Your website and search engine results.

• How do I get my site to appear on the first page of search results?
• Why is my site on page 27 of the search results?
• How do I improve my search results?
• Why is my competitor site so much higher than mine in search results?

These are simple questions with complex answers. Let's first consider the problem.

Search engines have no easy task.

When you consider there are literally millions and millions of websites on the internet and thousands are added every day, its a wonder anyone can find anything. The search engines can often narrow things down to exactly what you are looking for. It's really kind of amazing what you can find. However, sometimes you can be extremely specific in your search and still find pages and pages of results.

The sea is vast

Even with the help of really really smart search engines there are so many choices. Let's look at an example. Let's say you are a plumber in Minneapolis, Minnesota and you provide 24 hour residential plumbing services.

Here are some sample search results:

Suffice it to say, even with the incredibly sophisticated search engines we have today, just having a website does not mean anyone can find it. Think of building a house in a very remote, heavily forested area. No one will ever know you are there unless you send out directions, put up signs or build a road to your house. You might even setup big search lights, or buy billboards in neighboring communities. The point is you have to make your self visible using a variety of techniques or strategies.

Help! I am a needle in a haystack!

Search results produce a list and somebody has to be first on the list. The search engine algorithms are very complex, ever changing and always a closely guarded secret. So there is no silver bullet or magic formula to be first on the list. But there are ways to move up the list.

Let's start with your website.

Visibility – To be found you must first have a website. It must be visible to the search engines. Amazingly, many sites are still completely unreadable by the big search engines. Those built entirely in flash or those whose content is contained entirely in images are essentially invisible to the search engines.

Understandable – Search engines must next understand what your site is about. The search engines “read” the text on your site, but also rely heavily on the structure and organization of your content. This includes among other things, headings, titles, links, page descriptions, image descriptions/captions, etc.

Differentiation – Your content must also differentiate you from your competitors so when someone searches for something specific you can be included in those results.

These are part of what's called On-Site Search Engine Optimization. It means you've optimized your site so search engines can see and understand your content. This is the easiest part of all this. Your website developer can easily fix up your existing site or incorporate these techniques into a new site.

While this is all good, it will only get you so far. Chances are all those ahead of you on the search results pages are already doing this.

Somebody has to be first.

The search engines have to rank the long list of sites that match the selected keyword terms. How do they do this? Again the formulas are a closely guarded secret, but some general principles do apply.

Content Matters

Search results are for humans. The search engines job is to provide helpful search results for people. If someone searches for something that isn't mentioned on your site, you won't be included in the results. If you just mention this item, but another site has a whole page of content about this item, the search engine is likely to conclude the site with more content will be more helpful.

Generally speaking having more content about a topic will put you higher on the search engines list. However, relevant content is crucial. The search engines are really smart about understanding context and identify relevant content related to search terms. So having lots of content related to the search terms will rank you higher—for those terms.

More content = more matches to search results

Lots of content means different things to different businesses, but generally speaking, a few paragraphs on a subject won't be that helpful and won’t move your site up on the list. Anyone can whip out a paragraph of content, but it's not likely to impress anyone. Remember the search engines find content for human beings, so they will rank useful content higher than fluff. Deep content across a variety of related topics will add credibility and will likely be more useful to your site visitors and therefore more likely to rank higher with search engines.

Another key factor are search terms or keywords used in a search. People often search for the same thing using lots of different terms. So having more content will increase the likelihood of your content being matched to those terms. However, just stuffing a variety of search terms in a little bit of content won't cut it. The search engines can spot that a mile away. But more importantly, any human being seeing this will find it hard to read, awkward, not very useful and will be unlikely to do business with you.

Provide content about your client problems not just your solutions

Some people know they are looking for a plumber that works on weekends in Minneapolis. But often people searching for answers to problems don't know the solution to search for. For example if I have a migraine, I wouldn't know to search for a specific medicine or treatment, I would search for "migraine headache" or "my head hurts, a lot". So to be found by this search, you'll need to have content that contains a good description of the symptoms for that person. Of course, you should also have the treatment they need. It’s also very important to remember that all this must be in layman’s terms, the language of the person searching, not medical or technical terms.

