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Great Website Design is Worthless without Great Web Development

December 19, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

I tried out a website design and development company several months ago. The design capabilities and work output was great. However, their development team was inexperienced, took short cuts, created shoddy code- simply put, they almost screwed up the web project. I had to assign the development work to an independent developer that I know well. In a few days, he was able to untangle their mess and helped me develop a really solid website that looked, and most importantly, worked great.

Lesson Learned: A web design firm can put out excellent designs but that is really nothing without having excellent web development as its backbone. Poor web development can really ruin a website’s experience and effectiveness.

I have a lot of web design firms approach me to do work for us, but many of them have the same unfortunate ailment…quite capable website design, but shoddy web development. Finding a web firm who can do both design and development equally well is challenging- this is why I keep my design and development functions separate in our website design projects, giving my clients the best of both worlds. My designers can focus on what they do best: design, colors, flow, usability. My developers can focus on what they do best: code, performance, efficiency, workability.

So You May be Asking: What is Web Development?

In a word: Customization.

A good web project is one that is customized for the particular client. Good web development takes the design the client approves and makes it actually work. A web developer knows programming and code; knows work flow; knows efficiencies; knows how to make something work well for the project requirements. This could be a Content Management System (CMS) that is specifically “designed” by the web developer so the client can manage the website easily, or could be a custom Check Out Cart System, a Newsletter email system, JavaScript/Flash Presentation, Language Translation/Localization, WordPress/Drupal/Joomla Customization, Cross Browser Compatibility, Website Performance/Efficiency– it is host of things, mostly revolving around good programming and coding. Web development is the foundation, the backbone to a website: it is the code that users never see but makes the website engine work well. High level website customization per client requirements is what great web development is really about.

Why is Web Development Important?

Web development is crucial in a web project because it is the architecture behind the website’s design. A website can be designed for maximum user experience and ease of use, but without great web development, the site won’t work well and the designer’s work will go down the drain. In all actuality, web development is far more important than website design. Web design gets all the attention and lauding in a web project and is important, yet it is the web development which really makes the web project a success, or lack thereof.

Analyze Website Design & Web Development Separately When Assessing a Web Design Firm

If you have a web project for web companies to bid on, be sure to analyze their development skills, as much as, if not more, their design skills. Ask hard questions about how their web developers will approach and address your specific website requirements. Look very carefully at their web design projects. Does the website work well? What is the back end for the client like? Does it perform well? Does it load well? Don’t awed by a design firm’s design capability and overlook the most important component of a web project: development. If a website is not working well, it may not be a design flaw, it may be a poor backbone.

Consider Web Design & Development as a Whole

In the previous paragraph, I said assess design and development separately. But that is just for assessment of skill and capability. It is vitally important that both design and development are considered as a whole in a web project, and how each affects the other. Both design and development must be considered when developing a web project, and as a business consultant and web expert, this is why customers come to me for their web design projects. They come to me because they want a stunning website that works well and will generate business. This is a four pronged challenge: design, development, search engine optimization, internet marketing. Additionally, on a Global basis, clients come to me because they want their website to reflect their strategic plan and be part of their strategic planning process and marketing systems. This is what a good web project encompasses, and unfortunately, many web design firms can simply not provide what a client truly needs.

My Advice: Take the time to develop out what your website project really is, what it needs to accomplish, and its implementation steps…take the time to figure out how your company will support and maintain the project. Start with the big picture and nail it down to its elements, both your website design and development will benefit, and most importantly, your business will benefit with added revenue.

Web Design & Development is Nothing without Great SEO

This could be the title of another blog post (and may well be in the future)…

My point is simple: without great search engine optimization, and how a website is to be found and marketed, then all the design and development are for naught. Before a website project is initiated, its SEO and marketing must be defined, designed and tested. The SEO and marketing of the website must be integral to the website design and development. Otherwise, you have a pretty brochure on the web that may look good but does nothing for your company. A website is not a brochure…so  many companies use them as brochures because they don’t really know how to effectively use a website per its intended and best use.

