5 Web Marketing Basics You Can Use

Web marketing is one of those things that are easy to over complicate.  There are lots of technology type words and acronyms out there, probably designed by marketing types, that tend to keep the average person in the dark about what they can do to help marketing their websites.

Not to worry, as the basics of web marketing can easily be understood even non “techy-type” website owner.

Marketing Strategies You Can Use:

1.  Well thought out conversion elements – this seems like an obvious one but it’s the most often missed.  By “conversion elements” we mean giving the user a chance to take action.  In layman’s terms what this means is that your phone number, email address, contact information, shopping cart, newsletter signup etc are EASY TO FIND for the user.

If the user can easily find what you want them to do, that makes it easier for them to “convert” from shoppers to buyers!

2.  Special offers or incentives – As much as we don’t want to admit it, just getting a person to visit your website may not be good enough.  The web is a very competitive place and the “Back” button is easy to find.  Combat this by crafting a special offer or incentive that users can only find on your website.

3.  User oriented content plan – Ask yourself what types of questions and information  your customers are seeking, and plan to create content to provide that information.  Remember people are searching for information online, not sales brochures.

4.  Clearly defined goals – Define what goals you want to achieve from you site.  Do you want xx number of calls, emails or sales?  Taking this step will help you evaluate the success of your web marketing program.

5.  Website analytics program – the final step is to ensure you are tracking and measuring your results with a website analytics programs.  The best one from Google is free so no excuses allowed here!

Do you really need web marketing?

If you think your website stands out from the crowd, just remember that there are billions of websites out there on the web – most of them accessible with a single click.  Always keep in mind how competitive things are and use that to spur creative thinking when it comes to your web marketing plan.

How “good” is a website?

When I meet with clients for the first time, one of the things they usually want to know is “what do you think of my website?“  I’ve learned to be careful with these answers because site owners can be a bit like parents in that they think their website is beautiful even though others might not.

But more importantly, I’ve also learned that there is more to a good website than just pretty design.  An effective site is one that does the job – and for business people that means converting visitors into buyers.

So in an effort to help people evaluate their own websites I suggest the following:

3 Signs You May Have A Crummy Website:

1. Your contact information is hard to find.

This seems to be problem #1 with web designers.  They create a beautiful site that doesn’t offer an easy way to contact you.  Remember that yours is one of billions of websites and that people will be spending mere seconds on each page – so make sure your phone number or email address are easy to find in the top right hand corner.

Oh and make sure it’s in text and not a graphics file so that mobile users can click on it when they need to.

2.  You cannot update your website yourself.

If you cannot update your site yourself that means the site is probably outdated or stale.  Google is out looking for fresh, relevant information and if you are unable to update your website than there is not much chance your information is terribly fresh.

Plus, with the amount of free content management systems like Word Press available to the public, there really is no excuse for this unless you have a crummy website.

3. You can’t find yourself in searches.

I see this one a lot.  Website owners that can’t Google their own site and find it with relative ease.  There are a whole host of reasons this could be the case – and all of them point to a crummy website (or at least a crummy web designer).

Changes you can make

If you didn’t pass the crummy website test don’t despair.  There are changes you can make without having to scrap the whole site and start over again.

If you would like to learn more about website fixups that will help in any of these areas please contact us today.

What is a landing page anyway?

I am often asked what a landing page is and how it differs from a website.  The simple answer is that a landing page is the page YOU visit when you click on a search result.  Maybe the easiest way to explain it is that a landing page is the opposite of a home page –where you have lots of choices for what you want to do next.

2 types of landing pages:

1. Internal website page: If you are in Google looking for a particular item and you click on a result in the searches – that click takes you to the “landing page.” And more often than not, we land on internal pages of websites rather than the home page.   Those internal pages are considered landing pages.
2. Targeted landing page: These pages are specifically designed to catch traffic from a particular campaign and will usually have a very specific offer.  They may even look quite different from the rest of the website.

