So a search engine likes my site - Now what?

This pattern is fast becoming a trend in the realm of Search Engine Optimisation. Website owners are finding that they have plenty of visitors coming to their sites all being pushed their by SEO techniques, Google AdWords and other Pay Per Click traffic generation methods.

The sad part is that all these extra visitors are not necessarily translating into extra enquiries and sales at the same exponential rate that the traffic to the site has increased.

The answer to this particularly perplexing conundrum is actually fairly simple : Search Engines Are Not People.

Search Engines may love your site and it may rank incredibly well in Google and other prominent search engines and get excellent keyword reach and relevancy from all the articles and content that you are posting to your site, but at the end of the day a search engine is not going to enquire about your latest and greatest product. So how do we get around the problem?

There are some very simple guidelines to design your landing pages to which will increase the chances of real people liking what they see and actually engaging further with you :

1. Keep the page simple. People have come through to that page for a specific reason and are looking for a specific thing, don’t complicate the page with tons of other “stuff”, just keep the info and required actions on the page relevant to what they were searching for.
2. Ensure that the visitor to the page is 100% sure about what it is that you need them to do on that page. If they need to send you a mail – tell them! And tell them a few times for the sake of clarity and ease of use. The worst thing you can have a user do is get to your landing page and say to himself, “now what do I do?”!
3. Test multiple landing page designs. Don’t assume that the first design you do is the correct one. Try a few designs and see which one gets you the best conversion results and then stick to this one. Be careful of trying to make too many changes at the same time because then you will not be able to judge which changes are the ones which worked.
4. Tell your visitor where they are. They have just come through to you through a search engine which told them that you were the right people to speak to; now reinforce that with some compelling copy that highlights what it is that they were searching for.
5. Once your visitor has completed the required action for that page, your site should direct them to a thank you page which will let them know that their enquiry has been successfully submitted. Now the cardinal sin of most websites is that they leave the page at that and they don’t try and cross sell or up sell a visitor who very clearly is interested in your product offering. Use this page to give them more info or to offer them something else that they would be interested in.

Using these guidelines will ensure that your landing pages do not suffer from having a multitude visitors but rather a throng of active participants who are willing to engage with you and take the next step in the buying cycle.

Recession: Why Some Industries like Internet Marketing continue to thrive

A recession is defined as a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters. It is a period of general economic decline characterised by rising unemployment, lower reported company profit and a drop in household spending. The current global recession is said to have begun with a crisis in the US housing industry at the end of 2007. The recession spread quickly, plunging an integrated global economy into possibly the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930’s.

Many sectors have been hit hard by this recession including the construction, financial and automotive industries. In-fact industries across the globe in various sectors have experienced significant declines in demand as a result of the recession. Worldwide, bankruptcy, poverty, joblessness and crime are on the rise however for some the global economic downturn tells another story.

Certain industries, it seems, are recession resistant. Despite the general decline being experienced by enterprises in all sectors some companies are thriving in these trying economic times. Two such industries include open source software and Internet marketing.

The use and development of open source software seems to be coming into its own in recent times. The recession has caused many corporations to re-consider their software options giving preference to more cost effective solutions. Companies such as RedHat, SugarCRM and Vyatta continue to grow whilst the technology sector in general is declining.

With Linux based software gaining popularity even Microsoft is including open source components in their software packages. Microsoft spokesman Sam Ramji says "The bulk of the opportunity is open source applications on Windows, but these things are all coming together. We are really bullish on being a platform for some of this innovation as customers want more functionality out of their hardware and software. We are becoming a conduit for other technologies."

Internet marketing is another industry in-which growth figures seem to climb steadily. Many organisations faced with budget cuts say they will continue and even increase spend on Internet marketing. This is not surprising, in light of the results of a 2007 survey in-which 81% of marketers surveyed say that their social media spending will meet or exceed their traditional advertising spending within the next 5 years.

Faced with tight budgets marketers are pressed to look for the best value and employ innovative marketing techniques such as those offered with Internet marketing packages. Search engine optimisation, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, pay-per-click and social media optimisation are measurable, efficient and cost-effective.