A website is not static like a brochure, it is dynamic. A website does not need fulfillment and follow up like a brochure needs. A website, when properly designed, developed, SEOed and marketed, is a sales and profit machine that will autonomously outwork and outperform the best sales people in the world (it is actually a sales person’s best friend). It never takes a day off and markets your company 24×7, 365 days a year. Maximize its best use!

Posted in Business Internet Strategies. Comment

WordPress is the Best Overall Website CMS and Publishing Platform

October 3, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

There are a ton of web content management systems (CMS), and publishing, development and design platforms to choose from, both open source and paid. I have tried them all, and I find that WordPress is the superior choice. Here is why…

WordPress is a User Friendly CMS

WordPress when it is set up and customized correctly is very easy for any skill level person to handle content on a website once it is in initially developed by a professional. Changing and adding content is a cinch. Even changing and adding pictures and videos is easy. You can even add more navigation structure simply as well.

I find so many of the other content management systems out there to be very user un-friendly, complicated, and in many cases, don’t work well. Why fight with your CMS or screw up your clean website design, or mess up your nice search engine optimization when using a website publishing platform? You don’t have to and WordPress is simple to learn and quick to use.

Customization of WordPress is Key

To get the real benefit from WordPress, the publishing platform must be customized to the website project and the end users. This is why it is good to first start with a professional website design company that has a lot of expertise and proficiency in WordPress. WordPress is an open source platform that offers a “generic” web design, development and publishing platform, but for it to be effective and useful, it must be further customized.

There are a bunch of plugins for WordPress that cover a lot of the customization but there are also tweaks needed in the web development process itself that need to be done so you have a completely customized solution and a stunning website that doesn’t look like the regular WordPress themes that exist. You can achieve sophisticated website design and development customization and produce a stunning looking website (i.e. high design) that is very SEO friendly using WordPress. The trick is finding a web developer and designer that specializes in WordPress website design.

Recommended WordPress Plug Ins

Here is a list of the most common plug ins we use when customizing a WordPress Website and Blog for a client. This is a “standard” for us. We add more as needed to customize the website and blog for the client’s specific needs and issues. You need to understand how to manage and optimize the resources on WordPress very well when using so many plug ins; otherwise, your website and blog will be slow to load, and you will be frustrated as a CMS user in the back end use of WP. Plugins offer great customization, but they add resource load so you must manage and weigh both as you build out the website and blog.

Add to Any: Allows sharing your website content throughout the internet. Automatically adds the Add to Any button to your website pages and blog posts.

Admin Bar Removal: Removes excess code of the new Admin Bar in the WP platform, front and back end, so that the memory load is minimal on the user’s computer.

Akismet: Protect your blog from trackback and comment spam.

All in One SEO Pack: Makes your WordPress website completely SEO maximized. Recommend the Pro Version.

Anti Feed Scraper Message: Prevents your RSS feed from being scraped without attribution. Adds a customizable message with a link back to your website so that if a blog post is copied and pasted on another website/blog, you at least have a back link and some attribution.

Breadcrumb NavXT: Adds breadcrumb navigation links so the website visitor knows their navigation path at any time and can easily navigate a page intensive website. Also adds fantastic SEO value.

Contact Form 7: Great customizable contact form generator and manager. Very flexible.

Did You Pass Math?: Restricts comment spam by throwing the commenter an easy math question to solve.

Google XML Sitemap for Videos: Creates an XML sitemap for all the videos on your website or blog.

Google XML Sitemaps: Creates a sitemap so the search engines index and crawl your site.

Hyper Cache: Cache system that improves a WP website’s performance and saves resources. Pages will load quickly and cleanly for the web visitor. Adds SEO value.

MHR Custom Anti Copy: Prevents blatant copying of your valuable website and blog content. Can be customized so your forms and payment buttons still work correctly.

Newsletter Pro: Forget paying for an email service like Constant Contact. Build your newsletter delivery system seamlessly into your WP platform. Allows for customized design and high customization of email campaigns.

