Search engine optimization, the art of to get your website higher in the search engine rankings, is a complicated art. For many, it may require a full restructuring of your website or the help of a specialist. But I’d like to discuss a few things to get you started on the process.
Tracking your traffic
Do you know who is visiting your site? At what times of the day are they visiting your website? What search terms are they using to arrive at your site? Google analytics will tell you all this info and has an easy to use interface for analyzing this data. This info is invaluable for deciding on a plan of attack and tracking its progress.
Keywording
Think about searchable keywords when writing your content. What sorts of phrases would people search for in order to find your site? Use those phrases in your text. Use them in headers. Search engines use text like this to rank your site for relevancy. These days, content is king. Make sure your content is written with SEO in mind. Add bold or italic text to further emphasis keywords.
Here’s an example of how both these tips helped me at my own site. In the early days, I found I wasn’t getting the traffic that I wanted. So I pulled up Google Analytics to see what sort of traffic I was getting. Apparently a common search term in Kuala Limpur Malaysia is “web design in KL” and I was coming up first! Unfortunately my target market doesn’t reach quite that far. I also realized that no where on my site does it say Colorado or US based. Whoops! A few quick tweaks to my content and keywords and I was starting to come up locally.
Fresh Content
Do you have a blog? Websites with fresh content rank higher than static sites. Not only does it improve your site, but it gives you something to promote via social media! Now, I know what you are going to say. “What would I write about??” Many small business owners are resistant to this. But chances are you know a lot about your business. Chances are your customers want to know that info! Blog about what you know. Not only does this present you as the expert in your field, it will attract customers to your site.
Social Media
Do you have a Facebook page? Google places or yelp listings? Twitter account? What about video marketing? All these are online places where potential clients are “hanging out” which means you need to be there as well! At first, promoting your business on social media sites can be a bit awkward. It does take practice. But it’s about exposure. Social media is a platform that in this day and age, cannot be ignored.
It seems this word is being tossed around all over the place these days. Just yesterday I got a call about my best practices for building a mobile website. So here it is: In simplest terms, a responsive website is a website that responds to the size of the device or browser you are using.
Let’s look at some examples. Visit www.bostonglobe.com. You’ll see a standard magazine style layout with three columns and headers that are easy to skim. Now drag the browser window so it’s a bit narrower. See how the content moves? Font sizes get smaller and the columns adjust to the new size. Drag it even further. Eventually you will have two columns instead of three, which is similar to a tablet sized layout. Drag it to the size of a phone screen and you have one column. The website is built to respond to the size of the device or browser. Obviously you won’t be manually forcing this on a regular basis but the idea is that the content is rearranged to fit the screen you are using.
Now most users will never even know that this happened. But they will know if a website looks bad or is hard to use. A poorly designed website is the quickest way to alienate clientele and offend users. Studies show that up to 17% of users browse the web primarily on their mobile phone. The mobile platform can not be forgotten!
Mobile apps for small businesses seem to be the newest marketing fad. Lately I’ve been getting a fair amount of calls from people about mobile apps for their business. I find that most of them don’t entirely know what this means, but just heard about it somewhere. Now I’m not all that keen on talking people out of business, but to be honest the majority of them don’t need a mobile app. There are a few questions to ask yourself beforehand.
Firstly, do you have a solid, modern and functional website? Are you happy with the traffic it is receiving? Do you have a mobile website? If you answered no to either of these, answer this question: Will your mobile app idea be able to stand alone on the app store platform? Unless your app is a standalone idea and not connected with any existing business, you need a website and a mobile website first. (Sidebar: You will need to build a web presence for your mobile app as well.)
Secondly, how will you market your mobile app? Downloading an app is more of a commitment than visiting a webpage. It’s a bit of a joke between mobile app developers about building great apps that are never downloaded. How will you get users to download your app? How will people find your app? You cannot rely on the app store for users to find you. The truth of developing apps is that the app store is flooded with great apps that failed due to poor marketing.
Thirdly, what is the goal of the app? Will you use it to connect with current or potential clients? How will you monetize it?
It’s important to have the answers to these questions nailed down before building a mobile app. Don’t get me wrong, a mobile app done right can launch a whole new realm for your business. It can connect with clients at a fully unique and new way. Next post, we will talk about exactly how a mobile app can help your small business.
Lately I’ve been getting lots of calls from people who have a website but aren’t quite getting the traffic out of it they want. There are many factors which effect a website’s success. Search engine optimization, which I talked about a few weeks ago here, is a big part of that. Last week I also mentioned website usability and I’d like to expand on this a bit more.
