Web Design

Bing’s impact in the ‘getting found’ factor will grow in importance as they continue to gain search share with their improvements and enhancements. Bing will challenge Google, although Facebook believes that they can eliminate email, Google, Youtube, Flickr and any other internet property in their quest for world dominance, it is still worth your time and effort to pay attention to Bing for search optimization.

When Bing first came out I enjoyed their airfare search results. I found the process for finding economical airfares on Bing much easier and robust than Google. They continue to introduce enhancements that will win over Internet surfers and searchers and will continue to grow in importance.

Bing is delivering Facebook search results and reportedly will soon be powering Yahoo searches. They are putting an emphasis on entertainment and recently rolled out nearly 100 games that you can play on line rather than risk downloading to your computer. They are adding song lyrics and streaming music along with much more in the entertainment sector. The point is, Bing is rolling out new features and enhancements as well as forging critical strategic alliances so that they will certainly take their place in the ‘it matters’ SEO world sooner than later.

That being said, it is a good time to begin some SEO with Bing. You don’t even have to hire an expert to take care of these simple steps.

The first step is make sure that Bing even knows that your website exists. You can submit your website for indexing at BingSubmit. Simple enough.

Next, submit your sitemap to Bing to get your site and all its pages indexed. Hopefully you have prepared (or had your web person prepare) an xml site map that you submitted to Google. Now submit that same xml site map to Bing. Just copy and paste the following entire URL into the address bar of your browser, edit the ‘yourwebaddress.com’ with your real web address and enter.

http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?sitemap=www.YourWebAddress.com/sitemap.xml

As a follow up, mark your calendar for at least a week or more to go back and review the results. You can see what pages Bing has indexed by going to the Bing search bar and type site:yourwebaddress.com to see the results. Oh, do I have to mention again to change the ‘yourwebaddress’ to your actual web address? Nah, I didn’t think so but just in case.

You can use this same site: tool in Google’s search bar to explore what Google has indexed. It is a good idea to check on these results to ensure that you are continuing to be indexed and if you have dynamic pages such as those generated from a blog or library, you will want to check that these are getting picked up as well in the indexing. If they aren’t, look at your source code to see what the instructions are to the robots – and if that is completely Greek then call your web person to find out what is preventing these pages from getting indexed in a timely fashion.

There is no cost and so little time associated with these steps that there is simply no reason not to get started with Bing search. Even if I am wrong in my thinking that Bing’s market share will grow, what ever share it does have or will gain – ask yourself if it is better to be found on Bing than not?

Preparing for a workshop next week that I am giving with colleague Richard Weltman, Esq. on How to Buy and Manage a Website Project, I began thinking about page count when planning a website.

The cost of a site used to have a direct relation to how many pages were being built. Today I think that this is less the case with CSS automating format and CMS systems that auto-generate pages, the time spent per standard page is reduced. What will impact the budget with more pages is if you are paying a writer to create content for each page, but I digress.

The topic is search engine optimization (SEO), and so my suggestion is the more pages the better.
More (web pages) is better for a couple of reasons. With Mayday (see June 13th post) and Local Search now effecting results, web developer’s focus should turn toward how to best organize and optimize each page to actual search terms. This technique is referred to as Silo Information Architecture. Top tier navigation and second and third tier navigation should be a logical flow top to bottom per topic or keyword. Your website’s organization can reflect your corporate structure or for improved optimization create a silo structure.

When we think website and rankings, what often gets lost in the sauce is the need to recognize each and every page as a potential landing page for search results. Spiders and robots read pages. Your home page of course being the most critical but it should not be the only page where you invest focus, time and effort.

If you serve multiple communities – geographic and demographic, then organizing around these categories and having a page for each would be a good move. This becomes a challenge in creating content for each page – and so thinking about hiring a professional writer might be a good idea.

Google, Yahoo and Bing like websites with a lot of pages, another reason to consider more pages rather than less. The search engines look upon these sites with favor, equating a lot of pages with a higher chance of relevant content. How much weight the page count is given is unknown, but it weighs in nonetheless. The caveat however is relevant and quality page content.

As you think about developing and organizing your website, think about how you serve your community – better yet, think about how your community seeks your service. One of the rants you will hear should you attend one of my sessions is to take out the I, Me, My, We, Our and rethink and recreate around You and Your - People get online and ask who, what, when, where, how or why – Be the answer to their question! No matter how many pages it takes.

We continue to obsess with getting our web sites to rank well as it is no secret that our business hopes and dreams are to have our websites be money making machines. Some websites remain mere digital brochures, but I love it when an entrepreneur says ‘my site ranks number one on Google’ or a web design team boasts ‘our sites always rank number one on Google’. Hmmm I wonder, for how long and for what keyword string do they rank number one?

And so the race continues to get our websites popping up on top when searches for our keywords are made. Unfortunately once there, how do you hold your position and scarier yet, are you ranking well for what people are actually searching for?

We recently ran some analytics on getting a client ranked using the keyword, then the name of the city and the keyword, and then the keyword and the name of the city. The only thing that changed was the order. This assumes that we even had the right keyword. The results were radically different, jaw droppingly different, so we ran some experiments with other key words and geographic qualifiers. This is not a scientific result but what we found brought us to the conclusion that people tend to search the item or service first and the geographic qualifier second. I began watching my own search methods and found that instinctively I do the same thing.

