It comes down to a misunderstanding of the needs of marketing on the Internet.

People are fed the idea that by simply putting up a website, all of their marketing problems are over.  They can sit back and enjoy a steady stream of new prospects and customers but actually, successful marketing online demands an even greater effort and time than traditional marketing.

The problems start with the web design sales people who rarely explain, if hey themselves even know, what is truly involved in getting a website higher on Google.

Their function is to sell a website whereas it should be to help the client market their business better.

That might involve a website for sure but for most small businesses a big-project (read big expense) website is totally unnecessary.

The majority of the on-line marketing budget should go to ……errm marketing online.

An online marketing strategy will include market and keyword research as the first stage.

This will identify what your prospects are actually looking for.

How many times a month hey are looking for it.

Then the strength and extent of your competition.

Unless you know those three key aspects, your website is doomed to fail.

The second problem is that business owners think that once the sit is live, then the work is done.

Unfortunately, Google likes to see regular new additions to your site.  They take the view that market s are always changing so those local business owners who take the time and invest in educating their prospects, deserve to be rewarded with better rankings and getting higher in Google.

The third critical aspect is building links from other sites back to your website.  This is vital and it’s important to get the right type of link too.  For more information on links, you might find this useful – an item all about link building.

http://www.squidoo.com/seo-consultant-in-auckland-pt-4-back-links-the-most-important-part

What has all of this got to do with a car?

When you buy a car, you don’t simply drive it off the car-yard and expect that it’s going to stay that shiny, fresh and full of gas for the rest of its life.

• You clean it regularly which is like adding new content to keep you website fresh.
• You give it fuel which is adding back-links to your site because a good linking strategy provides a fuel injection of visitors.
• You service your car which is like looking at the analytics or visitor data so you can improve the performance of your site.

The fuel is the most expensive part of running your car and it’s also the one thing that you cannot provide yourself.  You have to rely on the petrol companies to source the oil, process it and then send it to your local gas station.  And so it is with link building.

You could do it yourself but it’s difficult, hard, time-consuming and requires specialist knowledge to do well.  You are best advised to engage an SEO consultant for this essential aspect of your website’s well being. It’s money well spent.

Technorati Tags: 5S SEO, Search engine optimization, seo consultant

I thought the response would be helpful to other people:

“I would add too that it can be unwise to ignore low PR links for a number of reasons.

1 SEO’s main objective is to get your site in front of relevant eyes. It’s not just being higher in Google. Google is the usual entry point for folks to the ‘Net. Once past The Big G, they go all over the place which is why you need to be in loads of places, not just a single high PR place.

2 The second point is that relying on a few high PR links is a risky business. What happens if the go away? Your platform just got a bit thin. So a broad range of links makes your business more secure.

3 A broad range also looks more natural to Google rather than purely focusing on high PR sites.

4 Another key factor is where those links go to, besides how they link to you. Keywords as anchor text are vital but again, it’s a range of keywords that’s important, and, the target page within the site. Aim for a broad spread of links into your site with a range of keywords. Again it’s more natural because not everyone uses the same search phrase. For example, there are at least seven ways to use panel beater for car body repairs. Same meaning, just different words for different people. And your site needs to be using all of those search phrases.

5 Finally, it’s not only about your site. For long-term strength and business building, you want to be able to control links as well as create them. Most people look at link-building as finding places to link to. That is important as I’ve covered above but there are other strategies too that can be even stronger and longer lived, give you more flexibility and enable you to be very tightly focused in your promotions. This is a marketing approach rather than purely link-building in a technical SEO sense. But as Google makes life easier for their customers (searchers), they inevitably become more market-focused and so should you. Simply if it’s good for the customer it’s good for Google.”

The original question is here if you want to read some other interesting answers:

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=21005&type=member&item=30572825&qid=526f04ff-99b1-478d-a5f1-2e6c9af330e9&goback=.gmp_21005

Technorati Tags: 5S SEO, Search engine optimization, SEO

Many website owners are confused because they thought that having a site would mean they automatically got placed high in Google.

And most are still wondering where is that extra business that they were led to believe would appear once they had a website.

It’s all very frustrating for business owners, especially in these tight economic times.

And if you knew how essential Google is to your business success, you would be horrified.

How significant is a top place in Google?
Imagine what you do when you are looking for a new product or service provider.  Chances are you go to Google like most people do.

•    81% of potential customers go on-line to find out more about a business. (Neilson_online.com)

•    85% of websites are found by search engines rather than being typed into the address bar.  So if you think people know your name or web address, that’s a dangerous assumption.

•    91% of people only use Page 1 (google.com) so if you are on Page 3, you may as well not have a website.

•    42% of clicks go to Number 1 (google.com) so even being on Page 1 doesn’t help you much. 10th position gets less than 3% of clicks.

•    “Small businesses who use the Internet have grown 46% faster than those that do not”. (International Business Journal)

Yet few people know how to get up there and worse, they are sold websites that have no chance of being ranked high in Google

Yet it needn’t be that way.  There are 3 simple steps to getting high in Google but very few web-designers use them, leaving site owners high-and-dry or is that low-and-wet?

What gets a website high in Google?
It’s helpful to think what Google’s primary service aim is.

To deliver the best product (a search result) to their customer (a searcher).

That’s it.

There’s lots of technical stuff behind that but if you want your site to be ranked higher by Google, just give your customers the best match to their searches.

That means if your Home page says, “Welcome to our site. We’ve been in business for…and have .. employees” that’s why your site is low.

The technical term for the getting higher in Google is Search Engine Optimisation or SEO but I like to think of it as a translation service – translating what you, the expert, knows, into what your customer wants..

You might think you know what people are searching for.  After all, how difficult is it to describe your business?