Permalink Editor: You can customize the WordPress link structure to allow the addition of prefixes or file extensions to your page URLs. For instance, your URL can appear as .html, instead of the typical WP link structure. You can customize site wide, or on a particular page or post.  

Subscribe 2: Great email notifying system when you post new content on your website or blog.

WordPress Database Backup: On demand back up of your WP database. You can never be too careful.

WordPress Hashcash: Blocks spam robots.

WP Print: Displays a print version of your post or page.

WP reCAPTCHA: reCAPTCHA anti-spam solution.

Posted in Business Internet Strategies. Comment

The Number One Search Engine Optimization Strategy

September 26, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

There are so many search engine optimization experts, firms, gurus, contractors out there espousing all kinds of tactics to help your website get ranked organically in the search engines. The list of SEO services/tactics could involve: social bookmarks, forum posts and linking, blog comments, high PR back links, social media linking, EDU/GOV back links, link wheels, articles, blogging, directory submissions, and the list goes on and on…Some work, some don’t- most depend on effective implementation, which is lacking in the SEO services world.

The Key is Content

SEO is really only about relevant content- that is really what the search engines care about. Having tons of back links factors in some (as well as link diversity), but what really drives rank is contextual back links. These are back links containing your keywords and are placed in relevant content about the keyword subject. Contextual back links are important on your website and off your website. Other respected websites and blogs posting relevant content with your keywords linking back to the web page you are trying to get ranked is very important too.

Step 1 – Develop SEO Content on Your Website, Blog & Social Properties  

Before any back linking from other websites and blogs are going to help you at all in your search engine optimization strategy, you need to have solid relevant content on all your targeted web pages and properties. Create this content first and keep it refreshed. Ensure you cross link key words throughout your sites so the search engines know what content you are offering.

Step 2 – Develop Contextual Back Links

Having your relevant content published by another website or blog containing your important keyword back links is crucial to ranking well in the organic search results. Personally, I do not like Article Directory sites. Why? The back links are of low quality, often found at the bottom of the article in the Article Resource area. What you need in your SEO strategy are contextual back links that are in the Body of relevant content featured on a blog or website, preferably one that is your industry/niche and one that is respected.

Consistency is Important

Consistently having your contextual keywords back linking to your key relevant content pages day in and day out is what gives you rank, and most importantly, helps to preserve your rank. There must be fresh content containing your keyword back links out on the internet on a daily basis. Sound like a tall task? It is- particularly if you are trying to rank for numerous and competitive keywords. This is why search engine optimization companies and SEO services have flourished in recent years as the work is intensive, exacting and time consuming.

The problem is, most SEO firms do not provide the quality contextual back links I have been writing about in this post. Rather, they offer sub-par linking strategies that are typically very poorly implemented, with lots of mistakes, and if they get you some ranking, it doesn’t last. Carefully examine how the SEO company goes about its SEO strategy, and if it is all about relevant content, both on and off your website, or about massive back linking and hoping for the best. SEO can be a game changing strategy for many companies, particularly in a tough recession driven market, but it needs to be done right and always have Content as the key strategy.

Posted in Business Internet Strategies, Business Marketing Strategies. Comment

Recession Tactic 101 – Do Not Reduce Your Pricing!

September 19, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

Well, it is great to get back to blogging after a long absence. I have been waiting on our new website and blog to be done before getting back into regular blogging. And now they are done! Let me know what you think about the new look and content.

This recession has a lot of companies questioning their tactics and pricing. Question your marketing and tactics but not your pricing. All too often I see companies who are experiencing less business reduce their prices. This is often a fatal mistake. The answer is not price reduction!

In particular, I have seen construction industry companies slashing pricing, thinking that is what is needed to get business in this recession. All too often they find this makes it worse with no end in sight. If you have a good price for the value you offer for your product or service, either leave it alone, or even increase it. Yep, I said price increase in a Recession! (and I am not crazy)

Pricing is often just a part of a very complex picture of a company’s success. There are so many other factors to consider in relation to and outside of pricing. Things like efficiency, cash flow, profitability, employees, management, etc all have to be considered, and the business needs to be comprehensively analyzed as a whole (sum of its parts) to come up with a viable recession strategy. Just cutting pricing and thinking that will help you turn things around in a recession will fail 99% of the time.

