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Internet Marketing Tips
Marketing Tips from Around the Web
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Affiliate managers should avoid these mistakes if they want to build a successful affiliate program.
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we fight it? Why not accept it, embrace it, and adapt our business
models to compete against it instead?
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I've earned a six figure income for
many years. Here are 20 software products and services I use to make a
six figure income online annually.
SEO Tips
Are you wondering whether you should use a dash versus an underscore in URLs? This article will provide a definitive answer.
In this article I show you three ways to get listed in Google, including one method that is virtually guaranteed to work.
Keyword density, frequency, prominence and proximity explained.
27 quick search engine optimization tips that will improve your search engine rankings.
Find link exchange partners to improve your link popularity and search engine rankings.
In this article I discuss seven illegal, or almost illegal, search engine optimization and related techniques.
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SES Chicago 2012 Conference Wrap Up – TopRank Takes #SESCHI By Storm
Phew! What a whirlwind week at SES Chicago.
While my TopRank Online Marketing teammates were taking SES Chicago by
storm, I was holding down the homefront manning the blog, monitoring
Twitter feeds, and helping in any way that I could.We were fortunate to have an army of TopRank staff speaking, attending, live blogging, and interacting for the entire conference including:
Lee Odden: CEO
Jolina Pettice: Director of Client Accounts
Thom Craver: Senior Technical SEO Manager
Alexis Hall: Account Manager
Evan Prokop: Associate Account Manager
Miranda Miller: Content Marketing Manager
In this wrap up I’ve provided you with a 360 view of the conference which includes links to our live blogs, tweets, a video with keynote presenter Avinash Kaushik, and photos from the conference. Enjoy!
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A Strategic View of Search Engine Optimization – Where Does SEO Fit in Your Content Strategy?
Lee Odden on Nov 19th, 2012 Online Marketing, Optimize Book, SEO
Companies
large and small, in industries from retail to manufacturing, publish
content online with an expectation that a certain audience of people
will find, read and act on that content. While most Search Engine
Optimization efforts are rightly focused on marketing goals like
acquiring more customers and increasing revenue, making purchases is not
the only reason consumers use search or ask for referrals through
social networks.There’s a lot of tactical advice online about search, social media and content marketing for companies that want to better connect with customers but that advice doesn’t always consider the differences between types of companies or even content within companies. For the best return on marketing investment, it’s important to understand that there are notable differences in tactics for effective optimization depending on who the audience is, how they prefer to discover, consume and act on information. The very nature of B2C vs. B2B or small company vs. large company content, audience and outcomes can be different, so the approach to optimizing content for search and social media must be tailored accordingly.
Online Marketing News: Run Effective A/B Tests, YouTube Pulls the Plug, Hijacking Google, Windows 8 Dead?
Ashley Zeckman on Nov 16th, 2012 Online Marketing, Online Marketing News
Social Stereotypes: You Are What You Share
This recent infographic from WIX focuses on social media, and the types of things that people share, or read. Findings include:- 71% of tweets are ignored
- 23% of tweets get a reply
- 5% of Pinterest users are under the age of 18
- 97% of executives surveyed used LinkedIn in 2010
23 Tips on How to A/B Test Like A Badass
With all of the tools now available it has become very easy and effective to run an A/B test. However, many marketers are still scratching their heads trying to determine how to take their testing to the next level. Via Search Engine Watch.
7 Effortless Ways to Find New Ideas for Your BlogWith all of the tools now available it has become very easy and effective to run an A/B test. However, many marketers are still scratching their heads trying to determine how to take their testing to the next level. Via Search Engine Watch.
Coming up with new and exciting topics for blog content is no easy undertaking. This article shares 7 easy ways to come up with new blog content regularly. Read on to find out more. Via Social Media Examiner.
Guest Blogging: Stop Thinking Link Building, Start Thinking Relationship Building – #SESCHI
Evan Prokop on Nov 15th, 2012 Online Marketing
Another
update live from SES Chicago. Erin Everhart and Katherine Watier gave
a highly entertaining and informative presentation about link building
through guest blogging.Guest Blogging Works, But You Have to do it Right
It’s a scenario that’s far too typical in the SEO world. An awesome new tactic is discovered, word gets out, and it gets done to death, resulting in it not working anymore (sorry, but it’s true).
Link building through guest blogging has definitely suffered this fate. Starting out as an incredibly effective means of generating high quality white hat links, over-use and poor implementation have resulted in bloggers cringing at inboxes full of poorly written, self-serving pitch requests, and ultimately ignoring the vast majority of would be guest posts.
