I can list 20 reasons why you should blog for your small business; however, because you are a busy entrepreneur I am going to list my top three reasons:

1. You Get Buyers Through Search Engines

Blog posts are found by search engines and appearing in search engines is a must. 70-80% of buyers begin their purchasing decision with search engines.  Good bye Yellow Pages!  The new Google search logic places a greater emphasis on recent content.   By their very nature blog posts provide your website with new content on a regular basis. You don’t need to spend time thinking of changes to your About page just to keep your sites content updated. You can simply blog.  Blogging is the best way to show up on search engines for your targeted keywords.

2. You Connect with Your Prospects

When you blog your prospects get a sense of who you are and your philosophy. They feel connected to you and your blog becomes part of closing the sale in a wonderful way. It is really awesome when I have a regular blog reader call me and I don’t need to explain what I do because they already know thanks to my blog.

I’ll give you an example. I am hiring a gardener and want someone with a specific approach to gardening. After doing a few Google searches, I found a few candidates. I decided to call the fellow that blogged about his love for organic gardening and posted awesome pictures of his work with each blog posts. When I called I felt as if I knew and trusted him. The sales dance was quick – no time wasted on the what and how. We were able to get to the close very quickly; “Can you fit me into your schedule and how much do you charge?”

3. You Are the Expert

A blog enables you to establish yourself as an expert in your industry. This is so important in today’s interactive world. Do you want your customers to have confidence that you are knowledgeable? Blog about it. Write informative, relevant information your prospects are eager to understand. You can become their go to person for a specific topic. When the needs arises they will call you. Share you blog posts on Social Media networks to expand your territory.

If you blog consistently, write about the things that matter to your customers, and communicate with authority, you are increasing your visiblity and thus increasing sales.

P.S. You don’t need to be a great writer to blog. Be yourself!

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Ranking high on search engines is a must to increase sales through your website.  Studies show between 70% to 80% of buyers begin their purchasing decision with search engines.   That is HUGE!  But this post is not about how to rank high on search engines.  Its about how to get searchers to click to your website once you rank high.

The description tag to the rescue!  If you have a great description more people will click on your search listing.  Google shows the first 150 characters of the description so make it a good one.

Here is what a good description looks like in Google:

In my example, I searched for “Fine DSLR  Camera Bag”.   Onabags.com ranked #2 and the description communicates it is a high quality bag that is durable. This will get my click.  Just above the Onabags.com listing, was an Etsy.com listing (see below) but the description did not provide value.
Full disclosure: OnaBags.com is a client of mine.

The long string of DSLR terms is not telling me its a fine camera bag.  And the, “Leather Cute Owl”…well.. something about that does not convey a fine bag.

Major tip – each page on your site should be optimized for a different search term. That means each page has a unique description.

Are you ready to check your website? Here is a quick checklist.

1. Do I have a unique description tag on each page?

2. Are my descriptions compelling? Because it is my 2 second sales pitch and call to action on search engines!

3. Is the description equal to or less than 150 characters?

4. Does the meta description match the search term for which the web page is optimized?

5. Does it compel searchers to click on my link?

6. The Title Tag is just as important as the description so give it some love.

How did you do?  If you said yes to #1 you are off to a good start.

Some technical notes about meta descriptions…for the techie in you:

1. If you don’t fill out the meta description tag, Google will simply use content from your website.

2. If you use WordPress, the All In One SEO plugin let’s you add a meta description tag on each page.

3. If you have an html site, you can manually add using the following code:

<meta name=”description” content=”This is my meta description which will influence the searcher to click on my link and go to my wonderful website.” />

4. If you don’t care about these technical notes and you don’t have meta descriptions, hire a web developer today!

Share other great tips for getting people to click on your search engine listing.

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Client Trending – I keep track of the most common challenges clients present to me.  I email, post and speak on those topics. Some people see what is trending on Twitter to select their topics which sounds smart as well.  I am very invested in my clients success so I’ll stick to my client trending for now.

Opt In Form – I added an opt in form at the end of each blog post.  You’ll see one iteration of the opt in form below this post. I change it up regularly.

Above the Fold - I make sure my opt in form is always above the fold. My stats show that most people do not scroll down my home page so I moved my opt in form to the top.

Keep Testing – The language on my opt in form is constantly evolving.  The following language did NOT work: Subscribe to my newsletter and Subscribe via Email.  The words FREE, Updates, and Tips worked. Another favorite is when I detail what they will get such as “Get free tips on how to increase sales through your website.”

I Don’t Make Everything a Pitch – I respect my contacts; therefore, I don’t send out an endless stream of pitches. I follow the do unto others rule. If I subscribe to a list and get three pitches in a row without any content of value, I unsubscribe for good.

