizing that he could be learning a lot more bleeding-edge web and internet trends to make more money in this business too. So you hook up with the first company that has 'Web Design' listed in its vast array of qualifications. And they must be qualified because even though you can't understand a thing that these guys are saying to you - you're grateful. So here we are today, hoping that our web site is up to snuff, wishing we could update some of the information sitting there, but not wanting to bother the web "master" who must be very busy with much more important things because he hasn't gotten back to me yet on my request. As a customer, if you were shopping for shoes or meeting with your accountant, you would expect to be treated with respect and receive timely and professional service. Right? Well why then would we expect anything less from our web developers? Even worse, when you do finally get your developer on the phone, but you don't understand a thing that he's said to you. How do you transpose that information to the other members of your team? You make a note to self: "consider hiring a translator". This leads me to another situation I've seen: Every week I would be in a meeting with this corporation that had an elaborate web site and were excitedly discussing the "Big Launch" that was going to take place shortly. Sales teams were being pumped for this, advertising agents anxiously standing by to submit articles and ads. So every time the project leader walked into the meeting after getting off the phone with the web developer, he would announce that the Web Site would be launched on Friday. Well, eventually we stopped believing him because those Fridays would come and go - and alas, a lot of wasted meetings were had and the momentum was gone. My point is, it's not your job to sift through what the developer thinks you want to hear and determine the way it actually is. So what do we do with this newfound information? Well, firstly let's summarize: 1. Ensure that you can communicate with your developer. What kind of information provider are they to you? 2. Do you receive Live Support (a real person) when you need assistance? 3. Does your developer promise at 24-hour response time? 4. Do they keep you informed at all times or do you have to call periodically to determine progress? 5. Did you open your own web page one day and notice that your developer had placed their own link and 'designed by' information on your site? Remember, you are the customer and like any service you are not obligated to stay with a web designer that you are not happy with. Nobody's feelings will get hurt here. This is business - your business! And why would we want to reward bad behavior? And to elaborate on point #5 above, once a web site has been paid for, it is the exclusive property of the client. That means that the developer is not at liberty to place his name, logo, or link on that web site without strict permission from the owner first. So by now you should understand that the internet does not have to be all 'smoke and mirrors' and your developer should not be playing the roll of the Wizard of Oz - but rather of the Consultant to take care of your web site needs. As any consultant, shoe salesman or professional, they should be there to help you to make decisions about your web site and the internet based on the information they have explained to you. If you are not receiving the timely and professional service you deserve, open your project up to 3 or 4 quotes and be sure to observe not only what they are prepared to give you for your money but also what type of response they give. 1. Did they respond in a timely fashion to your request for a quote? 2. Did the Developer ask you what your time-line was for completion? 3. Did they explain the series of events that would occur to complete your web site? 4. Was an interview established to determine your needs and budget? 5. What experience do they have with web trends and technology? 6. Will they be around to provide support in the future? When you have all your quotes in - or at least the one's that did respond, weigh out which one you feel the most confident with and understand that cheaper is not better. And remember, the neighbor's nephew is not necessarily doing your business any favours! Anytime is a good time to get the service you deserve so as you expand your business to the internet remember that your web developer should continually have your interests in mind!

Zen and the Art of Web Design

'While I was raking our lawn free of leaves last weekend I flashed-back to my days as a high school student raking neighborhood lawns for a little spending money and how much easier it got to do the job the more often I did it. Then I had an epiphany --- raking leaves is like developing websites & software! Read on to see just where my thoughts led me. Too many website owners get disappointed with the cost and/or delivery of their web project. Most often this happens when either one or both of the client and the developer have little experience in the process. Let's take a Zen-like look at a typical web/software project: A proprietor has a lawn and needs the leaves raked so he asks a young sweeper, "How long would it take you to rake my lawn?" The sweeper replies "How big is your lawn?" "I don't know," answers the proprietor. "Then I don't know, either," says the sweeper. The proprietor goes away, measures his lawn and determines that he has a hundred square metres of lawn. When he tells the young sweeper, the sweeper estimates "About two hours". So, the proprietor agrees to have the sweeper rake his lawn. Two hours later though, the lawn is not finished. "Why are you not done?" the proprietor asks the sweeper. He gives a solemn look, and replies "Because a breeze picked up and started to blow the leaves around". "Why didn't you bag the leaves as you went along?" "I didn't think of that," replies the sweeper. In the end, it takes the sweeper over three hours to rake the lawn which he originally said would take two hours. So what went wrong? Two things: 1. The proprietor did not ask for what he wanted. After all, he didn't want a sweeper to rake his lawn for two hours --- he wanted a lawn with no leaves on it. 2. The sweeper lacked experience and did not take into consideration all potential circumstances. Although he can rake 100 square metres in two hours, this is based on doing the work in an unchanging environment, a vacuum, as it were. As we all know, in the real world, things never work out exactly as planned. Two hours of practiced time can take three to five hours in real life. The experienced sweeper would know this and account for it in his estimate. This creates a pricing conundrum which is shared in the web development world. If the sweeper had quoted five hours to rake the lawn, the proprietor probably would not have used him. He would have instead searched for the sweeper who said he can do it in two hours, and then had the exact same problem that he had here. The experienced lawn owner and the experienced sweeper should both know the nature of raking leaves, and should both understand that to do the job properly may take longer than expected. What may appear to be a higher estimate of five hours at the end of the day may in fact be done in less time and at less cost and aggravation than paying the cheaper sweeper to keep going until the job is eventually completed. It won't do the proprietor any good to get the cheapest/less-experienced sweeper because, in the long run, was he really cheaper? The moral of this story: It's important that the proprietor be clear on what he really wants accomplished at the end of the day and he must further understand how much he is prepared to spend to get the job done correctly. To put this in web development terms, if spending less is more important than getting a properly engineered website, then it is important that the website owner tells the developer up front "you have two hours to get done what you can - and what is not done, we must either live without or pay more for the full job." Always ask yourself "What is the real goal?", and build your plan around the answer.

The Importance of Accessibility in Web Design

Just last week we got an email from a client who was forwarding a letter from their own client: "Since I am blue/green color blind, I did not see the blue text 'Best Internet Rate Guarantee Claim Form' was any different than the grey text, and did not realize it was a link in step 1 of 'You must do the following to claim our Best Internet Rate Guarantee'... My wife was able to point out to me that was a hyper-link to this form, and I am now able to complete and submit this form." The client's wife did not point this out until AFTER he had come back from his business trip and had difficulties at check-in. He was writing in to request that the hotel honor their "Best Internet Rate Guarantee;" and suggested they change their website. No kidding! When we heard this, we were absolutely grateful to receive this feedback and particularly that their own customer would make the effort to write in to get satisfaction. So, while we've talked in the past through our Newsletter and other media about knowing the visitors you are targeting, perhaps now would be a great time to touch on some of these staggering statistics again. Did you know that 1 in 20 people (or 5%) are Red-Green Color Blind? In the USA alone, that represents about 14.6 million people and another 1.6 million in Canada. Once again it comes back to this: If you try to do things differently, you may lose sales. It never ceases to amaze me that all the big players on the web are showing the rest of us how to do it, and yet there are still folks out there who choose to structure their websites differently. Think about this; does your potential demographics also include the visually or hearing impaired? Think about it. Even Ferrari has to consider that their buyers are 50+ in age and we all know it's not just their hair lines that are going. Even Hugo Boss needs to help their shoppers differentiate between that grey suit they are about to purchase and the blue one their wife told them to come home with. If you want to be different, make sure you think of the consequences. Audio or Video Clips If you have an audio clip, do you also have a transcript of that audio for deaf visitors to read? Do you have a Text Equivalent for non-text elements which can be picked up by Assistive Technology Devices? In this case, these are devices or software used by the visually impaired to 'read' the text on a website and convert it to audio. Use of Images Do your images or graphics or other features that convey meaning through a picture or sound have a text equivalent? Ensure that these images have the text equivalent for everyone to appreciate. This especially includes the graphics used within Navigation Buttons, Check Boxes, Logos, etc. Database Navigation If you have tables of data on your website, are the row and column headers identified so the Assistive Technology Devices can read them? How will the visually impaired know what the data is that they're hearing if you don't have headers within the tables? Links And finally to the subject that started this whole thread - Links. Blue Underlined Text is the universal language for "Click here!". On websites we've come to understand that underlined words are more often than not hyper-links to something important. Even if a visitor can't see the colour of the link, they'll see the underline and take it from there. All the biggies do it; Google, Amazon, eBay; they're all speaking that language and for that, the world loves them! It's important to understand that there is a reason for "standards", and that there can be unintended results for not following standards. Most web users have had a hard enough time learning how to use normal, standardized websites. What makes you think they are prepared to spend any amount of time learning how to navigate your site if it's different? Perhaps you are one of the fortunate to not have a visual or reading impairment. For that reason, you might not have thought about it until now as to how your website might function to those who do live with these challenges. On a human level, wouldn't you rather have a people-friendly website? On a business level, can you afford to ignore the estimated 300 MILLION Color Blind potential customers that you might have looking for you in the world wide web right now?