OK good! I've got lots of content. I'm still on page (insert large number)

Remember search engines want to provide humans with useful search results. Yet, there may be many many pages of Plumbers in Minneapolis that have websites filled with helpful content about plumbing projects, do-it-yourself tutorials, tips, recommendations about tools, down-loadable instruction booklets, how to hire a plumber, what to expect, before and after photographs, etc.

Still, somebody has to be first on the list.  As the search engines strive to provide the most helpful results, they look to see who is considered an authority, an expert in their field or is the most referenced by others.

What does it mean to be an authority? It means you are the go-to-guy or girl for a given topic. Your site is THE destination where people find answers, information, entertainment, the best goodies, coupons, advice, downloads or what ever is relevant to your clientele. You become an authority when you have lots of information that lots of other sites reference for that information.

Friends in high places

The web is all about links. Links to and from websites. When a highly regarded website refers to your site for up-to-date information and advice, it speaks highly of your site. Search engines take note of this and rank you accordingly. When more, well respected sites, also link to your site, your online credibility grows even more. Your status as an authority is highly influenced by who think you are a good resource in your field. Those sites that reference yours, and are already highly ranked, will increase your ranking.

Yet, all links are not created equal. Just as there are good links there are bad links. Sites with bad reputations can cause real harm to your credibility and therefore search ranking. Link farms, websites that exist simply to create a link to your site (usually for a fee) have very bad reputations and can even get you penalized by the search engines.

Build your online reputation.

If a friend were making a recommendation to you for a plumber, you might ask a couple of questions. Can I trust this guy? Does he do a good job? Does he clean up his mess? Does he get the job done quickly? Basically you're asking about their reputation.

Let's say, there is a competing plumber that is higher than you on the list of search results. He's got great content on his site. But you happen to know he can be a jerk, doesn't apologize for tracking mud into his clients homes and often goes over his estimates. You on the other hand, would never do that and your clients know this.

How does this help you? Remember, search engines are trying to give you the most helpful information. They want to provide you with a plumber that gets high marks in customer service and quality before someone that has no service reputation or someone with a poor service reputation.

How do search engines do this? How do search engines evaluate your reputation? Simply put, online reviews and testimonials. There are many, many sites that solicit reviews of business & service providers. These reviews can provide valuable insight to your questions about a business. Search engines gather up this information and add this to the mix when considering who is first on the list. If you have no online reviews, or online reputation, search engines cannot assess your business and will put you behind those businesses it can assess.

Of course having positive reviews is very important in this process. More is better. Ask your clients to make recommendations and reviews after you’ve completed work for them. Don't forget social media, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc. all contribute to your online reputation.

Get Local

If your business operates, in a specific geographic region, it is crucial you get listed in as many local business directories as you can. This includes online yellow pages, Google Places, neighborhood resource pages, chambers of commerce as well as directories specifically geared toward your industry. Most of these sites provide lists of businesses by name, category, local addresses, phone numbers, directions and maps to your business. Many of them also solicit customer reviews or your business.

There are lots of these online directories and the search engines rely on them to help identify local businesses. These listings help the search engines provide results that are geographically relevant. There's no need to know about a great plumber in Denver if you are in Minneapolis.

Sum of the parts

As you can see there are many factors that determine where you appear on the search results for your business. I've covered just the major considerations here. Here's a quick summary of the key factors.

• Optimize your website so you can be easily found and understood by the search engines.
• Develop great content about your business, your craft, your industry. Ensure that your content helps people find their problems and solutions to those problems
• Get referenced by highly respected websites in your industry
• Get listed in all the local directories complete with maps and directions.
• Get lots of stellar reviews from clients

Whew! This is a lot of work! Each one takes time and energy to do well and the results take time to percolate through the network. Is it worth it? It all depends on your business and who and where your clients are. For some it is crucial to their very survival.

Fast Forward. What happened?

You did all the right things and you really moved up in the search results. Yet, your site has dropped way down the list again? What happened?

The internet is a constantly changing universe. Thousands of new website appear every day. New industries appear overnight. Others slowly fade way. Just think how, just a few years ago, Facebook was considered to be just for kids. Today it has become a game-changing force noticed by governments and business world wide!

