The ABC's of Internet Marketing

Google has been historically secretive about sharing information with the SEO community, webmasters, and the public about their algorithm, and approaches to evaluating quality sites and determining ranking priority.  However, a recent blog post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog has changed that, with Google providing some interesting and valuable information and insights regarding how to design and optimize high quality websites, especially targeting those sites negatively impacted by the recent Panda update.

In the post, they suggest that webmasters continue "to focus on delivering the best possible user experience on your websites and not to focus too much on what they think are Google’s current ranking algorithms or signals". They also suggest that with roughly 500 planed updates to the algorithm this year, webmasters and SEOs should not "fixate" on any one release, like Panda, as other releases may in fact be the cause of changes in rankings of a website.

Google's stated goal is to help searchers find high quality sites by reducing the rankings of sites with low quality content.  In the post they provide 23 questions for webmasters and SEOs to ask about their site to help them focus on providing quality content on their site for visitors.  While they don't divulge any actual ranking signals from their algorithms in the post, the intent is to enable us to "step into Google's mindset" and provide some guidance to us all about how they are looking at the issue of quality sites and low quality content.  The 23 questions are: 

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does the article describe both sides of a story?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

In the post, Google stresses that the focus should be on quality content, rather than fixating on Google's ranking algorithms.  They also point out that  "low-quality content on some parts of a website can impact the whole site’s rankings, and thus removing low quality pages, merging or improving the content of individual shallow pages into more useful pages, or moving low quality pages to a different domain could eventually help the rankings of your higher-quality content."

 All in all, this unique blog post from Google is a step in the direction of openness and we look forward to future posts that provide useful guidance to webmasters and SEOs.  Contact us to learn more about the Google Panda Update and how it can update your Search Engine Optimization efforts.

When talking with a small business owner, I like to boil down Internet Marketing into two basic components.  1) The tools, techniques and efforts necessary to driving qualified prospects to your website, and 2) What it takes to get them to take the desired conversion action once they land on your site.  

We spend alot of time driving traffic to websites, but many times optimizing the site for conversion gets overlooked, downplayed, or pushed off to a later date.  This is a shame of course, as it is always painful to waste good money bringing people to a site if they are not going to engage and convert.

There are a number of specific aspects of website design focused on covnersion.  Our new white paper is titled Conversion Architecture: Key Steps to Converting Traffic into Business.  I highly recommend you download it and read it if you are one of those people that is getting alot of traffic to your site, but your conversions are still lower than you would like.  Below is the intro to the white paper, to give you an idea of what it's focus is.

Introduction

We have seen a large transition in the Internet marketing world over the last 3 years. Back in 2007, Internet marketers like WSI would take many calls from people asking us, "How do I get my company ranked high on search engines?" or "How do I get on the first page of Google?" We would often recommend an online review that looked at their current sites’ "search engine readiness" as well as look at the volume of traffic for certain keyword phases that related to their business. Finally, we needed to understand their competiveness of their keyword phases.

But the reality is that even if you are on the first page of Google it doesn’t always mean success, what it means is you will get impressions and some traffic but what you need to understand is how to get them to stay on your website. Most sites even today lack a focused strategy around converting that traffic into business. Most people think this just happens, but the reality is that it doesn’t and you need to understand the key components to make this happen.

When we would say "how does your site convert" we would often see this dazed look as if to say what do you mean?

Looking at the word "conversion", we define it this as "a way of getting someone to take a predetermined action that you want to track and measure". The key is to understand what the impact of that action means to your business; this will ultimately determine your online success.

I encourage you to download this Conversion Architecture whitepaper to learn more about its impact on revenue growth.

We deal with companies in many industries and of various sizes that need websites built or optimized--either for conversion or for search.  There are many platforms, tools, and design approaches, combined with existing branding elements of the business as well as the personal taste and vision of the decision maker. 

Many times the dimension of color is an after thought, a quick decision based on the current color of their logo or brochure, or the personal preference of the owner.  Fact is, color is a critical dimension of any website based on a number of important factors.  The following blog post from Marelise da Silva was originally published at http://blog.wsioms.co.za/index.php/website-design/colour-psychology-and-your-website/
and highlights how understanding color psychology can impact the success of a website.  Enjoy!

Colour psychology has been around for a number of years and many marketers, retailers, restaurant-owners and interior designers use the analysis of the effect of colours on the human psyche to their advantage.

Some of the basic connotations and emotions associated with colours:

• Blue: Calmness, stability. Also associated with men, water and depth.
• Pink: Feminine, romance, soft, tenderness
• Purple: Royalty, power, spirituality
• Green: Nature, money, safety, freshness

These are universal colour psychology examples, but how a person is affected by a colour can also depend on a number of things, such as origin, religion and so forth. Some helpful tips for incorporating colour psychology when you are choosing colours for your website can be taken from research that has been done for retailers and other brand marketers.

