You Lost Them at Hello, Web sites Are for More than Generating Traffic

You lost them at Hello. Now what do you do? You are finally getting someInternet traffic on your site, with higher organic rankings or PPC activity. So what! Traffic alone will not pay the bills.Let’s be honest, the average site visitor will give you only five seconds to draw them in, to peak their curiosity. To maximize the value of this new traffic you must get these visitors to do something, to take action.Ask yourself these questions, with the correct answers you are on your way to higher click-throughs and conversion rates. What is the focal point of my landing page or Web site? Am I getting visitors to focus on what is important or am I distracting them? Do I have any calls to action, meaning does anything on my landing page prompt the visitor to do something? Have I tested different content, text sizes and other attributes for user appeal?There is an enormous amount of psychological differences in user base and target audiences, are you testing to find out what appeals to your specific audience? Is there any sense of urgency to prompt action?Answering these questions and leveraging your answers will have you on your way to keeping your visitors interested and helping them take action.

One Size Fits All Search Marketing?

What is it with this industry we know as search marketing?It seems customer after customer has worked with a previous vendor that when asked about their services simply hands the customer a “Chinese menu” price list and lets them order a solution a la carte.How can this method work?How can you be sure of successful results when you are buying the same size solution offering as every other company in any industry is buying? If you sell products are your needs the same as someone that provides service? Are you in the consumer market or business to business? Every company has different goals, objectives and needs.And further, every company is at a different maturation phase of search marketing.Do yourself a favor, pass on the two egg rolls and chicken fried rice and partner with a firm that is interested in your business, the direction you are heading as an organization and is willing to tailor a solution specifically for you. Make them demonstrate they know you, your competition and your marketplace before beginning an engagement.One size never fits everyone and your business should not be forced into a too big or too small solution but one that is tailored just for you.Tip: Find out the top 10 questions to ask before hiring an SEO consultant.

Is your Web site Pretty or Profitable?

photo credit: Koshyk
Every week I am reminded of a common problem many businesses don’t even realize they have—the quintessential form over function problem. Many companies approach their Web site design from the perspective of the consumer only. 

Unfortunately customers have very little impact on how you rank within the search engines.  And without being ranked, those all-important customers will not find you.

“Businesses tend to spend it all to look cool online and not a dime on how the site can be found,” laments Gartner Research Vice President Gene Alvarez.“

“At least one-third of the design budget should be allocated to site discovery on things like keywords, reviewing pages for Web-crawler-friendly attributes and the development of a site map.”

When making the decision to launch a new site or embark on a re-design answer these three questions and you will be on your way to better findability:

• What is your objective for the newly designed site?
• What critical business information do want the search engines to find?
• Have you established a budget for search marketing?

Spending money on a new site which is invisible to your future customers is a wasted investment.  For more information download our Guide to Findability here.

Back to Basics: What is Search Engine Marketing and Why Is It Important?

Traffic is important, but even more critical factors are click-through and conversion. Traffic is great, but traffic alone on your site does not pay the bills.What makes the ROI in Search Marketing so powerful is when visitors to your site are encouraged through best practices to click through, or look deeper into the site. Remember that your site is like a virtual salesperson. It must attract visitors, engage them in conversation, answer objections, present solutions to their needs and finally close the deal.Last and even most critical is the ability to generate and improve upon Web site traffic conversions. In a conversion, a visitor agrees to take the next step, to sign up for a white paper or account and even to purchase something from the site. This is the close, and without it you simply have visitors rather than customers.A properly thought out and executed strategy will include all of the facets mentioned above. This comprehensive approach can lead to dramatic improvements in all of these areas.

You Know Your Business, But Do Your Customers Know More?

Keywords really can make or break a solid campaign. This applies to most facets of Search Marketing (SEO, PPC, Social Networking, etc.)Why are keywords important?Without them your targeted audience cannot find the products, services or information that is key about your business. Think of keywords as the clues that lead your customer to their desired solution.How do I select keywords?You know your business better than anyone, so shouldn’t you be the omniscient authority on your key search terms? That would be the most logical choice and if you are shaking your head in agreement, you are dead wrong.This is what gets many talented business owners and marketing folks into problems. Your personal knowledge of your business and appropriate words are only truly valuable at the very beginning of a campaign. The most valuable keywords will come from your customers and potential clients and watching the ongoing movement in the marketplace.I can hear your next question, “So how do I find out what they want and/or what they type into search engines?”The answer is research and test, test, test. The whiz-bang, mysterious dark art to search marketing is there are no secrets! It’s all research, analysis, strong strategies and repeated testing. Hmmm, that sounds like the same solid marketing principles that have been used for years.Leverage the data that is provided in initial campaigns to formulate stronger campaigns over time to deliver exceptional results.Tip: Use the research toolset provided at tools.seobook.com and you will be ahead of the competition.Use these free tools to find out what people are searching for and what they’re doing online.www.google.com/webhp?complete=1www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.htmlanswers.yahoo.comgroups.google.comwww.rankpulse.com

Use Gidgets for Viral Marketing Success

Widgets or gadgets how are they different?Well they aren’t, so why not combine the concept here and stop the confusion, let’s call them gidgets. Now that we have cleared up that formality how can gidgets help with your viral marketing campaigns?Jeff Huber, VP of Engineering for Google explained, “Gidgets are being created using rss, html, flash, and css and gadgets that are open, easy, mashable, packable, portable, and embeddable.” And, “what rss did for content, gidgets are doing for apps.”Ok, he didn’t say gidget, or widget, but we have covered that already.Why is this important? We we know the re-usable pieces, parts and mash-ups are easier to wire together in usable ways. An example of this is the mortgage calculator. When branded correctly, and created with new twists, turns, humor, and/or value—your site visitors may use it (first) and may find it useful or entertaining enough to embark on the journey we know as viral marketing and email it to someone (second), who in turn keeps the fire going and sends it to their friends and hence the virus is off and running, driving traffic like mad.If set up correctly with back-links and not too “pitchy” it can be a very worthwhile exercise. While many say formulas exist for viral marketing using widgets and gadgets, I say it’s all about “strategy” and “testing.” Google has mastered gadgets creation and many companies are creating mash-ups to intermix technology, widgets and gadgets for useful applications.Resources:Check out Ning.com as a platform to build your own.Build your own widgets using Opera.Create a community on your site using KickApps!

Your Web Site Is a Loser, So Why Don’t You Kill It?

The Biggest Loser is a coveted title when it comes to the battle of the bulge, not so much when it describes your Web site.How do you know if your site is a loser?For many it’s not that obvious that the site they call their own is not making the cut. It can sometimes be hard to see past your hard work of getting the site up to an honest evaluation. So what defines a Web site loser on the internet? Ideally, a site should:

• Generate relevant traffic
• Get viewers to click-through
• Get users to convert to some sort of action

Well, now you know what to look for. So basically your site should get people there, keep them interested and take desired action. But how can you validate the factors mentioned above? A simple to use tool for validating your current status is www.alexa.com.With Alexa you can measure your current ranking and measure the page views of each visitor. The higher the number (ranking), the worse your site is doing. So a 410,000 Alexa ranking is not great. The page view data is a useful tool for seeing how effective the click-through techniques are on your site. The more page views per visitor the better.One final simple but important tool is the Google page rank tool, google.com/webmasters/tools. It is also available as part of the Google tool bar. A page rank of two is not a good page rank, whereas a page rank of six or seven is fantastic.Leverage the tools mentioned above to determine whether your website is a loser or not.