Your search results are not unlike a beautiful garden. It needs constant attention, care and feeding. If you become inattentive, the weeds take over and your garden is no longer the showcase it once was. When you stop tending, the garden dies and is lost. Your website is no different. There is no one tactic that will suffice. You must address many facets of your online presence. You must constantly feed it with great content, great reviews and friends in high places if it is to remain prominent among the millions of other sites competing for that ever elusive page one.

If you don't like Facebook's privacy rules, just want a few minutes, they'll change.

There has been so much in the news lately about FB privacy. It has become increasingly complex and more granular. Furthermore FB assumes you want less privacy and automatically include you in their new data sharing schemes. To maintain your privacy, you have to actively manage this and you must constantly turn off the new "features".

Finally, FB is rolling out a new, simpler interface that should help quite a bit.

There are lots of articles about how to change your settings. I found this one to be one of the better articles on this topic because in addition to the how to, it also provide advice and recommendations.

The FB changes are still rolling out so you may have to wait just a bit to see the on your page.

Interview with Terry Barth on Next Stage Business Radio

Pamela Muldoon of Next Stage Business Radio host a weekly show with local business leaders, teacher & business owners. I was a Business Spotlight guest on her show on Saturday, Feb 20, 2010. We talked about how I got in this business, what I offer to my clients and a bit about the industry in general. It was a fast 15 minutes! Check it out.

Interview with Terry Barth on Next Stage Business Radio

Citibank recently conducted a poll of small business executives found their use of social media to be very low.  Here's a couple of excerpts from a Rueters article on the Citibank survey.

Few U.S. small businesses have adopted social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter for business uses, according to research released on Thursday.

Also, 28 percent were using more email marketing and 25 percent using more online advertising to generate business leads and sales, it found.

The survey found 42 percent of small businesses have made greater use of their company websites to generate business leads and sales.

 

Nineteen percent were doing more advertising to attract new customers in the economic downturn, 38 percent said they were doing less and 41 percent were doing the same, it found.

Read the entire article

Why would I want to use Facebook and other social media for business?

It's a question asked by many business owners. What does Facebook have to do with business? Why would I spend all that time just socializing when I have a business to run?

All good questions. I've been asking around, reading and listening to folks who are committed to marketing their business using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I've come away with several key ideas that really address this question.

• Technology has changed how people react to advertising.
• The social media numbers are too important to ignore.
• People will do business with whom they know, they like and they trust.
• Referrals-which come from people who know, like and trust you-is a powerful form of marketing that brings qualified leads directly to your doorstep or website.
• Social Media can dramatically increase the number of people that know, like and trust you.

Technology has changed how we react to advertising

Technology has dramatically changed how we react to advertisements that come at us in all directions. We now have the means to actively avoid most advertisements and we do.

I rarely watch live television anymore. I almost always record a program, then fast forward past the commercials. Online, pop-up blockers keep intrusive ads out of site and out of mind. Our phones, media players and subscription radio and music services provide ad-free entertainment almost everywhere. Newspaper circulation is crashing and virtually all advertisements must now compete with an increasingly fragmented attention span.

The point here is, we avoid or block marketing that we don't ask for.

By contrast, we freely interact with business and products with which we have an interest. I subscribe to several forums, blogs and email newsletters for products and services that are important to me. I asked to be given information that is of value to me.

When I was shopping for a new TV, I visited several online forums populated entirely by people who had or were thinking of buying a similar product. To a great a extent, these were personal testimonials or referrals (good and bad) related to these products. These sources carried a level of trust that an advertisement would never have.

I also ask for product updates and announcements for selected products that are important to me, such as software programs, gadgets like my book reader, my car or updates from a neighborhood restaurant.

I'm not blocking these communications. I've invited them in!

This has been called Opt-in marketing, Invitation Marketing or Inbound Marketing. Contrast this to advertising that is intrusive, unwanted, or simply ignored.

The social media numbers are too important to ignore

As traditional advertising is losing its dominance, online communities and social media are growing by leaps and bounds. Consider this:

• In January 09, FB had 150 million active members per month.
• In July 09, that had jump 250 million.
• In August, it jumped another 50 million to 300 million active users per month!
• The fastest growing segment is over 35 years of age.
• There are more than 300,000 business pages on Facebook
• 100,000 of those are small businesses.

What does this mean? Your customers are on Facebook. This also means your competition is on Facebook!

