e-Business, e-Commerce, Online Marketing & Web Strategy

SEO Quickie

Effectively Marketing Online

Advertising - Web Portals

Website Analytics - Forecasting Trends and Website Optimization

SEO Quickie

Effectively Marketing Online

Advertising - Web Portals

Website Analytics - Forecasting Trends and Website Optimization

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Oct. 6th, 2008 at 4:08 PM

SEO Quickie

Search engine optimization really just takes the best parts of corporate tribal knowledge and Web tracking reports and uses that information in all areas of the site in order to flood the site with the “right’ information in order to be found by the search engines and placed toward the top of the results.

It is somewhat just a matter of focus and consistency. One must focus on the keywords and phrases that attract the best potential customers and then be consistent in how those keywords are spread across the site or the page. For instance, if ‘soft feel golf balls’ is a strong keyword that the Web manager needs to optimize, then at least one page URL on the site needs to be created with the term ‘soft feel golf balls’ in it, as well as a having that terminology in the source code for that page’s title, keywords and metatags.

Further, a strong heading on that page should read ‘soft feel golf balls’ and that term should be used several more times on that page; this is called keyword density. Plus, any pictures on the page that are related to that term should have an ALTAG of ‘soft feel golf balls’. Now that that page is optimized for that key term, it is time to use the rest of the site to further enhance that term.

Anywhere on the site where the term ‘soft feel golf ball’ is used, it should be linked to that optimized page. DO NOT link to the page with a ‘click here’. Link to the page with a ‘soft feel golf ball’ link. This is called “interlinking” and is a great tool for Website optimization. Further, any other Websites that agree to link to that optimized page should be instructed to use that terminology. So, instead of having a link to ABC Company, have them link to ‘soft feel golf balls’. This keyword relevance gets picked up by the search engines and helps move the page up the results ladder. So what’s the theory behind all this stuff?

This stuff is not just theory; it is proven practice. If a company ABC is a completely brick and mortar business and wishes to branch out online as well as create e-business efficiencies within its organization, how would it go about accomplishing those goals? It would look to its e-Business Manager, Web Manager, Technology Manager and other Managers, and ask them to lead the way. But there is far more detail involved when it comes to putting this knowledge into practice?

In our next posts, we will examine the multiple facets involved in creating the e-business.

Aug. 26th, 2008 at 4:25 PM

Effectively Marketing Online

The purpose of marketing is to educate the public on how you can solve their problems, while reducing their risk of doing business with you. The most effective marketing you can do is to find out what your customers’ major pain-points are, and let them know how you can help. This comes with time and research, but the end result will help to legitimize your business by talking their language and offering them solutions. This process is called “bridging the confidence gap”. Now, we can see how offering a solution to your customers’ pain points can help get you the business once your company is discovered, but the discovery phase can be tricky. This is where carefully analyzing your Web tracking results can help.

If you see a trend wherein a lot of your Web visitors are coming from a certain Website, you can find out what that site is about and really start to analyze their content, their business purpose and their advertising techniques. This also works with your competitors’ Websites as well. You can look at their source code by clicking ‘view’ then ‘source’ in your Internet Explorer toolbar to see what keywords and metatags they are using. You can look at their backwards links and search for them on your favorite search engine. This will give you an idea of how they market themselves and who is linking to them. There is a strong possibility that sites linking to your competition will also link to you. But remember, keyword density is also very important.

Make sure you fill up several pages with the wordage you think your customers will be searching on. Use wordage from your customers marketing material, from your competitors marketing material and from your Web analytics. There is no shame in reusing other people’s data to your advantage. Just be sure to come up with fresh ideas and a fresh layout. And as long as you are optimizing your site better than the next guy, you will be the one on top of the search engine rankings and you will be the one with the first shot at gaining the opportunity to impress the customer. Just make sure that you capitalize on that opportunity by offering them low risk ways to move along the buying spectrum. Remember, the big sale is nice, but sometimes the little sale has to happen first, then the marketing hopper can be put into action to slowly change those small customers into your perfect customers by cross-marketing, up-selling and instituting value-added services along the way.