Now, I am compelled to make a comment on keywords. Think like a layman. We get so caught up in our own industry jargon and incorporate these as our common every day words, but are you sure that prospects speak your lingo? Do they even know that the keyword you are using is the answer to their quest? I would suggest that on a routine basis you informally or formally question your clients and prospects and listen carefully as they tell you how they define your business. We spend time and money on our tag lines and elevator pitches but rarely do I see an all out effort to learn to speak the language of the prospect. Your keywords should be THEIR keywords.

Now once you are there, how do you keep and hold your position? This is not like the military where once promoted to General, you hold the title and position for life. Search results are based on so many factors that you can’t be sure you will hold your position. There are dozens of marketing strategies to help you gain and maintain but it really boils down to two key issues. Relevant and authoritative links back to your web site and fresh and relevant content – keyword rich content – continually added to your site. How you accomplish that is the strategy and the tools range from press releases, blogging, tweeting, facebooking, and so on.

The moral of this post…. Verify your keywords and concentrate on links and content. How you do that should be a matter of what your resources and your story are like. The real point is, once you have launched or re-launched your site, the work has just begun. Care to comment? Would love to hear your take on the topic.

So you got someone or several people to your web site maybe through organic search or from a referring site, you might have just met someone and they went to your site to check out your company. Great job. Now what?

I was a participant on a marketing panel last night. We were 5 owners of businesses, each in a different aspect of marketing. It was a great approach to the broad spectrum of what marketing is today. I was asked to answer the question “what makes an effective web site?”

My first suggestion was to make sure your web site is answering ‘the question’. The question is what brought the prospect to your site in the first place. They had a need or an issue to solve and your site needs to answer that question. There are two quick ways to find out what the questions were. One way is to check the keywords in your web site analytics to see what keywords and keyword phrases were used to bring in the visitor. The second way, one that for some reason I get a lot of resistance when I suggest, is ask your current customers. Why? We are so caught up in our own industry and marketing jargon that it may not be representative of the language and terms used by our customers and prospects. A quick survey should provide you some insight and a few phone calls wouldn’t hurt either.

After the question is answered, then what? Your web site should be an extension to your company’s team 24/7. Your sales and marketing team, your customer service team, your assistant and more if you have the funds for the technology should all be serving on your site (even if you don’t have all these people you certainly have to be performing these duties).

There are several ways to accomplish this. One way is to offer free information to download for the price of their contact information. Be gracious and helpful as I always say the humble and helpful rule!

No matter what services or products you offer there are questions that accompany them. You hear questions all of the time or are aware of the problems surrounding what your product or service solves. Why not add value to what you have to offer and share your knowledge through tips, case studies, white papers, guides and any other accumulation of knowledge? Once downloaded you have accomplished a few things. The visitor has left you their contact information for you to follow up with them. The other is that they have a take-away that carries your message and brand long after they have left your site.

Ask them if they would like to subscribe to the company blog or newsletter and don’t forget to tell them why they should. You need to offer the benefits of the type of information you will be sharing. You can also mention that you offer specials and discounts on an occasion to subscribers but be careful not to promote this as a “spitter” - that is what I call a spam letter – hocking your stuff relentlessly.

How about an FAQ section? If you can organize your questions and answers in a clean, logical and easily searchable fashion – this might be a gold mine. You can also set up a WIKI and invite them to contribute related information and make them feel a part of a community. And on that note – you might want to think about a bulletin board or some other community platform that encourages visitors to get involved. This is a great way to generate loyalty!

How do they contact you? Give them the opportunity to contact you by phone and email. Don’t make it hard for them to know what number to call – your phone number should be on every page. If you have a lot of departments then have a page dedicated to a directory of what numbers to call for what needs.
Also encourage them to join you in Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or where ever you are engaging. You might even set up a skype account that is monitored by staff so that they can IM you right on the spot!

These suggestions are just a beginning of a long discussion on what makes a web site good or great. There are other usability topics such as structure and navigation, aesthetics and readability. I could go on and on and just might in another post but for now, go check out your web site and see if it answers the questions and engages your visitors. Chances are you invested serious time and money into your web site – make sure it pays serious dividends.

Or you can think about it in terms of asking yourself if your website is your competitor’s best friend.

We are often asked to evaluate current websites in order to offer an estimate or even offer suggestions for improving an existing site. I find this a wobbly road to follow as often there are egos tied to the current site and so anything we say can be distorted toward a criticism that is unwelcomed rather than an observation for room to improve. The other pitfall is that since we are in the business of creating and designing websites our opinions and observations could well be perceived as a sales pitch.

We have worked with companies who either think their sites are just fine the way they are or are unwilling to commit budgets to improve. I have written about how the search engines have changed radically and so an outdated site might not get the traffic desired but what I haven’t really emphasized is why your website is such a critical piece of your business.

If you meet someone at an event, someone refers your company to a colleague, a prospect is gathering information on possible vendors, your sales or telemarketing team is reaching out prospects, you want or have done an email or direct mail campaign – or any host of other triggers that brings you to mind, the FIRST thing that a prospect or target will do is go to your website! The very first thing that they see – your very first impression is your website.

