How unfair is this….
A prospective customer visits your website for the first time.
They notice that the site’s design feels a bit dated.
They notice that the website looks ’small’ on their monitor.
They notice that the copyright at the bottom of the page reads 2006.
And they recall that the last site they were on … your competitor … just seemed more professional.
Now, they’ve never met you.
They don’t know the high quality work that you provide.
They don’t know that your value is the best around.
They only know that your website left them feeling flat. Uninspired.
It’s not fair.
But it’s the way the world is working these days.
Your website truly is the hub for all of your marketing efforts.
Start there.

Where should my blog reside?
Most every time Stone sets up a client blog this question arises.
Should it be placed within the corporate website?
Should it be distanced from the corporate site?
Should it have its own look?
Domain name?
Should I use a service? Or software?
All good questions.

While action of most any sort is going to be more valuable than paralysis of analysis, the answers to these questions can most easily be answered by the business objectives associated with blogging in the first place.

A blog is one of the simplest ways to get fresh relevant content on a website and - from a search engine ranking perspective - having the blog reside within the same domain name and server can have a positive effect on SEO.

Many believe that a blog within a corporate site becomes a corporate blog … and, by definition, less edgy / interesting / genuine than a freestanding blog. The established corporate culture and reputation will affect the likelihood of that impression.

As far as using a blog service v. software, the services were originally setup to make it easy for everyone and anyone to blog. If you maintain a corporate site, it’s a safe bet to move forward with one of the open source blog software packages. Some of the popular blog packages have morphed into mini CMS platforms, complete with a list of 3rd party components. But all of them will include the expected list of features.

So when deciding where your blog should be located, ask yourself:
1. Are we doing this to improve search engine rankings? (within the site)
2. Are we doing this to position the organization as a thought leader? (within the site) Or are we doing this to position an individual or group as a thought leader? (separate location, design, name)
3. Are we doing this because top management won’t redesign the site and it’s fallen woefully behind the times? (whatever’s fastest)

We’re all “in” the business world. We have to deal with those silly little business world sayings. You know them … C-level … 30,000 ft view … I’ll stop there.
One saying, though, that gives me a physical reaction is ‘you know how it goes, the shoemaker’s kids have no shoes’.
Yes, I know how it goes. We all know how it goes. And we know all of the reasons for these analogous youngsters to be walking around barefoot.
I submit the following. Make your kids some shoes. The best you know how. That way everyone out there see these shoes on the shoemaker’s kids … and they get envious. They’ll dream about such shoes. Make them walk up to your shop and plead with you to sell them such a beautiful pair.
Don’t you think making those shoes would be time well spent?

Although recent media coverage within the online marketing space has been largely focused on Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo, an interesting effect of the bid has somewhat slipped under the radar. in an effort to fend off Microsoft’s bid Yahoo has begun seeking other strategic alternatives, one of which has been a test of outsourcing their paid search inventory to Google.

In fact, the test has already begun and, according the Wall Street Journal, initial results of the test have been positive from both Google and Yahoo’s perspective. The two parties will be continuing testing in the near future and then a longer term partnership may be on the horizon.

So what does a potential partnership between Google and Yahoo for the online marketer?

Well, first, if Yahoo does at some point transition their text advertising over to Google then there is tremendous upside to current AdWords customers with well-optimized accounts. The addition of Yahoo search sites to the AdWords network would immediately boost the number of people seeing their ads by around 20%.

Additionally, continued optimization efforts could solely be focus on a single account (AdWords) rather than needing to deal with two accounts and the nuances between the two. The only caveat to this would be that AdWords competition would surely become even more intense and only those with the expertise and budget will be able to truly reap any sustained benefits.

Discussion on the topic may be premature since a partnership would surely be subjected to scrutiny for anti-trust issues by the Justice Department, but it is worth keeping an eye on and definitely worth putting in a little effort on improving your AdWords account sooner than later.

