Things to Thing About When Developing Your Website

What's Your Objective?

Website development can be a complicated thing. In this post firm Patrick Schwerdtfeger offers up some great things to consider that truly simplify the website design process. Before designing a new website (or redesigning an existing site), consider these questions. They will help you develop a solid development plan that is aligned with your audience and website's purpose.

This first website objective is focus. Your site needs to have a narrow and specific focus. Why is this? Because there are literally millions of websites out there and the visitors you're lucky enough to attract will only take a few seconds to decide whether they'll stick around or whether they'll simply click the back button and continue browsing elsewhere. Within those few seconds, your site needs to communicate exactly what it's designed to do so the visitor can decide if it meets his or her needs or not.

One of the best exercises to enhance the focus of your site is to establish a 15 to 25-word positioning statement that guides all your development activity going forward. Think about it like a mission statement. It should articulate exactly what your website does in just 15 to 25 words.

Another way to look at it is to do a Google search for a keyword in your field and see what comes up in the results page. Under each listing, there's a short description of what that site is all about. As it turns out, the search engines get that description from the meta tags on those websites but it's exactly the same thing. What do you want YOUR description to say?

Once you've established a positioning statement, you should display it prominently on your homepage. It should be one of the first things visitors see when they land on your website. And as I mentioned above, the same statement should be included in your meta tags as your site description. That way, the search engines know exactly what your site is about at the same time. And if your site shows up in a search results page, that description will show up as part of your listing.

The second objective is DEPTH. Again, this objective serves your visitors as well as the search engines. Build a massive amount of content all about your narrow business focus. That way, if a visitor lands on your website and decides in the first few seconds that they need what you're providing, they'll go on to find a ton of resources all about that topic, satisfying their need and establishing trust along the way.

Depth of content helps your website with the search engines as well. Google uses complicated algorithms to assess value to different websites and one of the biggest things they look for is content. If your website has a narrow focus and lots of content about that focus, it will get ranked higher within your area of expertise. Google will consider your site a good resource for people searching for your narrow focus.

The third objective is to make your site STICKY. This is a relatively new term that describes a website's ability to keep a visitor on the site. A lot of sites do a fairly good job of attracting visitors but many of those visitors take one look at the site and leave within a second or two. As I mentioned earlier, the positioning statement can do a lot to help someone understand what your site is designed to do. But you need more than that to keep them browsing.

The visitor needs to see immediate value when they visit your site. They need to see something that will benefit them right away. They need to see something they can use to make their own lives better. This is the foundation behind today's value-first marketing moniker. People have been over-marketed and have become skeptical in clever marketing slogans. They want to see the value. They want proof that you can deliver. They want to sample your product or service before they buy anything.

You should spend some time and think about what you can offer your website visitors as soon as they land on your site. It could be information. It could be a tool or calculator of some kind. It could be a free subscription. It could be an entertaining video or an interactive game they can play. Whatever it is, you need to capture your visitor within seconds and guide them to something that will benefit them.

Once they've received one piece of value, give them a second and then a third. Guide them through a maze of value, encouraging them to continue browsing and discovering even more. This is the key to a sticky website and you can get a good idea of your progress by measuring your average time on the site through your analytics platform.

There are a million different websites out there and they're all designed to achieve different objectives. But each one of those websites can be a bit better by incorporating more focus, depth and stickiness. All three improve your website' effectiveness and all three offer benefits with the search engines as well.

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About the Author: Tactical Execution with Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a strategic company focused on growth marketing and program implementation across business markets. Visit the website for actionable guidance for revenue generation.

Don't Get Banned

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN have quality guidelines in place to prevent the unfair manipulation of search engine rankings by website owners practicing “black hat” techniques. These guidelines change frequently to overcome the emergence of deceptive practices. Websites found engaging in these unscrupulous practices are consequently dropped from the search engine rankings – sometimes without notice.

Being banned from the top search engines can have a traumatic effect on your website traffic and online sales. If you want to stay in the good graces of the major search engines, then keep your search engine optimization above board. Avoid engaging in any of the following practices and you stand a good chance of coming out on top.