So ask yourself – would you put a salesperson on the road to visit accounts and prospects who is wearing a suit from a by-gone era, showing coffee stains on his or her shirt and carrying a plastic bag instead of a brief case? Would it be acceptable if that salesperson didn’t know what makes your company a standout choice over your competitors or about your products or services in detail and couldn’t answer basic questions? Would it be alright if someone called into your customer service department and were put on hold for several minutes only to be told that their question couldn’t be answered at that time but that if they send an email someone will answer or respond in a couple of days? No?

Then I offer this suggestion so that you may take an objective look at your website and review it for at least appearance and function. Take the following steps and review your website – your biggest piece of collateral, your first impression and touch point – to see how well your company is being represented. You may not be ready to examine structure and coding for best practices and SEO tactics but at least you can review your site to see your site as others see it.

1. Pull out your job description for a sales person
2. Pull out your job description for a customer service representative
3. Pull out your employee review for both the sales person and a customer service representative
4. Pull out your training manuals for both your sales staff and your customer service staff
5. Interview your website for a sales position
6. Interview your website for a customer service position
7. Give your website a performance review as a salesperson
8. Give you website a performance review as a customer service person
9. Now go to your car – start the engine and drive to your biggest and most important account
10. Upon arriving go to the person who decides what companies they will work with and say to them “we are conducting performance reviews and your feedback is critical, would you mind giving me 30 minutes of your time to tell us how you experience us?” Ask them how the phones are answered when they call, how their sales and customer service representatives are performing, how about your billing and collections departments and then ask them to bring up your website and tell you what they see and think.

How did it go – is it time to fire your web site? Maybe you just need to redress your site or update some functions. Either way, don’t lose sight of the point that your website is your FIRST impression most often and even if it is a follow up step and the second impression, don’t let it be the impression that kills the deal!

Google will be introducing its new search engine named Google Caffeine. It is going to be more like double espresso if they have things working they way it is intended. More than just an updated engine, Caffeine is really a spanking new search engine with all new formulas and calculations and factors that affect your site. In other words, if your web site WAS optimized, it might not be when Caffeine rolls out.

Google’s spokesperson, Matt Cutts, previously stated that Caffeine will be rolled out after the holidays. They were being kind and didn’t want web site owners and masters of the web universe to have to work feverishly to revamp websites in lieu of celebrating. The other consideration of course was to not disrupt holiday internet buying for on-line retailers. Thank you for that.

There was a beta version available over the summer but it is not available now. Web site owners and operators will have to begin digging into the documentation and testing to learn how to adjust to keep their websites from falling from grace.

There are some little secrets that are already known that you should prepare for. The newest contestant in search engine optimization is SPEED. That’s right – speed. If you have a slow loading site or a flash introduction that takes a bit to wind up for play, this will penalize your site rankings. Anything else such as large improperly sized graphics or complex navigation systems can also slow your site down.

Page quality and broken links are two more aspects that will now affect your page rank. Google doesn’t want to be sending their searchers to a poorly designed, unprofessional looking site or page of information where the links aren’t working. It is not as though Google has become a snob, but they rely on ad revenue and so it is important that they pay attention to where they send their searchers. The better the quality of a search, the more likely you will select Google over a competitive search engine. This is a simple formula for good business.

Since on-page factors will be impacting rank, it is time to revisit your overall web design.
• Is it designed well and attractive?
• Do you have unique content?
• How is your navigation? Please tell me you aren't using flash or other unreadable codes.
• Do you have your titles, meta tags and descriptions containing your keywords?
• Do you have alt tags on all of your images?
• Have you gotten rid of frames and started using CSS?
• How are your incoming links? Are you tracking if you are getting social bookmarks?
• Have you been watching your traffic, bounce rates, pages viewed and time on site stats?

Social Bookmarking is going to become a major factor in page rankings. Search engines are living up to their pledge of a democratic web "for the people and by the people." We can expect to see page rankings affected by rating sites and social bookmarking sites such as Yelp, Stumbleupon, Digg and others. This is great news really. It levels the playing field in that you no longer have to compete with mega corporations with mega budgets buying links. Now, you just have to get people to like you.

What To Do In 2010
All is not lost. If you have already invested heavily in search engine optimization efforts or redesigned your web site, you are probably in good shape for starters. Your site age and reputation should still serve you well. If you have a keyword domain name, this too should continue to be valuable. However, things are changing fast and radically so you will need to revisit your site to insure that you have covered the items above and please read on as there is more.


Google and Bing are Loco for Local. Google knows who is searching and where they are searching from. They probably already have an idea of what the searcher wants. Data mining and technology have become both a comfort and a bit invasive. However, the important thing here is to understand that your website should have features that help the search engines determine your geographic area of interest.

The following are a few things you can take care of to help Google offer you up in a local search result.
• Have you registered for Google and Bing local business?
• Have you maximized those listings with keywords and complete information?
• Do you have a Google map on your website depicting your location and area served?
• Do you have a complete mailing address and phone number on every page of your website?
• Have you installed hcards in your code?
• Are you registered with other local business associations with back links to your site?

Give the Search Engines What They Want. I am not recommending that you design and write for search engines, however, if you are doing it well for your audience and are attracting traffic that actually stays on your site and engages, then the search engines will take notice.

Now might be a good time to invite colleagues, friends and family to go through your website and give you an honest evaluation. Is it pleasing to look at? Is the navigation logical and easy to follow? Is the content readable, unique and interesting? Is your site intuitive, meaning visitors know what to do, where to look for the information they seek and do they know how to reach you and engage with you?