Just this week we uncovered some eye-opening data on the value associated with orienting a user when they first arrive on a website. The data came from a recently signed client of ours. Their site, at the time, was buying pay-per-click traffic sent to internal pages, but these internal pages did little in the way of orienting a user. In an effort to do a better job of letting the user know that they had arrived at the right spot we added just a few simple elements to the landing pages.

First, and most importantly, we added a descriptive headline that closely (if not exactly) matched the PPC ads that the visitors were coming from. Second, we added a product picture that closely matched the PPC ads and finally we added a simple call-to-action that said something along the lines of “Browse our Product Selection.”

Nothing fancy at all, just enough information to assure visitors that they were in fact visiting the right website for what they’re looking for.

So what was the result of the changes?

Implementing the changes:

• Increased the number of product pages that visitors view by over 80%
• Increased the amount of time that visitors spend browsing the site by over 111%
• Reduced the number of visitors that leave before viewing any products by 37%

In total, those are great numbers for just a few quick changes to the internal pages of a site. Growing transactions on a site first requires building trust with visitors. Orienting site visitors is a simple yet powerful first step to build that level of trust.

The ultimate goal for most websites should be to have content that draws in potential customers and to get these potential customers to contact you for more information or some other call-to-action.

But how do you get potential customers to first come to your site and second to contact you?

There are some basics that will help. A quality website design, clear navigation and functionality, outstanding content and images, etc… But these are only the basics of a good website. Even with the basics in place, many sites miss the ultimate goal of having the user fill out a form, order a product or contact the company in another way. This goal is called the “Call-to-Action”. To be successful online, usually you don’t want to just use a call-to-action once on your site, but rather use them throughout your site.

Here are a few quick ideas on adding calls-to-action that you can easily add to your website:

1. Add your contact information on every page of the website.
   Some websites bury their “Contact Us” link. First, add a contact us link to your main and footer navigation. Second, add your phone number and address somewhere visible and consistent on every page. An example would be to add it to the footer or header of the website on every page.
2. Direct your potential customer to where you think they should go next.
   Don’t assume that the users on your site know what information they need next. At the bottom of the content area, add text and a link that would take them to the next step in the process. Don’t make them think. Make it obvious where they should go. You might add a link like this “Now that you have a better idea of the clients that we have worked with, learn more about what you can expect from our services.”
3. Add a “mini” contact form to every page of your website.
   You wouldn’t believe how many people actually fill out a mini form. This should be something that is small and doesn’t require a lot of thought or time from the user. The form might include the following fields: name, email and phone.
4. Capture visitor’s names and email addresses in other ways.
   There are a couple other ways to get a potential customer to offer up their name and email address. Offer articles or white papers on your site. For a user to be able to download these articles or white papers, they have to first fill out a simple form. Also offer an eNewsletter with new articles that may be published on your site at a later time. eNewsletters are a great way to get potential customers more information about your services and provide current customers with new services and information.

Give a few of these a shot on your site and you’ll be surprised at how conversions pick up…

If you don’t quite get what a blog is, how they work, or what their purpose is…here’s a quick video that should help explain a lot:

The video is a part of Common Craft’s Plain English series, breaks down complex Internet topics into simple explanations.

Social media as defined by Wikipedia is “any communications format where the users publish the content.” A simple definition, but not as simple of a process, especially for small businesses where time and resources are at a premium. To simplify the social media landscape just a bit, here are 9 simple ways for small businesses to leverage social media:

1. Have a Voice – The first step for any small business looking to tap into social media is to have a blog. A blog acts as your business’ voice on the Internet. It should be a place where employees can share thoughts, tips, news and anything else with the general public. Any business interested in starting a blog should give Wordpress a look first. MovableType is another worthy option.

2. Speak Up – In addition to running a blog, small businesses should actively be conversing on other industry blogs. The more conversations that your small business can be a part of, the better. If you’re not sure where to start just Google search for some industry-related phrase and the word ‘blog’…you’ll find at least a few.