Good Landing Pages Will Have:

1. Very specific offer for a very specific product.
2. Limited or even no choices for navigating around
3. Clear calls to action specific to the offer
4. Limited text / writing
5. Graphics and messages the company wants to test for performance

Good Websites Will Generally Have:

1. Good navigation making it easy to find what you need
2. Lots of opportunities to learn more with internal linking
3. Multiple messages for different audiences
4. Lots of good text for users
5. Standard company branding.

If you are still not sure what a landing page would look like you can review some of our recent work.  This should help you quickly understand the differences between websites and landing pages.

Recent examples of landing pages:

www.threeriversair.com

www.lunalullabyproducts.com

www.yourlouisianahomebuilder.com

Landing pages – great for paid search

Perhaps the best use of landing pages are for paid search advertising.  That way you can control the type of traffic that comes to your page and test the messages for their impact.

For more information on landing page design and what it can do for your business please contact us today.

Website Content 2010

Is there anything worse than clicking on a site to find it was last updated in 2007?  If you answered YES to this question, than you are now one step closer to becoming an “SEO Expert with a Real Job” and learning a little something about what drives internet marketing.

Web users in 2010 are really getting savvy.  This makes it even more important to have content on your website that is either useful, interesting, informative, funny, or all of the above.

In this installment in our “SEO Explained” series we will take a look at why you should be creating content and practical tips for how you can implement it on your website.

So People with Real Jobs Can Understand, Please

Like meta data, SEO types like to over complicate the content issue.  Want to learn about keyword density, long tail phrases or keyword relevance?  Forget it.

The “secret sauce” to creating good content that web users want to read has more to do with being recently created and interesting to read than anything else.

Why Should You Care?  Because Google Says So!

Google has done an incredible job of protecting their methodology for how search results are displayed.  However in this case they are handing us the playbook and telling us exactly what we need to be doing!  The snipped from Google’s Webmaster Central pretty much sums it up:

And, as if you needed more than just Google’s guidance, take a look around the web and see what the most popular sites (according to Alexa) that are not search engines:

1. Facebook
2. You Tube
3. Wikipedia
4. Biadu
5. Blogger

What do they all have in common?  Content.  The popularity of these sites is driven by content that is being updated on a regular basis.

What Can and SHOULD You Be Doing

Getting excited about writing is a bit like making a commitment to losing weight – it sounds great for the first 2 weeks and then it eventually gets pushed to the back burner.

I talk to website owners everyday who have made a few blog posts or done a video but never stayed with it.  And they are frustrated because the little they did do has not yielded results.  And the best thing you can do if you want to build content on your website is to start making time daily or weekly for it.

6 Practical Tips for Creating Content and Sticking To It:

1. Find a subject you are passionate about or have an area of expertise.
2. Budget some time daily to write or create content
3. Create a content plan that has a schedule of topics for 3-4 months so you don’t have to remember what to write about.
4. Use free tools such as Google’s Wonder Wheel to see what other topics people are interested in
5. Shoot for articles of 350 -600 words.  No thesis or doctoral papers necessary!
6. Share your work on social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linked In where you are already participating.

No Excuses

For those of you who hate writing, are seriously limited on time or simply aren’t creative there is hope.  You can easily find writers out there who will learn your story and help you tell it to the world.  You can find everything from high school students to seasoned writers with web experience who are out there ready to help.

One of the best reasons to put your company on Facebook is that it offers unique opportunities to protect your brand, both on Facebook and on search engines such as Google. Often, people avoid bringing their businesses into online forum that they cannot control because they are afraid of the negative ramifications that may result.

Who controls your online brand?

The Internet is a very democratic place – with a few exceptions, anyone can put up a blog post, a video, a picture, or even a website about your company with or without your approval. However, if you set up an official company page on which you can control the content, the first thing that shows up when people search for your company name will be your page rather than someone else’s blog or a competitor bashing your products.

Why Facebook for Business?

With hundreds of millions of users, protecting your brand on Facebook is more than a good idea, it’s almost a necessity.