Aug. 26th, 2008 at 2:44 PM

Web Portals

Everyone has an Advertising budget. Some are big and some are small. Internet advertising basically consists of your Website, Pay-Per-Click, Banner Ads or other online ad, and Pay-For-Placement in Web Portals. As we know, Web portals are search engines that specialize in either B2B or B2C and contain lots of companies, in which many are in direct competition with one another. The key thought here is that a Web portal is like a popular highway exit. Most of us choose highway exits that are convenient and have lots of choices for food, gas and maybe lodging. Portals work the same way. People use them because of the shear number of similar advertisers. But what is a good portal for you?

Again, look through your Website tracking stats and see what keywords your visitors are typing in on the search engines. Type these same keywords in to the search engines. Whoever is coming up on top is obviously doing a good job. If you can advertise with them it might be a good bargain. Why? Because lets say you sold lead pipe for the plumbing industry. And let’s say that even after optimizing your site you can’t get on top of the search engine natural rankings. And let’s say that you looked into pay-per-click and it’s $5 per click to be number one on Google for lead pipes with an estimated click total of 2,000 clicks per month. That would be $10,000 per month to do pay-per-click on that keyphrase alone. And let’s say that this was too much for your budget. I know it’s a far stretch isn’t it?

Now let’s say that with a portal like ThomasNet.com, you can be number one on their site for the phrase lead pipes for only $3,000 per year. So what? “So let’s dance” J So, if ThomasNet is coming up number one on Google for the search phrase lead pipes, and you are number one on ThomasNet under the category lead pipes, then it stands to reason that you can literally be number one in the world on Google under the phrase lead pipes by advertising with ThomasNet. Sure, your name is an extra click away, but you just accomplished the same basic goal for thousands less.

Why can’t you just copy the portal and become number one yourself? Because successful Web portals have thousands of advertisers spending thousands and tens of thousands of advertising dollars with it. This gives the portals lots of cash to do one thing, advertise! You see, you’re in business to make something or to provide a service. A portal is in business to advertise itself in order to get people to see your ad and eventually drive lots of people to your site. So let it. If it has a proven track record of success, it must be doing something right. And after all, if it isn’t doing the job, you can witness its performance via your Web tracking software and kick it to the curb.

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Aug. 26th, 2008 at 2:32 PM

Forecasting Trends and Website Optimization

One of the most important reasons to go with a client-side Web tracking company is real-time information. Information is critical to the success of a Website. The right information provides Forecasting tools that are indispensable. What are these forecasting tools?

Well, let’s say that there is a buzz about your product that you didn’t even know about. It’s becoming very popular by some slang word that is catching fire. Or let’s say that there is a new search engine or Web portal out there that is doing a great job attracting your target audience, but they have done a poor job in contacting you for advertising. Or let’s say that specific pages on your site are very popular, but you don’t have an offer or contact info on that page. Then what? The customer is gone before you knew they were there.

Web tracking analytics gives you the power to see when certain keywords or phrases are growing in popularity because you see them over and over again in the referrer keyword strings. It gives you the power to find out who or what is driving traffic to your site. Is it Google? Probably. Is it SpecialtySearchEngine123.com? Maybe. But you have to find out. Web analytics give you the power to discover which of your pages are the most popular. Or maybe you will see that the last page your visitors hit on again and again is not the contact us page, but another page that leaves them hanging dry.

So you see, beyond forecasting these trends, one can begin to optimize their Website based on these trends. One can begin using the new slang word in their content or using pay-per-click to capture that audience’s attention. One can begin advertising with SpecialtySearchEngine123 because it reaches their core demographics. And one can begin to look at their Website more critically. Perhaps the navigation can be improved. Perhaps it’s noticed that users often back out of certain pages because the content is bad or because an intriguing offer is not made in the appropriate place.

These are all Website optimization tactics that can be employed to both increase the Website’s usability and stickiness. Many times this is all that is needed to get the visitor to contact you. And sometimes trends data can be used just to get visitors to your site. We’ve talked about advertising in previous posts. But what about Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? SEO involves changing the content, titles, keywords, metatags and links in order for the search engines to recognize your popularity and intelligence in this given market. SEO is very important because once the search engines believe in your site, they move you up the latter, closer and closer to the coveted number 1 spot.

These are the types of things that can come from studying the trends data from your Website tracking analytics.

September 2009