4 Steps to Avoiding Click-Fraud

If you have something worth taking, it is inevitable that someone will try to take it. Or break it. Or just generally foul it up. CLICK FRAUD is defined as the act of purposely clicking ad listings without intending to buy from the advertiser (usually in reference to Pay-Per-Click Advertising or "PPC"). But why would someone do this, and how does costing an advertiser (you or me) money through false clicks benefit the person running the scam? Quick Review: a PPC campaign has a set budget for clicks on their ads. When the budget is reached, the ad stops running. If your budget is $50 per day and each click costs you 50 cents, then after 100 clicks, your campaign is done for the day and your ad comes off, making room for cheaper ads lower down the list. So, it benefits the owners of the cheaper ads when you get your 100 clicks and your ad comes off the list for the remainder of the day because then their ad moves up. Someone who bids 5 cents per click would improve their position on the list of Sponsored Links every time a competitor above them came off; and an advertiser who could find a way to mechanically and/or physically click their competitors off the list would eliminate the competition for the day and hopefully increase their own sales through better ad positioning (at a lower cost). So, they could bid low, click you off, and move up to take your place. That's one reason for Click Fraud. The second benefit to the Click Fraudster comes when they run AdSense ads on their own site. Sites that run AdSense ads make money every time a visitor clicks a PPC ad on their site, so fraudulent clicks add to the site owner's income by increasing the number of clicks. But with all the hype on the Internet right now about Click Fraud, I am once against stunned by the general attitudes of people relating to the Internet. "Fraud on the internet?! How terrible! How could they? How can we stop them?!" The first point that needs to be made here is that we're talking about advertising. Fraud will happen! You can't stop it! Learn to limit what you can, and learn to live with the rest! In traditional advertising, the price you pay for your ad in a publication is determined by the distribution of the publication. When the Ad Executive tells you that the publication is distributed to, or has a readership of, one million people, you have no option really than to believe them. Do you really believe that every store completely sells out of each issue of every publication? Is it not more likely that a certain percentage of publications are returned? Would it not make sense that the number of readers quoted is not REALLY correct? Obviously it is not in the publisher's best interest to blatantly lie or over-inflate the numbers. If they get caught, the bad press would seriously impact their ability to bring future advertisers on board, so why shoot themselves in the foot? Similarly, it's not in Google, Yahoo, or MSN's best interests to ignore click-fraud. All the major PPC engines have fraud detection and prevention systems in place. Have trust in these players. There are a few things you can do to keep an eye out, and potentially limit your chance of being on the receiving end of click-fraud: 1. Keep an eye on your daily budget. If it is regularly exceeded, you need to pay closer attention. If you're not exceeding your daily budget, then you're not getting a lot of clicks and therefore not being defrauded. 2. Try to localize your advertising geographically. The smaller your target and budget for each campaign, the less the chance of you becoming a fraud target (this means more human work, so be sure not to invest more effort than the potential risk saving can be). 3. Use a click-fraud detection service such as whosclickingwho.com, if your PPC monthly investment is significant enough. Although it is not possible to prevent fraud, it can often be detected, and when reported to the major engines, can sometimes lead to a refund. 4. Use Day-Parting whenever possible. Simplified, day-parting is just running your ads at the times you think your prospects are most likely to see them. Use day-parting, because there's no sense paying for clicks at 1AM if your target market is sleeping at that time.

Pay-per-Click Ad Positioning

A long time ago there was speculation, and over the last year there has been proof: You Pay-per-Click (PPC) Ad will perform better (in most cases) when it's running in position 3-4, rather than being in the top (and most expensive) position. When you run a PPC campaign, you basically bid for your ad to appear, and the highest bidder gets the highest position. The problem with campaign-general maximum bids though is that you have absolutely no control over Ad placement for individual keywords. Let's say you have to bid a minimum of $1 for "dog grooming" in order to be in position #5, and you have a keyword "canine grooming service" which gets many clicks but is cheaper. By offering $1 per click to this keyword, it will probably be at position #1. Luckily you can control the bid on a per-keyword basis, so we could offer a maximum bid of 50c for "canine grooming service" to place it in position #5. If the actual cost would have worked out to 75c for position #1 for "canine grooming service", then by only bidding 50c, not only are you saving 25c per click, but your campaign will be more effective due to a better position of #5 instead of #1. To manually stay on top of individual keyword positions takes a lot of work if done manually. Globi Web Solutions can manage your campaign and our Automatic Bid Manager will adjust each keywords bid on a regular basis based on the historical average position of that keyword.

Your Website Design MUST Include a Call to Action

Web Designers, landscapers, lawyers, country inns; we're all in business for one reason --- to finish the day with the financial balance leaning more to the black than it does to the red. We want a return on our investment. That's why what we do is called "business", not "hobby". Read on to find out how one simple thing can improve your business. Did you "read on"? Of course you did --- you're reading this right now. When I wrote "Read on to find out how one simple thing can improve your business", that is what is referred to as the classic Call-to-Action, and THAT'S what this month's issue of your Globi Newsletter is all about. We all use "Calls-to-Action" every day, and often without realizing it. We run into a friend on the street, have a quick chat, check the time, realize we're both late for meetings and part with "Call me about the weekend", or "Email me the latest baby pictures". What we're really saying is "This relationship is not over". And so it should be in business, both with communications (phone calls, emails, meetings) and with your sales/marketing tools (billboards, brochures, magazine ads, WEBSITES). Yes, particularly websites. Yes, particularly websites, given that the web is the biggest marketing tool used today. Take a look at your own website's Home Page, right now. Let's assume that it's professionally outlined, visually appealing, and quickly tells visitors to your website what your company is all about (if it's not, CALL US before any more damage is done!). Now, without scrolling down or clicking through to another Page, are you asking the visitor to DO anything besides read? Is the visitor left to say "Yeah, so what now?" Are you giving them a Reason to do anything? Subscribe Now! If you have a newsletter, you'd better see somewhere on the top part of that Home Page a place for me, the visitor, to click and sign up for that newsletter. And equally important, WHY should I sign up to your newsletter? What will I gain in return for sharing my precious contact information with you? Book Now! Do you offer a service that requires booking ahead of time such as hotels, car rentals...r, for the more adventurous, skydiving tours? How visible is the button that says "Book Now!" to a newcomer to your site? Time Sensitive I still recall my own recent experience shopping online at Dell Computer's website and right there on the Home Page was this great time-sensitive offer for a (name cool computer here). Well I didn't have a chance to do the transaction at the time so I came back to it the next morning, confident I was going to take advantage of this sweet little deal but it was gone! Damn. You can bet that next time I will act when I see the offer! Other Calls-to-Action that can be exercised can be "Limited Availability, Call Now!", "Order Here", "Sign Up for our Informative Newsletter", "Try our Free Online Estimator" or "Free Article --- 10 Secrets to Huge Conversion Rates". You want every visitor to your website to make the conscious decision to 'take action', and then to have that ability right there and then to take that action. Ultimately, you want your Call-to-Action to move the prospect one step closer to becoming a client and the client one step closer to increasing their business with you. The Call-to-Action must create a need within the customer that will compel them to take that particular action at that particular moment in time. Most important of all --- make it easy for them to take action and to get results! A Call-to-Action is "DO THIS NOW! GET THIS NOW! DON'T BE LEFT BEHIND!", not "Come back some time in the future, click through three screens, fill out a 16-field form and maybe we'll have something of interest for you". So, take a hard and honest look at your marketing materials --- especially your website --- and check out your Calls-to-Action. And if you need help developing them or putting them in place, give US a call (a not-so-subtle Call-to-Action!). That's why Globi Web Solutions is here, to engineer the web to bring people and business together.