The “Mom Test”
According to wikipedia website usability is the art of making a site easy to use without any special training or direction. In other words, the website should be intuitive. I like to call it the “Mom test.” If my mom can figure out my website or app without calling me 5 times for direction, then it has great usability!
Let’s face it. No one wants to work to use your website. Website users need to be spoon fed your content.
Here are a few examples of usability practices. Contact info is usually expected at the bottom of the page or somewhere in the header. You wouldn’t want people to have to hunt for that so it is common practice to put it where it is expected. Back buttons on a web app are expected to be in the top left corner. One last example is to have the logo clickable to the home page.
Now that we know a bit about usability, here are a few tips to improve your website usability.
5 second rule:
This is the one I see the most and is also the most destructive. The home page of a website is the most crucial page. You need to capture a visitor’s attention quickly before they get distracted and move on. The inclination is often to cram the home page with anything and everything they might need, rows and rows of text, ads and popups and so on… The end result is a barrage of info that has no focus or clear path for the user to follow. More likely they will leave and remember nothing of what they read. The 5 second rule dictates that the home page give the user a basic overview of who you are that they can digest in 5 seconds or less. If they want to know more, that info is also available just a simple click away.
A Consistent Design
Our brain picks up colors and styles without us knowing. For example, when we see red and yellow, we think McDonalds. This process is called branding (read more about it here) and is much more in depth than we are going to go into here. But the basic premise here is that you need a consistent design on your website. Website users should know and trust that you are who you say you are. A consistent design gives a subtle feel of professionalism and stability.
I often see clients who get carried away with “the shiny.” “The shiny” is my term for the newest fad or style that is trendy and invokes the thought, “I must have it!” While it is important to keep your website current and modern, it is also important to be consistent with your design and theme. If you are constantly adding new pages without any theme consistency, users will be confused and lose confidence in your site.
Skimmable Text
This is similar to the 5 second rule but applies to all content. Usability testing shows that few users actual read page content but rather skim. A good website design will facilitate this process with clear and keyworded headlines and short paragraphs. I prefer my headlines to be bolded and in a different color, which good white space around to “rest” the eye.
Along the same lines, content should be concise and simple. Less fluff, more meat. Numbers should be written numerically (1000 instead of one thousand). Use bulleted lists, charts or other text formatting when appropriate.
Images in the Text
Images are a great way to reinforce your idea as well as help out the particularly lazy readers. They also can help with SEO when done properly so win-win!
Content should be regularly updated. For one, search engines LOVE new content. It will improve your rankings. Secondly, users expect to see up-to-date content. If your content is static or outdated, they will lose trust (and interest) in your site as resource.
2. Mobile accessibility/Responsive layout
More and more users are browsing on their tablets and phones; some stats say as much as 30% on tablets alone. Many of these users are only browsing on mobile devices. If your site doesn’t look right or function right on the mobile device, your user will leave frustrated and annoyed and likely never return. A mobile website or responsive layout (meaning the website responds to the device or screen size) will optimize the content and website for that particular device. For example, the content will be arranged to fit into a smaller, narrower space to minimize zooming and scrolling. Bandwidth-sucking elements such as large images or animations will be eliminated or replaced with mobile friendly technology. You can even feature various items that a mobile user is more likely to want or need such as directions or contact info! (Check out a previous article to learn more about mobile websites.)
3. User Friendly layout and design
You have only a few seconds to capture someone’s attention before they lose focus. There is an entire science to what parts of the page the eye goes to first, what text is most likely to be read and where to display specific information. Did you know most users never read past 3-4 lines? Large blocks of content are a turn-off! User friendly websites utilize this research to help you and your user communicate best.
A common mistake is to put any necessary or relevant information and cram it on the home page. This will only confuse and overwhelm the user. You want to create a clear and concise path for them to follow. More is less.
4. Good SEO
There are many elements that make up “good SEO” but the fact of the matter is that if someone cannot find your site, they will never use your site. Without good SEO your site is almost useless. You need keywording, optimized code and website marketing to name a few. Don’t ever think the job is done once the site is built. That is just the beginning.
A few years ago, having a website was a successful website. Nowadays, everyone and their mother has a website (my mother has at least 3). What makes a potential choose you over the competitor? These 4 are a few things that make your website rise to the top (and not just of Google rankings!) They are absolutely essential for a successful website.
Did you know that you can search engine optimize your YouTube videos? YouTube is quickly becoming a big player in website marketing. Like Facebook and Twitter, video content and YouTube is a whole separate platform for marketing your business and reaching clientele.
Do you have knowledge or information to offer your clients? This is a great way to attract new clients.
