Content, content, content…  Adding new written content to your website is an important road to continued or increased success for your online business. We know this because of experience, research and the study of changes in the industry. For example, Google continues to modify its algorithms to give favor to sites that are updating and adding new, original content. In June 2010, Google announced a major update called May Day. The algorithm change directly affected the ranking of pages with deeper page content.

Most recently, Google implemented its update called Panda/Farm in which it aimed to penalize sites for copying and duplicating content – emphasizing the importance of creating original content. For best results, I tell my clients to add content that is DRIC. What is DRIC you ask?

DRIC:
Detailed: This is content that’s specific, but not long-winded.
Researched: Do a little research on your content to write beyond what you know yourself.  This content is supported and enhanced by outside research
Industry-Specific: Your content focuses on your industry or the industries you serve.
Current: This content includes reference to current news and information on the topic.

Written content can be added to your website in several ways: Product Descriptions, Product Information pages, Industry Application pages, Frequently Asked Questions, Case Studies, Testimonials, and more. In all of this writing, details are important: researched, industry-specific, and current details.

First and foremost, content on product pages and about your product takes priority. If you don’t have DRIC content about your product then that is where you need to start.

Recently I made a plan with one of my clients to add original written content – DRIC. This particular client sells an industrial product and is currently successful at bringing targeted traffic and converting this traffic into quote requests. His product page content is well developed, and he would like to further his success and increase targeted traffic for the products that are sold most often. To do this, he created a brief list of industries that buy his product. First on his list was the grain industry.

We discussed and wrote a plan for adding new original content. First he wrote a few paragraphs on the problems his grain industry customers have and how his products can solve these problems. This writing was brief but detailed. We also included relevant keyterms, examples, and researched information to support his statements. Next, we added images that exemplify the grain industry. With this new content, we were able to create a new web page specifically for the grain industry. We will continue to create pages and content related to the grain industry including frequently asked questions, product lists, case studies, and testimonials – all content that is specifically designed to help the customer in the grain industry.

The goal of developing this new content is to teach site visitors and the search engines that my client and the product he sells can help those in the grain industry. It will teach them that he is an expert in his field and knowledgeable about related products. Ideally, search engines like Google will begin to send unique searches from those types of customers to his website. Directories and referring sites within the grain industry may even begin to link to his site. All of this is aimed at increasing those targeted quote requests that lead to more sales.

Next time you question how you can improve the content on your website, remember the acronym DRIC: Detailed, Researched, Industry-Specific, and Current. Then dive into updating your current content or creating content around a new topic that is designed to help increase website visitors and increased sales. Do you have another idea for adding unique content to your site?

Search engines want relevancy in their results… period.  Keep in mind that a search engine’s number one customer is its users.  If a user has to sort through irrelevant and spammy results, they most likely won’t come back. Therefore search engines are constantly changing their algorithm in an effort to eliminate spam and give their users results that make sense. In fact, Google just did an algorithm update at the end of January. So, what does this mean for your optimization efforts? You have to keep it relevant and you have to keep it real. There are a lot of misconceptions about how to optimize a website and specifically key term optimization.
Below are five common things I hear from customers regarding key term optimization and my general response to those comments.

1.) “My site launched two weeks ago, why am I not yet ranking for key term xxxxx?”
Sorry, key term optimization is not magical.
Contrary to popular belief, key term optimization requires work! Though many believe that optimizing for a key term or key phrase is as easy as placing that term(s) once in the meta title or meta description/key terms, it is not as simple as that. Key term optimization also takes time.  Optimization is a combination of having that key word or phrase not only in the titles or meta description, but most importantly within the content of the site. If a key term or phrase is within the content of the site, the search engine can begin to determine that your site might be relevant on that term and begin to rank. Bottom line – you should be developing content for your customers and the use of key terms and optimization will come naturally.