Online Marketing - Search Engine Optimization and Paid Advertising

Haven't we all heard those words since we were old enough to be burdened with ten pounds of homework by our 'cruel and nasty' teachers? But let's face it, even a stock broker still needs to do his homework on a company before recommending its stock to his clients. A fast-food franchisee needs to research a potential location & market before building a restaurant. Nike even does their homework on consumer trends before creating a new product. So call it what you will; "Homework", "Market Research" ... it still needs to be done if you want to experience any success. This is no different when it comes to your website developments. You may recall from previous issues the discussion of the search for the almighty magic pill to solve all your SEO and SEM problems and its inherent difficulties, but it seems that there are many people still searching for that quick-fix for website riches. What's troubling is that many companies will still hire SEO consultants with questionable practices, against the advice of proven professionals. Why? I can only guess that the SEO consultant's sales pitch is good, the price is low or the promises too big to walk away from. Maybe people think "what could it hurt?" or "let's give it a chance and see". Perhaps we can compare this reasoning with speeding; You can drive faster than the speed limit for many reasons. Maybe you didn't see the sign. Maybe you're aware of your speeding, but are willing to take the chance. Whatever the reason, when you get caught, you'll get fined, and no excuse will work. Didn't see the sign? Tough luck. Saw the sign and ignored it? Even tougher luck. The same holds true for how you "drive" your website. Google's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Guidelines state that "you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire." That means if an SEO company were to build 'doorway pages' directly on your own domain (a bad thing to do) your site could be removed from Google's listings as a result. And remember, upsetting Google is like telling the biggest kid on the block that he's ugly and his mother dresses him funny --- not the smartest move you could make. For that reason, it's important to do your homework and understand what actions an SEO company will be performing for you, and what impact this work may have as a result. So here are 3 bits of homework you should absolutely do when seeking out a Search Engine Marketing Company: 1. Ask what actions they will be taking on your behalf and ask for proof. Ask them for the statistics which show that what they are doing for other clients is successful, and ask how they will do the same for you. 2. Google the SEO company's name and see what other websites might have to say about them. You might find supporting media reports or negative evaluations. Take it all with a grain of salt, but at least you will have a bit more information about them than when you started. You will have done your homework. 3. Do a little research about the actions they will be using to achieve the results you will be paying for. Just when you think you're ready to do business with them, do this one last assignment --- The more you know about what will be done on your behalf, the better prepared you will be to stop foul practices before they're employed. Although having your website rank high on the first page of search results is terrific, be aware that with today's rapidly evolving Search Engines your ranking today might not be your rank tomorrow. Globi Web Solutions strongly believes that the money you would have paid to a company promising Search Engine Optimization is better spent on 'targeted' online campaigns like Google AdWords.

When talking about Visitors, think Quality and not Quantity

In the early 1990s, a study found that in the mountain resort town of Banff, Alberta, American tourists outnumbered Japanese tourists by a small margin. More importantly, though, that same study found that American tourists spent an average of $17 per visitor whereas the average Japanese visitor spent $57 --- a difference of over 300%! Even though a few more American visitors walked the streets of the town and poked their heads into the shops, the local merchants were wise enough to start hiring staff who could speak both English AND Japanese. Even many of the local waiters made the effort to start learning a little basic Japanese! In the late 90s when the markets shifted to include travelers from China, well it doesn't take much imagination to know what they did next --- the merchants watched, measured, evaluated and adapted again. And they didn't base their decisions solely on the number of visitors to the town So what difference does this make to your business and the web? Read on... "My site gets a million hits per day!" Remember the buzz a few years ago about website 'hits'? "How many hits does your site get?" Irrelevant! One page on your website can be many 'hits', and a visitor can look at a page many times, so the new metric became 'unique visits': that is to say how many 'unique visitors' come to your site in a given period is far more important than how many 'hits' your site gets. Well, we're going to take this one step further yet. We propose that how many unique visits your site gets is equally unimportant. On the web, 'visits' are made up of contact by humans and/or programs, and do nothing more than waste bandwidth and CPU power, which you pay for at your hosting provider. As we all know, a visitor doesn't necessarily make you any money. To make money takes a lead and ultimately a customer. So the truly important question is: how many customers does your site generate in a given period? Now, once you know how many leads and customers your site generates, wouldn't it be nice to know where they're coming from? After all, you don't want to have to pay for all that traffic made up of visitors who don't buy. If you know that 90% of your website's visitors come and leave without being converted to customers, and 90% of your traffic finds you through search engines because you have an article that mentions a 'free duck pate recipe', wouldn't you remove this page and then measure the results? After all, this page is likely attracting huge amounts of traffic from visitors who don't buy anything (unless of course you sell a variety of duck pate recipes on your site). At Globi we've said time and time again that your site needs a purpose --- and it's usually to generate a lead or make a sale. So wouldn't it make good business sense then to incorporate into your customer conversion routine a tracking mechanism to show where your customers come from so you can then know precisely where to invest more money and effort into attracting visitors from that source? Then, like the merchants of Banff, you could compare your traffic to your sales, instead of just arbitrarily trying to understand your traffic. If you need help deciphering your own visitor traffic, you know where to find us.

Protect Yourself from Phishing Scams

Phishing Have you ever been phishing? Have you ever been caught "hook, line and sinker" by someone else doing a little phishing? No, this is not a typo on the part of this professional copywriter. In spite of the funky spelling of "phishing", it's a serious matter everyone online should be aware of. Read on to find out why you should be wary of anyone who comes "phishing" in your data "pond". To catch a Phish According to Wikipedia, "In computing, phishing is a form of criminal activity using social engineering techniques, characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message. The term phishing arises from the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to 'Fish' for users' financial information and passwords." You may have seen these come across your desk in the form of a fake bank notice or PayPal email requiring you to log into your account for some reason. In reality you end up on some hacker's website that looks like the site you want to be on, and they just wait for you to type in your username and password. Then they've got all they need to go to work on your life savings. In time, I've learned to smell a phish when I see a phish, and usually just ignore them by hitting the almighty 'Delete' key. A few months ago I did see one which intrigued me, though. The English was actually OK (often poor spelling and grammar give away the less polished phishing attempts), and they made it look like a plain text message, but it was in HTML, so the URLs didn't go where they said they'd go. For some reason I decided to check it out anyway, and what I saw astounded me. I still haven't figured out how they did this, but they managed to overwrite the URL in the browser with a fake domain. It looked like an image was used for this, which was meant to be placed over the URL in the address bar. Luckily, I was running the Google toolbar, so the fake URL ended up in the wrong place, but if it had landed on the actual address bar, it would have been really hard to catch this phish. When in doubt, try looking at the message in a plain-text format where you can be guaranteed that what you see is really plain text only, and the URLs you see are true to themselves. The best advice is NEVER RESPOND. If you have an inkling that there may be truth to an email, never click on a link, but rather open your browser and log into the system in question manually. If PayPal or your bank needs you to do something, they'll tell you when you log in to the online access you usually use. You can delete the offending email, but some folks have even taken to sending an email to the address on the genuine PayPal or banking institution's website and attaching a copy of the phishing message in its entirety (not just forwarding it, which severs the link back to the sender and makes it nearly impossible to investigate). In the long run, how you react is up to you, just so long as you don't give them any of the information they request. Your identity and the contents of your bank account belong to you and you alone, so don't get caught up in the net cast by thieves disguised as phishermen. Protect Yourself!

