A New Vocabulary for Search Engines

Published by in New & Emerging Technologies, Search Engine Optimization on May 16th, 2012

Search engines are getting better, faster, and “smarter” all the time.  But with the millions of websites competing for search engine rankings, it can be a challenge to get your small business website not only indexed by the search engines, but also to get it ranked in the top of the search results.  But now, thanks to something called microdata, you can tell the search engines precisely what you want them to know about your business in a way that they can clearly understand.

Microdata is a set of tags that can be included in your website’s “behind-the-scenes” code (e.g., meta data), allowing you to tell the search engines specific information about your business.

For example, a local business providing accounting services could use the tags “LocalBusiness>>FinancialService>>AccountingService.”  Or, a local retailer with a brick-and-mortar store selling Sporting Goods could be tagged as “LocalBusiness>>Store>>SportingGoods.”  These pre-defined tags are standardized so they can be easily understood by machines – in this case, search engines – providing them with a better understanding of your business.

By adding microdata to your web pages, you supply machine-understandable information that the search engines can then use to return better, more relevant results based on an enhanced understanding of your website.  It’s like saying, “hey search engines, this web page is about a men’s clothing store in Brighton Michigan.”  So if local users search for “men’s shirts,” the search engines would already know that the clothing store is a relevant result because the microdata specifically told them so.

Optimizing your website for search engines (SEO) is big job; there are hundreds of ranking signals the search engines constantly evaluate in their quest to give users the best, most relevant results possible. Microdata is a fairly recent development (introduced in HTML5) that can help your site communicate more effectively with the search engines. So in addition to using the right keywords, adding fresh content, social sharing, and other SEO techniques, you can now add microdata to your SEO strategy to help your business increase visibility on the web and get better results in the search engines.

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What Happened to Your Website?

Published by in Marketing & Advertising, Web Site Tips on January 18th, 2012

Is Your Website a Dinosaur?If your small business website was built a few years ago, you may be surprised to hear that it may soon be obsolete (if it’s not already).  Big changes in digital marketing have affected how users access and use the web today, and new technologies have made many old-school websites inaccessible, unreadable, or completely unusable on current web browsers and mobile devices. 

How can you tell if your once-slick, up-to-date website has turned into a dinosaur?  Here are four developments – some not available even two years ago – that a business website must now consider:

1.  Mobile Integration.  Having a website that is mobile “enabled” or that can be viewed on a smart phone is simply not enough; you need to have a purpose-built mobile site created specifically for small-screen devices.  Most users find that website text on an iPhone or Droid is far too small to read, and regular web navigation is difficult or impossible on tiny little touch screens.  Mobile sites are not the same as a regular websites – they must be built to accommodate smaller displays, touch screen navigation, and contain pared-down content with a clear call to action.

2. Content Sharing.  By now, most small businesses are well aware that their customers are using social networks everyday to share information, read reviews, and gather information or opinions from their social connections.  Website visitors today want – no, they expect – the ability to seamlessly share content from your website with whatever social networking sites they use.  Making it easy and convenient to share content on a variety of social sharing sites is now a must-have for business websites.

3. Simpler, less noisy design.  Using tons of images, animation, or column after column of content is now a very dated notion.  If your website is guilty of this, it’s going to show in the first few seconds a visitor arrives.  Today’s websites focus on clean, easy-to-scan layouts that include CSS-based navigation and well-designed sections so users can quickly absorb your message and easily find information.  Over time, if your site has become cluttered with added-on information, it’s probably time to rethink your site’s design and start over with a fresher, more user-friendly (and modern) approach.

4. New rules for SEO.  With the addition of social networks, mobile technology, and improved web standards, SEO has definitely changed.  Gone are the days of top rankings based on inbound links – today, it’s all about quality website content, the “freshness” of that content, how others consume and share your content on social networks, and new structured data markup that search engines can easily read and understand. 

So if your current website was designed and coded more than two years ago, you need to evaluate how useful (or useless?) it is in today’s environment.  If customers and prospective customers cannot use or even access your site with their current web browsers and mobile devices, you have virtually no chance of increasing conversions, gaining new traffic, or meeting your customers’ evolving needs.  Today, dinosaurs may be found in museums, but your small business website needs to be found at anytime, from any place, and from any device.   