2.) “I was told I just need to put the key term in those meta tag things and I would be all set.”
Titles and meta tags are NOT the holy grail… not anymore.
This would be true… if it was still 1995. Including key terms in your meta tags (meta description and meta key words) was a popular practice that was effective in gaining rank in the early days of search. However, search engines quickly wised up and realized that people were stuffing their meta tags with completely irrelevant key terms, gaining rank on those terms, and producing spammy search results. Remember, search engines want relevancy. Therefore they quickly adjusted their algorithms to not focus so much on the meta in order to clean up results. This decrease in the use of meta by the search engines has only increased over the years and in fact, most search engines no longer even look at the meta key terms. Titles are still an important part of optimization as visitors to the site can see that information, and meta descriptions can still be used as part of search engine result listings. Check out 5 Common SEO Misconceptions for more on meta tags.

3.) “I really want my site to rank for xxxxx because I carry this small product line that I would also like to promote on the site.”
Don’t spread yourself too thin; be relevant.
Not all key words or phrases are equal. Often times people get stuck on one key word or phrase that they believe is absolutely necessary for optimization because they are trying to be all things to all people. However, if no one, or generally few people are searching on a term, it does not make sense to try to optimize for that term. On the other hand, if a key term is too broad, it can be almost impossible to get natural optimization on that term. Choose a focus for your website and work on developing content on that focus. You also want to make sure that your website can compete with the others coming up within the search engine results in terms of price, shipping, and selection.

4.) “I want to optimize for ‘gift basket’ because I know it gets a lot of search.”
Going broad doesn’t pay… go for the long tail.
Sure, the term ‘gift basket’ gets a lot of search… it also currently has over 13 million competing sites.  The chances of a site – especially a newer site – being able to climb to the top of those other 13 million sites are slim at best. A site cannot be all things to all people; choose your focus and narrow the related terms to a manageable list of terms that make sense for your site.  Use long tail key terms. While long tail key terms may not get as much search as a broader key term like ‘gift basket’, your site is much more likely to rank for a long tail key term as long as it is relevant, and you have the content to support it. More importantly, visitors that come from long tail key terms are more likely to convert to a sale because of the relevancy of the search – the customer knows what they are looking for and is ready to buy.

5.) “That list of key terms is great, but I would also like to optimize for these other 30 terms.”
Don’t water it down.
Your site has only so much real estate for optimization, select a list of 15-20 key terms that you feel make the most sense for you site based on what you are selling, research those terms to make sure they are getting search and look at the search engine results pages (SERPs) to determine if you can compete. Then focus on using those terms within your content. Those key terms should be used within the content and titles of the site where it makes sense, not because you are trying to stuff them into as many places as possible. Titles should be relevant to the content on that page. Keep in mind that your website will also begin to naturally rank for many other long tail key terms based on the other content on your site.

Bottom line… don’t get stuck on one key term or phrase that you feel your site has to be found on. Do the research, look at your competition, and make informed decisions on how to best use key terms for optimizing your website. And, first and foremost, develop and write content for your customers – most likely, once you do that, everything else will fall into place. If you have any questions or comments about keywords leave a reply we’d be happy to discuss it with you.

85% of shoppers looking for your goods and services will do so through search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Optimizing your website pages will attract the search engine spiders and rank your site higher in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The higher you rank the greater the traffic to your site and the possibility your targeted customers will make a purchase. That’s the purpose of SEO.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is involved, complex, evolving and at times confusing. There are many misconceptions about what exactly SEO does or does not do for your website. There are bad practices, illegal activity, content farms, link farms, spam and out of date information running rampant on the web, mostly from unscrupulous internet marketers promising misleading goals for cash. The misunderstanding of SEO for your small business can cause great harm to your sites’ ranking and bottom line. Here are five common misconceptions I often hear about SEO. Some are deceiving, some half truths and others just out dated practices. For the most part I am speaking about Google and it’s guidelines on SEO’s best practices, which is ever changing.

#1 Buying AdWords Will Help Ranking
PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising and SEO are two separate things. Google AdWords and Google’s free search results are entirely independent of one another. Spending money on AdWords won’t impact your ranking in Google’s free search results. Similarly, canceling your AdWords account won’t lead to your website being banned from Google’s search results. If buying advertisement manipulated organic search results the internet as we know it would be an entirely different animal soon to be extinct.

#2 Content Should be Written for Search Engines
To some extent this is true. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords – the words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site. But if you are only concerned about keywords for search engine robots then your text will be a drab read indeed. Remember at the end of the day your customers are the ones that matter most. Write compelling content for human beings and edit for the search engines.