So what is the Answer in this Recession?

Two part answer:

1) Do a full Business Analysis and get an accurate picture of the health of your business and how the sum of the working parts of the business are working well, or not well together. With the analysis complete, you know where you are as a business- it a point to work from. Make improvements where you can based upon the results of the analysis, and most importantly, track the results of your changes and improvements over time. Tracking and tweaking along the way is critical! Also, fully establish that your pricing is in alignment with the value you provide– if it isn’t, fix that upfront– yes, increase pricing if necessary!

2) Improve Your Marketing: The answer in a recession isn’t price reduction but better marketing to a target of your best customers. You need to define who are your best customers, and how to market to them. The smart and successful companies in a recession expand their marketing budgets, not reduce them.

Pricing

Think of ways to package and combine products and services (and add ons) that offer substantial value to your customers, yet are highly profitable to you as a company. Then market behind those key product and service bundles/packages. Pricing strategy and marketing are one and them same– take each into careful consideration and devise a strategy that encourages maximum marketing ROI for “x” price component.

Marketing

Two words: Internet Marketing. Two More Words: Inbound Marketing. You won’t find a lower cost marketing method (if done right) for a higher ROI anywhere. The bottom line with any marketing campaign is to have your phone ring and boost sales. Why have mostly outbound marketing? It is expensive and often not very effective (low ROI). Inbound marketing is superior. Here are the keys to good Internet Marketing:

• Do Your Research: This is a critical first step.
• Develop an Online Marketing Plan
• Website Overhaul: Your website needs to be a sales director, not a brochure! Good Website Design and Marketing are one and the same.
• SEO: onsite Search Engine Optimization and offsite SEO Strategy.
• PPC: Pay per Click is only effective and affordable if combined with a strong SEO strategy. Good SEO significantly reduces PPC costs and makes PPC much more effective.
• Video: Having video on your website and a YouTube Channel set up is critical. Get your videos professionally done– try to resist doing it yourself. Have a good SEO and Social Media strategy behind the videos.
• Offline / Traditional Marketing: Only use in conjunction and in support of your Online Marketing strategy, not the other way around. Online marketing reduces your traditional marketing costs and makes it more successful when done correctly.
• Track, Track, Track and Tweak, Tweak and Tweak: Online marketing is awesome with all the software you can use to track the success of your campaign. The software will guide you in changes to make to increase both conversions and ROI.

Final Thoughts

The danger with a “lowering the price strategy” is you cheapen your brand and value, only making the hemorrhaging of cash and profits greater in the long run. Even worse, you may start a pricing war which often ends in disaster. Get the health of your overall business right, ensure your pricing matches the value you offer, develop out of the box pricing packages/bundles, and most importantly, spend your money and time on Internet Marketing, not traditional marketing. Does this sound like a tall order? It can be if not done right. Consider hiring an experienced business consultant to help with the business analysis, business recommendations, business changes, pricing strategy, and marketing strategy. If the business consultant is worth his or her salt, it is money well spent and vey easily recouped. Find a consultant that is results based!

Posted in Business Internet Strategies, Business Marketing Strategies, Business Recession Tactics. Comment

Search Engine Optimization is the Number One Inbound Marketing Strategy to Get Great Customers

February 1, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves primarily:

1) Optimizing a website / web property for relevant content

2) Optimizing a website / web property for its title, heading, keyword, description, image and video tags, among other on page factors, such as, coding and website navigation / organization.

