Posts tagged ‘SEO’
Web Design vs. Web Development
Since I have run into this issue with several clients and prospects as of late, I thought I would post a blog about it since it is on the forefront of my mind. In fact, I have taken this directly from a presentation I gave to a group looking to build a website.
A lot of organizations start with the idea that what they need is a website. So they start talking to web development shops in the hope that they can find one that will develop the best website for the least amount of money.
In my presentation I used the following analogy:
In general, how many people do you know who ask for a bid from their contractor:
before they draw up the blueprints:
However, most organizations ask for exactly that. Web developers are excellent problem solvers, but they need to solve the right problems. They will also tell you that the worst thing that happens with clients is they develop a really cool website, but the client asks them “where is the content”. The web developer typically expects the client to write their own content, but the client expects – a website.
Here is my formula for launching a website. In the end, just because you build it doesn’t me people will come to it. I broke it up into 7 easy steps:
- Positioning – Who is the website for? Why would the want to go to the website? What are the types of things they are looking for? What makes you different than everyone else out there? All these questions need to be answered before you ever put fingers to keyboard.
- Design – This is the blueprint phase of the process. This is where you typically identify key functionality, click flow, and usability, you build a site map, and you do blocking layouts for key pages. If done right, 60% of building a website should be in this phase.
- Build – This is the step most organizations are looking for when they want someone to do a website for them. However, a true build includes programming, writing content, proofing, testing, and revisions.
- Recruitment – Who are the influencers who will encourage participation? What is the value proposition to the influencers? Where does your audience congregate? Whatever your target audience, it is key to recruit both contributors and buyers.
- Online Promotion – Once your website is live, it is critical to promote it. This includes things like search engine optimization (both paid and organic), blogger relations, social tagging, and social networking. There are many ways to promote your website using web 2.0 tools, but they all require involvement and time.
- Offline Promotion – In the end, a website is just a digital store front. Even if you don’t sell products online, you sell yourself. Therefore, any traditional marketing efforts you use should drive traffic to your website. These could include efforts such as public relations, strategic alliances, events, and advertising.
- Maintenance – This one is often forgotten. However, it needs to be decided up front who will be responsible not only for ongoing site changes (new features, bug fixes, etc.), but who will be responsible for fresh content.
In the end, a website is just a tool that needs to be used properly in order to be effective. Not only that, but web marketing follows the basic rules of general marketing, namely – you have to have an audience that cares and engage that audience in what you are doing.
Search Engine Optimization “Unplugged”
When I was at BlueLine, I posted a blog that tried to dispel the mystery of organic search engine optimization (SEO). After several discussions I had today, I realized that it is still a very misunderstood topic. I wanted to reprise that post with a few key updates.
Many think search engine optimization is akin to voodoo. The reality is the formula never changes, but it is how you implement it that separates page 1 companies from page 1000 companies.
Simply put, search incorporates 3 things:
- META Tags
- Content
- Links Back to Your Site
That’s it. So why do some companies end up front and center while others are relegated to obscurity? It takes a little deeper investigation into how the formula works.
META tags, for you technophobes, are simply the keywords, titles, and descriptions that are embedded into each of your web pages. These are what search engines look for when “crawling” your site. Too many companies err on the side of a) putting every word in the English dictionary in this space in hopes that one hits or b) putting words in these fields that nobody in their right mind would ever type into a search box when trying to find your company. Most often, these are words that are used internally and are not common terms that the market would understand. Just as in offline marketing, focus is critical. You can’t mean everything to everyone, so a keyword strategy is the first step. It affects not only your META tags, but how you build the site layout, navigation, and links. Each search engine has its own preferred formula. Rule of thumb is to build your site for Google and the rest will fall in in line.
The second component is content. When your content (meaning text) on your site ties into your META tags and matches what someone types into a search box, you pop up higher on the list. The more content on your site that references the key word or phrase, the higher up you go. That is why blogs are so critical and why search engines love blogs. They produce so much content that often references your key words. Want to bump up in the search engines: start a blog and talk about your key topics. Also, forget about building Flash-based websites because they lack any content that is readable by a search engine. A Flash piece on your website is great for WOW factor, but the rest should be text based so it can be read and cataloged by a search engine.
The third component is links back to your site. Now I know what you are thinking; we are not talking about those corny link sharing sites that contact you and offer to do a link swap. What we are talking about is getting links back to your site on oft visited and popular sites on the web. This means everything from getting coverage on media sites to participating in other communities (i.e. commenting on blog and message boards) to sending out press releases on the business wire that link back to your site which then are picked up by news “bots” on Google and Yahoo. The key is getting links on relevant and popular websites.
So there you have it: search marketing simplified. Now, as a strategy guy, the first thing I will tell you is that you shouldn’t try this unless you have done your homework on the target market and what they will search for. Once you find that out, you build your search strategy around that.