'Website Cloaking' or sneaky redirects - displaying different content to the search engines than shown to your normal website visitors including hidden text and hidden links. Often this is achieved by delivering content based on the IP address of the user requesting the page, when a user is identified as a search engine spider a side-server script delivers a different version of the web page to deceive the search engine into giving the website a higher ranking.

'Doorway Pages' created specifically for the search engines that are aimed at spamming the index of a search engine by inserting results for specific keyword phrases to send the search engine spider to a different page. With doorway pages a user doesn't arrive at the page they were looking for. Similarly avoid 'cookie cutter' approaches that direct users to affiliate advertising with little or no original content.

Avoid 'broken links' or '404 errors', your site will be penalized for them. Check your links frequently using link checker software. You can download one for free or use a utility that may be available in your SEO software.

Don't overdo 'cross linking' to artificially inflate a site's popularity. For example, the owner of multiple sites cross linking all of his sites together, if all sites are hosted on the same servers the search engines will pick this up and the sites will be penalized.

Google Remains on Top

As most of you know, I'm nothing less than obsessed about Google - the world's largest search engine. According to HitWise, a major brand in online search engine measurement Google remains stronger than ever - just look at their stock price. Well, I'm actually talking about their dominance in the search arena.

According to HitWise, Google accounted for 63.98 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending September 1, 2007. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 22.87, 7.98 and 3.41 percent respectively.

Google an Increasing Source of Traffic to Key Industries
Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing August 2007 to August 2006, the Travel, Entertainment and Business and Finance categories received double digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines.

In short, never underestimate the importance of Google!

When the Creativity Dries Out

In a recent conversation with a colleague, he asked me, "What happens when the creativity dries out?" That is, what do you do when your struggling to find a new idea, concept or marketing message? I like to think I'm full of ideas, but I've also hit the brick wall from time to time. Here are seven strategies you can use to get the creative juices flowing:

1. Search the Internet. If you have an idea or concept or don't know where to start, spend some time surfing the Internet. Looking for book titles? Visit Amazon.com or other book related sites and do a little research. Seeing similar products in your category is a great catalyst for creative ideas.

2. Start drawing. Putting pen, marker, or crayon to paper or white board is a great way to get your thoughts going. Many creative thinkers use whiteboards excessively starting with a word in the middle of the board. Circle it and created branches that contain related ideas and circle them. You'll be surprised how quickly you can fill your whiteboard with new concepts and ideas.

3. Involve others. Anyone can have a great idea. From a marketing perspective, many new product names and even marketing concepts have come from everyday people with no formal marketing experience. Need a new product name? Ask those you work with, family, or friends. Even if you don't get the name you were looking for the experience can provide new ideas and concepts.

4. Go to your "idea" file. Keep an idea file. Each time you find an ad, webpage, or email that really moves you, throw it in your idea file. Over time you'll probably fill more than one file and use it regularly to generate new ideas or identify concepts you wish to replicate. The idea file is an old concept but one that's highly effective.

5. Flip through books. Printed resources including books and magazines can be a great resource for ideas. Keep in mind that some of the best resources may be those that are outside of your industry or area of expertise.

6. Pick up the remote. Television commercials are created by some of the most intelligent and creative people in the marketing industry. Use commercials as idea generators. The best way to use commercials to generate ideas is to consider the imagery, the key messaging, and the feelings they create. Can you apply any of these elements to your product or service?

7. Go for a walk. If you're still struggling to generate that "big" idea, then go for a walk, clear your head, and refresh. Sometime taking a break is the best thing you can do for your mind. It's said that Thomas Edison, one of the world's greatest inventors took cat naps to clear his mind and improve his thinking. Give it a try!

Creative thinking is both fun and challenging. When your stuck and need something motivating, experiment, try something new, look for references that can start the ideas flowing again. Every struggles for new ideas so be prepared - know who you can talk to in order to get the ideas flowing again and have a plan. This results in more ideas and more creativity.

Internet Marketing on the Cheap

Are you trying to get more traffic to your website? Welcome to the club. If you're like me, you want to improve your popularity with a small or non-existing marketing budget. In this post, we'll look at a few strategies you can use to promote your website.

Traditional advertising. Let's start by eliminating the type of marketing you won't be doing; magazines, TV ads, radio, and print advertising. These forms of advertising are cost prohibitive and won't meet your expectations for driving traffic. Much of the marketing costs associated with this type of advertising start at around $5,000.