It stands to reason that industries which serve basic needs such as food, education, healthcare and energy will withstand recessionary pressure due to the low income elasticity of demand. Those businesses which offer great value on vital products and services will appeal to price sensitive buyers. Likewise, in the B2B arena enterprises which cater their client’s basic operational needs in a cost effective manner will thrive in the cash-strapped recessionary climate.

What You Should Pay for Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation (SEO), is becoming an important marketing discipline in South Africa. Many organisations are beginning to recognise the value of Internet marketing and allocating their marketing budgets to online media. A mushrooming of new entrants to the Internet marketing industry has meant that there are many companies offering search engine optimisation services, some at very competitive rates.

As a result, when website custodians or owners attempt to ascertain whether their websites require SEO and what the possible costs will be, they are faced with an overwhelming variety of service offerings and widely diverse cost structures. One reason that costs differ so vastly is due to the nature of the Internet marketing industry. SEO is very much a natural progression for website development firms wishing to grow their business and expand their service offerings.

SEO services, on the one hand are often provided by companies who established themselves as website hosting and development agencies in the last decade. The larger more reputable organisations feel comfortable contracting with an established SEO service provider. They feel a greater sense of security in knowing that the company has been around the block a few times. They are also willing to pay a premium when contracting with a service provider who has a proven track record and offers continuity of service.

On the other hand there are a number of newcomers to the field who operate with little infrastructure and low overheads. Many of these companies are run by highly skilled SEO practitioners who are quite capable of delivering great results at a fraction of the cost.

Whilst both the larger, established agencies and the smaller up-coming practices present great solutions many marketers struggle with the choice, and wish to know what they should be paying for SEO. To compound the problem, the industry does not have a standard costing structure. Whilst many charge per hour, others charge on project to project basis and still others opt for a share of profits. It cannot be said that “x” amount per hour is the going rate as that would be a gross oversimplification. Rather, and as with almost every marketing decision the costs should be considered in relation to the benefits.

Search Engine Optimisation – A Cost/Benefit Analysis

A few guidelines could be used to determine the value an SEO campaign would have to your business. The following list is not comprehensive as each business’ needs will differ however these principles could assist with the decision making process.

Get your house in order:
Should there be problems elsewhere in your business it would be better to have those resolved before investing in an SEO campaign. If your website design and development are good, you have your operations in order and your products and services have been developed to an acceptable standard you are ready for SEO.

Goals and Objectives:
What you should pay for search engine optimisation will depend on your Internet marketing objectives. If your goals are very ambitious, you will probably require an aggressive strategy and you should be willing spend more to meet your objectives. It is important to set attainable goals and to know what they relate to in monetary terms. Then ask yourself what percentage of the expected return you are willing to spend to realise your goals.

Maintain a healthy development to IM ratio:
You should be prepared to spend three times what you spent on initial website design and development on Internet marketing initiatives which are designed to attract traffic, raise search engine rankings, increase conversion and ensure return visits. A great website alone will not lead to growth in market share. In any given period your Internet marketing budget should be allocated in a ratio of approximately one to four.

Choosing an SEO partner:
Other considerations which impact on the cost of search engine optimisation include the size of the firm you are dealing with, their years of experience and the demand for their services. A more reputable and experienced company’s rates may be higher than those of a smaller new entrant. It is important to bear in mind that Internet marketing is a process. It does take time and you should feel comfortable in the knowledge that you will be engaged in a long term relationship with your SEO service provider.

Industry specific factors:
Factors pertaining specifically to your business and website will also have an impact on the cost. The size and complexity of the website, the demand for your brand and competitiveness of your industry will all impact on the cost, time and nature of the project.

Having taken all the above into consideration, you should have a fairly good idea what you can afford to pay for search engine optimisation and with the number of service providers in this industry you should find one who meets the needs of your business. Finally your SEO service provider should offer transparent reporting on your websites current performance, SEO measures taken and the impact thereof. This will allow you to monitor your campaign and make the necessary adjustments.