Signature Line - Add a link to your latest blog post to your email signature.  I use Wise Stamp for my email signature which is great.

Tele-summits/Web shows – I got the biggest lift when I did a 1 hour web show on UStream.  The topic was How to get on Google’s first page for $20 in 5 minutes.  It sounds too good to be true right? Well it is for real and by the time the web show was over my contact list increased by 100%. That is a one hour web show.

Reply to People – I respond to every reply I get from my contact list.  This improves my subscriber loyalty and helps me gauge what is working.

Pop Up Opt In Form – I am testing new styles on the pop up form this week and will report back my findings.  If you use WordPress there are several awesome options.

Social Media Press Releases – send  out social media press releases about your blog and topics.  I use www.prunderground.com.

What has worked for you?  Let me know.

Want the 5 Most Effective Things to do on Your Website to Increase Sales?

Last week I did a free SEO website review for many small business website owners. Amazingly, not one of them was using the free Google Webmaster Tools. What is Google Webmaster Tools(GWT)? It is a Free valuable tool that provides you with a detailed report about your website on Google. You can use it for everything from finding errors to improving your websites visibility.

If you want to get started go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ and sign up.

Below are my top 5 reasons why you should be using GWT:

1. Diagnose and Fix errors on your website – Imagine taking your car to a mechanic for a diagnostic checkup. That is exactly how GWT works. The diagnostic checkup will find what is broken on your website and allow you to fix it. Here are some things it may find.

• Malware: Malware is a malicious code designed to disrupt your website. GWT will find it for you. Once it finds it all you have to do is fix the issue.
• Crawl errors: You may not know it but many times your website has crawl errors that can hinder your SEO efforts. GWT will tell you about issues Google encounters when crawling your website. It will show you pages not found, pages that are restricted and errors in your sitemap. It will even show you mobile crawl errors.
• HTML suggestions: Yes GWT will find duplicate content on your website. It will show you exactly what the content is. Once found you can easily correct the problem

2. Links to your site – You can see who links to your website, how your data is linked and your most linked content. Thanks to this feature, I was able to find a website that had duplicated Marknet Group. It was like looking at a carbon copy of our website but with a different company name and URL.

3.  Keywords – You can find out what keywords are being used to find your website. Which keywords are the most popular and what pages are using them.

4.  Receive inbox alerts – GWT will alert you if they find any malware or errors on your website. You will receive a detailed description of the error.

5.  +1 Metrics – GWT will tell you how the +1 button affect traffic coming to your website.

• Find out how +1 affects your sites performance in search engines
• See the total number of times your website and web pages have been +1′d
• Check click through rates with our without the +1 button.

There is so much more I can cover on the reasons you should be using Google Webmaster Tools. I think you get the idea here. If you are looking to get started with webmaster tools and have no idea how to get started or how to use webmaster tools, feel free to contact me at 845-259-9396 or email me directly at amiranda@marknetgroup.com.

The term search engine optimization (SEO) has become synonymous with Google. 15 years ago when I started doing SEO not many people knew what it was.  Now with the popularity of Google and social media, everyone knows what is SEO – (Well almost everyone).  The problem is that many people have become overnight experts on search engine optimization techniques.  I have read numerous blog post and seen many videos that totally misinform people. Many people think that because it is written or there is a video about it, then it must be true. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter do not help at all. Just go to Twitter and type the hashtag #seo and you will see tons of tips on proper SEO.

Below are the top 5 myths I heard via social media last week:

1. “The higher the PageRank the higher you will rank” – Years ago PageRank used to matter. Not anymore. PageRank is just one of over 200 algorithms that determine how a site is ranked by Google. I have clients ranking on Google with ZERO PageRank.
2. “Bolding all keywords on your page help your rankings” – Not true. As a matter of fact, bolding  keywords will make your site look spammy and ugly. Bolding does not increase your chances of ranking higher at all.
3. “Meta keywords will boost my rankings” – Using meta keywords is time wasted.  Google does not even factor it into their algorithm. Using meta descriptions helps but does not guarantee anything.
4. “Buying Links from a link broker will help my rankings” – On the contrary…Buying links can hurt you big time. If the websites you are linking to are not good quality sites or are not relevant to your website, you will drop in rankings…Hello panda Update…
5. “Update your website content regularly” – Again another big myth. This can actually hurt you big time. Google may spider your website just as you change your content. There are many websites with old content that rank really well. I have a client with a Hallmark store website that has never changed their content and they outrank just about every Hallmark store in the country. Save the fresh for your blog…

Unless you are an SEO professional and keep up with the current trends, there is no way to know for sure if these search engine optimization tips are fact or fiction. If you have any questions and are in doubt about any tip you receive about SEO, feel free to call me at 845-259-9396 or email me at amiranda@marknetgroup.com.