Get to know Google better. Knowing how Google thinks and works will be a guide for you and your web and marketing teams to develop a stronger relationship with the mighty search engine as you work your way up the page ranks. Understanding how Google categorizes their rankings for example, did you know that they are divided into five possible categories: Info listings, Video listings, News Listings, Shopping Listings and Corporate Listings. Make sure that your keywords and content are addressing as many of these categories as possible.

Blogging. If you aren't blogging on your website, all I can say is "WHY NOT?" Search engines love blogging. Bloggers love other blogs, audiences want to get information and get to know you and your company. You have to begin blogging. If you don't think you can, hire a professional to help you get started and sustain a regularly scheduled blog. Get your staff and managers to blog with you. Do whatever it takes to get going! And remember, blogging is not sales promotion, it is information sharing.

Go Social. This is the year to pick up the pace on social media marketing and social networking. Build your fans and followers, engage with conversations, share good material and resources, be helpful and reach out and touch as many connections as possible. Step it up this year because those audiences are the ones, if your content is worthwhile, who will retweet, digg, flag, and rate your site and your material. These are the signals that the search engines will be watching for to rate your site for ranking in searches.

2010 will require that you stir up those creative juices, stimulate your creative teams, try new things, explore new social sites, explore and engage. Tweet freely, link lavishly, and share great content where ever and whenever possible!

In my previous blog post I suggested that you begin your elevator pitch with the end – or the result rather than what it is you do or have. This also applies to your marketing content.

Your company tag line, your brand promise, your opening statement on your website should answer the question ‘what can you do for me?’ If someone has arrived at your web site from a link or organic search you want to answer immediately, right up front – what it was they were searching for. They asked, you need to answer.

If you answered their question or addressed their search, then they will read on as to what it is you are about. You have heard the expression ‘selling a dream’ and so ask yourself, what are you really selling? Are you selling a computer or possibly an event venue? Are you selling a service such as accounting, legal or maybe design and marketing? Or are you selling results and solutions?

Take a minute and go to your website home page and see if the banner or the opening paragraph answers the question or starts off explaining who you are and what you do? Now take a look at your brochures and any other marketing collateral that you have or are planning on creating with the same question in mind.

If your service or products are modified for different industries or various niche markets, or even different geographic areas, think about creating a different website to address each one of these. I know it sounds like a lot of work but you might find that it helps you capture the leads that you desire.

Yes it is true that Google likes web sites with a lot of pages, but it is also true that those seeking on the internet can’t be expected to drill down and around your site to find what they are looking for when they conduct a search. You might want to check your analytics and if you have a high bounce rate from the home page then this might be part of the cause that visitors abandon your site.

A lot of buzz and speculation is going around the industry regarding Microsoft / Yahoo Deal. Although this is so new that no one really knows yet what will ultimately be the new state of SEO, there are however going to be changes.

It is widely believed that Microsoft/Yahoo is bound to give Google a challenge and will eat into their market dominance, which would then change the focus and emphasis of SEO tactics and management. Although this won’t happen overnight, you might as well get started now. The following is part speculation based on the buzz among industry experts:

1. SEO for Bing is worth your time and effort to start, knowing that Bing concentrates on keyword use in subdomains and root domain in names.
2. Yahoo link data might evaporate.
3. It is believed that Microsoft/Yahoo will use their ease of entry into the PPC advertising to eat into Google’s AdWords dominance.
4. Bing's Webmaster tools will become more important. Set up your accounts now.
5. Local Search from Yahoo and Bing could become stronger, so navigate on over to Bing Local to get started.
6. Bing will get more spam – anything that becomes popular attracts spam, an unfortunate fact of life on the internet.
7. Bing will get a lot of personal data, probably not as much as Google but they will catch up as personalization is the new frontier.
9. Important Yahoo properties may disappear :
Danny Sullivan and ReadWriteWeb noted, we're in some danger of losing stalwarts such as the Yahoo Directory, Delicious (which has often been seen as an alternative search player), Yahoo Maps, SearchMonkey & BOSS (two of the best search apps out there). It's still speculative, but by watching the activities inside Yahoo over the next three to six months, we'll probably get a lot more insight about who's headed to the chopping block.
9. Yahoo maintains UI control for their search experience which means more work for SEO’ers as they will have to consider and address both Yahoo and Bing.
10. Yahoo will gain in prominence as a content competitor, so pay attention to Yahoo News & Media Group.

So stay tuned and if you are working with a company that is performing on-going SEO work for your web site, start discussing how they are preparing for these changes to keep your site ranking If you know more than we do - then please comment so we can share your knowledge with our readers.

Search-ability. Creating a search friendly site is a fundamental step toward effective SEO. To that end, we offer the following mantra: If it can be searched, it can be optimized.

When you hear the phrase ‘search friendly’ it is referring to search engines. User interface – or the user experience, although extremely important to good web design, is not what this is referring to.

As you begin to work with a designer or developer, it is your responsibility to lead and direct the project to produce the best website for your company. This is where business owners often know what they want as a final product but have little understanding of the technical solutions available to achieve it, or the accompanying pros and cons of each. If you or your designer are discussing a splash or flash page for your grand opening to the site – be forewarned that you are greatly detracting from your site’s searchability. Further signs of trouble are fancy fonts that have to be rendered as artwork. Unless you painstakingly input the proper “alt” tags for each of these images, search engines can’t read this artwork any more than they can read flash content.