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Dealing with Duplicate Content: A Practical Guide

The Internet thankfully is still all about great content. Despite all the new marketing disciplines (SEO, SEM, SMO, SMM, ORM and IM) punting guaranteed search results, search engines serve appropriate results rich in content, thus keeping the system honest and ensuring their own survival.

The issue of duplicate content is something which mystifies, even plagues many Internet marketers. Every Internet marketer fears a drop in their websites search engine ranking. Duplicate content could result in a drop in search engine ranking or worse. Being black listed and having penalties instituted against you could deal a devastating blow to your search engine marketing efforts and prove very hard to recover from.

Before getting into ways of preventing search engines from perceiving your content as being duplicated it is necessary to understand that there are different types of duplicate content. Some occurrences of duplicate content are un-intentional whilst others are due to malicious and unimaginative “black-hat” marketing tactics.

Google defines duplicate content as: “substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar.” They also acknowledge that “mostly, this is not deceptive in origin”.

Duplicate content can occur in the following ways:

Having two domains carry the same content. When an organisation decides for geographical and/or other search reasons including canonical domains, to use the same website content on two domains, it confuses search engine robots causing them not to list the site at all.

Using Dynamic URL’s. Database driven websites, in which content is stored in a database and accessed on demand, may serve the same content under different URL’s, depending on the search parameters being used. Search engines can view this as duplicate content.

Circular navigation, in which there are multiple paths to the same website can also cause content to appear to be duplicated.

Providing printer-friendly pages. Users often require hard copies of the information on your website. It is therefore sometimes necessary to provide them with the option to print content. This can be done in one of two ways. You could either host a printer friendly copy (i.e. duplicating the content) or if you are using a CMS, the same content can be supplied in both web and printer formats by the system. Unfortunately, both ways cause your content to appear to be duplicated.

Providing a mobile-friendly version of your website. With the number of Internet friendly mobile devices hitting the market in recent days, it is becoming essential to offer a very basic version/format of your website specifically for user’s browsing your site from a mobile phone. As in the above case however you may run the risk of duplicating content.

Syndication: In cases in which your content is syndicated to other websites or when your articles and blog posts are submitted to content repositories search engines are likely to pick up your content as a duplicate and possibly link to the more “popular” version of your content.

E-commerce product descriptions: Common e-commerce products often have manufacturer descriptions which are used when they are retailed online, particularly in the case of affiliates. This too could be viewed as duplicate content and affect a websites ranking. The same applies in cases where products have multiple categorisations.

Plagiarism is presenting the written intellectual product of another person as your own without their permission. Copying online content is very easy to do and can be a quick fix for websites requiring content in a hurry. Although in most cases search engine crawlers can be relied on to select and serve a link to the originator of the content this unethical duplication of content could result in a loss of traffic.

Content Scraping refers to the use of a crawler to copy website content and rephrase it in an attempt to present it as unique content.

Preventing penalties

Whilst more advanced search engine crawlers do a good job of distinguishing between genuine cases of duplicate content and inadvertent instances, you can avoid being wrongfully penalised for duplicate content by doing the following:

Redirects: In order to ensure that search engines don’t view multiple domains and dynamic URL’s as duplicated content, select a canonical domain and use 301 redirects for permanent pages and 302 redirects for pages with content which is changed or updated often.

Robots.txt: In the case of printer friendly or mobile versions of your website, you need to indicate to the search engine that the information contained therein is not for crawling, use robots.txt to do so. You can also request that syndicated copies of your content be blocked using this method.

Style sheets: As an alternative to creating a duplicate of your webpage for print purposes you could program a style sheet for print. Provided that your website is programmed well, this may be a viable alternative to using robots.txt.

Link back to your site: If blocking syndicated content using robots.txt is not an option for you ensure that your articles contain links to your website.

Categorise and enhance product descriptions: It is really important to categorise products carefully, taking a user’s browser behaviour into consideration rather than duplicating a single page under various categories. Manufacturer’s product descriptions or reviews should be enhanced by providing additional unique content.