3) Offsite optimization via back linking

I find that customers who find us through the general search engine results via our SEO strategies are the most qualified for our services and are better customers for us as compared to Pay Per Click. While we use both Pay Per Click (PPC) and SEO in our inbound marketing strategy, we certainly see the advantage of SEO from not just a cost standpoint but a quality customer standpoint too. Combining a good SEO strategy with a PPC Strategy really is a highly effective strategy with one feeding off the other- a great complimentary pair whose synergistic relationship increases the effectiveness of both strategies while minimizing customer acquisition costs. Hence our emphasis on good SEO and the reason for this blog post. In a later blog post, I will get more into PPC.

In today’s blog, I am going to concentrate on item #1, Relevant Content. I will cover items # 2 and 3 in subsequent blogs. Before any SEO strategy can be effective it is absolutely essential to have relevant content on your website. Relevant content is the number one determinant of ranking in the search engines, and your SEO back linking strategies will be minimally effective until you have adequately addressed the relevant content on your website for the keywords you want to rank for.

Relevant Content is the Number One Ranking Factor

Search Engine Optimization revolves around the fact that when someone enters a keyword into a search engine, the most relevant websites appear at the top of the natural, general, organic search results. Search engines are built with the goal of providing relevant content to keyword searches. You can have all the back links in the world, but without good, relevant content on your website, particularly for a competitive keyword, you won’t get the top ranking, nor hold a top position on the search engines.

Home Page Content

The content on the home page should characterize all that is offered on the website and be optimized for the keywords you want to rank for. Just listing keywords and linking them throughout your website isn’t enough. The keywords have to be incorporated in the relevant content of a website, with the home page being the entree to all the great content held on the site. Also remember that search engines look for natural and useful content- having a ton of keywords spammed all over the home page will not be seriously considered for top ranking.  

Inner Page Content

Each of your inner pages for ranking purposes should contain relevant content on a particular subject area and contain optimized keywords within that content that relate to the overall content of the page. This content can be in the form of a blog, article, white paper and the like. Typically this content is not reserved for your products and services pages but can certainly link to them and give them sales flow and SEO credence. You can also optimize your products and services web pages as well but watch getting too wordy for it can distract from the sales process.

Example of Inner Page Relevant Content

An example is worth a thousand words…For instance, I am a “business consultant” and want to rank well for the term. I wrote an article titled, “What Does a Good Business Consultant Do?”. This article is on an inner web page, and it is referenced from the home page in a simple paragraph about business consulting. If you type in “business consultant” on Google (as of the date of this blog post), you will find our website holding the number one and two positions. The first page listed is my article written about business consultants and the second listing is our home page. I have concentrated our SEO strategy on the article page, but Google has also given our home page a ranking since it is well optimized for the keyword and has valuable relevant content. The keyword “business consultant” is highly competitive and Google in this instance recognizes my article and home page content as quite relevant for the keyword phrase. By having this good content our ranking stays pretty consistent, allowing us to effectively compete for this keyword phrase.

Get Your Content Developed and Published FIRST

If you are serious about top 5 ranking on the search engines for a competitive keyword term, then it is an absolute must to get your relevant content developed first before rolling out any SEO Strategy. If you get your content right from the beginning, all your other SEO efforts will be well rewarded.

Stay tuned…in my next blog post, I will talk about on page SEO factors that are important.

Posted in Business Internet Strategies. 2 Comments

The Trend for 2011- Inbound Marketing

January 19, 2011 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

It is great to be back blogging again. We were so busy in December and now in January that I just didn’t have much of a chance to blog. This is a good problem to have in business, yet to blog more is on my new year resolution list for 2011. So I hope you will tune back in more often!

The number one success key for businesses in 2011 will definitely be mastering the art and science of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing = internet marketing, specifically Search Engine Optimization marketing and Pay Per Click marketing.

Why is Inbound Marketing so Powerful?

Customers have fundamentally changed as the result of this three year recession we are experiencing. Customers want a good deal for the very best service, and they will take the time to really research and seek out the provider. This is where the internet becomes so powerful. The number one place customers go to research for products and services is no longer the yellow pages, it is the internet. They find a website in the general search engine results or in a sponsored ads, and determine through that web platform whether the service or product is for them. Your website becomes 1) a resource and 2) a qualifier. You know what type of customer you want, and what your products and services do and don’t offer, so be sure to include that in your website’s navigation, content and sales experience.