5 Strategies to Increase Conversion in a Social World from #SESCHI
Alexis Hall on Nov 15th, 2012 Online Marketing, Search Engine Strategies
95%
of decisions are considered preconscious. In fact, the majority of
decisions we, as humans, make are automatic or based on “gut feel”,
rather than conscious decision making.So then why are so many businesses building websites for consumers who view and act based on their rational brain? This is the question Tim Ash (@tim_ash) posits during his SES Chicago session “Beyond the Click: Conversion in the Social World.”
The human brain, shaped by thousands of years of evolution, is highly influential on our online decision making. So marketers must look for opportunities to make the conversion process as intuitive, consistent and automatic as possible.
Taking the evolutionary approach, here are five strategies for increasing conversions in a social world, from Tim Ash.
SES Chicago: Building the B2B Social Media Machine – 6 Steps for Success
Evan Prokop on Nov 15th, 2012 B2B, Online Marketing, Search Engine Strategies, Social Media
It’s
day 2 of SES Chicago, and the online marketing education is flowing
full force. I saw an excellent presentation about building a killer B2B
social media strategy with Adriel Sanchez (@Adriel_S)
of SAP. With the sea of platforms, tactics, and schools of thought
around B2B social media, it can be difficult to put together an
actionable strategy that gets real results.Follow the steps below to get your B2B social media strategy working for your business.
1. Forget Social Media, Think Content Marketing
Social media works best as a component of an overall content strategy. The key is to think like a publisher, not a marketer. This means avoiding the common pitfalls of being overly self-promotional or too sales oriented.
7 Link Building Philosophies for a Post-Penguin World – #SESCHI
Jolina Pettice on Nov 14th, 2012 Online Marketing, Search Engine Strategies
Panda, Penguin
and other Google updates are part of search marketing. The frequency
of updates has continued to garner attention over the last 6 months.The only sure thing; it’s likely to continue as Google stays its course in refining standards for quality content.
And in a post-Panda and Penguin world, smarter more meaningful link building is not only recommended but a requirement.
Understanding this is only the tip of the iceberg. What lies below the surface is the real opportunity and from SES Chicago, here’s what you should be thinking about.
7 Link Building Philosophies to create value and remain Penguin-friendly. Shared with the audience by Jon Ball of PageOnePower.
1. In a World without Google
Imagine if Google didn’t exist, where would you spend link building efforts? What would you do and not do?
Remarketing & Retargeting Done Right and Wrong – 6 Do’s and Don’ts From SES Chicago
Evan Prokop on Nov 14th, 2012 Online Marketing, Online Marketing Strategy
Live from SES Chicago,
I had a fantastic opportunity to learn about the ultra-hot online
marketing area of remarketing / retargeting from Christopher Hansen and
Marty Weintraub. Remarketing can be extremely powerful, but is easy to
get wrong, and the consequences can be costly both in terms of budget
and brand image.Below are 3 tips to make retargeting campaigns work for you, and 3 potential mistakes.
Retargeting Done Right
#1: Identify Your Best ContentThe key to effective retargeting is finding what is already working in your marketing strategy. Retargeting can be very effective at increasing the success of your content, but the content must be effective on its own in order to see a benefit from retargeting.
10 Of the Best Kept Secrets to B2B Videos from #SESCHI
Alexis Hall on Nov 14th, 2012 Online Marketing
Did
you know that 42% of business executives have made a purchasing
decision based on an online video? In fact, 60% of execs will watch a
video, before the ever read the text on the screen. Wow!In the last session on the first day of SES, I was pretty excited to learn the secrets to B2B video success from Peter La Motte from GeniusRocket (@geniusrocket). You see, I hear from clients all the time reasons why video isn’t a larger part of their marketing mix.
Top 3 Reasons B2Bs Give for Why They Can’t (or Won’t) Do Video
- Video is too much work!
- B2B is too boring for video
- Video doesn’t drive sales
Exploiting the Infinite Loop: 5 Tips for Mobile Marketing Optimization from SES Chicago
Alexis Hall on Nov 13th, 2012 Online Marketing
Today’s
consumer is connected every where and in every way. Additionally, we
are no longer subject to the agenda of businesses when it comes to when
and where we consume content, shop or view ads. As marketers is our job
to take advantage of what Geoff Tam-Scott describes as the infinite
loop.The infinite loops refer to the ongoing cycle of touch points marketers with consumer across devices such as smartphone, tablets, TV, PCs, etc.
On the first day of SES Chicago, Tam-Scott and Gagan Kanwar from Marin Software (@MarinSoftware) offer tips for marketers to optimize marketing for mobile and exploit the potential which mobile unlocks.