Use a content checker: You can detect duplicate content using online duplicate content software, a pro-active approach is required.

Claim ownership of your content: In cases in which your content is continuously ripped off and you are convinced that it negatively impacts your search engine ranking, you can file a DCMA infringement request with search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo.

Knowledge of duplicate content issues and how to prevent them could be beneficial when optimising your website for better search engine performance. It is important to keep in mind that your website could contain duplicated content and to take steps to ensure that preventative measures are implemented.

Check your site for duplicate content

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Relevant Content is the Key

The internet is a valuable marketing and PR tool, but getting the best out of it can be a daunting challenge, especially for smaller businesses with limited budgets.

Understandably, the agenda of the companies setting up websites is to sell their products and services. But it is no good setting up a website with no strategy and objectives behind it and hope customers and potential customers will flock to it.

Too many websites are designed to be ascetically pleasing and flashy with lots of graphics and little focus on content, says Ceri James, sales and marketing director at JD Internet Consulting.

"But search engines rank websites according to the relevance of their content." As much content as possible should therefore be presented in a text format that can be cut and pasted into a document as opposed to being embedded in images. "Search engines do not pick up and index fixed images," he says. So it is best not to just have fancy graphics on the home page without any informative text-based content.

"The first 300 characters of content on the home page are the most important for relevance ranking," says James. Option tabs used to navigate the website and the page titles they click through to should contain the same key words and phrases that should also relate to the content on the page. Search engines are more likely to pick these up than cute or clever titles that need to be interpreted.

"Google's main goal is to index the internet and rank websites in order of relevance," he says.

A company’s aim should be to achieve a higher relevance ranking for its target audience than its competitors as opposed to trying to be everything to everybody. Another consideration is that a 50-page website full of useful content has 10 times more chance of being picked up by the search engines than one with only five pages. Creating links to other relevant websites and getting listed on relevant portals and directories are just some of the ways to get a higher search engine ranking.

"A good internet consultant will set up these links as part of a package," says James. Having attracted the right audience, it is important to keep them on the website as long as possible.

The "stickiness" of the website will depend on factors like the overall look of the website, how easy it is to find what they are looking for and how relevant and useful the content is once they have found it.

Further attractions might include interesting relevant articles, product reviews and benchmarks, offering giveaways or special discounts and displaying prices of products and services.

Some companies are reluctant to display prices on their website, but competitors will get their hands on pricing information some other way if they really want to, says James. Informative articles will attract target audiences to a website and help to increase its search engine ranking, especially if the content contains key words and phrases.

Having found what they want potential customers will also need to easily access contact details, obtain further information or find out where to buy products or services.

“You want the customer to explore the content and then convert their interest into a sale,” he says.

When Robynn Burls set up her online company Encyclomedia, which provides a media contact database service, she realised that setting up a website that nobody can find is a waste of money.

So she started attending conferences and searching for information on the internet to learn how to optimise the website to get a good search engine ranking.

"Search engines look for keywords and phrases in website content that match the words users' type in when searching for information," she says.

Before setting up the company's website Burls first brainstormed with other people about which keywords and phrases to use.

She then used various internet software tools obtained from websites like www.keyworddiscovery.com and www.wordtracker.com/ to test out the effectiveness of the selected keywords. Both these websites offer a free trial of their software and the Wordtracker website contains expert articles and case studies and offers a free newsletter subscription.

Wordtracker will test keywords and report on how regularly these are used in searches and will come up with other related keywords. It will establish how likely users are to type in these words and phrases when they are searching for the type of information posted on the website. But it is worth remembering that a website that uses the most popular keywords will be competing with a lot of others that are using the same ones.

It may therefore pay to use more targeted keywords that are specific to the products and services on offer and are more likely to bring the website up first on the search listing when people type them in. For example, instead of just using the keyword "insurance," use "car insurance" or "budget car insurance."

Having established the optimum keywords, these need to be embedded in the text content on the web pages.