Since you do not have an unlimited marketing budget you will likely have to use online marketing. You can get much more expose with online marketing versus traditional advertising alone. Marketing on the internet is cheaper, and if done correctly, can give you much more bang for your buck.

Obviously, the cornerstone of internet marketing is search engine submission and optimization. There are hundreds of different search engines and directories on the internet where you can submit your web site for a listing. This is fairly easy to do. Simply sign up for a monthly submission plan with a credible search engine submission service. There are literally hundreds of these submission services on the internet; you can find them by performing a search on Google.

However, be wary of submitters that claim to be able to submit your site to 50,000 search engines. Such services are scams, and they will submit your web page to bogus link pages that can actually get you banned from the search engines. Only do business with submission services that submit to the major search engines and directories.

Now that we have covered submission, we need to talk about search engine optimization (SEO), which is even more important. To optimize your website, you need to maximize keyword density and optimize the positioning for the words or phrases that best characterize the subject matter of your site, and you need to use proper Meta tags so that the search engines can interpret your web pages.

If you do not know how to optimize your web site, you should search for a search engine optimization specialist at MarketingScoop.com. Steer clear of SEO experts who want to charge $1,000 per month or more. Their goal is to bleed you dry before you figure out that they really can not help you get to the top of the rankings. Stick to providers who will optimize your site for a one-time fee.

More important than SEO is link popularity. Link popularity is the number of web sites that currently link to your site. The more inbound links you acquire that have a higher Google PR, the higher your search engine ranking will be. There are more than a few ways to acquire links, but here is an effective strategy that I use on a regular basis.

Write articles and press releases and submit them to article directories and press release distribution services who will then distribute your articles and press releases to other websites who will publish them and in return link back to you. Also, you can submit your site to bloggers through a popular service called Blogitive (Blogitive will get blogs to post one-way anchor text links to your site in their blog, which will greatly enhance your search engine ranking).

Another way to attract visitors to your web site instantly is by using pay-per-click advertising. With PPC, you pay a certain cost per click to have an ad for your web page run at or near the top of the search engine listings for certain keywords. This can be extremely costly and ineffective. It is not uncommon for webmasters to blow thousands of dollars on PPC advertising and make only a few sales.

The best way to promote your site, if you are actually selling something, is through an affiliate program. You need to provide an affiliate code to other online merchants so that they will place your banner on their site; every time you make a sale that resulted from an affiliate referral, the affiliate gets a commission. Some internet companies have thousands of affiliates, and get all the business they would ever need or want this way; and it costs you nothing.

In conclusion, you should first optimize your website and submit it to search engines. You should then begin submitting articles and press releases to article directories and press release distribution services. You should also submit your site to Blogitive so that bloggers will write a review of your site and link to it, further boosting your link popularity. You might want to join a link exchange, but trading links often proves fruitless. Also, you should set up an affiliate program. And finally, you should budget a small amount of money to spend each week on pay-per-click.

Behavioral Advertising is Key

More online consumers – from 10 percent to 22 percent more – are more receptive to behavioral targeting advertising than to contextual advertising, according to a recent study by JupiterResearch for RevenueScience. A total of 2,035 representatives of the online consumer population were surveyed for this study.

“Using advertising that consumers are receptive to is crucial, and behavioral targeting is clearly the best performer,” said Marla Schimke, vice president of marketing at RevenueScience. “When marketers use behavioral targeting, they can be sure that 93 percent of the audience receptive to their ad shop online, and those consumers make a more attractive online advertising target because they represent a higher income bracket, spend more money online and shop online more frequently.”

The study proves that behavioral targeting is the answer to reaching a high-value, qualified audience and it is critical that marketers integrate behavioral targeting as part of their online strategy.

It is important to provide users related to considered purchases during their daily activities.

The study also said l everaging the general online activities and habits of online shopper is key to doing so. “Take advantage of the multiple steps of the purchase funnel where online shoppers leverage the Internet for more than just purchasing online – also for researching their purchases, whether the purchase execution is online or offline,” the study said.

Keep behavioral marketing at the top of your list. Consumers will say just about anything but what really counts are their actions.

Brand Promise... Do You Have One?