And now that Google and other popular search engines can access the information on Facebook pages, that brand protection goes beyond the social media or networking site and adds to your overall brand reputation on the Internet as a whole.

Protect Your Online Resume

When your Facebook page shows up on the first page of a search, it does so in addition to the company’s actual web site, giving the potential customer two opportunities to be directed to your company. It also pushes one more competitor off the page, allowing you to control that much more of the valuable real estate on Page 1.

Not just for kids anymore

Depending on what you have heard about Facebook and whether or not you are familiar with it, using it for business might sound like a crazy suggestion. However, no matter how much or how little you know about the biggest social networking site on the Internet, there are several reasons why you should learn more about how it can help your company:

-  Facebook is not a passing trend. There are over 400 million people around the world who are using Facebook. Can you afford to ignore this huge base of potential customers?

-  Brand protection. Establishing your company on Facebook will help to protect your brand, not only on that particular website but also on Google as well.

-  Reach more clients. Facebook offers a unique way to reach out to your customers and interact with them. The average Facebook user spends a little less than an hour a day perusing the website, offering you a great opportunity to reach out to them as customers.

-   SEO value. Facebook can also be used for search engine optimization, bringing more potential customers to your website regularly.

With all of these advantages, it’s hard to come up with any reason why you wouldn’t want to get your company on Facebook!  Visit our website for more information about social media consulting.

Website traffic is one of those things that it seems like you can never get enough.  And for those who are struggling to find the right amount of web traffic this can be a serious pain point in your business.

While we work with clients on some complex internet marketing strategies for building web traffic, there are some simple things that we can offer as tips you can do on your own.

5 Steps You Can Take To Increase Web Traffic:

Step 1: Add local meta data and content to your site.

If you don’t know what “meta data” is read our article “Meta Data Explained for People with Real Jobs.”  However for those of you that know where to find a page title – the first suggestion is to never leave it blank.  The biggest mistake we see is that someone just put your company name there which is an enormous waste of space.

Adding your local information to the website in the following areas can have a big impact on attracting more local users to your website.  Make sure to take advantage of the following on each page:

• Page Title
• Content
• Footer

Step 2:  Get rid of Generic or copied content.

Most people have heard that you need good articles or news on their websites.  However they post other people’s articles or news which really does them no good.  The other big mistake is when companies take “stock” content from vendor sites and put it on theirs.

The bottom line is Google rewards fresh, original content.  So do some writing of your own and you will start to attract more web traffic.

Step 3:  Use free local tools.

There are a whole host of free tools out there such as local listings in Google, Yahoo and Bing.  Creating a good listing in those search engines will definitely bring more traffic to your website.  The same can also be said for creating profiles on customer review sites which are also usually free.

Step 4:  Get serious about social.

There is a whole world developing online of social media outlets for information.  The big 3 are Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.  But there are also sites such as Squidoo, Scribd, Hub Pages and StumbleUpon where you can post and share content with millions of other web users.  And these days you can even hire a social media consultant if you need help in this area!

Step 5:  Write and share your expertise or passion.

If you have any subjects that you have expertise or passion about – start writing.  The online world is full of enthusiasts for one thing or another and the best way to reach them is to write something compelling and interesting that you will want to read.

I hope these tips on internet marketing can help drive more visitors to your website.  If you would like to discuss them further please contact us today at 504-669-3207 or email info@mywsiconsultant.com.

Turn Browsers Into Customers

One of the things we often do with clients is look at their websites to see what can be done in order to improve the number of people who take the action you want them to. We call these actions “conversions” which basically means people didn’t just surf your site – they actually did what you asked them to do.  This might be make a phone call, buy an item, email you, sign up for a newsletter, send something to a friend.

Whatever the conversion goals you define for set for your website, there are a few things you can do that will help no matter what the goal.

4 Tips for Improving Website Conversion:

Tip 1: Phone number & email in an easy to find place to find

As simple as this sounds it’s often overlooked.  How many times have you visited a website and had to look hard to find out how to contact them?  Remember there are countless millions of websites out there and the attention span of a web surfer is short – so make sure your phone number and contact info are easy to find.