"Bear in mind that Google uses clever algorithms to test the relevance of website content," says Burls. So including words and phrases that relate to selected keywords is likely to increase the relevance ranking of the website. For example, if a person types in the words "public relations", Google will also pick up content containing related words like PR and perhaps publicity.

Having decided on a selection of keywords, the next step is to optimise the content on the website, make sure the text is easy to read and easy for the search engines to pick up and position the keywords strategically.

"I selected three to four keywords and phrases on each page and repeated them three times, once in bold type," says Burls.

Adding a blog to a website is a great way to continually create fresh content that includes keywords and invite comment from those reading the articles posted on it.

Burls says she also writes authoritative articles on the topic of PR for well known information websites like Bizcommunity and embeds some of her keywords in the text with links back to her website. This type of activity gets picked up by the search engines, adds credibility and increases traffic to the website.

Encyclomedia is staging a conference in Cape Town on 20 November (date expired since article was published) aimed at small companies that want to expand their knowledge of PR and what it can do for their business. Conference topics will include search engine optimisation, as an important element of web PR.

Leon Lategan, MD of Purple Cow Communications says in some cases it will pay a company to list its website on an aggregator portal because the chances are that it will achieve better results.

"An aggregator that has say 2000 bed and breakfast establishments on its website is likely to get more hits than an individual website for one B&B," he says.

Today, everyone seems to be offering search engine optimisation and it is important to choose the right one. The selection process should include asking for client references, testimonials, speaking to a few of them and asking them what the consultant achieved for them and how long it took.

Lategan says businesses often make the mistake of trying to pay as little as possible for website optimisation and end up being disappointed with the results. He says if a company wants to pay half the price it could take twice as long to get results.

Article Source

Business Day article published on Tuesday, November 18th

Personalised Search takes on new meaning with the launch of Google SearchWiki

Cyberspace has, in the past few days, been abuzz of news about the launch of Google’s SearchWiki feature (official announcement) . There is much speculation at this stage about what this move will mean for Internet Marketing in general and Search Engine Optimisation in particular.

In the last year or so, changes in search engine results have reflected a greater propensity for multimedia content. Whilst a focus on content has been the order of the day there has been talk about moving towards a more personalised search experience. Personalised search whereby the search engine uses your web history to “understand” your preferences and deliver personalised results, has been a signed–in feature on Google since early in 2007.

Google’s SearchWiki is also a signed-in feature (meaning that only users with a Google account have access to it). SearchWiki allows users to personalise their search results by moving a result to the top of the page. Users can also delete pages from the results and comment on pages within the results. Their comments can be viewed by all signed-in users and they can view comments made by other users. Take note: this feature is currently only available on Google English (US) version.

The Upside of SearchWiki

The biggest advantage of SearchWiki is greater personalisation. The ability to ensure that the page you favour appears first in your results allows you to access the information you require with greater ease and reliability. Likewise, the ability to delete those pages which add no value to your search results is also wonderful whilst the ability to comment on pages and view the comments of other users gives the search action a social dimension. Allowing users to share their value judgements with one another makes search a much more interactive experience.

The Downside of SearchWiki

Some users may find that these added features make the search results appear more cluttered although my personal opinion is that they blend in quite well.

In most cases organic search results ensure that the most desirable results appear first. It is possible that if SearchWiki is overused it will limit the user’s inclination to learn new things. If a user prefers a single source and only visits that page repeatedly in their online search for a particular term they will hamper their chances of receiving new and important data.

The no.1 complaint from users of SearchWiki is that it cannot be turned off. The only way to turn it off is to sign-out from Google and for many that is not an option.

The comment section of SearchWiki is open to advertising as well as spam, but I'm sure Matt Cutts and his team have thought about this and will find a way to combat negative comments and inappropriate meterial.

The Googleside of SearchWiki

SearchWiki will provide Google with valuable information about their user’s likes and dislikes. If they chose to utilise this information it could aid them in delivering even better search results. The question is, will data gleaned from SearchWiki affect Google Bot’s algorithm? It stands to reason that if the data could improve search results they may come to factor it in at some stage.