#3 Any Inbound Link Will Do
Inbound links are links that are placed on other sites and point to yours. Relevant, reputable links to your site are extremely beneficial to your SEO. But on the other hand irrelevant and link spamming (e.g. paid links, blog spammers, guestbook spammers, etc.) can be very harmful to your site. For instance if you manufacture light bulbs and GE links to your site as a reference or partner, that inbound link would be beneficial to your sites optimization. On the other hand, your uncle Tony owns a pizzeria and links back and because of the lack of relevance to your business that link would hold less sway. To another extreme, if you set up fake sites just for links or engage in link farming and are caught by the search engines you could be penalized or banned. Just recently JC Penny and Overstock.com were found by Google to be doing just that, and dealt with accordingly.

#4 Search Engines Can’t Read Images
This can be filed under partly true statements. Search Engine spiders don’t read pictures or images well (although the technology behind this is getting better) but they do read the image’s Alt tag or alternative text. ALT tags are the little labels you see when you put your mouse over an image which is written in the back end of your website. Optimized Alt tags can make a big difference in your website’s page rank especially if images are a good way to convey your offerings. It is recommended that you use Alt tags on as many images as you can.

#5 Meta Tags are Essential
Back in the late 90’s early 2000’s yes Meta Tags were essential to a websites ranking, and because of its high value many webmasters stuffed the code with keywords in order to “game” the system. They were so successful Google decided not crawl Keyword Meta Tags at all, “not in the least bit” says Matt Cutts Google’s Search Engine Guru. But others like Yahoo and Bing may still see some worth. Google does look at meta descriptions to an extent but this is only a minuscule part of SEO. The Title tag does have some relevance but this is not by any means the priorities of search engines like so many people still believe. It’s worth adding them in the event that a search engine will use meta tags in their ranking formula but put this at the bottom of your SEO to do list.

Google uses over 200 indicators to qualify websites and their priorities are constantly in flux. This highly complicated mathematical computerized algorithm is not only a closely guarded secret but understood by very few people. We are always on the lookout for new information and are constantly sharing ideas about SEO with our clients and contemporaries. If you have any questions regarding SEO or would like to share your insights on this or any other matter please write in the comments section below or get in touch with us on our Facebook Page or through Twitter @Cazbah_net. We would love to hear your thoughts.

One of the things I hear most often from clients when we discuss further developing content for their website is something along the lines of, “I’m not really sure what to write” or “there is not much to say about X, Y, or Z”. Many of our customers, already busy with the other responsibilities of running a small business are not sure where to begin in developing additional content for their website. Bottom line is that quality content is important for your website because it helps to sell your product or service. Here are five questions to get the ideas flowing:

1.) Do your product descriptions provide enough information?
Often times, business owners are too close to their products to realize that they may not be giving website visitors enough information to make an informed buying decision. Product descriptions need to be detailed and descriptive. Take a step back, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and take a look at your product descriptions to see if they offer enough detail to encourage a visitor to take the next step and purchase the product. Even if you do not sell your products online or instead offer a service, visitors need enough information to take the next step to contact you, whether by phone, email, or request form.

Also, if possible, make sure your product has a (good) picture! No matter what the item for sale, a good picture of your product will only increase your chances of making the sale – people want to see what they’re buying.

2.) Are there other ways to shop your products?
Websites often present their products in one, singular way, with a list of major product categories available for sale. Ask yourself if there is another way that visitors might want to shop your products. For example, if you sell Widgets, you might display the categories on your site as: Red Widgets, Blue Widgets, and Green Widgets. Well, what if someone did not want to shop by the type of Widget, but rather what the Widget can do. You may then want to develop a page for your website that outlines some of the more common uses for your product and then list the various product options you have available that would fulfill those needs. A simple place to start would be to look at the markets you serve and determine which of your products meet the needs of that market.

We’ve heard them all. Excuses that is. We’ve been at this Internet Marketing game for almost 10 years now. In that time we’ve seen a lot of things change with respect to the Internet, our industry, the economy, politics, etc. But, one thing hasn’t seemed to change much. That’s the excuses and objections that we hear from small businesses about why they aren’t using the Internet to market their businesses.