• Red on a website: This colour is often associated with passion, danger and excitement. According to marketing research, this colour on a website can be used to stimulate a person to make a quick decision (such as incorporating red into a Buy Now button, for example).
• Pink on a website: Pink is feminine and calming, which will work well for a website for women’s insurance or websites along those lines. But be careful to not overdo pink because the feeling turns to irritation after the calming effect has worn off.
• Green on a website: Green is often associated with environmentally friendly products and services, banks and corporate services. Research, however, has shown that website users don’t always want to stay on a green website for too long (if you have to choose green, make sure you get your message across quickly and that the site is easy to navigate).
• Orange on a website: Orange is associated with affordability and enthusiasm and the colour is well-received in websites aimed at young people.
• White on a website: The colour is associated with newness and purity. Incorporating white in your website gives it a simple look and feel and it is often appreciated by traditional people. White and grey work very well for business websites where the website user is mainly searching for information about a product or service.

If you are trying to incorporate colour psychology into your web design, make sure you have taken a look at the client’s corporate colours first. Use a colour wheel to find out which other complimentary colours can be used before you get started!

We'd like to introduce our newest website client--CMD Services.  CMD Services is a leading commercial property management firm serving the Sacramento metropolitan area and surrounding counties in Northern California. 

Over the last 22 years, CMD has provided services to over 4.5 million square feet of commercial real estate properties.   Their clients include a variety of property owners including individuals, real estate trusts, limited partnerships, general partnerships, insurance companies, institutional lenders and court appointed receiverships. 

CMD's success is based on their overriding commitment to obtaining the maximum return on real estate investment by keeping the property up-to-date, while enhancing the cash flow and doing our upmost best to retain tenants.

When most businesses make a commitment to Internet Marketing, their first step is to create a website.  Unfortunately, many business owners believe this is where their work ends.  They think “if you build it, they will come”.  In reality, “they” may come, but only if a business owner takes the necessary steps to make their website easy to find and visible.  And even then, considering how many websites there are competing for high ranking and visibility, it can be a time consuming, expensive, and sometimes frustrating effort.

While there are myriad tools and techniques available to drive awareness and visibility online for today’s businesses, small and medium-sized companies can get started by focusing on a few core techniques that will move them down the path to visibility, and driving more, qualified visitors to their website:  

SEO – Of all the techniques, SEO may still be the most effective, highest volume source of gaining visibility on the search engines, and the lowest cost of long term online customer acquisition.  SEO continues to deliver the highest visibility by ranking you at or near the top of the organic search rankings for phrases your target market uses to find your goods and services.  For developing long term brand awareness for your website, for being visible to searchers as they start their online purchasing process and for being there when they are ready to take the next step, SEO continues to be worth the investment in time and money.

Paid Search (PPC) – Many people think that they need to make a choice between SEO and PPC when deciding how to increase their visibility online.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The two are complimentary and work well together to provide maximum visibility.  Using both together in an integrated plan will provide a synergistic jump in online traffic to your site.  PPC provides companies the ability to appear prominently on the search engine results pages (SERPs), with a tailored offer to a target geography and demographic.  It is very sales focused and enables companies to exploit unique opportunities, react quickly to changing market dynamics, and engage with a targeted audience at the time they are ready to buy.  While SEO benefits take time to manifest, benefits of a PPC campaign can be felt immediately, and can begin the inflow of online leads while you are waiting for the results of your SEO project to be felt.

Local Search – The third of three sections on a SERP, Local Search is an incredible opportunity for small businesses serving a local community to get first page SERP visibility.  While it may technically be considered part of SEO, Local Search is the fastest and lowest cost technique to achieving first page SERP ranking.  And with the growing mobile internet phenomena in full swing, getting your local business on the first page of the SERPS is more important than ever.

Social Media – Search engines are not the only vehicle for being found online anymore.  This newer and dramatically growing dimension of online marketing continues to offer fresh and exciting ways to engage your target market, build your brand and interest in it, and generate both buzz and new customers.  Whether it is Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn or any of the hundreds of other sites, Social Media enable businesses to create a community of like minded people around their brand, directly interact with their customer and fan base with dynamic content and a two way conversation, and bring a more human element to their business online.

Blogging – Blogging enables you to establish a recurring conversation with your target market.  You can use this tool to establish yourself as a domain expert in your field, to communicate trends, the latest news, case studies, and any  number of different themes.  This will bring attention to you, your business, and your website, and build a following that will translate into more visitors to your site.  Blogging is also a significant component of “off page” SEO, important in it’s own right.  And when you combine blogging with a strong Social Media presence, you begin to establish a more visible and authoritative presence online, and lay the foundation for long term brand building and website traffic.

Creating an attractive website and driving new visitors to it are critical to your the success of your Internet Marketing efforts.  But you can’t stop there. Once visitors start arriving, is your website designed to make it easy for them to find what they are looking for?  Have you eliminated friction in your conversion paths to make it easy for your visitors to take the action you want them to take?  Is your business ready to accept this inflow of new visitors and engage them attentively, professionally, and courteously?  There are many dimensions to growing your business via the Internet, and you need to pay attention to them all if you want to maximize your ROI and maximize your success.