You Speak with Prospects that are Qualified

When a prospect finds you on the internet, whether as a result of good SEO or PPC, then you know they are actively seeking information and perhaps a service or product. This is the key: they are ACTIVE. Inbound marketing when done properly captures actively searching, wanting and needing prospects. No longer do you have to cold call a prospect, get them to understand your product/service need, answer objections and try to close the sale. Or worse yet, send a direct mail piece that is quickly ignored and needing thousands to bring a measly return.

Your website becomes your champion of qualifying. If written well with a certain sales and qualifying process in mind, your website will determine if the visitor is just an information gatherer (i.e. looking for research) or someone who is actively seeking to purchase. Then once the prospect contacts you via online chat, a website feedback form or the phone, you can quickly help the prospect to make an educated decision about your product or service offerings. Better yet, the prospect may purchase your offering through the website prior to contacting you. This is the basis of Online Marketing, and why it is so highly effective for very little cost per customer acquisition.  

How to get Found on the Internet

Getting found on the internet is the lynchpin for inbound marketing to really work well. There are a multitude of ways to be found on the internet, but I find that two main ways are most effective to start (you can build in the others down the line): SEO and PPC. SEO and PPC should be part of any company’s Business Plan. In a series of future blogs I will explain the ins and outs of SEO and PPC, and how to effectively implement these strategies for big success with inbound marketing. We as a company use the internet as a primary tool for our customers to find us. It is a powerful sales platform, and once mastered, can bring sustained success and high profits for little outlay. Stay tuned…

Posted in Business Internet Strategies, Business Marketing Strategies. 1 Comment

Are You Using RSS Feeds in Your Business?

October 7, 2010 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

RSS Feed stands for Really Simple Syndication. Simply put, it is a web feed format used to publish frequently updated work, such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video. RSS feeds are a powerful weapon in a company’s arsenal to keep in contact with current customers, find new prospects, effectively use for SEO efforts, and a host of different applications. As a Business Consultant, I strongly recommend you start developing and using RSS Feed Strategies aggressively in your company’s Business Plan and Marketing Plan. Here are some methods to apply using RSS Feeds in your business to profit from this nifty technology.

Keep In Touch With Your Customers

The cheapest acquisition cost is repeat business, verses selling new customers. To sell more products and services to your existing customers, you need to be in front of them. A Newsletter is one good method of staying in contact with existing customers, but the RSS Feed in my opinion, is superior. I use RSS Feeds in two main areas with our existing customers that works really well…

v  To Subscribe to Our Business Success Blog: Every time I make a new post, the RSS Feed sends that post to our customers computers. 

v  To Send Out Company Updates: Things like specials, discounts, announcements, achievements- everything our customers would be interested in hearing about us.  

Find New Customers

I send out the RSS Feed for our website and blog to RSS Directories, Search Engines, Blog Directories, and RSS Feed Sites. This in turn shows up throughout many hundred directories through out the internet and in the search results. When web visitors search the internet, they find our listings and posts which are continuously updated by our RSS Feeds. Pretty nifty! This is an extremely powerful way to keep Fresh content in front of targeted prospects.

Awesome Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Application

One chief ranking factor in the Search Engines is fresh, relevant content. We use our RSS Feeds to tell the search engines on a daily basis where we have fresh content for relevant searches. I can get a top 10 search engine result very often on the same day the content is fed out. Search on Google has turned to Real Time Search and has converged with Social Media results. We use our RSS Feed with not just search engines but through out our Social Media networks to quickly get new content immediately indexed and well ranked. RSS Feeds play into Google’s real time search results extremely well.

Put RSS Feeds to work for your business today!

For help in effectively using RSS Feeds, you may want to consider our SEO Package.