Every time you ask your designer or web developer for a feature, also ask how this will affect searchability. We realize that life and business are often about compromise and sometimes you just gotta have what ya gotta have, so weigh the impact to search optimization against the feature’s benefit to make the best decisions.

Your website navigation is an area that often times is overlooked as a searchable feature. It helps if you can refrain from a schnazzy (though completely unsearchable) navigation done in flash. As a rule you should question the use of features that may reduce search engine friendliness, especially where your web page real estate is critical.

There are many features that will positively impact your web site such as using (Real Simple Syndication) RSS feeders to pull in new content automatically from other sources such as news, blogs and other content generators. I know you have heard it before but I will say it again – CONTENT IS KING. That’s right, content, not pretty pictures or zow wee flash movies. Yes, your site should be attractive, appealing to the eye, and in keeping with best design and usability practices, but you should be counting on your content to engage your visitors.

A key element in making your site inviting to search engines is friendly coding. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) should always be used as it removes heaps of code from each page, decreasing page loading time and allowing each page of your website to quickly reveal content, which hopefully is keyword rich and RELEVANT.

Your site must be CRAWLABLE to be considered friendly.

AVOID:
• Unnecessarily complex URLs and session IDs.
• Multiple URLs to duplicate content.
• Temporary redirects.
• Site navigation with Flash.
• Splash or flash taking up more than 1/3 of the real estate above the fold.

INCLUDE:
• Use text links in navigation.
• Use text links between pages using keywords.
• Robot txt instructions.
• XML & HTML site maps.
• Each page should have a unique title and Meta data, specific to the content on that page, featuring the targeted words you want ranked.
• Write titles and meta data with keywords targeted for users. The Meta data is what shows up in search result listings.
• Title tags should be short and to the point 4-5 words is best, and if you must, 8-9 words. Don’t stuff them with keywords.
• Businesses should put the name of their company in the title tag throughout their site.
• When possible, each page should have the main keyword for that page in the URL.
• When dynamic URLs have been created via a database, and are long and messy (with equals signs and question marks, etc.) use code to extract specifics in order to properly construct them with unique Meta data. If you have a PHP Linux-based Web site, you can use things like Mod Rewrite to create search engine friendly static URLs, which is not only helpful for Google, but also for the end user as it is easier to remember a short, static URL and makes it easier to link back to that page.

A logical web site structure is also important. Use categories and sub-categories as this provides a logic system for the search engines to follow, not to mention it is helpful for your web site visitors.

Fresh and themed content is what search engines crave, so explore CMS (Content Management Systems) so that you can continually add and update information on your website without the need to go back to your designer for every update. It may be more expensive upfront but saves you time and money over the life of your investment.

As you continue to invest in your businesses and spend on marketing, advertising and PR, everything will either start with or come back to your website. I often tell my clients that a web site is like a living, breathing, ever-evolving entity with a complex eco-system that needs to be nurtured continuously. I wonder if they look at me and laugh or think I am setting them up for more invoices down the road. Too often web sites get built and then are left to ‘do their thing’ which if done correctly from the onset might be a good start. However left to languish in neglect, it will lose its value quickly and will soon turn from an asset into a liability by generating nothing more than lost opportunity.

As you have read in this series, the landscape of search engines and keyword trends changes dramatically and often. Attending to your website once every 3 years or more is completely ineffective. A good idea might be to sit with your web developer or an SEO company to review the key items we have covered and get a current report card on your website. You made the investment, make sure it is doing its job.

There are three basic fundamentals in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). These are keywords, search friendly sites and link building. (In my opinion, link building really falls into Search Engine Marketing – SEM). This section will focus on Keywords. Our next blog entries will cover search friendly and link building so if you haven't subscribed to this blog yet, now is a really good time.

The center of the internet universe revolves around keywords. Keywords are the triggers to not only get you found but it is the link between what you have to offer and what a prospect is seeking. It is important to focus on developing a keyword strategy as it is the cornerstone of everything that you will do on your website and any off-page marketing. Keywords are your stake in the ground – a weak stake or a stake pointing in the wrong direction will result in lackluster results at best, or even failure.

KEYWORDS
Keywords are indicators to search engines the intent of the site. Effective keywords are words and phrases that prospects or potential buyers would use and not necessarily industry jargon. Some ideas to begin to build your keyword strategy:
• Brainstorm based on solutions and customer needs
• Interview or survey customers
• Review current web analytics
• Ask your sales and customer service staff
• Review competitor content
• Research customer driven keyword phrases
• Create a keyword glossary
• Consider searcher intent and buying cycle

There are free tools to research keywords, such as
• Google Keyword Tool, Insights, Ad Planner
• freekeywords.com
• taguchisplittest.com

Or if you are feeling flush there are paid keyword tool services:
• Wordtracker.com
• KeywordDiscovery.com
• SEMRush.com

Expand your list of keywords to include phrases in singular and plural; include geographic words if you are a local or regional business; include word variations changing the prefix and suffix. Sadly, you might even need to consider spelling some words wrong - the words that most people can never seem to get right with out spell check running.


Now that you have your keywords, what do you do with them?

