Posts filed under 'Internet Marketing'
What’s the difference between a Web page titled:
Bob’s Doggy Treats
And one titled:
Bob's Doggy Treats
Maybe more than you think … it’s all in the apostrophe.
Recently, I noticed that a client had pasted their business name from Microsoft Word into their Web site title tag without converting their apostrophe from Word’s character entity to the straight text-only apostrophe that HTML requires.
Initially, I was not very concerned until I Googled for the client’s name and it was nowhere to be found. Other similar business names were in the search engine results pages where my client should have been. Though most Web browsers are able to interpret the Word markup visually, it made no sense to Google, who treated the apostrophe pasted from Word as part of the business name instead of punctuation. For a business who relies on search engine traffic, this can be a costly mistake.
This post is a short reminder that cutting and pasting from Microsoft Word into a Web page document is ALWAYS a bad idea. If you need to cut and paste, a short workaround is to copy from Word into a text editor like Notepad. Then, copy the text from Notepad into your Web page. This removes most of the extra characters could potentially harm your Web page.
August 28th, 2006
Over the past several years, I have noticed that many Web design clients do not understand how to take ownership of the design process and rarely think about how they will manage their Web site after it launches. Somehow, the new design is supposed to compensate for a Web site owner’s lack of vision. This list is one Web designer’s attempt to help you create a plan that will allow you to achieve some success attracting new visitors to your Web site, and making a positive impression once the new visitors arrive.
- Plan your content carefully before you think in detail about your Web site structure and aesthetics.
- Research competing and related niche sites to discover the content, Web site structure, and aesthetics representative of your industry.
- Determine your business objectives and set measurable goals for your new Web site. In as much detail as you can muster, record the ways in which your new Web site will help you achieve your goals.
- Your landing pages should reflect the ways in which your prospective customers will search for your service or product. Plan the content of these pages in relation to the complexity and number of your offerings. Use Wordtracker to discover key phrases that are likely to drive visitors to your Web site landing pages from search engines.
- Since no page is purely informational in a bottom-line business climate, decide carefully what you will ask your Web site visitors to do in response to the content your page offers. Find an appropriate way to ask your potential clients to respond.
- Articulate the first impression and emotional response your Web site should evoke. Who will your site visitors be, and why will they feel this way when they visit your site?
- What is the dominant type of content your Web site will feature? Will it be news items, archived documents, multimedia or sales copy. What ideas do you have about how the content can be structured for maximum comprehension and utility?
- What aesthetic preferences do you have? Why? Link typefaces, colors, and artwork specifications to the first impression and emotional responses you hope to evoke and the business goals they will help you achieve.
- Set your budget and communicate it clearly. If working with a limited budget, be prepared for trade-offs and be ready to prioritize goals and preferences.
- Discuss your communication preferences with your designer in advance. Do you want daily reports? Weekly? Will you want real-time access via telephone, instant messaging, and email? Do you need face-to-face meetings to feel comfortable with the process?
If this blog post left you wanting more, Harvey Ramer has also written a short e-Book called A No-Nonsense Guide to Creating Your Web Site Design Plan that you may find helpful.
August 17th, 2006
Do you want to improve your Web site’s search engine results rank but feeling intimidated by the complexity of Search Engine Optimization and confused about where to begin? If so, Search Engine Optimization An Hour A Day may be exactly what you are looking for to help you get started. Where other books offer facts, tips, and conceptual background, this volume offers simple tasks that demonstrate the core principles of SEO.
The authors, Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin, introduce SEO objectives a week at a time and break each objective into goals and tasks that can be easily understood and completed each day. Written with clarity and detail, the book leaves little room for confusion about what you can do to improve your Web site’s rank in the search engine results pages.
One of the most valuable sections of this book discusses team building in a company or organization with competing departmental agendas. In detail, the authors present proven methods for communicating the benefits of SEO in language that reflects the priorities of the Webmaster, programmers, marketing department, graphic designers and more. If you need the help of others to improve your Web site, you’ll find this chapter on team building invaluable.
Topics covered in Search Engine Optimization An Hour A Day include:
- determining business goals for your Web site
- creating an SEO plan
- getting your team on board
- selecting keywords for your Web content
- increasing the visibility of your Web site by link building
- implementing a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign
- understanding and using Web site analytics to understand your Web site traffic
- writing monthly and quarterly SEO reports
This book is an excellent resource for task-oriented realists who want to find a way to improve their Web site’s search engine rank. If you already understand the basics of SEO, you may become frustrated by the pace of progress through the book. If so, don’t forget that you can proceed at any pace and that you may find gems that make the format worth reading. For beginners, the daily task format makes SEO easy to understand and, more importantly, easy to put into practice. No implementation details are left unaddressed and the companion Web site features a full array of documents to track Web site changes, keywords, pay-per-click campaigns and link request letters.