People do business with people they know, like and trust.

People do business with people. Relationships matter. Will you do business with people you don't know? Perhaps. How about people you don't like? Probably not. And someone you don't trust? Never! Relationships do matter.

No wants to hire a contractor who doesn't return your calls or an appliance repair technician that is a jerk. In contrast, You're more likely to hire a tax accountant that has demonstrated her expertise in tax law or a mechanic that never surprises you with his bill.

Cultivating trusted relationships with people can only benefit your business.

Referrals--which come from people who know, like and trust you--is a powerful form of marketing that brings qualified leads directly to your doorstep.

Referrals are like gold. They come to you pre-qualified. They have an interest in you or your product. They have asked someone else they know and trust and have acted on the referral. It doesn't get better than that!

Social Media can dramatically increase the number of people that know, like and trust you.

Social media pull all these ideas together. Put simply, social media is about socializing, making new friends, getting to know each other better and building trust. Think of it like a conversation at a party or social gathering. You talk to your friends about things that you both find interesting. You make new introductions between friends, discover new interests in common, share ideas and talk shop. As long as you are likeable, honest and trust worthy in your interactions, your reputation and your personal network grows one person at a time. All pretty familiar stuff right?

Facebook and other social media tools work just the same way except they act as a multiplier of those party conversations. Facebook enables you follow and participate in conversations with all your friends and colleagues at the same time. They all can hear what you have to say and you can hear all they have to say. Whether it be about the kids just starting soccer practice or new business ventures, you are interacting with your entire network. All your friends are updated simultaneously. You don't have to wait until the next time you see each and everyone of them.

Now, consider that your friends have friends. If one of your friends says to you that they love your new products, all of their friends will see it too. Since they are friends, this information about your product comes to them from a trusted source. Someone they know, they like and trust, just mentioned that they like your products or services. So let's do the math. If you and all of your friends each have a 100 friends. It takes only 10 of your friends to say something about your products to reach 1000 people (assuming there is no overlapping friends). And that's just the first tier of friends. Remember your friend's friends also have 100 friends.

Pretty amazing right? It gets better. This cost you almost nothing-just a little time chatting with your friends. Add to the fact it's virtually free, you have reached 1000 people that have some level of interest in your business. A referral from these folks will be interested, pre-qualified and ready to do business with you.

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Special thanks to Pamela Muldoon, Networking & Marketing Strategist for Next Stage Busieness, who has conducted several workshops on using social media for marketing your business. She is an outstanding resource for any business that wants to leverage the power of these amazing tools. Here's her contact information.

http://facebook.com/nextstagebusiness
http://nextstagebusiness.com
http://www.facebook.com/pamela.muldoon

Writing content for your site - Six Steps

Probably the hardest part of developing or redesigning your new website is the content.  It is also often the task that most effects the time it takes to get your new site up and running.

Even if you are redesigning an existing site, you probably want to refresh all the content, including images, tag lines, call-out boxes, headings, captions even the page footers, this can be a lot of writing. 

If you are the business owner, you know your business best.  You're website content must closely represent you and your business.  Unless you've got a marketing team working for you that already knows your business model and key business goals, This is one task you can't hand off to an outsider.

Don't let this scare you off.  You can do it, with a bit of planning.  So here are a few pointers to get you started.

1. Plan

• List the goals of your business or organization such as sell products, offer services, etc.
• List the goals of your website such as educate visitors, develop leads, complete sales transactions, gather data, etc (read more about why you have a website).
• Identify the type of content that relates to each of your business and website goals such as product information, services descriptions, contact information, testimonials, etc.
• Organize the content into groups of similar types such as product information, educational content, etc.

2. Identify your calls to action

• A call to action is asking your site visitors to do something--presumably something that supports your business goals.
• Calls to action can be anything that draws your visitor closer to you and your business
• Examples might be, redeem a coupon, call for free sample, download form or sign up for newsletter.  Be creative but focused on your business goals.
  

3. Write your content for web readers

• Website readers typically scan top to bottom looking for key points, then scan left to right only on points that catch their attention.  Few readers actually read every word. 
  