14 Online Marketing Wake-Up Calls from @Avinash – SES Chicago
Jolina Pettice on Nov 13th, 2012 Online Marketing, Search Engine Strategies
Online Marketing Magic blankets the Midwest as SES Chicago kicks off this morning. Audience members packed the room and gulped coffee anxiously awaiting to know what Avinash knows.Curious to know what makes Avinash Kaushik (Digital Marketing Evangelist, Google) roll out of bed each morning? Surprisingly, it’s not data.
3 Simple Ideas Keeping Avinash’s Finger Off Snooze
1. Influence: The ability to find people and brainwash them that they need our products or services.
2. Experience: Most websites suck according to Avinash. And he’s on a one-man mission to fix them.
3. Value: If we solve the 2 problems above and can’t make money doing it, we’re doing it wrong. And that’s no fun at all.
How do you reach the intersection of influence, experience and value and find Online Marketing Magic? Start with 14 online marketing Wake-Up Calls spanning from Analytics to Social to Mobile.
Content Marketing Confessions: 5 Simple Tips to Improve Marketing Performance
Ashley Zeckman on Nov 13th, 2012 Content Marketing, Online Marketing
Think
back to a time when you created a piece of content marketing
awesomeness. Visually it was appealing, you were very confident about
the content, and you were sure that it was going to be a hit.
Unfortunately, it fell flat. And it left you wondering, how did this
happen?Your first instinct may be to assume the online audience just didn’t understand how good the content really was. But here’s the gig, it’s time that we as marketers understand “why” we’re creating content and “who” it is for. This will allow us to make better marketing decisions and project what type of content will resonate best with our audience, and meet business objectives.
Connecting Marketing & IT: 5 Tips for Creating a Shared Marketing Agenda with Your CIO
On occasion we connect with smart people and ideas we think are worth sharing as a guest post here at Online Marketing Blog. Today, I’d like to introduce you to Heidi Ambler,
Director of Social Business at IBM. Heidi has over 20 years with IBM
where she leads a team responsible for their enterprise social software
business.
In a digital world where technology and consumer behaviors are changing rapidly, Heidi makes the argument for better alignment between IT and marketing as a path towards greater success and competitive advantage.
According to recent survey results,
60 percent of marketers cite a lack of alignment with the company’s IT
department as the biggest obstacle to reaching today’s digitally
empowered and social savvy consumers.
This alarming statistic supports additional quantitative research in the market suggesting that the world of marketing, and how consumers interact with companies, is changing. This evolution is forcing companies to make a fundamental shift towards much higher-level customer-centricity which leverages today’s digital and social technology. Twofold, the CIO role is now more important than ever. A CIO can’t stay in the back office anymore. They have to think about their role in the front office, and how together with marketing they can position their company for leadership.
The CMO’s role is expanding from an advertising-centric job description to complete ownership of the company’s brand and reputation. This includes teaming up with the CIO to provide what we (IBM) call “system engagement” to the client. The CMO must be responsible for managing a consistent customer experience and also managing the impact on the brand from social media. In today’s social/digital business world, the role of the CMO is much broader and in order to be successful its imperative to partner with your CIO. This might seem like an impossibility for some, so here are a few tips to help ease into the relationship, leading to a prosperous partnership.
1. Communication is key. This may seem elementary, but the lack of communication between marketers and traditionally “back-office” technologists can cause marketers to become stuck in their own customer engagement systems instead of integrating with their company’s technological advancements. This is especially true with social. As a marketer you may be taking advantage of Facebook and Twitter but are you linked in with your organization’s enterprise social networking tools? These tools may be the key that unlock imperative customer sentiment and analysis.
2. It’s not a competition. With the advancements in technology, whether social, mobile, big data or cloud, these two islands, the CMO and CIO, can no longer live separately. We absolutely need technologists, but we absolutely need strong representation of the voice of the customer, which comes from the marketing teams. Don’t view the roles as playing for different teams, but rather extensions of each other working towards a common goal – providing exceptional experiences and services to your customers.
3. Don’t be afraid of social technology, and I don’t mean Facebook. Sure, your CIO office can be intimidating, but there are easy-to-use, intuitive and social solutions that your CIO office is implementing that can be a vital asset to your marketing objectives. These technologies are helping to address both the CMO and CIO agendas. Typically these solutions help to manage the vast amount of available social data and helps to align teams across IT, marketing and communications to use this social data and insights to better serve employees and customers. A win-win scenario.
