Businesses Sometimes Ignore SEO Strategies

I speak with a lot of small businesses and they have some wild ideas about what it takes to be successful online.

Periodically I’ll dive into their thinking and offer ways to work through the issues they face.

One problem is they don’t understand search engine optimization – SEO. I can explain that it involves selecting keywords and integrating them into a web site (source code and text). Some of them wonder what that really means.

When I share that the words should be on the web site (it really doesn’t happen without touching the web site), they wonder what that might mean to the design.

One business wasn’t real keen on disturbing the design with words (apparently everything is supposed to be pretty with text a part of images). I made the case for appropriate sections, touches of text. The business rejected SEO. I think it’s just because the overall look mattered more and the executive was not able to grasp what text and SEO could accomplish within a nice design.

Instead of welcoming SEO, the start up ignored it.

Later, the executive asked for SEO after the design went ahead with a design that didn’t favor SEO.

Now I’ll try to work with the design with the possibility that the design will need to be modified. It’s just a shame that SEO wasn’t given a chance in the first place.

When companies are all about the visual and skip the SEO strategy, they basically declare: “I want to limit my search engine visibility and let others get the visitors.”

Internet Home Page Marketing Tips

If you want to do better with search engines, pay attention to your Internet home page that packs a lot of power – and for good reason.

It’s typically the most visited page and your web site navigation points to it.

Sure, you may want someone to go to a specific product or service page.

At the end of the day it may be the home page that they discover first.

What’s on that page that may drive someone to the right page after the home page. What conversion opportunities are there?  Is there a short form? What about a phone number?  Is there a download opportunity for a white paper? Can you announce a special offer?

A home page does so well because other web sites link to it from the outside.  It’s not abnormal for a newsletter and other web site or a directory to link your home page merely out of protocol. In other words, it’s the beneficiary of how people link. Links are crucial because search engines put a lot of stock in them.

Search engines determine whether websites linking to yours are related. Search engines also look at what text someone uses when they link to you, especially the text that’s within the link or near the link. Everything makes a difference.

Again, your home page needs a terrific web design. What words are you using and where are they located?  What headlines and subheads are you using? What words are boldfaced and what words are hyperlinked? What pictures you use will make an impact. Your home page must make it easy for someone to get around and to understand what it is you even do.

If your home page ranks well for some keywords, don’t do anything drastic. If you go in, make simple changes, subtle adjustments and measure the results.  You don’t want to capsize your efforts just because you get a little too greedy or you naively make alterations without really knowing what you’re doing.

Need an online marketing specialist? I can help.

Website Marketing Strategy – Prep the Destination Page

When working with an online marketing firm, you’ll hear a lot about landing pages.  Why aren’t they just called website pages?

We call them landing pages because it’s a more definitive way to convey the purpose. Someone may land on the page you told him to visit.  Maybe you can secure a link from another website and point it to a particular page.  Maybe you should buy some ads through Google and designate a page that you hope is persuasive enough to generate a lead or a sale.

It’s unlikely that any page on a website will be as compelling as the next.  Sure, you can add your phone number on every page.  Or, sometimes you may see a response form throughout the website.

But a landing page in the strictest sense has a very limited role.  Its job, if designed well, is to convince someone to do something.  Many companies make the mistake of designing a website and then driving traffic to a page without adapting the page to achieve established objectives.  In other words, the page should be designed to accomplish a very specific goal.  In some cases, you may not even want the navigation to appear.  If you just bought an ad on Google and someone clicks to a page, maybe he should be making a phone call for filling out a form based on that page information.  He shouldn’t have to wander around a website to make a decision.

Some executives I’ve spoken with seem concerned that they will pay for clicks and connect with searchers through the page only to have many of the new visitors abandon the page and move on.  It seems like a waste of money to them.  The truth is, if you get 100 visitors to a page, and 10 of them do something, that’s pretty successful. What’s your website marketing strategy?

CMS Tips from a Web Site Marketing Company

You have to wonder about those Content Management Systems.

In Aisle #8 of my series, “SEO Is NOT a candy Store” I look at major issues you can encounter with a CMS.

CMS technology can be a delight to any web site developer.  And why not?  It sure makes it easier to start and manage a website.  But how likely is it that creating and a website is the only objective as a business tries to market on the Internet?  Several other factors should not be neglected.  A key one is search engine optimization.

People implement a CMS and they are hurt by their own ignorance.  You might think a CMS will help you rank with search engines (it can), but in reality they can actually hurt you.  If you don’t want a CMS  to work against you, learn what you’re going to play went before you get too involved.

For example search engines may not be able to find all of your pages because of the way that the CMS works.  In other words, you may be hurting your leads or sales.

As a web site marketing company, I recommend that you look at companies that are using a CMS and find out how well they do on search engines.  You could go to Google, for example and type site:www.nameofthewebsite.com.  You will be able to see many of the pages that are indexed on google.  Does it look like decent pages have been captured by the world’s most popular search engine?

A downside to using a CMS is that it’s often not setup for search engine optimization.  For example, in the best scenario, you would want independence between the page title, the page header and the navigation.

I’ve seen systems with the same words in the navigation also appear in the header and in the page title.  That’s ridiculous.  The keyword you target in the title often is similar but not necessarily identical to the page header.  And you can’t fit all keywords into the navigation.  Take a look at the CMS that you’re considering and see how flexible it is for your needs.  Ask the right questions.

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