I thought I would catalog 4 of the most common objections that we’ve heard from people over the years. I’ll also share a few comments from those same people after allowing us to help market their small businesses on the internet.

1.) We really don’t get a lot of business from our Website
This is probably the most common objection that we hear from people about doing business on the Web. Generally, this objection comes from a person whose Website has little or no hope of generating any business to begin with because it’s completely static and has been neglected for years.

I’m never surprised, albeit disappointed, when I hear an objection like this. What’s really at the heart of this comment is the disbelief that the Web can actually provide any real monetary value for their business. Like I said, we hear this one a lot. Fortunately, after they become Cazbah customers, we hear this quite a bit too:

“The Internet sales have been tremendous…much better than I had hoped for! During our first busy season, it was the max that I could possibly handle. We are also seeing an increase in our order size of about 40% over our walk-in trade. Our return on investment has been better than we ever anticipated.”
Diane Cappel, Owner – Cappels, Inc.
WATCH VIDEO

2.) Our Website is really like an electronic brochure
Meaning? It’s doing nothing for us. The people who respond with this objection are typically rooted in some pretty basic and traditional marketing practices and haven’t yet embraced the Internet as the most effective marketing tool for their businesses.Once they step over their own objection, this is what we hear:

“Before Cazbah our Website was just an electronic brochure. With Cazbah, it’s an active part of our business that brings (sales) inquiries in that we can filter through.” “I would say on average, we’re talking about five to ten inquiries a day.”
Andy Severson, VP/GM – Armstrong Brands.
WATCH VIDEO

3.) My customer’s aren’t on the Internet, or don’t use the Internet
Generally, we hear this excuse from traditional businesses, manufacturers or distributors, that have been doing business a certain way for a very long time. In most cases, these folks have restricted themselves to a particular territory or region and haven’t considered how the Web could change their business by opening up new markets or opportunities for them. Once we show them how much more efficient and effective (i.e., profitable) it is to do business on the Web we hear:

“We get more than 5 phone calls from the website each day. When somebody calls us from the Website they’re usually very interested in buying something. If we have it (in stock) we’ve got the sale. At least 60% of our sales are attributable to the Website and plenty of the rest of the sales are helped by the Website because we can refer people to it…”
Don Welch, Owner – Cylinder Services.
WATCH VIDEO

4.) We don’t sell our products online
This objection comes from people who don’t yet understand the power of the Internet to reach new customers, regardless of the type of products they are selling. In most cases, they don’t believe that anyone would spend the kind of money that it takes to buy their products on the Internet. There are still quite a few people that we run into who have the incorrect assumption that the Web is only good for consumer products that will easily fit into a shipping box. Fortunately, we know otherwise and so do all of our customers:

“Before Cazbah we had no ability to sell online. Since our relationship with Cazbah (our business) has probably doubled. We ship nationwide every week, almost every day, whether it’s small sales UPS or common carrier tractor trailer. The volume and the ticket sales are just tremendous. We are now getting three to five to 10 thousand dollar sales.”
Joe Jackson, Owner – Bristol Valley Hardwoods.
WATCH VIDEO

What are some of the objections you have to expanding your business online? What are some of the successes you’ve had through your website? Write back we would love know and help if we can.

It can’t be said enough … good original content is necessary for the success of a website. Without it, you will not be able to attract search engines or customers.

Long gone are the days when adding 30 key terms to the Meta tags was pretty much what you did to win page rank in Google. Search engines now look at the total sum of the written content on your site; the page titles, sub-titles, paragraphs, image names and captions that appear on the page, and they are looking for that content to be relevant to what you sell.

The challenge for many small businesses is that they do not have budgets that allow for hiring web copywriters, photographers or graphic designers to continually produce content for the website. Luckily for your customers, you already have that meaningful information. Start looking for the content in your own company.

1.) Listen to the Voices Inside
The people in your company who sell and support your products and services are an important source of your website content.  Capture insightful comments about your companys’ products and services from employee’s. Staff can supply founatins of content, ask them to get involved.

2.) Talk to Customers
Ask your prefered clients to write three … just three … sentences on each of your major offerings.  Encourage them to share thier thoughts on how, when and why they use your products and services.