4. Focus on strategy vs. projects. You and your CIO office have to figure out how to collaborate on crafting strategies, not just teaming on individual projects. The real task you face is learning how to put today’s technology—analytics, big data, social media–to work to transform your relationships with consumers and reimagine your business. This initial change can start with nuts-and-bolts decisions. For instance, companies need to pull together the bits and pieces of information consumers are telling them across different social channels, but what forward thinking tech and marketing departments understand is that by working together to shore up these basics, they create a new foundation for revealing an entirely new understanding of their customers.
5. Listen. Marketers traditionally credit themselves as being good listeners, especially when it comes to customers, but in today’s overtly digital and social landscape there’s a lot of noise. It’s difficult to know just what to listen to and when. Your CIO, believe it or not, can help here. Imagine if you better understood the broader implications of technology decisions, such as using mobile marketing and social media. So instead of releasing apps haphazardly, or chasing scattered ad hoc social media campaigns in an effort to get to know your customers better, you and your CIO collaborated on mapping out a long-term, integrated approach to collecting data, analyzing it, and sharing lessons learned.
It’s clear that tech and marketing are crucial to the success of companies today. But now what’s also becoming obvious is that as the world gets ever more interconnected, as customers become more digitally and socially active, these two critical departments need to network as well or risk being left behind. The partnership between the CMO and CIO is the exception and not the rule, but it’s clear that if your organization is looking to gain an advantage over the competition, this relationship is the ticket to success. It’s time as a marketer to knock on your IT department’s door and get collaborating!
Connect with Heidi on Twitter (@heidi_ambler) and LinkedIn.
In a digital world where technology and consumer behaviors are changing rapidly, Heidi makes the argument for better alignment between IT and marketing as a path towards greater success and competitive advantage.
According to recent survey results,
60 percent of marketers cite a lack of alignment with the company’s IT
department as the biggest obstacle to reaching today’s digitally
empowered and social savvy consumers.This alarming statistic supports additional quantitative research in the market suggesting that the world of marketing, and how consumers interact with companies, is changing. This evolution is forcing companies to make a fundamental shift towards much higher-level customer-centricity which leverages today’s digital and social technology. Twofold, the CIO role is now more important than ever. A CIO can’t stay in the back office anymore. They have to think about their role in the front office, and how together with marketing they can position their company for leadership.
The CMO’s role is expanding from an advertising-centric job description to complete ownership of the company’s brand and reputation. This includes teaming up with the CIO to provide what we (IBM) call “system engagement” to the client. The CMO must be responsible for managing a consistent customer experience and also managing the impact on the brand from social media. In today’s social/digital business world, the role of the CMO is much broader and in order to be successful its imperative to partner with your CIO. This might seem like an impossibility for some, so here are a few tips to help ease into the relationship, leading to a prosperous partnership.
1. Communication is key. This may seem elementary, but the lack of communication between marketers and traditionally “back-office” technologists can cause marketers to become stuck in their own customer engagement systems instead of integrating with their company’s technological advancements. This is especially true with social. As a marketer you may be taking advantage of Facebook and Twitter but are you linked in with your organization’s enterprise social networking tools? These tools may be the key that unlock imperative customer sentiment and analysis.
2. It’s not a competition. With the advancements in technology, whether social, mobile, big data or cloud, these two islands, the CMO and CIO, can no longer live separately. We absolutely need technologists, but we absolutely need strong representation of the voice of the customer, which comes from the marketing teams. Don’t view the roles as playing for different teams, but rather extensions of each other working towards a common goal – providing exceptional experiences and services to your customers.
3. Don’t be afraid of social technology, and I don’t mean Facebook. Sure, your CIO office can be intimidating, but there are easy-to-use, intuitive and social solutions that your CIO office is implementing that can be a vital asset to your marketing objectives. These technologies are helping to address both the CMO and CIO agendas. Typically these solutions help to manage the vast amount of available social data and helps to align teams across IT, marketing and communications to use this social data and insights to better serve employees and customers. A win-win scenario.
4. Focus on strategy vs. projects. You and your CIO office have to figure out how to collaborate on crafting strategies, not just teaming on individual projects. The real task you face is learning how to put today’s technology—analytics, big data, social media–to work to transform your relationships with consumers and reimagine your business. This initial change can start with nuts-and-bolts decisions. For instance, companies need to pull together the bits and pieces of information consumers are telling them across different social channels, but what forward thinking tech and marketing departments understand is that by working together to shore up these basics, they create a new foundation for revealing an entirely new understanding of their customers.
5. Listen. Marketers traditionally credit themselves as being good listeners, especially when it comes to customers, but in today’s overtly digital and social landscape there’s a lot of noise. It’s difficult to know just what to listen to and when. Your CIO, believe it or not, can help here. Imagine if you better understood the broader implications of technology decisions, such as using mobile marketing and social media. So instead of releasing apps haphazardly, or chasing scattered ad hoc social media campaigns in an effort to get to know your customers better, you and your CIO collaborated on mapping out a long-term, integrated approach to collecting data, analyzing it, and sharing lessons learned.