3. Stumble and Digg for Blog Fodder – The easiest way to keep fresh content in your company’s blog is to find recent news stories in your industry and comment on them. StumbleUpon and Digg are both fantastic resources for finding stories that people are talking about. Pick a story and throw your hat in the ring…

4. Build Your Online Network – LinkedIn is the MySpace of the business world. Encourage employees to create profiles and invite clients to join their networks. Over time your company will build a substantial online presence and open up tons of new channels for client acquisition and finding new hires (see #7 for more on this). Depending on your business’ product or service, MySpace and Facebook may also make sense for online networking, but LinkedIn will provide the most benefit.

5. Answer Customer’s Questions – There’s no need to wait for a customer to approach you in order to answer their questions. Sites like Yahoo Answers, WikiAnswers and 43 Things are filled with people looking for help, you just need to give them what they want…

6. Prove that You Are an Authority – Show off your business’ expertise in your field by creating high-quality, authoritative articles on sites like Wikipedia, Work.com and eHow.com. Not only will you be gaining exposure on other websites but you’ll also build a reputation as an authority in your field.

7. Find the Right Employees – The social web has opened the doors for communicating and finding new hires. Jobster, for example, takes the standard job search model (think Monster.com) and adds social aspects to beef up the overall job search experience. On the other end of the spectrum, Craigslist allows companies to add free, no frills job postings in a local market.

8. Create New Flavors of Content – The runaway success of YouTube and Flickr has created a tremendous opportunity for small businesses to show off their product offerings in new forms of media, namely videos and photos. Leveraging these two forms of media often requires a great deal of creativity, but also can have a big payoff.

9. Get Reviewed – If your current customers love you then you might as well let them tell your potential customers about their experience. Yelp, Yahoo Local and Google Local are your best bets for sites where people freely review and search for businesses.

For now those are probably the 9 easiest ways for small businesses to tap into social media but it seems like every day there’s a new idea out there so keep your eyes open for opportunities.

We had a new Professional Web Management client in the office yesterday for a kickoff meeting. It’s an exciting business model with an exciting site. Most exciting, though, was perhaps something they said at the conference table. Something that all of our clients should be interested in.

While discussing website traffic and search engine rankings, the following was said … “A few years ago, our site was not found at all on Google or Yahoo. We started blogging. And now we’re on the first page of Google for two of the most important search phrases. We force ourselves to blog almost every day. It’s not easy, but for us blogging is like ‘turning on the lights in the store’. Blogging results in good search rankings … and that leads to traffic and sales.”

Great to hear.

Its hard to pick up a business magazine and not see something about blogs. But what are the real advantages (and disadvantages) for a company to consider before deciding whether or not blogging is for them?

1. Visibility - Blogs are one of the simplest, most-effective means for adding new content to a website. Even if your company writes a blog post once a month, that’s 12 new pages of content that search engines can find. Bumping up the schedule to a weekly blog post would mean 52 high-quality, on-topic content pages added to your site per year. On top of the new content, search engines tend to favor websites that pro-actively add new and unique content to their site. And a blog does just that.
2. Credibility - Done properly, a blog can be a huge boost to your company’s credibility. Writing honest, thoughtful feedback on recent industry issues and news presents your company as an authority within the industry. By communicating the value of your company’s thoughts in your blog, you also are communicating the value of your products and services to your customers.
3. Conversation - Blogs inherently foster conversation with their conversational tone and frequent updates. In essence, your company is beginning a conversation with each blog post that you write. Then (hopefully) readers comment on the posts and the conversation begins. Creating this sort of natural exchange of thoughts and ideas with you customers is a rare opportunity to begin the conversation without needed to “sell” anything. Just let the conversation start…sales tend to follow.

On the flip side, the only real disadvantage to having a company blog is that it takes a great deal of time and effort. However, if you can’t find time to market your business then you probably won’t have a business for long, so get blogging.