Your web developer should incorporate your Keywords into:
• Title tags
• Meta description tag
• Each page on the site should have a unique title tag and meta description
• Headings
• Paragraph titles
• Navigation
• Anchor text in links
• URL
• Image alt text to digital assets (on-page) & social media (off-page
• Keywords in body copy (• Important keywords to the left • 8-10 words or about 65 characters • Focus on 1-2 keyword phrases – specificity rules • Above the fold)

(Note on above the fold: this is actually an old newspaper term. Visualize a newspaper on the newsstand folded in half so the hottest stories are on top – above the fold. To relate that to your website, the rule of thumb is once you start scrolling down, you have passed the ‘above the fold’ line)

Allow me to digress a bit. Actually not by much because keywords should remain central to your content building process – one, which by the way, should not end once you have launched your web site. You’ve heard it said that content is king, well that is not the whole truth. Unique Content is King!

Google has improved searching by making it more about the user as opposed to the search engines. Google doesn’t pay as much attention to how many times you mention your keyword, where you place it or how many times it’s bolded. Although these practices should not be overlooked, other factors such as unique and relevant content can increase your rankings and authoritative in-bound links, which we will cover in our next blog.

A well written web site should be written for your visitors (and the goals you have for them), not for search engines
• Mention keywords within content when it makes sense
• Write to convert visitors. (Seeker – Lead – Prospect – Customer)
• Have a clear call to action.
• Be descriptive, not just “click here”
• Don’t copy content for similar pages. Each page should be as unique as possible.

We would like to at this point mention blogs as they are a valuable way to create content and to interact with and respond to your audience on a casual level. This builds trust and brand loyalty. But don’t get caught in the trap of thinking, “If you build it, they will come.” Even with your blog, you must generate on-page SEO. Always keep it on your domain, preferably as a subfolder, create blogs to provide value for visitors and customers, and not search engines. Create a layout for your blog that is similar to your site, with unique title tags, meta data, URLs and internal links and don’t forget to make it easy to subscribe via a RSS feed subscription.

Other on-page features that can generate fresh and unique key word rich content are glossaries, resource pages, wikis, slides, white papers, forums, bulletin boards, RSS feeds and galleries (to name a few).

If you have some tips please let us know as we look forward to hearing from you, and come back real soon for our next entry that will cover what makes a web site search friendly.

Are you aware that your business link on Google could actually get ‘hijacked’ by someone else? I never thought about it really. I just finished reading a blog by SearchEngineLand and it is a great read about this very topic. If you would like to read it, follow this link.

The point is that Google Maps charts business locations and you have the opportunity to do some self promotion and protect your turf at the same time. The blog tells about how some unscrupulous soul was hijacking local florist shops and routing them elsewhere. That is like someone putting a ‘we’ve moved’ sign on your front door with the new location address. Wow, that could hurt business.

Well, for safety reasons go to the Google local business add page and make doubly sure that your business is listed and if it is, start the claim process. If it is not listed, start the claim process! It is easy and fast and if you are a single practioner of yoga or a multi-million dollar tech firm, you should still take this step. And if you have multiple locations, don’t stop at your headquarters, do this for each and every location.

You can upload your company logo, link to a YouTube video about your business and give a description. Don’t forget keywords here when you describe your company.

So stop whatever it is that you are doing, spend 5 minutes and protect and promote yourself. This is a critical step in securing your Google listing and promoting your company and web site search engine ranking improvements.

Don’t thank us for bringing this to your attention! We love it when we can help you help yourselves!

When you introduce yourself to a prospect or to someone you just met at a networking or other business event, how long does it take to explain yourself? And what words do you use when describing your company? Now, go to your website and compare the copy on your site to what you would say when meeting someone. Is it in synch or is there a lot of fluff and banner waving? The problem we see on a lot of sites is that there seems to be the misconception that visitors have a lot of free time and are just desperate to learn more about your company.

Your website copy could be causing eye strain to your visitors and resulting in them just leaving your site all together. The key to strong website copy is to understand that this is NOT your corporate brochure. This is NOT where you do your song and dance. Your website is where you ANSWER a need or question quickly and succinctly.

Think like a visitor. How did they get to your site and what is it they want to know? Studies show that visitors don’t read, they scan. You have a sum total of about 6 seconds for them to decide to stay or click away. If you must have a lot of copy, then it needs to be broken out into easy to digest sections with bold headlines that help the eye follow through to the main points.

We’d like to make some suggestions that might help you with your web copy.

• Explain what you do or have to offer in one simple clean sentence.
• Keep your paragraphs short, average 50-70 words, you’re not writing a book here.
• Avoid kitchy jargon-laden speak, fluff, pomp and all the techie, hype, superfluous, superficial adjectives.
• Think conversation. Your content should be responding to the question they asked that got them there so it should read with phrases that contain you and yours. If every paragraph contains we, me or our, your website is suffering from narcissism.
• Have all of your content done in a program that offers spell and grammar checking and rigorously check the spelling and grammar. If you are editing and tweaking to perfection, remember to put your final cut into the spell and grammar check before putting it on your site. We have come across company sites where their own name is spelled wrong on the website. I’m guessing that the world did not come to an end but maybe they will have trouble convincing someone that their company pays attention to the details when servicing them.
• Be relevant. Just look at the heading on the page and match it to the content to be sure you haven’t gone off topic or off on a rant. If you need to introduce or mention something that really belongs somewhere else, provide a link to that page in a sentence rather than repeating the same material.
• Be real and genuine. Be able to deliver on the promise. We suggest circulating your content to everyone in your company for a couple of reasons. First, their insight might really be helpful and secondly, they are going to be charged with delivering the promise so it would be helpful if they knew what that was.