It’s clear that tech and marketing are crucial to the success of companies today. But now what’s also becoming obvious is that as the world gets ever more interconnected, as customers become more digitally and socially active, these two critical departments need to network as well or risk being left behind. The partnership between the CMO and CIO is the exception and not the rule, but it’s clear that if your organization is looking to gain an advantage over the competition, this relationship is the ticket to success. It’s time as a marketer to knock on your IT department’s door and get collaborating!
Connect with Heidi on Twitter (@heidi_ambler) and LinkedIn.
Online Marketing News: Social Media & Holiday Shopping, Use PodCasting For Business, Facebook Ads = Craigslist, New Gmail, Google EMD Update
Social Media and the Holiday Shopper
This recent infographic from Clever Girls Collective provides insights into social media-savvy women’s 2012 holiday shopping plans. Findings include:- 93.3% purchased something because a blogger recommended it
- $515 is the amount the average US household will spend on gifts this year
- 75% say sale prices influence holiday purchasing decisions
Podcasting is quickly becoming a very popular means of creating online content. In addition to it’s virility, podcasting puts a voice to the face that prospects will appreciate. This article shares 3 great tips for using podcasting to get new customers. Via Social Media Examiner.
Apple’s North American Mobile Web Traffic Surges Following iPhone 5 Launch
According to this article, Apple’s share of mobile web traffic rose nearly 6% between September and October. This is no doubt due to the introduction of the iPhone5 and the 4th generation iPod Touch. Due to the stiff competition, these numbers may fall again soon. Via TechCrunch.
Rumor Says Facebook May Create Classified Ads — Again
There are rumors circulating that Facebook is on the verge of creating a new classifieds listings section which would essentially put them in direct competition with Craigslist. Apparently this service would allow users to create ads to show up in their friends’ news feeds. Via cNet.
2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends [Research Report]
MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute have published their third annual research results. Findings show that content marketing continues to be a top priority for marketers in the upcoming year. In fact, 9 out of 10 marketers are currently using content marketing. Via Content Marketing Institute.
TopRank Team News
Mike Yanke – To Disavow or Not to Disavow?As previously noted here, Google recently launched a link disavow tool – empowering sites to disavow any spammy links they saw as potentially harmful to their site. How can you determine whether you are simply one of the millions intrigued by this tool – or one of the hundreds that should actually use this tool? Start by reading this Q&A with Google’s Matt Cutts, published to Search Engine Land.
Thom Craver – Introducing the New Compose In Gmail
Google has simplified the process of composing new email in Gmail. Instead of filling the entire screen, it uses a little pop-up like window in the bottom-right corner of the screen. This is so you can still pull up other emails in the background, in case you need to reference a previous conversation. The mini window is far more simplistic, hiding many of the formatting controls. I used it to compose this message. It’s pretty neat.Via Official Gmail Blog.
Rob Bayne – How A New “Influencer” App Could Be Your Most Powerful Content Marketing Weapon
This is an article on an amazing new app called ‘Little Bird’. Little Bird is essentially a Twitter search engine for thought leaders. You simply enter the topic you’re interested in, and Little Bird returns not only the individuals who are most followed, but the ones who have the oldest accounts, the most active accounts, who is most followed by topic insiders, who’s emerging, and who’s listening. You can even filter the results to show only people, instead of businesses and people. The only drawback is this tool is currently in a closed beta, and not available to the general public! Via Business 2 Community.
Mike Odden – Google: A Single Tweak Won’t Boost Your Search Ranking
We are reminded again that there is no single magic bullet to acquiring significant increase in ranking. There are over 200 factors used and not all are treated equally. However , as in all things , there are exceptions to the rule as sometimes a small tweak can result in a major boost. Such as when a old site did not have any unique title tags. Changing the title tags in the article headline can be a huge silver bullet. Via Search Engine Roundtable.
Shawna Kenyon – New Tool Visualizes Facebook Analytics in Real Time
A new addition to Facebook analytics called PageLever will provide users real time in page analytics. Facebook intends to update this data every 15 minutes in order to show users which posts are making the largest impact. The goal is to help owners manage their pages more effectively. Via Mashable.
Evan Prokop – Deconstructing the Google EMD Update
It was a little known secret that websites with exact match domain names have received preferential treatment in search for a long time. Google’s recent EMD update aims to put a stop to that. Learn what it means, and why it’s good news for quality websites. Via Search Engine Land.