We are warning our clients and small businesses to be aware of a search engine ranking flimflam. A confidence game played on the unsuspicious who pay for keyword ranking and traffic. This unscrupulous charade demands money upfront and promises that your website will move ahead of the pack. They also guarantee oodles of visitors that could take other websites months if not years to accumulate. Don’t be scammed, these third party search engines are illusionists. They use slick technology as their smoke and bots as their mirrors, all the while lining their pockets with your much needed marketing dollars.

The misconception of “the more traffic the better” is only part of the equation. Relevant traffic is what affects the bottom line. These “new” search engines that are charging upfront for web positioning and traffic are using bots and malware to make it appear their false promises are true. To separate the wheat from the chaff we rely on the data. Google Analytics provides us with the raw information that shows that these new search engines or catalog referral sites are not bringing relevant traffic. In fact, in many cases they are using bots to click on your site. The bots will show as a visit, but they aren’t real people who wish to do real business.

This scenario has reared its ugly head recently. A fairly new client bought into this suspicious and intricate ruse. They we’re charged $1,500 a month for website traffic. They did get plenty of visits but with a bounce rate of over 92%. The fraction of visits that did not immediately bounce out stayed on the site for an average of 11 seconds. Out of all this buzz and bother there was not one goal conversion. Not one of the so called visitors purchased anything nor requested more information.

Google Organic (unsolicited web traffic) for the same time frame was about 20% higher in visits, had a bounce rate of fewer than 43% and the visitors here spent an average of 3 minutes on the site. Affix that with 23 goal conversions (and another 24 from other reputeable referrals) and it is apparent to us that the “new” search engine is about as reprehensible as it gets.

There are no quick fixes to Search Engine Optimization and everyone should be very wary at the “throw money at it” solution process. Before you send one RED cent to these companies with unrealistic promises, do the research. A basic search will pull up many threads of conversation regarding deceitful web marketing practices.

Because this is an ongoing investigation and for legal reasons we cannot provide the exact name(s) of these internet advertising scammers here.  But we will offer free consultation regarding this post. You can leave questions in the comments section or email me directly at bgriffin@cazbah.net

If you are a victim of fraud of this type of criminal marketing scam or sales pitch activity you should file a complaint at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). Victims need to report these incidents and start fighting back. Don’t let the Internet Search Engine Data Merging Keywords scammers do this to other victims.

Have any stories about internet advertising or instant traffic scams? What are your experiences with the “new third party” search engines? Write back on the comments section we would love to know your thoughts.

There’s nothing better than a fired-up client … a client eager to spend resources and energy on doing smart things in a smart way … a client ready for results and willing to do what it takes to get them.

And there’s nothing worse than having to tell that client to holster it back up because they aren’t ready to pull the trigger.

That is sometimes the situation we find ourselves in when our small business clients are interested in implementing social media strategies before they have made sure that the location they are driving traffic to – usually their Web site – is prepared to handle the traffic.

When it comes to marketing their own brand, many small- and mid-sized businesses are working with limited resources.  So a decision to increase focus in one area often inadvertently becomes a decision to decrease attention in another.

Embarking on a social media strategy is a major undertaking for any company, an effort that often manages to soak up a lot of internal resources.  This can mean that the more mundane efforts it takes to update the company Web site can often go ignored, leaving the place you are trying to drive more traffic to looking something less than its best. Why is this a problem?  Because social media efforts are just a means to an end, with your final goal being to convert traffic into sales.

It’s important that the first step of your social media strategy be taking a look at your Web site and making sure it is an effective end-destination for every tweet, blog post and shared video.

• Are there clear “calls to action” throughout your Web site?
• Are your products and service pages current, accurate and complete?
• If you are targeting a specific audience with specific services/products needs in your social media efforts, are those services/products easily found?
• Are your contact pages updated and complete?  Is it easy for customers to continue the dialog that you started with a social media vehicle?
• Is your Web site content of interest to your social media audiences?

Pages that need simple corrections should be taken care of right away.  Any section that needs more extensive effort should be avoided as landing pages for social media traffic.  Once you are comfortable that your Web site is ready and able to do handle the new traffic, your company can feel comfortable in taking its first shot at social media success.

For years now my customers have asked me about video on their websites and how that medium might be used to compliment their products and services sales. Until recently, I have always been a bit cautious because of the time and cost of producing videos versus the benefit received from such a marketing activity.