If you are interested in scheduling a FREE 15 minute SEO audit of your website, you can go to http://marknetgroup.com/services/free-15-minute-seo-website-review and fill out the form to schedule an appointment. You may even qualify for a $100 towards Google Adwords Express.

Your website is one of your best sales channels or not!  I have been involved in hundreds of web projects and a lot of those websites are revenue generating machines.  Over the years, I have compiled my list of do’s and dont’s to increase sales through your website.  Here are my top five:

1. The Primary Action Belongs on the Home Page - Ask yourself “what is the primary action I want the visitor to take?”  The primary action must generate sales so be clear on what leads to sales.  If you sell a service visitors can’t buy on your site but they buy in response to your monthly email, the primary action should be getting them to subscribe to your fabulous emails. The design, copy and structure must drive them to take the primary action.

2. Write copy that Influences your Target Market to Buy - If you understand why people buy, you can communicate why you are the right choice.  Testimonials, displaying results and addressing their pain points will generate sales because you will connect with your target market.  The visitor should read your copy and think, “I must work with [insert you] because [the results they desire] or [insert pain you will alleviate].   Your design, copy, images and layout must work together to trigger those emotions in your visitor.  This assumes you researched your market and selling a viable product/service at a marketable price. I recommend asking your customers why they buy from you and using that language in your copy.  But that is another topic!

3. E Commerce Sites = Great Pictures – You must have great pictures if you sell products.  Enough said!

4. Optimize for Search Engines In A Human Way – You need visitors to make sales; therefore, search engine results must be a goal.  Don’t sacrifice search engine results for a cool design that is not search engine friendly.  Use proper on-site search engine optimization techniques and use Google Analytics.  Create a blog because it’s great for search engines.  Insert search terms in your copy without sacrificing the appeal to your target market.  See #2 above.

5. Keep Improving Your Website - From day one, I keep a list of specific results I need to increase sales.   For example, 100 email subscribers a month, 50% conversion rate, 40% repeat visitors to my blog, show up on the first page of Google for xyz search term.  Check your on-site goals regularly and begin testing different variables to improve your website.  Minor changes can increase sales. Here are some simple changes that lead to an increase in sales:

- Test different blog titles
- Change your opt-in offer
- Reword your packages
- Change your photos
- Update your title tags for the search engines

Don’t let your site get old and irrelevant. Always test and look for ways to make your website a better sales channel.

What are your favorite ways to increase sales through your website?

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Below I have posted specific instructions on using proper title tag structure. Hopefully, this will help you create the proper title tags using the correct targeted phrases.

First lets make sure that everyone knows what a title tag is and where it is located.

• The title tags are what appear in the clickable link on the search engine results page.

• They are located on the top left hand corner of your browser.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get started:

1. Title tags should be no longer than 65 characters – While it is OK to have to have over 65 characters, the search engines pick up only the first 65 characters of the title tag.
2. Keywords – Do not use single word keywords in your title tags. This is one of the biggest errors I see on websites. I have looked at so many websites that have this error. Even the ones that are using so called SEO experts, have it on their sites.
3. Keyword Phrases - Instead of Keywords, your title tag should contain specific keyword phrases. For example, if your website was an acupuncture site and you were located in Brewster NY, you would not use: “Acupuncture, Brewster NY,” instead use: “Acupuncturist Brewster NY” It is more specific and targeted to you geographic location.
4. Commas – I can say without a doubt, that just about all my Facebook friends who have a website, are using commas on their title tags. Get rid of them now!!. If you have keyword phrases separated by commas, it throws a red flag and Google will most likely ignore the phrase and consider it spam.
5. Hyphens & Pipes – These are appropriate keyword phrase separators. There are others you may use, just do not use commas.
6. Stop Word – Do not bother using stop words such as: the, it, I, be..etc. Google discounts them and you waste space.
7. Text Copy - Once you have written your SEO optimized text for you content, use keyword phrases with specific keywords from within the text. In the example below, notice the highlighted keywords within the content for www.eudoxieacupuncture.com. The keywords were combined to create the title tag keyword phrase (Acupuncture Brewster NY).

When you do a Google search for that phrase, notice it shows up within the first 5 rankings.

Below are some more quick tips:

1. Use at least 2 keyword phrases per page
2. Use a unique title tag for each page
3. Do not use the same keyword phrase and title tags on every page
4. Use keyword phrases that are relevant to your page
5. Do not use a cluster of single keywords as title tags
6. Avoid stop words such as: it, the, that, he, be. Google does not recognize it and it frees up space.
7. Do not use the company name by itself without any keyword phrases
8. Do not use, untitled document, website URL or anything else that is useless to the search engine.