Our suggestion – put the phone number and email address in the top right of your website.  Make sure to put the phone number in text and not an image file so mobile users can click on it.

Tip 2: Offer A Unique Selling Proposition

Chances are your website is not the only place to find information on the products or services you sell.  And with so many choices online it has never been more important to establish a “Unique Selling Proposition” that differentiates you from everyone else.

Our suggestion – spend time thinking about one single, credible sentence that describes why someone should choose you over your competition.  And make sure web visitors can see that easily on your site.

Tip 3:  Create Special Offers

Face it – who doesn’t love a special deal?  For online users it’s really easy to hit the “Back” button and leave your site.  So while you have them there, offer them something special.  A special price, special offer, special private information, a whitepaper – whatever you can think of.

Our suggestion – identify a compelling “special offer” and make sure web visitors can find it.

Tip 4: Update old information

I recently came upon a client whose website proudly proclaimed he had been in business from 1956-2006.  I told the store owner I was sorry to hear he had been out of business for 3 years since it was 2010.  Don’t give your customers the impression that they are visiting an outdated website with obsolete information.

Our suggestion – make sure your information is up to date as web searchers are generally  looking for relevant, recent information.

We can help

There is a lot more to a good website than just flashy design work.  If you would like to learn more about internet marketing skills which can help you convert more customers please contact us today.

The online world seems to be getting more complex every day.  It also seems to be getting more intertwined with our offline world as the 2 are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

Being “in the field” everyday and talking to business owners here are some high level observations of trends in the internet marketing world:

1.    5 pages websites don’t win anymore.  The days of putting up a 5 page “brochure website” and being able to generate meaningful results are over.  In other words just having a website is no longer enough. You have to create a web presence that engages customers and offers them something of value.  Having a friend build you a Yahoo starter site is so “2006″!

2.    A crummy site with good content beats a flashy site with no content. More than ever the search information drives the internet.  And while web awards are given each year for creative designs that continues to be the exception rather than the norm.  Google the word “mortgage advice” and you will find a dated, but very popular website called the Mortgage Professor.  This site ranks #1 for a hugely competitive phrase simply based on the value of it’s content – not design work.

3.    Free tools can make you money. The search engines continue to provide us with free tools that can absolutely make you money.  Local listings, review sites and blog platforms are great tools for attracting web followers and making money even though they are free.

4.    Invest some time, money or both.  The irony is that just about everyone has a phrase they wish they were #1 for but don’t want to commit the time or resources to achieving it.  Gone are the days when you can just put up your website and be rewarded with top rankings.  It takes time (either yours or someone you hire) to build sites into a resource that web users will want to visit.

Let us know if there are high level ideas you think are important.  And for more information on internet marketing in New Orleans, Louisiana please visit our website.

2 sides to the story

• staying updated on news
• connecting with friends
• killing time
• research
• be entertained

And the study shows that is exactly the case. Sadly, killing time ranks as the #1 reason to go online. Followed closely by educating yourself, connecting with others and research.

So what does this mean?

So what does this mean for folks who want better performance out of their website?

The answer is simple – QUIT SELLING AND START TEACHING!

What this survey drives home is the fact that people, for the most part, don’t go online with the intention of buying things. They go online with the intention of learning something. Maybe it’s about your product or maybe its about a problem that your product may solve. But in either case they are NOT looking to find out how great you are when they first go online.

Givers Gain

The best advice for building a website is to give away as much of your knowledge and expertise as you can in hopes of helping consumers learn more about what you do. The more people you help by providing them with information the better chance you stand of converting them into a customer.

Think about it – isn’t that how YOU like to use the internet? We want to learn about how to fix YOUR problems and needs, then maybe look at some vendors who can help. Chances are you will check them out online before calling or making a purchase.

So if you can provide the information needed in step one of the online search behavior you stand a better chance of keeping someone with you through the natural cycle which happens with online