In the last year we’ve seen a number of tools introduced into the marketplace to increase value while decreasing the amount of time spent producing videos. Social media sites like YouTube and Facebook have made it very easy to upload videos and share them. Additionally, video camera and even cell phone technology have made it much easier to create videos and get them onto the internet for viewing.

Why
So why would you ever want to create a video for your ecommerce web site? You want sales. After all isn’t that why you have a commerce site? Video can give you a real competitive advantage by sharing your knowledge and advice on how to get the most out of the product or service you are selling. This will attract viewers who,if done correctly, can become customers.

How
I like to use a video camera called Flip Video. This inexpensive video recorder is small and easy to use. It creates quality video without a lot of complexity. Most importantly Flip Video has very easy to use software for editing and uploading your videos. Once you have shot your video you need to decide where to upload it. I use YouTube as the hub for my customer’s videos. YouTube allows you to store your videos for free and has a number of tools to allow you to promote them. Once I have uploaded the video to YouTube I can embed that video on my customer’s web site, blog, Facebook, etc.

Results
In the end the reason we do this is because we are creating value. We are showing the world what we know about our products and services so we can build trust and ultimately make more sales. This is precisely what a number of our clients have done. For instance take a look at my customer’s video listed on the Google search page for the term “saniguard spray”. My customer doesn’t just sell Saniguard spray, he creates value by showing how to use it properly. This video has done a lot to increase their sales of the Saniguard spray product line. Lastly I will leave you with a video that took me about an hour and a half to shoot, produce, and upload. I used a Flip Video, uploaded to YouTube and then embedded the video to my customer’s appropriate product web page. The “video value” my customer creates in this video will be sure to increase his sales. How can you increase your “video value”?

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(The importance of your differences cannot be overstated.)

The short answer to this question is, you do! If you want to do more business, more effectively on the Internet, then you definitely need a Unique Value Proposition.

The term Unique Value Proposition can be best understood by breaking it down into its parts.

Unique refers to the characteristics of your product or service offering that distinguish you from as many of your competitors as possible. Think about it. What is it about what you do that sets you apart? Take the time to really understand how you are different from your competition. Then, write it down!

Value is the intrinsic worth of your offering to your customers. In other words, it defines what your customers get for their money. If you’re having difficulty with this one, ask your customers to describe how your service or product has helped them. Take this input and translate it into several concise statements.

Webster defines Proposition as; a statement containing only logical constants and having a fixed truth or value. That pretty much sums it up! It is your factual and truthful proposal to your customer. Being able to qualify and quantify your claims is very important and makes your Unique Value Proposition that much stronger!

The Internet is a tremendous resource for gaining a better understanding for the UVP concept. There are numerous examples that you can find online through a search using any search engine, on the terms ‘Unique Value Proposition.’ Using the results of your search as a model, construct your own Unique Value Proposition.

Documenting your Unique Value Proposition and making it easy to understand is very important. As with goals, the elements of your Unique Value Proposition are not real until you have written them down. Once you have done so, place them somewhere that you are sure to see them. Reading them on a regular basis is an excellent test of their accuracy. Ultimately, your customer will determine how well you have captured your Unique Value.

As an aid in this process, ask yourself this question: “What is it about what we do that makes us different (better)?” And, “Why should anybody care?” Combining your honest answer to these two question with some objectivity and customer input will get you far along the path to identifying and documenting your Unique Value Proposition.

Use mind mapping to capture your Unique Value Proposition. Write your product or service features in the center of separate pieces of paper. Once you have documented the features in this way, draw a circle around each one. Then, write the benefits that your customers receive from that feature in smaller circles, surrounding the center. Connect the circles with lines, like spokes in a wheel. When finished, evaluate them all to ensure that they accurately represent your offering. Compile each feature map page into one sentence. Then, combine the sentences into an itemized list or paragraph. Congratulations, you have just created your Unique Value Proposition.

As I mentioned before, your customer will be the ultimate judge of the accuracy of your UVP. Take the time to test your newfound focus by sending it to some of your better, longer term customers to gain their insights. Their input will provide you with the finer points that will allow you to refine and sharpen your Unique Value Proposition even further.

All The Business!