The Original 20 Reasons to put your Business on the WWW

1. To Establish A Presence Approximately 750 million people worldwide have access to the World Wide Web (WWW). No matter what your business is, you can't ignore 750 million people. To be a part of that community and show that you are interested in serving them, you need to be on the WWW for them. You know your competitors will. 2. To Network A lot of what passes for business is simply nothing more than making connections with other people. Every smart business person knows, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Passing out your business card is part of every good meeting and every business person can tell more than one story how a chance meeting turned into the big deal. Well, what if you could pass out your business card to thousands, maybe millions of potential clients and partners, saying this is what I do and if you are ever in need of my services, this is how you can reach me. You can, 24 hours a day, inexpensively and simply, on the WWW. 3. To Make Business Information Available What is basic business information? Think of a Yellow Pages ad. What are your hours? What do you do? How can someone contact you? What methods of payment do you take? Where are you located at? Now think of a Yellow Pages ad where you have instant communication. What is today's special? Today's interest rate? Next week's parking lot sale information? If you could keep your customer informed of every reason why they should do business with you, don't you think you could do more business? You can on the WWW. 4. To Serve Your Customers Making business information available is one of the most important ways to serve your customers. But if you look at serving the customer, you'll find even more ways to use WWW technology. How about making forms available to pre-qualify for loans, or have your staff do a search for that classic jazz record your customer is looking for, without tying up your staff on the phone to take down the information? Allow your customer to punch in sizes and check it against a database that tells him what color of jacket is available in your store? All this can be done, simply and quickly, on the WWW. 5. To Heighten Public Interest You won't get Newsweek magazine to write up your local store opening, but you might get them to write up your Web Page address if it is something new and interesting. Even if Newsweek would write about your local store opening, you wouldn't benefit from someone in a distant city reading about it, unless of course, they were coming to your town sometime soon. With Web page information, anybody anywhere who can access the Web and hears about you is a potential visitor to your Web site and a potential customer for your information there. 6. To Release Time Sensitive Materials What if your materials need to be released no earlier than midnight? The quarterly earnings statement, the grand prize winner, the press kit for the much anticipated film, the merger news? Well, you sent out the materials to the press with "The-do-not-release-before-such-and-such-time" statement and hope for the best. Now the information can be made available at midnight or any time you specify, with all related materials such as photographs, bios, etc. released at exactly the same time. Imagine the anticipation of "All materials will be made available on our Web site at 12:01 AM". The scoop goes to those that wait for the information to be posted, not the one who releases your information early. 7. To Sell Things Many people think that this is the number 1 thing to do with the World Wide Web, but we made it number seven to make it clear that we think you should consider selling things on the Internet and the World Wide Web after you have done all the things above and maybe even after doing quite a few more things from this list. Why? Well, the answer is complex but the best way to put it is, do you consider the telephone the best place to sell things? Probably not. You probably consider the telephone a tool that allows you to communicate with your customer, which in turn helps you sell things. Well, that's how we think you should consider the WWW. The technology is different, of course, but before people decide to become customers, they want to know about you, what you do and what you can do for them. Which you can do easily and inexpensively on the WWW. Then you might be able to turn them into customers. 8. To make pictures, sound and film files available What if your widget is great, but people would really love it if they could see it in action? The album is great but with no airplay, nobody knows that it sounds great? A picture is worth a thousand words, but you don't have the space for a thousand words? The WWW allows you to add sound, pictures and short movie files to your company's info if that will serve your potential customers. No brochure will do that. 9. To reach a highly desirable demographic market The demographic of the WWW user is probably the highest mass-market demographic available. Usually college-educated or being college educated, making a high salary or soon to make a high salary, it's no wonder that Wired magazine, the magazine of choice to the Internet community, has no problem getting Lexus and other high-end marketers advertising. Even with the addition of the commercial on-line community, the demographic will remain high for many years to come. 10. To Answer Frequently Asked questions Whoever answers the phones in your organization can tell you, their time is usually spent answering the same questions over and over again. These are the questions customers and potential customers want to know the answer to before they deal with you. Post them on a WWW page and you will have removed another barrier to doing business with you and freed up some time for that harried phone operator. 11. To Stay In Contact With Salespeople Your employees on the road may need up-to-the-minute information that will help them make the sale or pull together the deal. If you know what that information is, you can keep it posted in complete privacy on the WWW. A quick local phone call can keep your staff supplied with the most detailed information, without long distance phone bills and tying up the staff at the home office. 12. To Open International Markets You may not be able to make sense of the mail, phone and regulation systems in all your potential international markets, but with a Web page, you can open up a dialogue with international markets as easily as with the company across the street. As a matter-of-fact, before you go onto the Web, you should decide how you want to handle the international business that will come your way, because your postings are certain to bring international opportunities your way, whether it is part of your plan or not. Another added benefit; if your company has offices overseas, they can access the home offices information for the price of a local phone call. 13. To Create a 24 Hour Service If you've ever remembered too late or too early to call the opposite coast, you know the hassle. We're not all on the same schedule. Business is worldwide but your office hours aren't. Trying to reach Asia or Europe is even more frustrating. But Web pages serve the client, customer and partner 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No overtime either. It can customize information to match needs and collect important information that will put you ahead of the competition, even before they get into the office. 14. To Make Changing Information Available Quickly Sometimes, information changes before it gets off the press. Now you have a pile of expensive, worthless paper. Electronic publishing changes with your needs. No paper, no ink, no printers bill. You can even attach your web page to a database which customizes the page's output to a database you can change as many times in a day as you need. No printed piece can match that flexibility. 15. To Allow Feedback From Customers You pass out the brochure, the catalog, the booklet. But it doesn't work. No sales, no calls, no leads. What went wrong? Wrong color, wrong price, wrong market? Keep testing, the marketing books say, and you'll eventually find out what went wrong. That's great for the big boys with deep pockets, but who is paying the bills? You are and you don't have the time nor the money to wait for the answer. With a Web page, you can ask for feedback and get it instantaneously with no extra cost. An instant e-mail response can be built into Web pages and can get the answer while its fresh in your customers mind, without the cost and lack of response of business reply mail. 16. To Test Market New Services and Products Tied into the reason above, we all know the cost of rolling out a new product. Advertising, advertising, advertising, PR and advertising. Expensive, expensive, expensive. Once you have been on the Web and know what to expect from those who are seeing your page, they are the least expensive market for you to reach. They will also let you know what they think of your product faster, easier and much less expensively than any other market you may reach. For the cost of a page or two of Web programming, you can have a crystal ball into where to position your product or service in the marketplace. Amazing. 17. To Reach The Media Every kind of business needs the exposure that the media can bring, as we touched on in reason #5 "To Heighten Public Interest", but what if your business is reaching the media, as a newswire, a publicist or a public policy group. The media is the most wired profession today, since their main product is information and they can get it more quickly, cheaply and easily on-line. On-line press kits are becoming more and more common, since they work with the digital environment of more and more pressrooms. Digital images can be put in place without the stripping and shooting of the old pressrooms and digital text can be edited and outputted on tight deadlines. All the these can be made available on a Web page. 18. To Reach The Education and Youth Market If your market is education, consider that most universities already offer Internet access to their students and most K-12's will be on the Internet within the next few years. Books, athletic shoes, study courses, youth fashion and anything else that would want to reach these overlapping markets needs to be on the Web. Even with the coming of the commercial on-line services and their somewhat older populations there will be nothing but growth in the percentage of the under 25 market that will be on-line. 19. To Reach The Specialized Market Sell fish tanks, art reproductions, flying lessons? You may think that the Internet is not a good place to be. Well, think again. The Internet isn't just computer science students anymore. With the 70 million and growing users of the WWW, even the most narrowly defined interest group will be represented in large numbers. Since the Web has several very good search programs, your interest group will be able to find you, or your competitors. 20. To Serve Your Local Market We've talked about the power to serve the world with a Web page. How about your neighborhood? If you are located in San Francisco Bay Area, the Raleigh NC area, Boston or New York, there is probably enough local customers with Web access to make it worth your while to consider Web marketing. A local Palo Alto, CA restaurant even takes lunch orders through the Internet! But no matter where you are, if the big client has Web access, you should be there too.

Google Adwords for Beginners?

Google has just released a new flavor of their Pay-per-Click (PPC) Adwords engine for the beginner marketer called the "Starter Edition" of Adwords. The intent of this simplified interface is to allow small businesses on a limited budget and a lack of technical resources within their network to get a PPC marketing campaign up and running very quickly. Currently this is only available in the USA, however the Starter Edition will soon be available to the rest of the world. The interface has been simplified to allow the advertiser to set up a single ad, running on a set of fixed keywords, and a set monthly budget. When the budget runs out, the Ad will simply stop running. This is not good and, frankly, is almost as bad as traditional print advertising. I.E. Buddy pays for an ad in the newspaper which, once gone to print is set in ink. No tweaking of the words, no adjusting of the target market. Just hope of the best and pay for your time. What makes Pay-Per-Click so powerful, if done properly, is that it is so flexible and you can monetize a return almost instantly. Some of the specific aspects of Adwords which make PPC so powerful, is the ability to run competing ads (for comparison purposes) and be able to specify spending limits on a per-keyword basis. The Adwords Starter Edition will now allow advertisers with little or no knowledge of the clever strategies of PPC to start advertising on the Google network with just a little too much ease. Hey, we're all for empowering the people - but remember what they say: a little knowledge can sometimes be a dangerous thing. Our concern at Globi is that many smaller advertisers will try this route, spend a few thousand dollars, get little or no return on their investment, give up, and for the rest of their online lives have nothing good to say about Google and/or PPC marketing ever again. That would be a great loss, both for themselves and anyone their voiced opinion might possibly influence. So what should you do? Get a professional to manage your campaign, and yes, your initial outlay may be higher, but your chance of launching a successful campaign and in turn getting some precious return on your investment is much, much higher. As with anything, working alongside a pro will also give you more insight into PPC that you would not otherwise have gotten.

