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One of the most commonly overlooked areas of web design is search engine
placement. It is difficult to keep up with even for professionals.
Some search engines charge to just register your site. Some want to charge
you per click (every time someone comes to your site via their search engine you
get charged - ouch!) But the good news is - most of the big search engines are
still free if you know how to do it. It's not so free if you have to hire
someone to do it after the site was done by someone else.
Search engine
optimization and web site tips
Marketing and search engine placement go hand in hand. It boils down to this,
get a targeted group to your site and provide them what they want when they get
there and at the same time show them what you want them to see and entice them
to take an action.
So how does that work exactly. An example of internet marketing.
Lets say there is a local company that manufactures granite and Marble
products (countertops, title, patio stone etc.). They sell mainly to builders,
architects, and cabinet companies, but do sell to consumers.
How it usually is done: Most designers pop out a pretty site, throw in some
keywords, register the site with some search engines and bang you get a bill.
How it can be done: The Granite and Marble company contacts all it's current
customers (businesses) and builds mini websites into the marble and granite
site. Because most small companies simply have a website thrown up by a friend
of a friend, the sites are not placed very high in the search engines, if at
all.
The Granite and Marble Company optimizes the pages so if someone is searching
for kitchen cabinets in a city nearby, the cabinet companies are listed on
Granite and Marble Company site) . The searcher can find cabinet makers on the
granite site (they can also see how great a granite countertop looks). The same
for builders, architects, etc.
Example: Search google for - " Coastal Cabinet Company Bunnel Florida "
I'm betting exoticmarblegranite.com in Daytona is number one and not a
Cabinet Company in Bunnel.
Type "free lesson" "free tutorial" - because they are free.....lol
tips.com has over 2000 keyword phrases in the top 10. - content -
content - content !!!!! You probably don't need that many and can't afford
to put in the time to get them.
You make it and they will come.
Another example: I have registered a site that was number one the next day
with "Yahoo". How? I was able to convince the company to give away something
that cost them next to nothing, but other competitors were charging for. The site was the only site on the web giving
away that particular item. At the time Yahoo had "real live" people looking at
site registration and they must have thought it was a good thing, now the
process is automated but the spiders are doing a good of it. Does that
happen all the time - no. But the point is, think about how you can attract the
right type of people to your site, and what you can provide them you competition
doesn't.
A site should be designed with search engine placement in mind. Don't just
take a designers word for it. Ask him to give you an example of placement and
conversion. If he
has gotten several relevant keyword phases in the top 10 on several search engines
(without paying fees) he probably knows what he's doing seo wise, that does
not mean the site will be productive tho - conversion is what you want not
placement. Not every company is concerned with search engine placement and
are happy to pay fees for promotion, but the designer should be
efficient in placement, conversion and the development of marketing plans.
Black Hat techniques - Don't - example having multiple websites to do
what you could have done with one..... the engine gods will punish you.
Cramming, spamming, doorway pages, doorway sites etc etc etc - The engine gods
are targeting you - they will get you and punish you.
A lot of companies are under the misconception that the home page is the page
most people will come to first. Company employees drive designers nuts with
minor changes to the home page which will have no major effect on the site. The site
should contain pages that are designed to attract targeted groups
searching for certain subjects. You can make that "blue" button as big as you
want but if no one sees it.......
There are exceptions - bulk email and paid ads will direct customers to a specific page
(these are called landing pages) -
minor changes to the page can increase the percentage of people entering the
site or leaving. Just directing them to your site is a waste of advertising
funds.
Links - The object of the game is to get people to your site and keep them
there until they take the action you want. If it is important enough to link to, then it is important enough to
include the information within your site. (I know you have heard about link
sharing and search engine placement in Google - (but you can no longer
buy your way to the top using link farms or a link campaign) Links and PR - don't bother- what??? (that's what your last guy did -
why are you reading this?)
Statistics - Have your marketing guy send you "analyzed" weekly stats.
example (what he's doing to improve the situation and conversion),
In order to properly analyze a site's statistics the developer should be
familiar with the latest web demographics, trends, comparative statistics,
consumer backlash, etc.
You reached your goals defined in the contract, the contract is expiring!
It's time to re-negotiate and define new "realistic, obtainable", goals. your
designer is going to want a raise.
Pretty vs function
People aren't coming to your site because its pretty. They don't want to see
how great the graphics are, they are really not interested in the latest java or
flash
trick. They came for a purpose. Ask yourself this, if you had a choice between a
ugly site that gives you 2500 leads or sales a month or a pretty one that gets
you 10, which one would you chose??
Lets talk about FLASH. You've seen those sites with the elaborate flash
introduction pages, bells, whistles, exciting effects. You know why they have a
link that says "skip/enter", because most people - click it. Don't waist your
prospective client or customers time.
A little flash goes a long way. So don't build the menu, the whole page or
worst, the site in flash. Talk to your designer, ask for advice. (But it's so
pretty, especially with big blue buttons!) If you just got to do it at least
optimize the bottom of the page in html. Better still, hire someone to build a
site that uses flash for a purpose other than just making it flashy..
Home page - Don't use intro pages, optimize the home page and use it. They
came to buy something, not look at a drawing, picture or how creative your
designer could get..
Frames: A word about frames - Don't.
Big sites - lots of pages - Do better than small sites! If the content is
there. You use pages to attract a particular group to a particular page, with a
specific subject.
Don't force the information on them - Find out what visitors are looking for
and why, then give it to them. Don't force a site path on them, let them create
it and then include what you want them to see. Entice! (This is one of the uses
of site statistics)
Last bit of advice - A web site will increase the workload on you and your
employees. As the workload increases, employees are prone to be critical of the
development progress.
Stay the course. Employees will soon see you are committed to the project.
Be strong, ease them in to it and it will work for you.
The big question- What's it cost?
It depends on your goals and the objectives it takes to reach them - Do
you want to dominate the local guys or are you out to dominate the world
market?
If the so called expert doesn't doesn't know your industry demographics and
has not already analyzed
your competition he shouldn't be able to give you a price - right?
If he does
give you a price without doing his homework first, no matter how cheap it is or how many great
looking the blue buttons he can put up are, it's too much.
Good luck
Frank
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CENTRAL FL TECH SOLUTIONS