I recommend Search Engine Optimization An Hour A Day for anyone interested in Search Engine Optimization and new to the concept of improving search engine results by optimizing content, especially if your organization or business structure will require you to build teams across deparmental structures.
Product Details
- Authors: Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin
- Hardcover: 318 pages
- Publisher: Sybex (Wiley)
- ISBN: 0471787531
- List Price: $29.99
- Buy the book on Amazon
Related Resources
August 9th, 2006
I need to do more conclusive testing on this issue, but I want to start a dialog and see if anyone else found anything similar regarding the use of Google Adwords and landing pages.
I set up a PPC campaign using Google Adwords and landing pages. Browsers from Google’s campus hit my site landing pages then clicked through to the sitemap 3 times in two days, apparently to check if the pages were orphaned.
On the third day, I woke up to ZERO page rank across my entire Web site except for my blog. I sent a complaint and explained that what Google (apparently) thought were cloaking pages were legit landing pages. It seems that even “legit” landing pages cause problems with Google because they restored the rest of my site the next day be demoted my home page to PR 2.
I could see no other correlation and I know it wasn’t foolproof as a test, but it seems clear that the landing pages were the issue. I am hoping for an explanation from Google, but so far have had none.
Has this happened to anyone else?
July 24th, 2006
The MindValley Way to Ecommerce Success offers mentoring wisdom based on the real-world experience of its authors. Covering 40 eCommerce Tactics modular enough to be read on their own, this ebook will provide any e-business newcomer with an excellent source of advice.
Much advice offered by experts on web marketing is theoretical and difficult for a newcomer to apply. By contrast, the MindValley Way is almost completely applied information. With only a rudimentary knowledge of Internet technologies, a reader will be able to apply and test much of the tactics offered. Many of the tactics presented here will also help marketing veterans to see a new approach or hone their existing procedures.
The main subject areas covered are:
- Creating products that sell online
- Setting up your site for success
- Pay-per-click advertising secrets
- Turning browsers into buyers
- Closing the sale
- Profiting from untapped channels
- Growing into a million dollar business
What I Learned
Pay-Per-Click Advertising Needs Focus
Though I found the whole book to be of value, several subject areas were especially helpful to me. Time and again, I have made attempts at using pay-per-click advertising to send traffic to client Web sites. However, I have rarely showed a measurable gain for these clients. While many factors are relevant to this short disclosure (should a professional ever admit failure? … publicly?) I now have a better understanding of some key shortcomings of my Google Adwords campaigns. Edit: See my comment on this post for some relevant information that this eBook does not address, and notice a more thorough discussion here.
These factors that cause a pay-per-click campaign to fail include:
- too broad a range of keywords for each ad group
- reluctance to create landing pages for each ad group
- a focus on quantity of traffic generated rather than the specificity of the keywords that drive traffic
While I was aware of these issues while running the campaigns, I didn’t have the language to communicate my concerns clearly or troubleshoot effectively. Thanks to this ebook, I am now more equipped to discuss these issues with clients and to plan more intentionally for success.
Copy Writing Is Key
The MindValley Way also discusses sales copy writing for the Web in various contexts including pay-per-click campaign landing pages, advertisements, Web pages, and email messages. Through repetition and many examples, the basic concepts of quality sales writing are reinforced and clearly demonstrated.
In addition to their own experiments and advice, the authors present valuable copy writing advice from experts and often link to Web sites, ebooks, and other resources to expand on their presentation.
What Did I Think of It?
Though every tactic presented here is worth absorbing carefully, the two areas of pay-per-click campaign management and sales copy writing are worth the price of the book when looked at as a business investment. If you do not have an experienced mentor to guide you, this book could stand in for many of the questions you would ask.
- How can I select or create a product that will sell online?
- Is there a way to get more site visitors to contact me or buy my product?
- How can I attract more keyword targeted visitors to my Web site?
- Can I improve my customer service without increasing my workload?
There are some possible drawbacks to this ebook. First, if you don’t like reading lots of information on your computer screen, you will find it necessary to print each tactic as you read the book. Second, though there is plenty of information here to help sellers of physical products that require shipping, most examples provided refer to digital downloads. The challenge of setting shipping rates and finding the best distribution methods will need to be addressed elsewhere.