What is the promise of your brand? It's important to know. The brand promise is what separates you, your products and services from all others. I was recently reminded about this concept as I was reading all the negative press on Britney Spears' latest performance at the VMAs. I can't believe I'm actually using her name in my post, but all of this media attention gives us great material for learning about brand promise.

When people used to think of Britney or similar performers, they thought "entertaining", "sexy", and "unique". After so much media exposure, the Britney brand had become well established - creating an expectation among her audience.

Fast forward to the recent VMAs. The experience that "users" expected wasn't met. Based on the previous brand equity that Britney has built up, many individuals are okay that she didn't look or sound her best. This is synonymous with walking into your favorite restaurant, the one you've eaten at dozens of time before, and having a bad meal (or perhaps the service was less than stellar). Either way, you'd probably dismiss it as an "off" night because of all the brand equity that has been built up from so many previous experiences that were positive.

This underscores the importance of a few things. First and foremost, ensure that your customers have strong first impression/experience with your company. Secondly, review, analyze and measure each customer interaction. Are you delivering a positive and consistent experience with each interaction that lives up to your brand promise?

Be mindful of your brand promise and whether or not you're keeping that promise during the on-boarding process with new customers and throughout the customer relationship. This guarantees a long term commitment from your customer base and a healthy business going forward.

On Page Optimization - Making it Simple

Before you begin promoting your website, give some thought to the design and layout of your web pages. Whether you're building a website, landing page, or simply updating your site, be sure to follow some of the basics of good SEO. Here are a few ideas to consider.

1. Is your web page easy to read (by both search engine spiders and browsers)? Use common fonts, sizes, and layouts. Keep things simple. If users can't intuitively navigate your page, you're going to lose them. Write for your lowest common denominator and don't assume that everyone navigates the page as you do.

2. Is you code W3C compliant? The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (W3). The consortium is headed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the primary author of the original URL, HTTP, and HTML specifications. Your code should meet these industry standards.

3. Meta tags. Do you have them? Are they in place? Are they written correctly? Meta tags are important for a whole host of reasons. Not the least of which is that search engines rely on them to better understand the content of your web page. Make sure they are in properly in place

4. Use of h1 tags. The header tags of h1, h2, and h3 are key to search engine optimization. Using these tags lets the search engine know that the content you're using is important. Place you keyword(s) between these tags when possible.

5. On-page keyword placement. Use your keywords in appropriate places on your web page. I would argue that keyword density really isn't all that important anymore. More important is you placement relative to other text on the page. Specifically, be sure to place your keyword within the first 25 and last 25 words of text on you web page. Lastly, bold, italicize and underline your keyword at least once on the page you're optimization.

Follow these basic on-page optimization techniques to improve overall search engine rankings. As with and SEO effort, multiple components must be executed well in order to see dramatic results in your search engine result placements. Begin with a strong foundation (on-page optimization). This allows for your seo efforts to generate very tangible results.

Quick List Building Techniques

I was recently asked how to build a strong email list for marketing purposes. There are a variety of techniques out there. Here are the top 5 that I use on a regular basis to generate a large number of potential buyers for products and services:

1. Offer a Newsletter. You definitely want to provide your newsletter subscribers with added messages such as the ones I've identified above. (If you didn't read the sidebar above, go back and read it again - it can dramatically increase your profit by setting up your newsletter as an autoresponder and doing a combination of automated and broadcast mailings.)

2. Offer a Free Course. Most people have 5-7 lessons in their email mini-courses and when a subscriber finishes the lessons, they're done. What a waste! Add extra lessons and continue adding new ones to the sequence.

3. Leverage Your Customers. Do you follow-up with your customers? Not only should you make this a practice, but you should also regulary add "unadvertised bonuses" and other special mailings for your customers to an autoresponder database to be sent to them. I cannot tell you how many new orders come in every week (too many to count!) from follow-up mailings to my existing customers.

4. Use a Partner List. Got an affiliate program? Good for you - how often do you mail to them? Add new messages to your autoresponder sequence to go to all of your affiliate partners! Offer an incentive. Provide them with additional marketing materials. Give them new training ideas and so forth.

5. Co-Registration. Do you have some affiliates or know others who have websites? Offer to provide them access to your mini-course or ebook by placing registration on their website and sharing the list.

