This is your website (credit: machity)

An old, rickety car slowly pulled into the car dealership lot and parked. It belched black smoke as the clunky engine finally backfired and gave up. A man got out of the car and strolled into the office. The salesman met him there, asking if he could be of any assistance.

The conversation went something like this:

Salesman: “Hi, how are you doing? What can I help you with?”

Customer: “I need a new car.”

S: “Ah, I see! Well you’ve come to the right place. We have plenty of cars on the lot, and can order anything you might want that we don’t already have. Any idea what you’re looking for?”

C: “Yes, you see I am a salesman myself, and I spend a lot of time driving to see customers and prospects. But my car is rather old, and the engine barely works. In fact, I can only drive in first gear!”

S: “Wow! I bet that makes it hard to visit many customers in a day. Can I interest you in this brand new Complete Car? It’s well-rounded with a great engine, good looks, comfortable interior, and will certainly connect you with your customers.”

C: “Well, I wonder if you can just repaint my old car, maybe get rid of some of the dents. It could probably use new upholstery, too.”

S: “…”

If that seems to you like a strange turn of events in this completely made-up story, you’re not alone. I see this all the time, except instead of cars, we’re talking websites.

Out with the Old

Online competition is much too stiff for the old, static, “brochure-style” website to be very successful anymore. That kind of website is the old clunker with a weak engine; it doesn’t get around very well.

The pitfall I see people running into – especially in this region of South Dakota – is the notion that an “updated look” will take their website into the modern age. To be fair, a snazzy-looking website doesn’t necessarily hurt – provided it’s on target. But there are other important considerations in today’s online market.

This is your website on SEO (credit: SFB579)

For example, how are people going to find your website in the first place, and what are you doing to facilitate this? Will they find your competitors instead? How do you know if customers are finding you online versus other media? How much traffic hits your website? How do visitors use the website? What are people telling each other about your products or services?

In with the New

You can’t answer these questions with a paint job. You need a better engine, better tires, power steering – you get the idea. Your website needs analytics, search engine optimization, and social media engagement is also something to consider. These elements combine to give you a well-rounded (and much more effective) web presence; a Complete Car.

The point: SEO is not just something to add to your website. If you want to be at all successful in your online market, SEO is a must, at least to some degree.

You may be on a tight budget, and so tempted to cut these elements out of your online marketing plan. Resist the urge! Cut back on something else – perhaps the redesign of the site graphics can wait. If no one can find your website, they won’t be able to see the cool new paint job anyway.

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[Photo credit | Top: machity | Bottom: SFB579]

SEO is not an Add-on is a post from: RSA Blog

Google search

Not long ago, as a business owner, you merely needed to have a website to establish your online presence. In many cases, this meant the company website was a glorified brochure – customers were directed to the website by the salesperson or through traditional media. Customers didn’t just “find” you, you broadcasted your message to them through traditional media, and the website supplemented the sales pitch.

Flash forward a few years…if someone has a question, they “google” it. Today we “google” products, services, people, places, and what ever else we want to know more about – yeah, Google not only introduced a whole new vocabulary, but a whole new concept for searching and making decisions.

So how does this affect you, the business owner? People make their decisions about whether or not to even enlist your services or buy your products before you even get to talk to them!

Today, you need to be findable when someone “googles” the products and service you provide.

…and then you  also need to:

• Deliver helpful information once they arrive at your site
• Maintain their attention and interest
• Establish trust
• Make a conversion – have them buy something, sign-up for a newsletter, contact you…

So how does your site become findable when someone googles a need you can fulfill?

The basic concept is to promote your website visibility within search engine result pages (SERPs). The act of increasing a website’s findability is commonly referred to as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), and includes one or both of the following:

• Paid Placement :: on google, these are the results (sponsored listings) typically on the right side of the page. It’s all based on “bidding” for visibility – everytime someone clicks on your listing, you pay. Its effects are immediate – this can be a great thing at first, but as a long-term strategy, it will not strengthen your presence…once you quit, your website has no power without paying for it. Statistically, only 30% of users trust these sponsored listings enough to click on them.

Our Take: Paid placement can be helpful as an initial tactic if your site currently has zero visibility on the search engines (brand new site), or if your area of search is super competitive, or if your target searches are based on broad search terms and you need time to gain momentum in these areas.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) :: the process of improving a website’s visibility via “natural” or “organic” search results (the main portion of the results page and can also include image search and local search). Users trust organic results, as a whopping 70% of searchers click on these. Typically, the earlier a site shows on the search engine results list, the more traffic it will receive. SEO makes your site healthy, it considers how search engines work and what people are searching for – it strengthens your site for search.

Our Take: Optimizing a website is not a quick fix and must be continually maintained, it may take months to gain momentum and see quantifiable results…but once momentum is gained, your web presence will be formidable and the return on investment has the possibility to be great.

Search Engine Marketing has the power to transform your website into a powerful prospecting tool, giving you the ability to meet these prospective clients when they are focused. If you can fulfill people’s needs at the exact moment they are searching for the services or products you provide – imagine what this can mean for your bottom line.

Google and the Basics of Search is a post from: RSA Blog