Website Statistics and Analytics can Lie

So, you looked at your online website statistics recently, and saw some amazingly high numbers. You laughed, you danced, you started shopping for a new BMW, because a ton of traffic is every website business owner's dream. But, is what you're seeing real? Are the numbers telling the truth? If you think they are, then you may need to re-evaluate your conversion rates. If your stats are showing a thousand visitors per day but you're only making one sale, then there's something seriously wrong --- one-per-thousand won't buy a BMW, or even a 1976 rusted-out Ford Pinto. There are facts and there are Facts. Fact: something is causing your visitor count to register a thousand visits per day. Fact: a visit is not always a visit. It's more likely that you're not getting a thousand unique HUMAN visitors per day, you're just getting hit by thousands of THINGS --- specifically 'bots' or 'spiders'. If your website is clear, clean & even just somewhat professional, yet you're getting a thousand visitors per day and almost zero sales, it's likely that your stats software cannot tell the difference between a human and a bot or spider (or other piece of net-searching software). Search engines, spam harvesters, and other automated crawlers are likely making up half to two-thirds of your traffic. This can inflate your numbers dramatically, making it next to impossible to realistically make sense of your traffic patterns. There are some great statistical tools available that will show you actual conversion rates and these tools are certainly much more valuable in running your business than false web statistics and incorrect assumptions used to interpret the data. And just so you know, all Globi Hosting Packages contain Detailed Statistics Reports.

Outsourcing Web Design Projects

Besides the obvious cost savings, the real advantage of outsourcing IT projects is that your in-house staff can remain business minded instead of having to be technologically minded. Therefore being left to focus on your true core business, instead of wasting their efforts in fringe exercises. IT projects (such as web development projects) are by definition an outside-of-the-ordinary event from the day to day operations perspective. Every project requires extra manpower and skills, which will generally only be required during the project, and would need to be re-assigned or removed upon project completion. Although some effort would be required from internal resources on an on-going basis, these would be mostly business-related. The purely technical skills required for the development cycle are mostly temporary, with a possible small requirement for periodical ongoing maintenance afterwards. More on Faster Development Cycle: The average outsourced development cycle on average is 33% faster. Studies show that a project slated for 12 months internally will often take 14.5 month while that same project outsourced would only take 10 months. The real savings is in the speed and the quick advancement to give your company a competitive advantage. You need to ask how much money will you make or save in those 4.5 months. Often that benefit can run into millions of dollars or the losses in internal resources could represent much, much more. During all phases of a project, the requirements or scope of the project often change. The advantage of dealing with experts is that they have a wide knowledge base to draw from. They are able to adapt to your system easily and without delays. A good IT team is able to think outside your corporate box and create and implement innovative solutions based on their experience within other industries and applications using current technology. After over a decade at the top of the IT field, Globi Web Solutions offers you the following insight on what you should look for when looking to do any significant technology enhancement using an outside group. 1) Technology must deliver cost-worthy business benefits. Company should be business-value focused, not merely technology focused. 2) Expert architecture and design A good IT group focuses heavily on the design and architecture of any project. This one area is more critical to a successful project than anything else. 3) Responsiveness is critical This is as simple as it sounds. When you, the client, say you have a problem, your IT Partner is there. No excuses, no delays. Time is money. 4) Adaptability to new requirements Many high tech IT firms, like internal IT departments, get a plan in their mind and then have a hard time changing or ADAPTING if the process or something about the project changes mid-stream. Business is ever-changing and rarely does a project not require adapting to some additional requirement. 5) Technical expertise This is critical. It is why you have hired an outside firm. Your IT partner should constantly encourage and require all team members to stay certified and trained in the latest technologies. A good IT partner will investigate and recommend only stable technologies with a proven track record. Using internal resources means the client has to know what skills and newest technological education is required and then must pay in both time and money for that ongoing employee education. 6) Outsourcing Specialists Your outsourced IT developer should be a specialist in outsourcing themselves. Any vendor that has a constant manpower size, will not be responsive to changes in workload. Well-established IT vendors have ongoing relationships with their own talented contractors so that they can increase their resources on an as-needed basis. 7) Agility Solving immediate issues when time is of the essence. Your outsourced IT partner has those resources and management to adapt. 8) Fast project delivery A good developer will get the project rolled out as quickly as possible. Some companies have a process they need to go through and that process is sometimes more important than the end result. Your IT partner should be all about the end result. 9) Wanting to create a lasting partnership A good IT company is looking for a relationship rather than a sale. A client rather than a project. They are not looking to replace your IT department but to work with them. They are prepared to share risk, to share time, insights and events. 10) Have a strong client list that is thoroughly satisfied A good IT developer will have a comprehensive list of references, client testimonials and case studies.

Globi Web Solutions Optimizes Web Sites for Mobile Devices

Web surfers should no longer have to deal with slow or inaccessible sites on their mobile devices. Globi Web Solutions offers services to create PDA and cell phone-friendly Web sites. (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) February 1, 2006 -- Globi Web Solutions (globi.ca) announces a new service to offer Web site owners mobile-friendly sites. As more and more mobile technologies become Internet accessible, consumers are using devices like cell phones or PDA's to access the Web but face either slow or totally unusable sites. "Those who are savvy to this technology will find that Google works perfectly on cell phones and PDA's," says Globi Web Solutions consultant Andreas Huttenrauch. "The challenge lies in what happens when people find your site through Google and then get to an unusable Web page because the Web site is not optimized and viewable through their cell phones or PDA's." Making lightweight PDA and cell phone-friendly Web site versions available will allow mobile consumers to get the information they need. For example, The International Hotel of Calgary, a Globi client, allows users to bring up its internationalhotel.ca Web site on a mobile device and gain instant access to all relevant contact information, maps and driving directions, without having to wade through the regular Web site, which is aimed at desktops. Even though most cell phone providers offer data plans on their phones now, the data transfer is extremely slow, making it impractical and unrealistic to expect visitors to browse a graphically intense Web sites. Also, many cellular data plans are extremely expensive and charge by the MB, so a 100k homepage may not only be useless to visitors, it would additionally incur them huge bandwidth charges. "At the very least, a Web site should have a landing page that indicates when a PDA or cell phone is attempting to navigate that site," Huttenrauch says. "This landing page would contain the most critical information you need your visitor to get. Of course you can make your whole site phone-friendly by creating a duplicate copy, but that's between you and your budget." To see a Web site exercising the newest in mobile cyber-surfing abilities, simply pick up your PDA or cell phone and visit one of Globi Web Solutions' technologically savvy clients, internationalhotel.ca. Globi Web Solutions (www.globi.ca - a Calgary Web Design Company) of Calgary, Canada, is a private web development company offering end-to-end Internet solutions including Web site design, programming, maintenance, hosting, database integration, research, search engine optimization, and marketing. With 20 years of software development experience, the Globi team specializes in providing functional Web tools to help small and medium-sized businesses become more profitable. More than Web developers, Globi Web Solutions are partners in online strategies, helping businesses achieve online goals with their Web sites. For information, contact: Andreas Huttenrauch Globi Web Solutions www.globi.ca Phone: 403-229-3800

Reducing SPAM and tracking STATS

As some of you may have noticed, there's been a fair amount of spam floating around the internet these days. Who am I kidding? These days there's TONNES of spam out there! Fighting spam has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Unfortunately spam is a multi-multi-billion dollar industry, so it's still winning. You might recall, a few issues ago we spoke about Contact Forms, and what can be done about the small trickle of spam that come in through these. By far though, there is more spam coming in via regular email. The major issue is that when you publish an email address anywhere, it will be found and consequently, added to spam lists. How do they do this? Well, little software programs (called spiders or bots), traverse the internet in search of email addresses. These programs today are even clever enough to see past masking using JavaScript or text obfuscation (eg john[at]domain[dot]com). So here at Globi's R&D department, we recently discovered that with most email clients, an email link can be redirected, thus allowing us to hide the email address in a way never before seen. And as yet another safety measure, if you absolutely must publish an email address on your site, do it as an image so that harvesters cannot understand it. Combined with a redirect, this address can still be clickable now. Globi's KlikStats application can also be used successfully to hide email addresses by making them a redirect. In fact, not only does it do a nice job of reducing spam, but it also adds the ability to track statistics. With KlikStats, you can count how many times a page is seen or a link is followed. This is extremely useful in tracking traffic through your website and, in turn, is an invaluable tool in increasing conversion rates and sales on your site. This is essentially how it works: To truly take advantage of the features of KlikStats, you can set up multiple landing Pages on your website for marketing campaigns, and then measure which Pages generate more leads or sales. After enough numbers, you can remove the losing Page and replace it with a new one. This technique of continually competing with yourself in this manner is called Split Testing and is used by all successful marketers. By the way, to get Globi KlikStats licensing on your own website for FREE, simply contact your Globi Developer directly. The only thing you pay for is setup of as many links as you'd like to track and any additional training you might need. (** KlikStats requires a Globi Pro Hosting Plan or above with a MySQL database).