Make sure with any of your lists that subscribers know you plan on sending them additional mailings and they have the opportunity to unsubscribe should they choose to do so. This is "standard operating procedure", but it's worth reminding you about.

Coupons: Part of Your Marketing Strategy?

According to a recent research from BIGresearch, 9 out of 10 US consumers use coupons. Wow! The research went on to say that coupons were more influential in purchase decisions for 18 - 24 year olds. At first blush this is hard to believe. Largely because many of us hold the image of our parents or grandparents sitting on the floor with the Sunday paper spread out "clipping coupons".

In today's marketing environment however, coupons have taken on a life of their own. The reason why coupons are so prevalent today and among younger consumers is because of their communication vehicles and access points.

Younger consumers have greater access to the web and as a result, sites that encourage or promote coupon use. Simply type a product name into Google followed by the word coupon and you'll find dozens of websites that offer online deals and discounts. When these discounts are discovered, many users in the before mentioned demographic share this information with friends and social networks - which are now bigger than ever!

Is couponing part of your strategy?
A word to the wise. If you are trying to market a product or service, a special offer or discount coupon may be the tactic you need to eliminate excess inventory or manage seasonal lows. That said offering coupons should not be your only marketing strategy.

The upside of offering coupons can be improved branding, awareness, and transactions. Over the long-term you can see the benefits of this strategy. The downside however, if offered in an ineffective manner is that consumers get used to always using a coupon to purchase your product or service. This habit can be hard to break.

Next steps.
Consider using coupons to promote your product or service - but do so carefully. Learn more about coupon related websites (developed for affiliate commission purposes) and determine if they are key to your marketing strategy.

The Power of Online Newsletters and Feeds

If you don't subscribe to an online newsletter or RSS feed, you're probably in the minority. Today consumers have all (okay, most but not all) of the power when it comes to information. What do I mean? Well, in the old days, if you wanted information you would buy a newspaper, turn on the TV or radio and that pretty much exhausted your options. In today's communication environment, the consumer decides which medium they like to receive information through and then which source is a valuable one that provides the specific information they value.

A good example of this is the need for Search Engine Optimization information. Anyone who wants to learn more about SEO can simply do a search on Google for SEO news, information, or resources. In addition to the top SEO related websites showing up in the search results you will find newsletters, ezines, RSS feeds and many more informational resources.

Once you've identified something of interest, you can sign up to have the information pushed out to you or simply bookmark a website for easy reference. My favorite way to receive information is through email. From my perspective receiving information through email is fast and convenient. I receive my feeds this way as well as daily newsletters that I can't live without.

If you want to begin to improve your Internet marketing or SEO, seek out valuable information sources online and subscribe. Thousands of you have already subscribed to this blog via email or RSS feed. I encourage you to discover additional resources that provide informational value and allow you to dialogue with experts in a given industry. This can often save you time, improve sales, or achieve desired outcomes!

Improve your Site Ranking in Google - Use June's E-marketing Tips and Tricks (My Blog is listed on Page 1 of Google Organic Search Results)

Great news! By utilizing the techniques mentioned in my blog here, June's E-Marketing Blog (yeah, my blog) is listed on Page 1 of Google Organic Search Results for many keywords, including popular keywords like "e-marketing blog". This proves my tricks and tips do actually work! It works to rank my blog high in Google!In the example below, my blog is the first 2 Organic Search Results listed in

Update: OnSite Videos - Usage Statistics Available - How to use these to improve your OnSite Videos?

Finally, more detailed usage statistics are available in the OnSite Videos' usage report. Now you can track how well OnSite Videos is working for you.Below are the information available:By looking at your click through rate, you can see how effective is your video in driving visitors to the promotion page. If the click through rate is low, you should do one of the followings: Double check if the

Strategies for Building Your Opt-In Lists

Ever wonder how the top marketers are able to build huge opt-in lists? They use techniques that leverage all touch points with prospects and customers. There are literally hundred of techniques you can use. Before you put a plan together, remember that you must remain within the bounds of CAN-SPAM legislation.