Concise, appropriate web content can make the difference between a recurring visitor and a one-scan wonder. Keep it short, sweet and to the point, and you won't go wrong.

Once a designer or design firm is completed and your site is launched, your work is not done. Websites need to be freshened up from time to time and changes need to be made. Trust me when I say to you that you will be back to working on your site again. Today web sites are being built with amazing code that allows you to manage and update content - with CMS a content management system, but that may not be enough. So the information we are going to share in this blog is one that we recommend that you bring this requirement up early in the discussion with your designer of choice and be clear what you mean by using the examples below.

Your designer should have no issues with this requirement. However, should the designer balk and give you some mumbo jumbo that this is not industry standard practice and what not, this is a good time to thank them and walk away.

Some designers are what I affectionately call ‘hostage takers’ and when I ran into them in corporate America, our lawyers quickly swatted them in to place. Small companies typically don’t have lawyers on call to review every contract and rarely do they think about a contract review for web design. I am not suggesting that it is necessary but this chapter is to make you aware of some areas that should be addressed and put into writing from the start.

I am guessing that the reason for this is twofold. First the designer’s ego comes into play and their ‘artwork’ should not be touched by anyone other then the artist alone. Second, by not releasing production files is a guarantee that at some point you are going to want to make changes or edits to your site and you will have no choice but to return to the original designer to do so or incur the expense of starting over with someone new.

The interesting thing about web design is that there are a lot of production files that get flattened, sliced or mashed in order to make a web site. If by some chance you want to make changes down the road, you will not be able to make any real changes from the files that are on the website, you need those production files. See where I am going with this one?

Final payment should be hand in hand with the web designer turning over all production files. Either putting them into a folder on the website or by burning them onto a DVD or CD to be turned over to you. And these files should not be locked.

Here is what you ask for:

All Photoshop and Illustrator files, unlocked and unflattened. All fonts and images used to create any artwork (fonts may not be transferable so ask for the name of the font and the foundry that created the font).

Image files and photos not provided by you to the designer should be royalty free and the terms of use provided as well as where the images were purchased from. The last thing you need is a year or two down the road getting a nasty letter from a law firm representing a photographer or photo house claiming copyright infringement with a bill attached that could exceed thousands of dollars.

If flash has been used on the site, the files that are used on the website end in .swf however to edit a flash file you need the production files and these are the files that end in .fla. In order to ever edit a flash file, you will need the .fla file, trust me you will want to edit that file at some point.

This is just an example of what we include in our terms and conditions when preparing a proposal for a new web site project.

All production and work files become the property of the client (Name) upon final payment. License for software used is transferable only as the licensing allows. Software used in the development of the site is not included in the transference of ownership.

We hope that your web site project gets off to a great start and even more importantly, ends on a good note.

As entrepreneurs we are told to work on our businesses not in them. This is great advice but the caveat is that even though you aren’t planning on doing some of the actual work yourself, this does not give you a free ride to shuck your responsibilities. I love it when I hear ‘oh, I don’t understand any of that stuff; my web designer handles all of that’.

Reality check: I got a call around 11:30 one evening – now I am a designer and marketing firm, not a brain surgeon. My client was in total panic. It seems, as I was able to gather through the hysterical sobs, that there had been a terrible blow out between her and a long-time friend – who was also her web designer. My client relied heavily on her website, not only for new business but also for servicing her existing clients and she feared retribution from this designer. As I began the standard investigatory questions of where was the domain name registered and where the site was hosted, she was unable to answer these questions and was unaware of what the difference was between the two.

So by midnight I was on line and searching out the answers. By 1:00 am I was in the process of copying over her website so we could at least have the site, but of course lacked any production files – should she need edits and updates; and was in the process of transferring the domain name to her possession – which was going to take some doing.

As far as her domain name, it wasn’t registered to her or her company but to her web designer and this was going to take some doing in order to prove to the registrar that she was indeed the owner and that the information needed to be changed in order to allow my client access to control and to block any potential mischief from her designer now x-friend.

The moral of the story is that an entire business’s identity and more importantly, life expectancy rested in the hands of someone other than the company’s owner. If you are not in total control – you risk loosing it. And – just so you know, this is not an isolated incident. Most every new client that has come to me – it most always starts out the same – even those working with reputable design firms.

Domain name: this is your on-line identity. You probably have it on your letterhead and your business card as well as any printed marketing material you might have. www.mycompany.com is what we are referring to. It is probably even tied to your email address – your_name@yourcompany.com. This name is ‘leased’ from a registrar company. The leaseholder should be you!

To answer the question – “is my company’s domain name registered to me or to my company?” Go online to www.whois.net and type in your web address – if the registration has not been set to private, the name on the registration will be displayed. If it isn’t you and you are not listed anywhere on any of the files, it is time to start making some phone calls – and one might be to your lawyer.

Naming your website is also apart of the process. You want to keep it short enough to remember, leave out dashes and underlines or anything that makes it either hard to remember or hard to type. Preferably you want to use your company name or your service or product. That might be difficult since not only are there nearly 200 million names already in use, but there have been massive name buys by people who buy names for the sole purpose of reselling them. You can buy a domain name for as little as $10 a year but if it is a name that is already purchased, a name broker (and that is the nice way of describing these bottom feeders) could demand thousands of dollars for the name you desire.