Time to Weigh In: How much do you think that social media affects your holiday shopping? What do you think of Facebook’s plan to roll out ads that would compete with Craigslist? How do you plan on utilizing Facebook’s new PageLever tool?
Top Ten Small Business Web Site Marketing Tips
Many small business owners struggle with the
seemingly overwhelming task of managing their web site. There always
seems to be so much to do, yet no time to do it all (something we know
all too well). This brief primer should help to highlight the key
aspects of web site management that will help them gain the most from
their web site with the time that they have available.
The following ten tips are key to maintaining a successful web site. Follow these and your site will do better. Nothing will guarantee that a web site will be successful as there are simple too many different factors that impact web success - but as a general rule these ten tips will always lead to better performance.
For more detail consult Building Web Site Success a detailed primer about these and other aspects of Internet marketing.
All the search engines scan a sites content now - almost ignoring things like meta tags. The more content you have on your site the more the search engines can scan - but there is more to it then that: people like content too. Many people measure a web site´s success by the number of visitors it gets - so ask yourself - why would people come to your web site? do you offer them interesting and informative information that relates to your product or service? if not, why would they come?
Relevant content and lots of it is a key for a successful web site. There is always room for more content on a web site, and you can never have too much.
Take this article for example, while it´s fairly useful information for many of our visitors, it´s also additional content for our web site - and will serve to help our site do better. Writing articles about aspects of your industry is a great way to generate content.
Set asside an hour a day (or at least an hour a week) to devote to adding new content to your web site.
Having lots of content is great - but if it is all three years old it´s not going to look like your site is much of a priority. The search engines actually track this. They monitor how frequently your site changes as they visit it for indexing. The more often it changes the better your rank in the freshness category.
What constitutes change? pretty much anything - which is why keeping a BLOG or adding frequent news articles to your web site usually produces such good results. It is also the reason why having something as simple as rotating content and the current date on every page has been shown to make a difference (although the search engines have been getting wise to this kind of tactic)
Many design firms promise success through the use of tricks, backdoors, and special tactics designed to sneak a web site into a top position rapidly. Something, of course, that the search engines are constantly battling to defeat. Why play the game? as the search engines find the cheaters they will plug the holes and a rank (that usually costs a pretty penny to achieve) will immediately be lost.
Rather, follow the recommendations of the search engines - most set out rules for web masters that outline what they would like to see in a web site (incidentally these rules are the main source of research for this document) By following the rules the engines are actually battling all the cheating web sites and working to promote the sites that follow the rules - they are fighting FOR you!
There has been a lot of talk about link exchanges - people linking to others merely to gain a higher rank (hmmm, this smacks of breaking tip #3) if you are going to link to someone and/or ask them to link to you - ask yourself: is it relevant?
Any old link is not going to help you much - search engines will look at who is linking to you - they are also starting to pay very close attention to how many links you have off your web site on a page. This is being done to try and drop sites with pages of links (do you have a links page on your web site?)
It is far better to have relevant links in various places throughout your web site - on only those pages that specifically address the topic that relates to the page being linked.
Unfortunately you can´t exert too much control over the way that other sites link to yours but it is worth looking at how a site usually links to others before to specifically go requesting a link from them. For example: a link that is your logo isn´t very useful (search engines ignore images) whereas a link containing text, listing the topic of your web site, from a related web site would be of great value.
Both the search engines and your web visitors prefer a web site that is well structured. The search engines due to their very nature (being computer programs) must break down all web sites into elements based on the structure of the pages. People, so frequently rushing to find the specific information they are looking for, rarely read through web pages but rather scan headings and bullied lists to find the detailed sections of interest. In both cases a well structured site will be far better received then one that is a mish-mosh of information haphazardly thrown together.
This is simple to do - but all too often missed. Make headings, use the correct coding tags for them, organize sections of content into groups, and use bold and bullied lists to present key points.
Keep in mind when writing paragraphs of text that most humans will not read them unless they are specifically titled with a headline that matches what they are looking for.
Tips #6 and #7 are closely related: The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides a list of guidelines for how to create web sites that are accessible to as many people (and systems) as possible. Think about your web site - can someone with a visual disability (perhaps even something as simple as colour-blindness) still get information about your product or service? If not, how do you feel knowing that you have just excluded a vast segment of the population from accessing your web site?
There are many simple ways that you can ensure your web site is accessible to people with special needs. A group of simple tests for the sites content and design that ensure your product or service is presented to the widest possible audience. The specifics are beyond the scope of this document - but be sure that you check with your designer to ensure that your site design and code is following accessibility guidelines.