• Break your content into small chunks.  Think of a few paragraphs per topic versus a few pages.  Smaller paragraphs are better than long paragraphs.  Long exhaustive articles are harder to write (and harder to read).
• Identify one or two key points of each content chunk and write to those points. 
• Start the paragraphs with these key points and/or use them as sub headings or tag lines for your topic.
  
• Highligh key points with call-out boxes or quotes.

4. Identify Key Words

• Keywords are very important for search engine results.  These are the words that someone would use when searching for your products or services.
• Identifying keywords is part science part creative.  You will intuitively know important search words for your business.  The trick is finding keywords that bring them to your business rather than a competitor.
• Very important!  Do not assume you know most of the important keywords.  You are not your customer.  Ask for opinions on this.  Conduct an informal "man on the street" survey to find out what words they would use to find you.  You'll be very surprised at what you hear.
• Once you have list integrate these search terms into your content. Do not just stuff as many as you can into a page.  Search engines are very savvy about this.  To avoid being penalized by search engines, weave your keywords into your content so it makes sense to your human readers.  
• This may be an interative process, write content, review for keywords, adjust content, etc.

5. Review & proof

• Don't underestimate the value of a good proofreader.  Use someone that knows your business and someone that doesn't

6. Revise & Refresh

• Once your content has been published, start planning for your new content.
• Fresh content keeps visitors returning to your site.  People can easily spot old, outdated material.  It reduces your credibility and the likelyhood they will take your call to action.
• Plan for news release, product updates, industry news, educational materials, tutorials, how to articles, etc.  Again, be creative but focused on your goals.
  

Who Are Your Clients

1. Start with demographical data - You probably already have the usual client demographics, age, occupation, income, education, geography, buyer, seller, etc.  If not, you may be able to make some educated generalizations just from your interactions with your clients in your business or organization.  Write this down.  You'll need to have some working facts or assumptions for whom the site is designed.

2. Beyond, the demographic data, who are your clients?  Are they hip young professionals, high school students, soccer moms or dads, lawyers, artists, theatre goers, engineers, polictians?  Each "personality" will interact with your site differently, will have different expectations and will have different needs from your site.

3. What do these personalities need or want from your site?  This is the part that can get a little tricky.  Its very tempting to say, I know why they come to my site and I know what they want.  It's very tempting to skip this step.  Be careful.  You may get it exactly right or you'll miss something important. 

Different personalities have different preferences.  Some personalities might want to talk to a person to ask about questions about the products or services you offer.  Others would rather read FAQs or product specifications online rather than talk to a "sales person".  You might want to gather email addresses from your clients before they access certain information on your site, but some people will not want to do this and will leave your site to a competing site that does not require personal information.  The point is you may not fully realize how your clients want to interact with your site.

4. How do you find out what your clients need from your site?  One easy answer is, ask them.  This need not be complicated or expensive.  Often just asking a few users why they would come to your site, what they think about your site, what would like to see on your site or not see, what do this like or dislike, etc.  Be creative.  Asking a few simple questions can reveal important information about how they use your site.  Write down what they tell you.

Another way, that takes a little more time but need not cost much (if anything) is to watch them.  Ask a couple of volunteers, people who fit your customer base or desired customer base, to sit down at a computer and go to your site.  Give them a few minutes.  Watch how they find your site (very important), watch to see if they're hesitate, express confusion, click on the "wrong" links, look for something that isn't there, or ignore something that is.  Write down your observations and then review it with them.

5. Succesful websites are designed for clients that are well understood.  They are designed around know client expectations, needs, wants, knowledge and capabilities.  The fewer the assumptions the better.

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What is the process?

Creating a new website or redesigning an existing site is really pretty straight forward.  I can help you through the process, but here's the overall process we'll follow. 

Make a plan - Write down your goals, objectives, budget, schedule and who's going to do what.

Determine what you need - Write down the needs of your business or organization, your clients or customers needs and the functions your site should provide.  Prioritize your needs/wants.  Map it to your business and customer goals.

Define Content - Develop all the content that will be provided on the site.  Identify current and future content needs.  Map it to your business and customer goals. 

Functional design - Determine how your site should be organized, how each function or service should work for your customers and how you want to manage your site.

Visual design - Decide on the style of the site, layout, colors, fonts, graphics, language, and interaction with your clients.  Review visual drafts.