Well that is it for now my friends. I hope this information has been helpful to you. Watch for my next post about Meta Tag Descriptions.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at amiranda@marknetgroup.com. You can also follow me us at:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marknetgroup

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marknetgroup

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/mralexmiranda

Why set up goals?

Goals gives you an easy way to look at what is generating revenue, or isn’t, which gives you the data to take action and get better results.  If you have an eCommerce site, you may want to create a Goal for specific products. You may also want to measure what steps they take to checkout.  This helps you understand where they abandon the purchase.  In Google Analytics, you can create funnels and track conversions at each step in the process.

Let’s Set up the Goal in Google Analytics

1. First, you have to decide what you want to measure.  Let’s assume you want to create a Goal for an opt in form that takes the visitor to a thank you page.

2. Log into your Google Analytics.  You will see your website profile listed, click on the EDIT link under the Actions column.

3. You are now in the Profile Settings page. Click on the ADD GOAL link under the Goals section.  You can add up to four sets with five goals in each set.

Add Goal in the website profile page

4. You are now in the Add Goals page.

- Enter the Goal Name. I like to give it a name that relates to the specific transaction especially if I am going to set up multiple goals.  Set the Goal to Active.

- Next, select the Goal Type. In our example, it is a URL destination because the person is sent to a thank you page after they submit the form.

- In the Goal URL field, enter the URL as it appears after your domain name. For example, if the thank you page is http://www.marknetgroup.com/thankyou.html, enter /thankyou.html.  You do NOT need to enter the entire domain.

- You can enter a Goal Value which is the amount of revenue the conversion creates.  For example, converting a $75.00 product will have a Goal Value of $75.00.

Add Goals page

5.  Adding a Funnel is optional but recommended.  A funnel represents the path you expect visitors to take on their way to converting to the goal.  For example, as Google states, funnels in an e-commerce goal may include the first page of your checkout process, then the shipping address info page, and finally the credit card information page. The only report that shows the funnel path is the Funnel Visualization report.

- You will enter each step leading up to the final conversion. In my example, it is the initial landing page.

Adding a Funnel in Google Analytics

Congratulations!  You have created a Goal in Google Analytics.

6. Now for the best part, analyzing your Goals. In Google Analytics, click on VIEW REPORTS and then the GOALS link.  You can now view the conversion rate for each Goal, the total value and overall performance. In my example, I can clearly see that Goal 4 is not doing well.  Clicking on the Funnel Visualization link displays your Funnel metrics.  Based on the above results, I will immediately go to the Goal 4 page and make changes until we have met the desired goal.  Actually, once we meet the desired goal we raise the bar because a revenue generating customer is a raving fan!

Viewing Funnel Results

Setting up Goals is one of many ways you can use Google Analytics to measure and improve the effectiveness of your web presence.  Always test, always measure and continually look to improve your conversion rates.

For more tips on how to increase your revenue and use Google Analytics, sign up for our Free tips.

It’s important to understand that not everyone that visits your website or wants your product or service is your ideal customer.  Your ideal customer is that person that if everyone that bought from you were this person, you would be:

• happy servicing them,
• making a profit,
• and they will be delighted with your work.

Once we understand who is your ideal customer is, I can build a website that converts your visitors into customers.

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Here at MarkNet Group, we truly want to help you succeed. We are more than a company who provides you with a specific good at an agreed upon price. We are here to create you a site that you want need to help your business grow. You can be a large corporation, entrepreneur, non-profit organization or someone looking for a personal site; we use all our time and effort to assist you with your goals.

It is important for both us, your Web Development Team, and you, the client, to know what you want from your site. It is easy to know what you want your site to look like, but more importantly, you need to know what you want your site to say.

Are you trying to sell something? Trying to gain awareness for your cause? Trying to share information with the public? These are just some of the questions you need to ask yourself before you start drafting the content for your website. Many times, I have clients give me content for their site, where they go in so many different directions. Not only is this damaging to your site, but it also slows down the creation of your site due to constant overhauls.

Some important things you need to consider before getting a website are:

• Why do I need a website?

This seems so basic, but it is constantly overlooked. You need to know why you need a site, and then from there, everything will fall into place.

• What do I visors of my site to learn?

Do you want them to learn about your products? Or do you want to educate them on a certain area you are familiar with? By sharing this with us, we can create a site for your unique needs.

• What do I want to avoid?

Knowing what you don’t want, is just as important as what you do want.

How else can we help you? By suggesting ideas for your site, that you may have not thought of yourself. We may have an idea for you, and we always appreciate when clients allow us to use our experience. Further, there may be times when we know an idea won’t work, and we will respectfully let you know when that happens, and always suggest alternative ideas.
Together, we can both help each other, and create you the ideal website for all your specific needs!

Peace, Love and Tweets:

-Jacqueline