Visitors, Leads and Customers from Internet Marketing

Image by kpishdadi via Flickr

Our Website is the integral piece of technology around which we build a functional marketing machine. Think of it as a race car frame to which we have to add the functions we are seeking. We are seeking customers so we must build in the engine that takes us to where they are gathering. We want people to stay awhile once they find us so lets put in comfortable seats. Finally we want them to become our followers or customers so lets put in seat belts and doors so they can't get out. No just kidding. Lets put in a great stereo system and sunroof so they want to ride with us for a long time.

Then we want others to join us so lets put in a phone so our passengers can call their friends and tell them what a great vehicle we have for success. But like a high performance vehicle, everything has to be just right. And most important, everything has to be tested and constantly adjusted because every race track has different conditions and requires a change of gearing. Weather changes and the competition changes so we have to be constantly monitoring and making our site dynamic rather than static.

And as things continue to change like the algorithm on search engines, we have to play by the new rules and engineer our efforts to stay the fastest. Not a game for the light hearted.

Web Designers and SEO

Most web designers will admit that they and SEO are like Army-Navy; in the military but with different functions.

For one, the web designer creates a functional, aesthetic product to please the client. Web designers are creative and have learned their craft. SEO is produced for the Search Engines. It is more science than art. No aesthetics.

The owner thinks that because the keywords are on the website and in the source code with metas, he has been optimized. Not even close. Maybe the website is strictly for credibility and a location to drive customers through sales teams and advertising assuming they will purchase if they like what they see. Good enough.

The next step is the giant one. Reaching for the millions of people who are looking for your service, assuming you don’t cater to only local clientele. What the optimized site lacks first, is knowing what the competition is driving.

Say you wanted to race in the Sunday sweep stakes so you bought the car your budget would allow and you show up to see what happens. It’s one way to go. Or you show up at a party late and ten guys are standing around the prettiest girl. (or visa versa) So you still want the girl and you are calculating the best line or approach. You notice four guys next to you and by the looks on their faces they are thinking the same thing.

That’s what makes it so exciting to win.

SEO usually becomes an after market add-on. Without it, you don’t get access to the sweepstakes. The best way to build a car that wins is to build it piece by piece and test it. Each time around the track it comes in and you adjust it. At the end, maybe only four or five cars have a real shot at the prize. That’s really being in the game. See more on Search Engine Optimization

Big Budget or Small Budget SEO

One common ingredient shared by most companies as the result of the recession
is retrenchment.

It’s crucial to cut costs but the way out is more business.

Two ways out are healthier customers or more customers. The internet cannot
make customers healthier but it can help find more customers. It can help
you find the customers that are already there that you are missing.

Most companies have three of the important beginning ingredients for search engines.
They have been in business for more than 5 years, own domain names
for more than a year out, and have their key words in their URL or title.

Three things they miss. The words span two different categories without being
supported by the site. Let’s say your title or description is Cold Storage Shipping Logistics. This is a great tail. A tail is adding descriptive words to a key word to narrow the focus.

Now, if the rest of the site supported these words and they were repeated several times, the site might be first in page ranking for the words. Usually what happens is the content and everything else abandons the words or only follows one, so the dilution hurts page rankings.

Secondly, the phrase used in the description is diluted with too much meaningless copy. This is what occurs when web designers not familiar with SEO have created the descriptions. And the site content does not support the words in the URL, title, headlines, description, and metas.

The third common error is that the words selected do not have relevance to the way most customers search for the business. Understanding which words are used is important. Taking a stand and committing to a narrow focus of words is important to being selected for their query. Trying to cover everything gets nothing.

So with a big budget or small budget avoid wasting money by at least put some money into getting the primary ingredients for page ranking.
See more at Search Engine Optimization

Bond with The Social Media Crowd

A great way to create an instant connection with some visitors is to set up a blog on your website. For the Social Media crowd, this is the same as transparency. It takes them behind the corporate veil to the inner sanctum where the social media crowd thrives.

The advantage to you is it is a soft sell that still allows you to put links to all your important pages. In a very friendly conversational tone you can help bring down the visitor's guard because now you are relating one on one. The only thing missing is the coffee.

You can discuss anything. You can talk about trends in the industry, new technologies, company innovations, new hires, new clients, your community activiities, your convention appearances, your people in the news. It can be like your in house Facebook or Twitter page.

Experts say find the person who tells good stories and can write in a friendly conversational tone to your audience. With 300 million people on Facebook and 23 million a day engaging in Twitter for business and fun, some people in your audience will go to your blog first.