1. Create a video.
2. Upload it to YouTube.
3. Add keywords, an optimized description, a transcript.
4. Brand your channel.
5. Build a subscriber base.
These are all things you can and should do to gain exposure, increase brand awareness and drive traffic to your website.
Chances are if you are looking into building a websites, you’ve heard of WordPress. It is by far the most popular CMS to date. So what is it? And more importantly, how can WordPress help you and your business?
WordPress is an open source content management system. In laymen’s terms, it is a software that allows you to edit your own website. When building your site, your WordPress developer will build your site as a WordPress theme and arrange your content within WordPress’s internal structure. You, the average joe, can then add new images, add new pages, upload products, write a blog and a myriad of other things.
There are huge advantages to being able to edit your own website. Who else knows about your business like you do? Here are a few quick advantages to having a content management system like WordPress.
1. Google loves dynamic sites!
It’s important that your site be relevant and timely. If you are continually adding content, google ratings are statistically higher.
2. Advertise short term or time sensitive ads
Maybe you are running a sale. Perhaps you would like your homepage to be festive and feature an upcoming holiday. Either way, a CMS allows you to make those changes yourself, exactly when you want them. Your site will always be current and provide the most timely information to your customers.
3. Save Money!
Once your website is set up, our WordPress experts will train you on how to use it. You can save money and time by doing it yourself.
4. WordPress’s Usability
WordPress is one of the most popular CMS’s for a reason: namely, it’s ease of use and learning curve. The backend, which can be accessed from anywhere in the world, is simple, streamlined and intuitive. And if you do run into something you can’t easily figure out, there are scores and scores of tutorials online detailing anything and everything you should want to do to edit your website.
While a content management system is traditionally for shopping carts or blogs, they are in no way limited to that. All sites should be current and interactive. A CMS is the best way to achieve that. Blogging, interactive galleries, social media sharing are all integral parts of keeping your site useful!
It seems everywhere I go it seems people are talking about mobile apps and mobile websites. But it seems most people don’t quite know which is which or even exactly what they are. But everyone seems to think they need…one of them.
Mobile websites and mobile apps do have some similarities. For one, they are both viewed on mobile technologies, ie. smartphones such as the iPhone or blackberry and tablets (iPad). They both can be used for advertising and are supplemental to your main website.
First let’s discuss a mobile website. Mobile website is a version of your traditional website that is geared specifically for the mobile phone. While it uses the same content and theme as your standard website, the content is rearranged for the smaller browsers and slower download speeds. Specific technology that isn’t supported by mobile browsers is avoided, and specific content (such as the directions to your store or restaurant) that mobile viewers would be more likely to need, is highlighted.
Technology is built into your existing website to detect the type of visitor and when a user visits your website, the appropriate version is shown. The user doesn’t have to choose or commit to anything, it just happens when they view your site on a mobile browser.
Now for mobile apps. Mobile apps are stand alone software that is downloaded onto your phone. The user must look for the app and choose to download it either The App Store (Apple and the iPhone) or Google Play (Android users). It lives on their phone until they decide to delete it. Because the entire app is downloaded, it can work without internet. While it may offer some of the same content as your traditional website (or mobile website), it a stand-alone application.
Mobile apps do have a few advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of mobile apps is that you have direct contact with your user via push notifications. Push notifications are alerts that are sent to the phone (think of the little notice you get when you get a text message or miss a call). This gives you direct link to your user! One disadvantage is because it is downloaded software, it requires more commitment from the user and in general has a smaller user base. Mobile apps are a great way for loyal customers to interact with your business on a regular basis.
Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is the process to make your website come up higher in search engine (google, bing, yahoo) results. What good is a website if it can’t be found? Even the prettiest website or the best product should be marketed. So should your website. And the process of marketing your website specifically for search engine results is SEO.
Did you know that every web page has a ranking? This ranking is your website’s online reputation. Is your website known to be helpful to users? Do other users link to it (which means you have useful and relevant content)? Does your website follow all the “white hat SEO” rules? What is your website even talking about? All of these things are part of the process of getting your website found by the right users. The goal is to get your website on the first page for your keywords.
Optimizing your website involves several key factors. First, we study your market and your business to understand what your website is trying to say and to WHOM is it trying to communicate. Using this, we develop targeted keywords. We rework your content to best attract and meet the needs of your users. We code in a specific manner that search engines understand, to best feature your keywords.
According to Netcraft, there are 644 million active websites on the internet. Search engine optimization is what makes your website stand out in the sea of competing websites.
Let’s look at some examples. Visit 