Regardless of Google’s next move the launch of SearchWiki, means that the editorial role of ordinary Internet users has and is growing. This shift intensifies the focus on content, and makes it that much more important for Internet Marketers to provide users with a feature rich and satisfying online experience.

The real cost of deferring search engine optimisation

Get it Right the First Time

Time and budget constraints often see clients deferring SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to a later date. Marketers faced with launch deadlines and cost issues tend to push the delivery of their website in order to meet a deadline or complete a project within budget thinking that SEO can be addressed later. This leads to a serious, detrimental and costly process error.

There are essentially two ways to design or re-design a website. One way includes SEO whilst the other does not. The difference between the two approaches is that one includes competitive analysis and positioning whilst the other neglects this essential marketing component.

When designing a website focus is often placed on the clients communication requirements. The planning phase of a website development initiative includes addressing issues of what to communicate and how to do so most effectively. Functionality is often considered during this phase with a view towards providing maximum user satisfaction. All of the above is entirely necessary with any marketing campaign, be it in an online or offline environment. However, in most cases for a marketing strategy to be effective it also needs to be competitive. You need to look to your competitors and position yourself in relation to their market position.

Consider the process you may follow if you were to launch a new product, or expand your service offering. You would typically approach your advertising agency. They would do a thorough market analysis, which would include identification of any competing products and/or services. They would also explore the product features and benefits and define your unique marketing proposition in order to play up the key selling points. They would furthermore identify appropriate media and devise an effective media plan. Similarly, competitive website design involves:

Competitive analysis: Who are the existing players in the market? How do they rank? What features do their websites contain and what works well for them?

Keyword research and recommendations: The provision of keyword statistics which allow you to make intelligent and informed decisions with regards to effective keyword usage.

Search engine friendly design: Linking, metadata, code and keywords are addressed to ensure search engine friendly design.

Internet marketing strategy: The use of pay per click, affiliate marketing, newsletters, e-mail and SMS marketing to attract more traffic to your website.

A competitive approach should therefore be adopted consciously and consistently throughout the website development process in order to avoid facing design flaws which may require costly alteration efforts.

The inclusion of search engine optimisation may drive initial website development costs up by as much as 25%. This is due, mainly to the inclusion of competitive marketing expertise, additional consulting hours, reporting, specialist programming and the creation of attractive content. However it will save you time and money in the long run.

Benefits of including SEO in the initial development stage:

• Your website will perform at optimum capacity from day one,
• You will capitalise your investment sooner. You can expect admirable traffic statistics and a good conversion rate within three to six months.
• You will not incur additional development costs for at least the first year to 18 months.

Should you choose to defer search engine optimisation to a later date, it is quite likely that you will incur three to four times the cost of an upfront SEO investment.

The real costs of deferring SEO:

• Code and design will need to be redressed for SEO,
• All website content will need to be updated for keyword optimisation,
• You will incur opportunity costs as a result of a website which does not compete effectively for traffic in your online marketplace,
• You may lose valuable market share to competitors who perform better online.
• You may loose valuable site age.

What we can do for you?:

If you are launching a new website or re-designing an existing one do not neglect the primary website concern which is search engine optimisation. Enquire about DiscoverSEO services to achieve optimum Internet marketing results.

How much business does your web site really generate?

Isn’t the purpose of your web site to generate revenue, by driving the right people to it, so that they can make an informed decision about your products & services, & then ultimately spend money with you?

This will only happen if your web site is listed in the top 20 search results of Google. – This is exactly how Discover SEO can assist your business.

Through its in depth understanding of how to optimise web sites, we will get YOUR web site strategically listed in all the related directories and search engines, crucial to getting you found under the correct searches & drive huge amounts of traffic to your web site each and every month. This in turn will mean increased sales & revenue for your business.

To find out more about this amazing service, go directly to Discover SEO & contact us right away.

The longer you wait, the more business you are losing to your competitors.