Many small business owners don´t have too much control over the code used to create their web site - but it is still important to know how important it may be. Standard compliant code that has been checked for errors is easier for the search engines to assimilate. It is more widely visible across varied platforms (computer types) and in different browsers.
Ensure your web designer is writing standard compliant code that is validated for errors. You can also check your own web site using free on-line tools from the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium - the standards body that administers Internet technologies)
Professional web designers should already know this - but if you are using a content management system to build your web site, or portions of it, it is important to understand the significance of the URL used to access pages on your web site.
Search engines look at the address of every page on your web site and try to extract key-words from the content of the url. For example, you may have a page about "Widgets" on your web site called "somewhere.com" creating the page with a filename of widgets.html will give a better keyword rank then page6.html this is also true of sub-directories on the site somewhere.com/widgets/... being better then somewhere.com/files/...
This is a fairly subtle point but makes a significant difference for most search engines. It can also make it much easier for people that are typing in a URL to access a specific page of your web site. Notice the URL for this web page - it´s called http://www.pawprint.net/internet-marketing/small-business-web-site.php for a reason!
If you really want to target a key phrase consider purchasing a microsite for that phrase. An inexpensive secondary web site that can be tailored to focus on a specific key phrase or concept.
In the grand scheme of things the "looks" of a web site in the classic sense are not really that important - honestly! once people have looked at a web site for a few minutes they will quickly discard their first impression (based on looks) and move immediately to asking - is this site giving me the information I need - and can I find it quickly (going back to tips #1 - content and #5 - structure)
So what are we on about with style? simple - ensure the style of your site makes it easy to read. Avoid things like black backgrounds with white text (inverse text is harder to read) ALL CAPS (humans read by identifying word shapes - writing in all caps forces people to read every letter and quickly becomes annoying - plus on the net it is used as an typographic method of indicating you are screaming) You should also check your web site using a colour blind test to ensure that visitors with the various types of colour-blindness can still actually read your navigation.
If you are selling something that has a visual representation - then professional looking photography is key. Even a multi-million dollar resort will not look good if the photographs are amateurish. If you care about what you have to sell, then it´s worth investing in some professional photographs to show people what you have. Remember, on-line people can´t get a hold of your product - so you need to give them some really good photographs so that they can feel confident that it meets their needs.
The following ten tips are key to maintaining a successful web site. Follow these and your site will do better. Nothing will guarantee that a web site will be successful as there are simple too many different factors that impact web success - but as a general rule these ten tips will always lead to better performance.
For more detail consult Building Web Site Success a detailed primer about these and other aspects of Internet marketing.
#1 Content
Content is keyAll the search engines scan a sites content now - almost ignoring things like meta tags. The more content you have on your site the more the search engines can scan - but there is more to it then that: people like content too. Many people measure a web site´s success by the number of visitors it gets - so ask yourself - why would people come to your web site? do you offer them interesting and informative information that relates to your product or service? if not, why would they come?
Relevant content and lots of it is a key for a successful web site. There is always room for more content on a web site, and you can never have too much.
Take this article for example, while it´s fairly useful information for many of our visitors, it´s also additional content for our web site - and will serve to help our site do better. Writing articles about aspects of your industry is a great way to generate content.
Set asside an hour a day (or at least an hour a week) to devote to adding new content to your web site.
#2 Freshness
Keep it currentHaving lots of content is great - but if it is all three years old it´s not going to look like your site is much of a priority. The search engines actually track this. They monitor how frequently your site changes as they visit it for indexing. The more often it changes the better your rank in the freshness category.
What constitutes change? pretty much anything - which is why keeping a BLOG or adding frequent news articles to your web site usually produces such good results. It is also the reason why having something as simple as rotating content and the current date on every page has been shown to make a difference (although the search engines have been getting wise to this kind of tactic)
#3 No Tricks
Don´t try to outsmart the Search Engines - Eventually you´ll looseMany design firms promise success through the use of tricks, backdoors, and special tactics designed to sneak a web site into a top position rapidly. Something, of course, that the search engines are constantly battling to defeat. Why play the game? as the search engines find the cheaters they will plug the holes and a rank (that usually costs a pretty penny to achieve) will immediately be lost.
Rather, follow the recommendations of the search engines - most set out rules for web masters that outline what they would like to see in a web site (incidentally these rules are the main source of research for this document) By following the rules the engines are actually battling all the cheating web sites and working to promote the sites that follow the rules - they are fighting FOR you!
#4 Links
Links both in and out must be relevantThere has been a lot of talk about link exchanges - people linking to others merely to gain a higher rank (hmmm, this smacks of breaking tip #3) if you are going to link to someone and/or ask them to link to you - ask yourself: is it relevant?