Put it all together - Build the site, review the first prototype, identify minor change/adjustments, test functions & interactions.

Monitor the new site - Review usage statistics, traffic patterns, customer feedback, identify any needed updates.

Behind the scenes, Terry Barth Design will ensure:

• Search engines can see your information
• Your site looks good in all browsers
• The site is well organized
• Your site follows standard usability conventions
• The site navigation is intuitive
• The code is industry compliant
• Your site can be accessed by people with disabilities

How do I know if a new or redesigned website is worth the cost?

The easy answer is how many new customers or additional sales will it take to cover the cost of the new website? You may also consider how many existing customer or sales will you not lose if you develop or redesign your site.

For example, if your average profit on the sale of your products or servies is $200 and the cost of your new website is $1400, you will need just 7 new sales transactions or keep from losing 7 sales transactions to cover the cost of your investment.

What is a Content Management System?

A CMS, or Content Management System, enables you or members of your team to update the content on your site without the need for technical skills.  You can update frequently changing information, like announcements, news, special discounts, product information updates, communications to your clients, calendar events, etc.

How is this possible?  When we build your site, certain parts of your site will be designated for updates.  Using your browser, you'll login to the CMS.  It will give you a Word-like editor or a fill in the blank form for various parts of your website.  You type in the changes or add new content, save it and you're done!

What are some advantages to using a content management system?

• You can make updates when you need them.  There's no need to bring in the technical folks!
• You site is always up to date
• You can designate several people to update your site
• You can designate certain areas to be edited by just certain people
• Using your browser, you can make updates from anywhere.  No special software needed
• You can maintain consistency on those pages and portions that should not change. 
• You can make changes without risk of breaking something else on your site

What's the down side?

• Setting up CMS behind your website involves a little more planning
• You will need some training (not much really) on using the CMS editor and how to publish your content
• Best suited for sites that plan on frequent updates

Why do I need to update my site?

Here are some considerations

• Is the content on your site more than a couple of months old?
• Does your site tell clients about changes in your business?
• Do you announces promotions on your site?
• Have you announced new services or products?
• Are the descriptions of your products & services current? How about contact information, photos or links?
• Is your site consistent with your current marketing materials?
• Does your site help your business or organization achieve it's goals?
• Do your customers like your site?  Have you ever asked them?
• Have you looked at your competitors sites recently?
• Have you ever checked to see how your site looks in another browser?
• Do you have any broken links?
• Was your site designed before the latest versions of browsers became available?

Why do you have a website?

In this day and age, it sounds like a silly question.  But once you get past the “everybody needs a website” response, can you really answer that question?

A web site can do many things. It can present information, gather information, swap information, sell products, information or services, match up wants with needs, entertain or it can be a social framework for friends, family or businesses. What does your website do? 

Presumably your business or organization has some goals or objectives. You may want to sell more widgets, find new customers, solicit volunteers or gather and dispense information.  So how well does your website help you achieve those goals?

Your customers or target audience also have needs or goals. The may want to purchase a widget, volunteer their time or obtain information of some kind.

How well does your website serve the needs of your business / organization?

How well does it serve the needs of your client / audience?

If your goal is to sell a product and potential clients are searching for such a product, does your website help them understand your product, differentiate it from your competition, help them make a decision?  Does your website encourage your customers to choose or purchase your product or company?

These kinds questions are often overlooked when an organization decides to develop a website or to redesign their existing site. It's easy and intuitive to jump right to the visual design or to find another site to emulate. However, after much work and potentially a lot of money, these sites still may not serve the business, organization or your potential customers very well.

Web site development is not free. Any kind of marketing, sales or customer service has some cost involved. Most organizations recognize marketing cost as an investment to generate revenues or otherwise achieve their organization’s goals. Additionally, most smart business people will ask key questions.  How will the marketing tactics help my organization, how it will help our customers and how we will know?

The cost of a good website is no different.  Your website should have a specific purpose in mind.  It is an investment that should have a specific purpose in mind and functions that will help your business or organization and your customers achieve some goal.

OK, so how do you accomplish this?  First, don’t start with the web site design. Start with the questions discussed here.  Why do you have a website? How should it help your organization achieve it's goals?   Why do your customer’s need your website? How should it help your customer’s achieve their goals?