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5 Tips to Boost Web Conversion Rates

Published by in Marketing & Advertising, Mobile Web & Tech, Web Site Tips on January 13th, 2012

Increase your web conversion ratesIf you’re like many small businesses, you want to squeeze every last drop of value out of your website and online marketing activities.  But do you know which initiatives are worth your time and money?  Do you know the mistakes to avoid? Here are five tips to help you focus on where to put your efforts if you want to improve web conversion rates in the New Year:

  1. Use Landing Pages
    Landing pages steer web visitors toward taking the action you want them to take, such as signing up for a newsletter, joining a mailing list, or making a purchase.  To improve conversions, make sure you use landing pages with a single purpose or offer, include a very clear call to action, and use a simplified design with the most important information above the fold.  Simply linking to your web site’s home page (or products page) is too overwhelming for users – don’t make them guess what to do or where to click.

     

  2. Simplify or Update Your Web Design
    Let’s face it – old, outdated websites that don’t meet the needs or expectations of today’s users are a waste of everyone’s time.  If you haven’t updated the design, content, and/or functionality of your website in a while, you’re taking a risk with your business. The longer you let an old site represent your business online, the faster potential customers will form an opinion and move on.  Don’t drive visitors into the arms (or websites) of your competitors – re-design your website if it’s time.

     

  3. Integrate Marketing Channels
    Many small businesses do not have the staff or resources to devote to website updates, social media posts, email marketing campaigns, mobile advertising, or the other online marketing efforts necessary to reach their target markets.  The good news is that by integrating marketing channels, you can cut the time and work needed to maintain an effective strategy and make it manageable.  Automate your channels so that Facebook posts are published on your website, blog posts are tweeted on Twitter, and everything is mobile enabled so users can find, follow, or figure out how to get what they need using whatever method they choose.  If you don’t have the time or knowledge to do this, hire someone to help.

     

  4. Gotta Go Mobile
    Estimates say that today in the U.S., more than 50% of adults have smart phones, but 74% of small businesses don’t have a mobile website. This provides you with an enormous opportunity to get a jump on the competition and differentiate yourself to customers and potential customers.  The mobile trend is not going away – it is growing rapidly and your business will need to get on board at some point.

     

  5. Create and Post High-Quality Content
    If your website and social channels contain only basic, descriptive information about your business, you’re not providing much value to visitors or giving them reasons to work with you.  Consider adding content such as free downloads (articles, presentations, etc.), how-to videos, and other value-add content that demonstrates your expertise and commitment to customers.  Then, make sure you update and post information to all your marketing channels on a regular basis.  Being consistent with updates will not only help engage visitors and improve conversion rates, but will also help with your search engine rankings and social visibility.

    With limited time and resources, it’s important that small businesses focus on initiatives that can really make a difference to their bottom line.  By implementing these tips (or even one or two), you can get substantially better results from your online marketing efforts, better engage web visitors, and ultimately convert more online browsers into happy buyers. 

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Tip of the Month: “Google Plus Your World” Has Arrived

Published by in New & Emerging Technologies, Quick Tips, Tip of the Month on January 10th, 2012

In case you haven’t heard yet, last week Google announced a big change to its search algorithm, called “Google Plus Your World.”  Basically, Your World combines social search (introduced in 2007) with personalized search (introduced in 2009) into a single algorithm that also includes relevant Google+ results.  Google+ was designed to be the overriding glue that holds together all-things-Google, and now appears to be the most direct path to good search engine rankings in Google.

Like it or not, if you want to rank well in Google’s search results, you will probably need to adapt your search engine strategy to include building an audience with Google+.

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Tip of the Month: Quick Keyword Check

Published by in Quick Tips on December 9th, 2011

Ever notice that as you start typing a search term into Google or Bing, it starts “guessing” what you are typing?  That’s the auto-complete feature, and the terms it displays are often related search phrases and keywords that other people have used when searching. 

You can use this feature to check your existing keywords to make sure they are being used in actual searches.

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