Posted in Business Internet Strategies. 2 Comments

Organic Web Visitors Beat Pay Per Click Visitors

September 28, 2010 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

While there is a place for online Pay for Click (PPC) advertising (I use it), I find that visitors who come to me organically through the general search engine results are much sticker, more qualified in many respects and have a much higher closing ratio. While I use both PPC and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), I find that my SEO efforts have a much better return. Of course this can be a little industry and web visitor specific, but I know this can be applied to many types of businesses, whether 100% online company or a brick and mortar with an online presence. Here is why I like SEO derived web visitors so much.

Relevant

The General (organic) search engine results tend to be a lot more relevant than the results for the Sponsored Ad area. This way targeted visitors can really find what they need.

More Qualified

I see a lot more non-customer type visits on a percentage basis via the Organic Search results than I do coming via PPC. With PPC, you are paying to qualify them, while with SEO derived visitors, they qualify themselves typically. Therefore the customer acquisition cost and conversion rate for SEO customers is much better than PPC.

PPC and Organics Work Best Together

PPC is definitely worth doing but should be part of the overall SEO Strategy and not the other way around (nor treated separately). PPC actually makes your SEO better and can pick up customers where SEO would cost too much to implement or where you don’t have good SEO results. Also PPC is a great research and testing ground for your SEO Strategy. Very quickly you can determine if a keyword phrase has strong potential.

SEO has a lot more Marketing Flexibility

PPC limits how well you can market to your targeted web audience while SEO offers unlimited possibilities on how to market in the general search engine results. You have much more choices as to titles, keywords and descriptions in the organic search results. Your Online Marketing Strategy ought to include SEO for sure!

General Search Results = Credibility

When a web visitor sees a return in the general results, they tend to put a lot more trust and credibility on it, verses seeing a short, paid for advertisement off to the side. This may be a big reason why SEO visitors convert more profitably.

Resources: Here are some previous blog posts on Web SEO to help you.

SEO Basics to Get Good Rankings on the Search Engines

SEO can be More Effective and Profitable than Pay Per Click

Posted in Business Internet Strategies. Comment

Real Time Search and Social Media Convergence

September 17, 2010 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

Google has gone to real time search, and all the search engines are putting a lot of ranking value on Social Media. Now the two have converged. I did a Google search the other day for some of our trending keywords for that particular day and saw a plethora of our social media and blog posts. That really raised an eyebrow for me and my excitement grew. Anytime we post something on our 30+ social sites and blogs, we are seeing our posts immediately in the real time results (and even the “regular” results as well). These results included images as well so our results popped out to searchers. This is huge!

Some tips to get your Social Media and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics up to snuff to take advantage of Google’s real time search (and I am sure the other search engines are to follow)…

Searches are Universal

Google will show lots of web content, including blogs, social media posts, images, video, books, articles, press releases and more, all in the same search results. So consider using all these available platforms and mediums to get your message out there and increase your search engine ranking exposure.

Ping Your Blog Posts

I am picked up with in seconds and minutes of a blog post because I ping over 40 sites and let them know I have just posted valuable content. I find my topics trending for the day high in the search rankings, often in the number one or two place.

Use a Network of Social Media to Get the Word Out

I use the Ping.fm™ service to instantly update our 30+ social sites. I find these posts are very quickly picked up by Google and ranked well for its keywords.

Tie In your Social Media Strategy with your Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

At the end of the day, getting noticed on the internet is all about SEO. Use Social Media as a powerful tool to implement your SEO content strategies in the various mediums and platforms available. Your SEO efforts will pack a power punch, and you’ll find your SEO efforts pay off instantly, instead of having to wait a day, week or month for the SEO to work. Social Media needs to be a major part of your Online Marketing Strategy.

Need SEO and Social Media Strategy help? Feel free to Contact Us or check out our Web SEO and Marketing Package.

Posted in Business Internet Strategies. 2 Comments

Blog for Business Success

August 11, 2010 by Frank Goley, Business Consultant

A Blog is a really useful tool for any type of business, whether you sell a product or service. As a Business Consultant, I see blogging not being done by enough businesses, or I see the blogging being done with out any real commitment or passion. In this post I will review the reasons to blog, and how to do it well. Hopefully after reading this post you will see the merit of having a blog on your website or renew your commitment to your blog.