Globi Wins Gold Web Design Award

As one of Worlds peak internet bodies, the Awards of The World Wide Web Awards are amongst the most prestigious available and hence, amongst some of the more difficult to win on the web. And so Congratulations! goes to Globi Web Solutions as being selected to receive the World Wide Web Awards "Gold" Award. We see all the hard work and dedication that you have put into constructing your web site and your efforts are well deserved. Your site displays: A clean and organized design, user friendliness, quality content and informative information for your visitors. The Gold Award represents Web Presence at its best. To achieve this award is truly an honor. The winning site has scored between 90 and 100 points, which was not an easy task. A Gold award winning site is error free from broken links and error messages of any kind. Correct use of Meta tags and ALT tags have been used, which most search engines have picked up on "keywords" used in the "Meta Tags". This site uses advanced features, scripts and coding. Graphic Design is of the highest quality and original works of art, created by the site designer. The Gold Award site represents at least 95 percent of original content and creativity and provides outstanding design and layout of website. Its content is something that will interest any and all visitors, who visit their site. Sincerely, Awards Committee - Donna Snyder - CEO World Wide Web Awards - http://www.worldwidewebawards.net American Association Of Webmasters - http://www.aawebmasters.com AS! 5.0 Elite Award Member OF The Better Business Bureau Member World's Top AP's Listed In Webmasters Guide To Glory

Website Design Magic Pills

In every industry people seem to believe in 'magic pills' - the cheap and painless quick-fix solution to a specific problem. Yes, it's easy for us in this internet industry to laugh at offers of $100 to get a website listed in the top of search engines. But how is the layperson supposed to recognize this irrational offer? Similarly, we've all heard of these examples: "Work at home opportunity - make $1000 per week filling envelopes. No education or experience necessary!" Sound familiar? Ever tried one of these businesses? Did they work? Well if they did, you'd probably be reading this message on your laptop or PDA while sipping on a pina colada on the beach in the Bahamas. Or perhaps you've heard this one: "Scientific breakthrough formula in fat-loss. Just take one capsule with each meal and the pounds will melt off. No need to get sweaty in the gym." Or this one: "Space-age technology in this exercise equipment allows you to work every muscle group in your body. Get the body of an Adonis with only three 20-minute workouts per week." Ha! Ever fall for this? Did any of these "systems" work? No! Because if they did, you'd have the body of a god while eating pizza, swilling a beer, and never having to exercise... while reading this Newsletter from the beaches of the Bahamas. Are they amazing breakthroughs? No. Just a bunch of B.S.! If a stranger in a nice suit knocked on your door at home and offered to sell you a bottle of little white pills that will cure your flat feet, baldness, arthritis or visual astigmatism for only a $100, would you put that unknown, untested chemical in your body? Of course not. So why then do rational, sane people think they can get traffic to their website by the same 'magic pill' approach? If a professional company who can meet you in person (just like a personal trainer or a doctor) tells you that it will take a lot of time and money to achieve the desired results, why would you believe that little ad on the internet or the one that just dropped in your Inbox that promises no less than a million visitors if you just throw a $100 at it? Can you think of any legal, legitimate, straight-up, logical, way that $100 can translate into millions of visitors or top search-engine positioning? I can think of only one way --- when that $100 of your hard-earned money gets you an hour or two of hard-done labor. And although it's not enough to result in a "flood" of traffic it's certainly a more realistic investment with a more tangible return. So it all boils down to that commonsense adage --- If it seems too good to be true, it usually is. While successful website promotion begins with the planning and production of your website, from the moment you decide you need a presence on the World Wide Web, you must also begin planning, preparing, and budgeting for its successful overall marketing program.

Why you should not do SEO

OK - that title may be a little harsh. We're not suggesting not to do SEO (search Engine Optimization), we're simply suggesting there are more effective ways to tune your site and increase targeted traffic. So we know this much: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the act of tuning a website to rank highly in natural (organic) search results. The process involves tuning titles, headings, and visible text copy, to include those keywords and phrases that your specific visitors would be searching for to find your products and/or services, and then further insure that where your visitor lands is congruent with what they were in fact searching for. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is about using some or several of the tools available to you to advertise your website to generate traffic in various ways. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising for example is one form of SEM, and when done correctly, includes tuning of landing pages to maximize the conversion rate of visitors. Thus, SEO is a natural side-effect of a well implemented PPC campaign. So while tuning a page can be a costly endeavor, and is often a hit 'n miss affair, if done with a PPC campaign, the increase in purchased traffic over just doing SEO will far more quickly realize results, and thereby allow you to prove your strategy scientifically, and rapidly. In the end, once you have a positive return on investment, you'll probably not want to stop your PPC campaign - and why would you! Even if you do stop, you should still realize an increase in residual traffic just as if you had performed SEO.

Growing your List

How to build your newsletter / ezine subscriber list. Many of you have newsletters that you send out regularly, so you can appreciate the battle of growing your subscriber base. There are a few things you can do to make this task easier though. 1) Offer value Your newsletter has to contain information that people want to read. The whole purpose of your newsletter needs to be to deliver valuable information, not make a sale. 2) Offer an incentive If you offer a freebie such as an ebook or report for signing up, you will experience much higher sign-up rates; and if you deliver excellent value in your newsletter, then your subscribers will remain with you much longer. 3) Use pop-ups I know pop-ups are horrible and everyone hates them. The statistics however do not lie and show that subscription rates are much higher with pop-ups offering the newsletter and incentive. 4) Cross promote Find other newsletters and ezines with a similar target audience and swap ads with them to promote each others' newsletters. 5) Advertise If you have a little bit of budget, purchase ads in other newsletters to advertise the benefit of your newsletter along with the free incentive offer. Good luck ... and remember - NEVER SPAM anyone.

SEO Myths and Truths in Web Design

Keywords are the most crucial part of your planning. True! - Research what your target audience would search for, and use these phrases in the visible, readable, text copy of the site. Make sure you research the keywords that your clients would search for, not what you sell. Paragraph headings are important for breaking up the text. True! - In addition to breaking up the page and making it easier for humans to read, Search Engines have also been sometimes known to put a little more value on headings than on regular text too, so use your keywords here. Page Titles are not visible and therefore not important. False! - The actual Title of each page is the wording that appears in the title bar of your browser - it's not in the normal page content. Even so, this is the most critically important text as currently Search Engines put high value on this, and use it to display search results. Knowing this means that this text has to be sure to catch visitors' attention and get them to click through to your site. Good Meta Tags will get me to the top of Search Engines. False! - There are many Meta Tags, the most talked about being "Keywords". Yes, keywords are important, but need to be in the visible text copy - see point # 1. Meta Tags are invisible to the visitor and have been so abused in the past as a method to get higher rankings that Search Engines completely ignore them in their ranking algorithms now. Some Search Engines still use the "Description Meta Tag" in the display of search results, but not in evaluating relevance. Therefore put them in if you have the time, but if you don't, it shouldn't be a big deal. Inbound Links will increase my website's popularity. Maybe - Linking strategies have started to lose value primarily because crappy reciprocal link exchanges were created to cheat the engines. While it's currently still a good idea to get lots of inbound links - quality ones are what will drive traffic to your site. For example, if Microsoft links to you from their home page, it can by no means decrease your web traffic. Search Engine Optimization should be done when the site is complete. False! - In general, SEO should be part of your site planning and creation. It's not an after-sale band-aid for traffic. Rather build your site properly in the first place, and then invest your money in some decent and specific marketing - like Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and other niched advertising. To no surprise, when it comes to Search Engine Optimization there is no cut and dry all-mighty answer to this moving target. Furthermore, staying at least even mildly on top of it can sometimes feel like a full-time job, but perhaps the best rule of thumb to consider is keep it simple, and content is king. Don't worry about Search Engines - worry about your site visitors.