Still, this resource is in a class of its own due to the breadth of time-tested advice it provides. I hope my review does not sound like any magic bullet solutions are offered. It will require testing and a great deal of thought to successfully apply the principles and examples it contains. However, it is the most comprehensive repository of online marketing knowledge I have ever seen in one place. As such, I recommend The MindValley Way to Ecommerce Success to newcomers and eCommerce experts alike as an investment in their business marketing plan.
July 12th, 2006
Approaching online marketing is a bit like entering a wilderness without a map, compass, shelter, or food. Let me explain. The typical Web site fails to anchor its message in the needs of real world customers, provides no means of discovering whether the message is persuasive, and relies on intuition and experimentation for improvement. Companies with little room for experimentation in their budget can easily become discouraged or exhaust their resources in fruitless experimentation. Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg have provided a model in Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? that addresses the lack of landmarks in online marketing.
This book maps out the difficult wilderness terrain of customer communication and persuasion as an intentional process that includes measurable and achievable goals. The Eisenbergs approach an extremely complex process with finesse that rarely oversimplifies and yet provides a conceptual framework that helps us approach it rationally.
It is very difficult to summarize Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? because it is a comprehensive system of thought and a marketing methodology. Little about the specifics of marketing are redefined here, but Persuasion Architecture places each component of marketing into a framework with specific goals and metrics. When read cover to cover with an open mind, this book has the potential to demystify much of the marketing process.
Like any book that paints a big picture, the chief challenge to the reader is to apply the principles of Persuasion Architecture to their own marketing efforts. Though the first few chapters are mostly abstract, the last nine chapters anchor the conceptual framework in real world scenarios that will help you get started.
The model of Persuasion Architecture meshes well with the culture of the Internet where participation is voluntary and transient. According to the authors, “The frameworks available in Persuasion Architecture create a persuasive model of voluntary momentum rather than a coercive model … it isn’t about control, it’s about choice.”
What’s my advice? If you are involved in marketing, but especially marketing with an Internet component, choose to read this book!
Product Details
- Authors: Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, Lisa T. Davis
- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Nelson Business; Book & CD edition (June 13, 2006)
- ISBN: 0785218971
- List Price: $19.99
- Buy on Amazon.com
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
Related Web Links
June 27th, 2006
Though the response to this poll was not unanimous, most respondents felt that content is the most important factor to a Web site’s success. One weakness of this poll is that it did not define success or the type of Web site in consideration.
I have seen Web sites that seem to function very well as sales tools for design companies and yet they feature very little text content, focus on graphics and generate traffic by word of mouth. For Web sites such as these, design is of utmost importance.
For the lion’s share of Web sites that depend on search engine traffic rather than word of mouth, content is of the greatest value. In fact, it functions as a currency that “purchases” traffic from the many online search portals. For these Web sites, it is truly “publish or perish.”
Which element is most important to a Web site’s success?
* Short Page Load Time: 15% (3)
* Excellent Design: 20% (4)
* Valuable Content: 65% (13)
Total Votes : 20
June 22nd, 2006
I have been working with eCommerce solutions for the past several years. In that time, I haven’t begun to scratch the surface of all the eCommerce shopping cart software solutions available. Please plug your favorite shopping cart software and provide a working link to each suggestion’s Web site along with reasons that you favor working with your recommended solution.
I prefer to hear from designers about shopping cart solutions because I want recommendations that are flexible enough to handle design requirements while being praiseworthy as software applications. Of course, others are also welcome to post suggested shopping carts.
April 30th, 2006
Gaining traffic from your Web site’s content is a relatively simple process. I’ve provided a list below of steps you can take to begin this process.
- Anticipate what your potential customers or Web site visitors will want to read. This can be an act of imagination and guesswork; even better, it can be based upon conversations and more formal demographic research.
- Know your industry. Keep up with trends and provide useful commentary.
- Write articles that demonstrate your expertise in your field. These can be tutorials, advice columns, and even questions that solicit information of value for yourself and your readers.
- Research key phrases that are relevant to your product or service offering and use high traffic phrases to form ideas and to write your articles and other content.
Getting visitors to come to your Web site for content is relatively easy. However, getting those visitors to purchase your product or service is not always so easy. Aim for a direct relationship between your content and your sales offering.
Keyword Research Tools:
April 27th, 2006
Before You Build Your Online Store - Click to Play the Podcast from Harvey Ramer
There are two routes available to online store owners regarding designing a Web site around a shopping cart. You will choose one that is search engine friendly, or a shopping cart that will hinder your search engine visibility. There are viable reasons to choose either option. My hope is that this podcast will provide a framework from which you can make an informed decision.
Choosing Search Engine Visibility
Simple buy now button solutions for under 20 products:
Database driven solutions:
April 25th, 2006
Next Posts
Previous Posts