Follow these techniques for building your opt-in and marketing lists:

1. Offer a free newsletter. When you give individuals something of value in exchange for an email address, you'd be surprised at the subscription rate. Offering a free newsletter that provides valuable information can generate a large number of opt-ins.

2. Require registration. Many sites offer white papers or access to valuable reports but only in exchange for a registration. When offerig something of value in exchange for information, ask individuals for their email address prior to download. This is also a great opportunity to ask these individuals to "opt-in" for additional information or notifications.

3. During the registration process. Do you ask individuals to register on your site when buying a product or prior to accessing particular features of your website? When individuals register and offer an email address you are technically allowed to email them at least once. However, by adding additional opt-in fields, individuals may choose to sign up to receive additional information from you or your website for specific information.

4. Co-Registration. Do you have something of value to share with other websites? Perhaps you can provide your web tool to other websites who could benefit, requesting users to sign up prior to using the tool. When they do, you can share these opt-ins with partner websites.

5. Transactional Emails. After an individual has bought a product from you, use transactional emails to determine which of your customers are ready for marketing messages for other products or services provided by you or another vendor. By asking for this information on a transactional email, you are more likely to increase response rate and ask if users would like to hear about specific products from vendors or partners.

These are just a few ideas you can use to improve your opt-ins and/or build a more targeted email list. If you have other ideas, share them by leaving a comment to this post.

Developing Links to Your Website

I'd like to take a moment today to discuss opportunities for building links to your website. We all know the power of inbound links, but many are still struggling with proven methods for building them. I've been marketing for over 7 years online and I have to say that building links can be difficult.

That said, there are some things to do and other things you should not do. Here's a quick list:

TO DO
1. Article marketing. Take time to write unique articles on your area of expertise. Once you've created valuable content, post it to your site. After a week of being posted (enough time to be crawled), distribute your article to article distribution sites.

2. Link exchange. Target other websites that are related to your subject area. Contact the webmaster and ask for a link exchange. You might be surprised with the result.

3. Provide valuable content or tools. If you have something of value on your site, whether its a page rank tool or ebook, others will link to your site. Make your content and tools easily accessible and watch the links build.

NOT TO DO
1. Placing links in forum posts or blog comments. Putting a shameless plug in a forum post or blog comment isn't a good strategy - it provides little or no value to the communities who seek information. Legitimate sites see this type of link plug as SPAM.

2. Paying for links from massive directories. Google is penalizing sites for purchasing links. Invest your time in submitting to the largest free directories like Google and DMOZ. This will ensure that your site is recognized and not penalized!

Follow these tips for getting your website noticed and developing valuable links. Doing so has a favorable impact on your search engine result placements.

Avoiding Duplicate Content

Okay, so you've heard all of the issues related to duplicate content. Perhaps you're wondering how this affects your website or article marketing efforts. I've received a lot of questions lately about Google's penalizing duplicate content and what it means for the savvy marketer. Because Google doesn't reveal their search ranking formula, the best bet is to proceed cautiously. Here's what I recommend for any marketer using content to promote their site or generate back links.

1. Always publish original content on your website. Don't be caught using duplicate content unless you must. You control the content on your website so don't take this issue lightly. Use fresh, original content that appeals to your readers. If replicating content, change it up a bit or use an excerpt with a link to the full article.

2. When article marketing, include the article on your site first. If you're using article marketing to promote your website, publish the article on your site first. I suggest not distributing the article for at least 3 - 5 days. This gives the Google bot time to crawl the content and know its there (published by you).

3. Distribute your content to top article distribution sites first! When distributing your articles, make sure to hit the largest article directories first (ezinearticles, goarticles, etc.). I would recommend changing the title, article description, intro paragraph, and last paragraph slightly from what you have posted on your site.

4. Complete your distribution to second and third tier article directories. At this point, the value gained is less than the primary article distribution sites. The true value of these sites is the possibility of a webmaster using the content on their own site complete with author box. Again, I would modify the article once prior to distributing to all of these sites, but don't spend a lot of time on it.

As always, you want to be cognizant of what Google is doing and how they are viewing content. To avoid being penalized, post content to your site first. After a short waiting time, modify the article slightly and post to the major article distribution sites. Then you're ready to distribute to second and third tier article distribution sites. Through this method you can still enjoy the benefits of original content and all of the back links that come with it.