Contact Form Spam - A New Form of Abuse

A New Form of Abuse If the biggest action your website's Contact Form is getting these days is the insatiable spammers, then you must read this to ensure that you're protected. It seems there's no end to viruses and spam. Only a few years ago it was still okay to publish your email address on your website. Soon enough spiders started trolling the web for them and spammers followed with their unwanted solicitations, so we stopped publishing our email addresses. Without public addresses, it was rather difficult for visitors to get hold of us, so the industry adopted contact forms as the next way of communications. These were even better than regular email because you could also ask specific questions and lead prospects in certain directions before even speaking with them live. For a long time, the only drawback to contact forms was that spiders could trigger them, resulting in blank emails being sent to the site owner. No big deal really as this didn't happen too often. However, when it did start happening more prevalently, a simple check or * on a required field was all that was needed to stop this mechanical triggering, as a program would not be intelligent enough to figure out that it had to submit information in order to pass to the next step. The Temporary Fix These days you'll find that most contact forms go as far as to validate a submitter's email address to assure that the form is human submitted and not machine triggered. However, it seems this solution didn't even sustain for a year. Now the latest breed of virus and some spiders are capable of filling in proper email addresses to trigger contact forms en mass just to try and get to the next page. This is such a nuisance, and unfortunately there are really only 3 options available to us. Option 1 - Monkey See, Monkey Do Some sites now show you an obscure image that contains letters and numbers, and you are required to type in what you see as a test to prove you're human. This adds an extra step, is annoying, and is down-right frustrating when the lettering is so obscured that you can't even read it (which makes you question whether you're human after all). We would not suggest this route as it will significantly reduce the amount of true human contact that your forms deliver. Option 2 - Rules, rules, rules This option is to add logic to contact forms so that they have to adhere to more strict rules in an effort to reduce machine contact. Although this may only be temporary, a fairly strict rule-set could stamp out form-spam for a long time to come. Even simple rules like ensuring phone numbers have only numbers, names don't have odd characters like the almighty @, and similar rules, should stop spiders in their tracks. Option 3 - Get over it This is to consider simply hitting the delete key when garbage comes in. While this may not be a permanent solution, nor a high-tech one, it certainly is effective. Essentially, it all boils down to how much of a nuisance your form-spam really poses to you. One important thing to pay particular attention to though is the reason that spammers are doing this in the first place. Usually it is in an effort to exploit a security hole on a contact form to use it to send out spam from your site which can subsequently put you at risk of having your website shut down completely. So, at the very least, make sure that your site is secure. Just like Microsoft issues security patches regularly, it is a good idea to have a security audit of your own site every once in a while. Even though your site may have been secure when developed, the ever-idle hands and resourcefulness of hackers can change this in the blink of an eye.

You Must Build a Big Contact List for Marketing Power

By far the biggest mistake that many websites make these days is that they do not attempt to capture their visitor's contact information. Let's do some simple math here; If 1000 visitors come to your site and 5 make a purchase of $10 each then you could safely average that 1000 visitors would yield you $50. Now let's throw a newsletter into the equation to help stay in contact with your customers regularly. So if 1000 visitors come to your site and 5 make a purchase of $10 each then 1000 visitors yield $50 on average on first visit. Then out of these 1000 visitors, 100 sign up for your newsletter, over a period of one year 5 people of these 100 make a purchase of $10 each, then over a year, 1000 visitors would actually yield $100 on average. Even with these simple numbers as an example, that's already double! Sure, you're probably already aware of the value a newsletter could provide to your business and, yes, it takes a little effort to publish a quality newsletter that your subscribers will want to receive, but as the numbers speak for themselves - at the end of the day it could be well worth it! In time your subscriber list becomes even more valuable because these people come to know you and respect you as an expert in your field which even further increases the chance that they will buy from you. And as statistics continually show, if a customer has bought from you in the past, the chance of them buying from you again in the future is even higher (provided of course that they're happy with their first purchase). So stop considering it any longer! Start implementing the tools to capture your visitors today.

Google Adwords Changes - New Quality Score

Changes at Google HQ: Adwords PPC Revisited Google has just implemented THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE to AdWords, their Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Engine, in a long, long time. The pervious 5 cent minimum bid and 0.5% minimum click-through rate has now been replaced with a "Quality Score" system where "Inactive" keywords have higher minimum bids. This is now a much more traditional model, where once again the all-mighty dollar out-beats quality. Has Wall Street finally taken over Google headquarters? So Globi's reviewed the Pros and Cons for you right here: On the plus side, your keywords will no longer be mysteriously deactivated the second you post them (a phenomenon that has plagued advertisers for years now). Even better though, since the 5c minimum bid has been dropped, advertisers can now bid as low as ONE CENT! Obviously this would only work for really tightly-niched, less competitive keywords. On the down side though, this change means that PPC in general will become more expensive for those who don't really know what they're doing. So what that means now is because money will now prevail over the quality of each PPC campaign, most advertisers will simply just randomly throw in more money, thereby pushing the top bid prices up for keywords. Having said that, it is now even more important than ever before to work on your PPC campaign intelligently and proactively. Do this, STICK WITH IT CONTINUOUSLY and you will see results. Or, recognize where your own talents lie and get a professional to manage your campaign for you. But don't fret. Even with this change, Google's Adwords system is still the most cost effective way to get prospects to your website in an immediate and measurable way.

SEO Guarantees - The Truth

I can't even begin to count how many times a client or potential client has asked the question, "How can I get to the top of the Search Engines?". Even the most educational answer is often followed with "What guarantees do you have?" The real answer: None. So how then do you get to the top? The simple answer of course, is to spend a few billion in currency and buy the Search Engines themselves, which gives you complete control. The more realistic answer is to spend mildly more than your nearest competitor that you want to beat out of Search Engine ranks. The wrong answer is $50 or $100. Yes - I know there are companies that "guarantee" you top placement for a low price, but these are flat out scams. It's simply not possible. Think about it realistically for a moment; A search on Google for example on the term "widget" produces 4.5 MILLION search results. That means you have to compete with all of these to get to the top. So doesn't it sound reasonable that out of these 4.5 million you're not the only one entertaining professional help to get to the top? Even the most near the top spend tens of thousands of Dollars every month to get and maintain their position. A good analogy would be a poster board - you know - one of those where the general public can just pin up any notice. Well, one could guarantee to get your notice up there for the price of the notice, manpower, and any other expenses incurred in the process. No-one however could ever guarantee that your notice would remain there or remain visible though - unless you paid someone to stand there and make sure nothing happens to your notice. In the end, that would be even more costly than getting the notice up there in the first place. There is still a large mentality out there that says the internet should be free. A little logical thought though will show us why it is not so. After all - it's the old adage that you get what you pay for, and accordingly you can only expect the results that you're willing to invest in.

List Building - Your Best Online Marketing Resource

By far the biggest mistake that many websites make these days is that they do not attempt to stay in touch by way of capturing their visitors' contact information. If 1000 visitors come to your site and 5 make a purchase of $10 each then 1000 visitors yield $50 on average. Now let's say we offer a newsletter like the one you're reading now to stay in contact with your customers regularly. Now, if 1000 visitors come to your site and 5 make a purchase of $10 each then 1000 visitors yield $50 on average on the first visit. If, of these 1000 visitors, 100 sign up for your newsletter, and over a period of a year, 5 people of these 100 make a purchase of $10 each, then over a year, 1000 visitors actually yields $100 on average. With these numbers as an example, that's double! Sure, it takes effort to publish a quality newsletter that your subscribers will want to receive, but at the end of the day it could be well worth it. In time your list becomes even more valuable because these people come to know you and respect you as an expert in your field which even further increases the chance that they will buy from you. And if a customer has bought from you in the past, the chance of them buying from you again in the future is even higher (provided of course that they're happy with their first purchase). Let the list building begin ...