Quick story. A client of mine was mentioned in a newspaper as starting a new venture and one of these bottom feeders read the article, searched the name and bought up as many iterations as possible. A week later, my client called to ask me to procure the name and to begin planning the website. The individual who bought the name demanded $25,000. After negotiations we got him to agree to $5,000 but understand that the $5,000 should have cost my client $10!

When you do decide on the domain name, we encourage you to also purchase the name in as many variations as possible such as .net .org. tv and variations on the spelling or by adding a city or state or corp or llc to the name. You want to encapsulate your domain name so that competitors can’t buy up something close to you and do brand damage or reroute unsuspecting prospects away from you and to their company.

It's Your Name, So Own It! Never leave such a critical asset to the life of your business in the hands of others, no matter who they are!

Sometimes we (Bumblebee Design & Marketing) are called in to triage a site that was just built or was built not so long ago. Even more painful, is we are asked to perform marketing services and the website we have to work with is anything but user friendly or even searchable, or it just one big flash site and so there are limits as to what we can do in a marketing campaign.

Clients and prospects may have begun to get that sinking feeling that maybe they didn’t get their money’s worth but aren’t exactly sure why. The designer has some really classy and jazzy looking designs and they came from great design schools and have an impressive list of accounts so they really must know what they are doing. And yet, nothing – no more traffic, no more calls, no additional business or leads come flowing in over the phone or by email. I won’t go into that now, but this blog is about the basics of website design and some really important things you need to know before you run off and spend any more money on your website.

1. Do NOT use flash as an opening page (or for your entire web site for that matter), or a large splash page that is all artwork. Think. How many times do you look at the same picture? How is a search engine supposed to translate that image or flash movie and get your site indexed so it can be delivered in a search query? It is a waste of space and most people find them quite annoying thank you. RULE: Artwork should not exceed one third of the above the fold page -- that means that if the visitor has to start scrolling to figure things out – you have a bad design.
2. Proof of coding. You want assurance that the job is done completely on each page so you will want to ask your designer to provide the Meta tag title, description and keywords for each and every page on your website. I am not sure if it is lack of knowledge or shear laziness that this does not get done.
3. Redirect pages are a must. If you have had a site up for awhile already, chances are someone, somewhere has linked to one of them and so once the new site is created, if the page names are changed, then redirect pages need to be created for the ones that are disappearing so that you don’t loose any traffic or rankings you have already gained.
4. Navigation is for the visitors not for you. Think about what your clients and prospects are looking for before you align your navigation. Chances are About Us, although important is not the first thing they look for. It is a better guess that the first thing that they want to know is if you can fulfill their needs and then they’ll want to know who you are.
5. Don’t keep your phone number and address a secret. Your phone number should be on every page not buried in a contact us page.
6. Site map is a must. Site maps serve two important purposes, the first is that a visitor can gain a snapshot of your overall site if it is a big site and they just aren’t sure where to go (and let’s hope that isn’t the case) and the second is that it is essential guide for search engines to index your site.
7. Cross platform verifications. Your site must read well on PCs and Macs, work in Internet Explorer both older and recent versions and Safari at the very least. Ask your designer to show you how your site performs in each of these before you launch. If they are using CSS and java there are going to be differences in color and performance so make certain your site plays well in most all of the current browsers. You can check this out yourself at different sites, one is http://browsershots.org/
8. Who is this site for anyway? Your content is critical – oh so very critical so think about how you are positioning what you write. Your site should not be a narcissistic attempt at a brag page, leave that to your grandmothers. Your site should be speaking to the visitors and answering immediately what is in it for them. So cut out the I, me, my stuff and think about the You, Your stuff. The I, Me, My sentences go on the About Us page and the You, Your stuff that are not industry lingo or vague sales speak should go on the home page and other relevant content pages. The content should hold words and phrases that match up to the keywords. Then sprinkle in testimonials to let them know you are reputable and great to work with.
9. Your home page should also serve as the concierge desk pointing visitors to other specific pages on your site that explains in more detail a statement of service or offering. There should be links on your home page that lead visitors to other pages.
10. There is more to tell, but to keep this list short and to the point I will end on this last note of suggesting that before you make the final payment, request all of your production files. It is your website and you should be able to do with it as you please once you have paid for it. So, ask your designer to turn over all production files. An example is for flash, you want the .fla files. For everything else you want the Photoshop and Illustrator files unflattened. And any other production files and artwork created to make your website. You paid for it; there should be no further discussion.

If I sound a bit cranky, I apologize. However the business of design should have integrity and I am often left with my mouth hanging open in awe of what ‘web design’ individuals and firms offer up as a finished product. Unfortunately for entrepreneurs and small business owners, web design is sometimes like a physics equation that is just too complicated to understand and therefore one just doesn’t know what to ask for and only pays attention to what it looks like. Yes, design is important, but function is far more critical and for the kind of money you are going to spend on your web site, if you aren’t sure please ask someone knowledgeable to write the specifications and possibly even manage the project for you. After all, you may select a car for its looks but you don’t buy it until you know how it is going to perform on the road and in all weather conditions, think about your website the same way.