Any old link is not going to help you much - search engines will look at who is linking to you - they are also starting to pay very close attention to how many links you have off your web site on a page. This is being done to try and drop sites with pages of links (do you have a links page on your web site?)
It is far better to have relevant links in various places throughout your web site - on only those pages that specifically address the topic that relates to the page being linked.
Unfortunately you can´t exert too much control over the way that other sites link to yours but it is worth looking at how a site usually links to others before to specifically go requesting a link from them. For example: a link that is your logo isn´t very useful (search engines ignore images) whereas a link containing text, listing the topic of your web site, from a related web site would be of great value.
#5 Structure
Organize your web site and everyone will thank you.Both the search engines and your web visitors prefer a web site that is well structured. The search engines due to their very nature (being computer programs) must break down all web sites into elements based on the structure of the pages. People, so frequently rushing to find the specific information they are looking for, rarely read through web pages but rather scan headings and bullied lists to find the detailed sections of interest. In both cases a well structured site will be far better received then one that is a mish-mosh of information haphazardly thrown together.
This is simple to do - but all too often missed. Make headings, use the correct coding tags for them, organize sections of content into groups, and use bold and bullied lists to present key points.
Keep in mind when writing paragraphs of text that most humans will not read them unless they are specifically titled with a headline that matches what they are looking for.
#6 Accessibility
A web site that speaks to all is better then a site that only speaks to some.Tips #6 and #7 are closely related: The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) provides a list of guidelines for how to create web sites that are accessible to as many people (and systems) as possible. Think about your web site - can someone with a visual disability (perhaps even something as simple as colour-blindness) still get information about your product or service? If not, how do you feel knowing that you have just excluded a vast segment of the population from accessing your web site?
There are many simple ways that you can ensure your web site is accessible to people with special needs. A group of simple tests for the sites content and design that ensure your product or service is presented to the widest possible audience. The specifics are beyond the scope of this document - but be sure that you check with your designer to ensure that your site design and code is following accessibility guidelines.
#7 Quality Code
Well coded web sites perform better.Many small business owners don´t have too much control over the code used to create their web site - but it is still important to know how important it may be. Standard compliant code that has been checked for errors is easier for the search engines to assimilate. It is more widely visible across varied platforms (computer types) and in different browsers.
Ensure your web designer is writing standard compliant code that is validated for errors. You can also check your own web site using free on-line tools from the W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium - the standards body that administers Internet technologies)
#8 URLs
Prudent choice of URLs will impact your web site´s performanceProfessional web designers should already know this - but if you are using a content management system to build your web site, or portions of it, it is important to understand the significance of the URL used to access pages on your web site.
Search engines look at the address of every page on your web site and try to extract key-words from the content of the url. For example, you may have a page about "Widgets" on your web site called "somewhere.com" creating the page with a filename of widgets.html will give a better keyword rank then page6.html this is also true of sub-directories on the site somewhere.com/widgets/... being better then somewhere.com/files/...
This is a fairly subtle point but makes a significant difference for most search engines. It can also make it much easier for people that are typing in a URL to access a specific page of your web site. Notice the URL for this web page - it´s called http://www.pawprint.net/internet-marketing/small-business-web-site.php for a reason!
If you really want to target a key phrase consider purchasing a microsite for that phrase. An inexpensive secondary web site that can be tailored to focus on a specific key phrase or concept.
#9 Style
Looks do matter - but perhaps not the way you think...In the grand scheme of things the "looks" of a web site in the classic sense are not really that important - honestly! once people have looked at a web site for a few minutes they will quickly discard their first impression (based on looks) and move immediately to asking - is this site giving me the information I need - and can I find it quickly (going back to tips #1 - content and #5 - structure)
So what are we on about with style? simple - ensure the style of your site makes it easy to read. Avoid things like black backgrounds with white text (inverse text is harder to read) ALL CAPS (humans read by identifying word shapes - writing in all caps forces people to read every letter and quickly becomes annoying - plus on the net it is used as an typographic method of indicating you are screaming) You should also check your web site using a colour blind test to ensure that visitors with the various types of colour-blindness can still actually read your navigation.
#10 Images
Selling a product - better make sure it looks goodIf you are selling something that has a visual representation - then professional looking photography is key. Even a multi-million dollar resort will not look good if the photographs are amateurish. If you care about what you have to sell, then it´s worth investing in some professional photographs to show people what you have. Remember, on-line people can´t get a hold of your product - so you need to give them some really good photographs so that they can feel confident that it meets their needs.
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