Website Visitor Tracking and Analytics

The more you know about your customer and your product, along with how the two interact, the better positioned you will be to improve on your business model. Grocery stores are prime examples of this. Discount membership cards enable them to track where you live, where you work, your family details, your annual income, and to retain a record of every single purchase you make at each store in their chain. Your website shouldn't be any different. If you're running an online business, the only way to determine whether your strategy is working is to measure the results. Where are your visitors coming from? What kind of people are they? What do they do when they are on your site? Are they more interested in one of your products than another? Consider for a moment the importance of actually profiling those visitors who make a purchase from you. Where do they come from? Have they bought from your competitors in the past? Why are they now doing business with you? Knowledge is power and the more you know about your clients, the better. If you can determine what's working on your website and the specifics of your customers, your marketing can be tailored to capture those most likely to buy from you.

How to Get Found on the Internet

Getting found on!the internet has been the hot tophb$djr years but now, more than ever, you have to compete with like businesses, large corporations with deep pockets and of course the cheaters. Meta Tags In the past you may have heard people talk about embedding as many random or popular words into the web site's meta tags so that these sites would pop up in hot subjects like 'Sex'. Firstly, you really don't want your business associated with irrelevant subjects like that and secondly, it wouldn't work any more anyway. The Search Engine rating systems have gotten wise to that and Meta Tags are not even being looked at for ranking anymore due to of all the random garbage that people were putting into them. The only Meta Tag that is still used, is the Description, and that is purely to show in the search results, and not used for ranking. Keywords and Phrases The new way of being found is by Keywords and Phrases. So, before you even think of approaching the Search Engines for ranking, the most important thing that you can do is make sure that the actual content that you have on your web site reflects what you do. Sounds easy but you'd be surprised how easily this can be missed by talking all around the subject of your business but never actually summarizing those keywords or phrases that Search Engines need to pick up. The good news is Search Engines have already painstakingly catalogued and researched this information based on the relevant key phrases people typically search for as well as how many competitors are aiming for that same phrase. So from here you or your developer can research keywords and phrases related to search engines and then calculate a Keyword Effectiveness Index which will help you determine the top 5 key phrases you should be implementing into your web site. Valuable Content One of the best things that you personally can do to improve Search Engine ranking is increase the valuable content on your web site. In other words, more valuable content equals higher Search Engine Ranking! Easy. Sneaky Content As you know, in any system there will always be people who are out of integrity with themselves and will want to try and cheat the system. I am referring to the people who still think they can embed a whole lot of irrelevant words right on the web page. Yes, that's right, you're looking right at it. They've just made the writing the same colour as the background. Don't bother trying this yourself. Search Engines have gotten wise to this, too. By looking into the actual code, they can determine that if there is not enough variance between colour, those words will be passed right by, and the site in question may even get banned. Nice try scammers! Search Engine Submission So now, and only now that you've done all the necessary and very relevant research and adjustments to your web site are you ready to submit the site to the main search engines. If you've asked your developer to do this for you, firstly, confirm that they are familiar with what is involved in Search Engine Ranking and secondly, be sure that they provide you with a full report detailing submission success. Particular care should also be taken toward ranking within the top 3 Search Engines as they are used for results by various secondary and tertiary engines - of which there are thousands. Directories Directories are human-edited categorized lists of links to web sites. The biggest directory on the internet today is Yahoo! which supplements it's search results with Google, the biggest search engine on the internet. Because directories are human-edited, their cost is higher than search engines, and therefore many charge for inclusion of your site. Here's the bottom line - the internet is a moving target and staying on top of these ever-changing methods of being found can be a full-time process. So be sure that your developer is prepared and, of course, qualified to help you in that area. And most importantly, while marketing to search engines can certainly positively influence the revenues generated from site visitors, it is still important to use additional offline marketing methods as well - especially if your services are offered locally.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising - Best Online Marketing

Pay Per Click is a search engine marketing strategy, where advertisers pay a set amount every time their ad is clicked by a prospect. This is known as a click-through. A PPC Search Engine enables you to list your website at the top of specific search engine results of your target audience. Your positioning depends on the keywords you want associated with your site, but also on the amount you are prepared to budget towards your enhanced listing. Think of it as an auction for the number one position. Advertisers bid against each other for higher rankings with regard to the use of specific keywords. In other words, the higher you bid, the higher your site is placed. However, unlike a print ad, with pay per click you only pay when a web-user actually clicks on your listing and connects through to your site. The other beautiful thing about a Pay Per Click campaign is that it's also measurable. For example, you know that the average cost for a particular phrase is 10c and on average it takes 100 click-throughs to make a sale. You can then easily calculate that each new customer is costing you $10. Once you know the math, it's simply a case of doubling your PPC investment to double your sales. While there are all sorts of clever strategies that one can adopt to allow you to stretch your Pay Per Click marketing budget, make sure you call Globi to help manage your campaigns for you, ensuring your return on investment is always optimized.

E-Commerce is Here to Stay

Billion of dollars are being spent online each year around the globe, as more and more companies take the plunge into the web. Consumers are becoming more trusting when considering online purchases and are using credit cards in ever-increasing numbers. With today's encryption technology, online transactions are in fact far more secure than using a credit card over the telephone. Any company putting off trading online is placing their business in serious jeopardy as sales via the web continue to skyrocket. If you decide to utilize e commerce, you could be seeing hundreds or even thousands of visitors in your online store each week. Your sales figures could double or even triple within just a few months. The Internet is an exciting and thriving place to do business, for both retailers and consumers alike. E commerce is now considered both easy and secure. If your competition is already doing it, why aren't you?

Website Design Refresh - Renew the Face of your Business

Perhaps your website has been on line for a while, and while it may be doing its job, a few changes might be in order. Maybe you've added photographs, graphics, testimonials or text over the last twelve months, yet still feel you now need a revamp. This is where a true professional can be of assistance. We've talked in previous newsletters about using a web copywriter to improve your site's look, feel and accessibility to search engines. However, employing the services of a professional graphic designer can transform your home on the web into something really special. If you already have a website up and running, perfect! A graphic designer can then closely examine what you are currently using, suggest changes and work closely with you to ensure that the next evolution of your website is something that you and your customers will be happy with. There are a multitude of design elements to help you in building your site, such as graphics, animation, dynamic images, banners, and the rest. Your designer will take a good look at what you do, who your customers are, the impression you are trying to convey and, in turn, translate it all into a website design you can be extremely proud of. Even color schemes will come under the designer's microscope. They will advise you on which colors, shades or even combinations of colors will be not only the most appealing to your visitors, but also most in keeping with the image of your company and its products. And keep in mind that this expertise is based on millions of dollars worth of studies and research to better understand how visitors will react when they land on your site. Your presence on the web is a clear reflection on your professionalism, or lack of it. If you don't take pride in your site, your apparent negligence will instantly put negative thoughts into the minds of your visitors. Using a professional designer who is an expert in their field will always prove to be a worthwhile investment

Questions and Answers for Your Website Design

Most websites that have multiple pages usually have a 'Frequently Asked Questions' or 'FAQ' page. There are several good reasons why you should include one on your website. Your FAQ section largely eliminates any confusion your prospect might have about buying your product. A confused mind almost always says no, so the better you can explain to your customer why they should buy from you, the greater your chances of success. Your FAQ also allows a prospect to grab key information quickly. It immediately creates a positive impression, because you're acknowledging that their time is precious and they want answers quickly. Your FAQ saves you time too. The more answers you provide on your website, the less customer emails you'll have to respond to that all ask the same questions repeatedly. Before you create your FAQ, make sure you do some research. Consider your favourite websites and the type of questions you might ask about the products or services described there. Then visit those same websites and review their FAQ pages. Were the questions separated into logical categories or were they put in random order? Were you able to find answers to your questions quickly? Or did you have to navigate through pages and pages to find what you were looking for? It's also a great idea to ask friends or customers to give you feedback on your own products or service. What questions did they have when they visited your website? Once you have collected a selection of comments, assemble the questions and categorize them all. For example, questions about how quickly you respond to questions should be listed under your "Help or Support" category, and so on. Your FAQ must also always be kept updated to ensure that the answers are still relevant. A monthly review is recommended so consider installing Globi's Self-Updateable Content Management System (CMS) on that particular page. Your questions and answers should remain concise, no longer than a paragraph. If a particular question requires a more detailed answer, ensure you have a link to a separate page. You should also include convenient links so that a potential customer can always contact you if they still have questions. As a final note, don't put your FAQ in a file that a prospect has to download to read. Most of your visitors won't bother to take this extra step and will abandon your site, probably forever.