Why Blog?

Ø  Blogging Sets You Up as An Expert: Expert status will get you talked about on the web and bring you another level of customer.

Ø  Blogging Increases Web Traffic: Your blog subjects will bring in targeted web visitors who over time will become customers, or refer your blog and company.

Ø  Blogging Helps Your SEO and Ranking: Search Engines love fresh, new, relevant content. It helps tremendously in getting your website consistently spidered and well placed in the search engine results.

Ø  Blogging Tracks Prospects: If web visitors find your blog interesting, they will subscribe to your RSS Feed. Now you have an email to track and communicate with potential customers.

Ø  Blogging is Fun: Give it a chance and you will find it is a rewarding experience.

Ø  Blogging Brings You Customers: Some customers take time to become comfortable and buy. A blog is a great way to stay connected with them until they are ready. Blogging creates lots of real time opportunities to gain customers. Blog posts get spidered quickly by the search engines so you can pick up immediate customers.

Ø  Blogging Helps People: If you give it away, you will experience a return 10+ fold. People appreciate great information and will refer you.

Ø  Blogging Gives You Competitive Edge: If a prospect is comparing companies and websites, the one who has a good, fresh blog will stand out. It is a great way to show your expertise.

Ø  Blogging is Viral: Through the social networks and other bloggers, your good blog posts will be passed around again and again. The viral aspect really increases your customer reach.

How to Blog Well and Get Results

Ø  Blog on What You Know: Stick to your expertise areas and content areas you need better search engine ranking.

Ø  Blog 3 – 5 Times a Week: If you can, blog once or twice per day for the best results.

Ø  Submit Your RSS Feed: Submit to RSS directories so you gain a web presence.

Ø  Make Your RSS Feed Available: Make sure blog visitors see your Subscribe to RSS Feed prominently on your blog.

Ø  Set Up Automatic Pings: Set up your blog so that every time you publish a blog post it automatically pings the major search engines and blog directories. I ping 40 search engines and directories every time I post, all done on automatic. This gets the blog post in the search results instantly.

Ø  Use the Social Networks: Post your blog snippet and URL to Social Media to get exponential coverage and quickly spidered by the search engines. Increases the viral nature of your posts as well.

Ø  Choose Your Title and First Paragraph Well: This is what the search engines and web visitor will read first. Be sure it is optimized for your keyword and reflects the content of your post.

Ø  Keep Your Blog Well Organized: Make sure you pick good categories that reflect your keyword areas so search engines and visitors can quickly find the relevant content. Each blog post should be placed in a category reflecting its content.

Ø  Give Your Newsletter Prominence: If someone likes your blog, more likely than not, they will sign up for your Newsletter. Another great way to stay in contact with prospects and customers.

Ø  Ask for Comments and Feedback: Blog visitor engagement is what converts prospects into customers and gets your blog post talked about.

Ø  Add Video: To really connect with the visual blog reader, have a short video synopsis of your blog post. Add the videos to You Tube as another way for visitors to find your blog. Video will help you to personally connect with your blog visitors.

Ø  Keep Your Blog Posts Short: Long posts will often lose the reader. Keep them short with valuable information.

Ø  Use Bold and Headings on Your Posts: Just writing a bunch of paragraphs will not be as well read as short paragraphs or sentences with Bold Headings. This way a visitor can quickly scan the blog post and get the information they want and need. They can always come back to read the entire post. This organization also helps with the search engine spiders.

Ø  Use Keyword Tags: Lets the search engines know what your blog contains and prompts spidering. Helps in your positioning for keyword searches.

Ø  Optimize Your Images: Gets spidered quickly. Use Alt Tags.

Do it Today!

I hope there is enough here to convince you that Blogging needs to be part of your Business Plan and Marketing Plan. You can set up a blog for Free with Word Press. No excuses! Good luck!

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