You’d be surprised.  Most clients are amazed at how many variations of their business people use.  Some examples of different Search-terms people have used for the same industry.

•    Business consultant and business consultants.
•    Book-keeper and bookkeeper.
•    Event manager, events manager, event management.
•    Panel beaters, panelbeaters, panel beater, panel beating, smash repair.
•    Tree surgeon, arborist, tree services, tree pruning.

Clients haven’t included all of these different Search-terms on their websites. And, in most cases, they have been using the wrong Search-terms.

What makes a wrong Search-term? Each of those phrases has a different quantity of searches and different numbers of competing pages. And more competition means it’s harder to get to the top.

The key to success is finding the combination of reasonable traffic with less competition.

So now you know your site needs to match what people are searching for, how do you find out what they are typing, how many people are searching for them and how much competition you might have?

The three steps are….
First, learn to speak your customers’ language.

Google actually tells you what people are typing in their Keyword Search Tool. It’s free to use but, as with most things free, it comes at a price….. understanding what it all means.  And there is a ton of data there to learn.

Frankly, many people who regularly use the data, don’t use it properly.  That’s why so few websites make it to the top.

Second, use that language everywhere, even off-line.  After all, it’s what your customers are saying when they think of your business or service.

For your website, it’s essential to use that right language in the right places in the right way.  Again, very few web-masters or designers know what or how to use it.

Third, don’t rely on a sexy web-design to get you top rankings.

Google doesn’t care what shade of red you have, where the images are or whose face is in the picture.  It only cares how close your words are to the searcher’s.

So make your first priority finding out what people are looking for rather than spending your dollars on a design which people will never find.

Make SEO the foundation of your site, not an afterthought.

Bill Gates said, “In the future there will be two types of businesses. Those on the Internet and those out of business.”

It’s safe to amend that to those on Page 1 of Google and those out of business.

Technorati Tags: 5S SEO, Search engine optimization, SEO

As an SEO guy, I look at myself as a translator… translating the language of the expert (business owner) into the language of the customer. And then using that language on the web pages. Those pages should be very specific so that searchers can find the answer quickly.

The only way to achieve this is to do a Search-term assessment exercise. I call it the STACA – Search-term, Traffic and Competition Analysis.

This shows the site owner the number of searches for each term but crucially for them, the level of competition that they can expect. That way we can target lower competition Search-terms which will get ranked faster than those with more competing pages.

This STACA has another massive benefit. It becomes the centre point to your whole business and marketing planning.

Why?

Because a good business plan is written around a solid market research exercise.

There are two main problems with any market research project:

•    Response and
•    Bias

Getting people to respond in suitable numbers, especially if your budget is limited, is a real headache.  How can you find people.  Where are they?  How can you get them to participate?  And many other questions too.

And however, well phrased the research questions, there is always an element of bias.  People will feel that you want a particular answer or they feel obliged in someway.  And the results are clear in the number of new products that don’t make the grade, sales profits.

So what better market research than the exact words your customers are typing into Google when they are eager to spend money.

It simply couldn’t be better research material.
You can use those exact terms in all of your marketing messages then – off-line too.

By finding out exactly what people want I’ve helped companies go from the obscurity of Page 4 to over 30 different Page 1 results.

They may be very small search volumes but when added together they come close to the big 600 pound gorilla terms they were failing to rank for previously.
That’s much better business for them and…… far better for the customer too as they can easily find what they want.

In business you will always fail if you don’t find out what your market wants.
Using good keyword tools, the market tells you what they want.

And for the local businesses or local branches of big businesses, t’s important to understand that around 60% of significant local purchases start with a Google search.

Finally, most people get the web process the wrong way round.

They spend hours and $000s agonising over the shade of a colour, the position of an image, what’s on the image. Then tack on keyword research and SEO if there’s any budget left. None of that is relevant to Google. None of that will get you ranked.

What will get you ranked and found is using the right Search-terms in the right places.

And it will help you write your marketing plan too.

Technorati Tags: 5S SEO, Market research, new zealand marketing, SEO

You see a set of curtains that you like.

You love the colours so much that you decide to build a home around them.  You call in an interior designer and get him to build the home.

Inevitably the building doesn’t work efficiently or effectively as a home.  The plumbing might not work.  The electrics, the position of the doors, the construction timbers might not be as strong as they should be. The house probably wouldn’t pass certification by your local council.

So you have to call in an architect and then a builder to remodel the house so that it meets the demands of the family using it.

Obviously no sensible person would begin to even think about building a home around a set of curtains because they like the colour.

Yet that is how 99% of people go about building their website.

•    They have a corporate colour or logo that they want their site to match.
•    Then they call in an interior designer to design the look of the site.
•    Then the designer builds the site.
•    And it almost inevitably does not work for those who want to use it… searchers.
•    So then they decide to cal in an architect to fix the problem.

The architect is an SEO guy.  Not a technical one, that’s a civil engineer but an architect who researches and understands what works from a usability or market point of view.

Before you even begin to discuss the layout of your website with your web-designer, find out what our potential customers want and the build your site around that.

And just like the house, designing, building and decorating, are entirely different skills.  You wouldn’t ask your interior designer to design your house so don’t ask your web-designer to design the structure of your website.

The term web-designer can mislead many people because of the “design” element in the term but it’s no different from the design word in interior-designer.

Now you may have your interior designer acting as project manager for building your home.  That’s fine because they would consciously employ an architect and builder, plumber, electrician etc.

So don’t overload your web-designer with tasks that they aren’t experienced in undertaking.  It’s not fair on them and, as helpful people, they will often agree to do the SEO for you.  Yet for both you and your web-designer, you will both end up with a below par website.

To demonstrate the point, how many clients’ websites do you see on Page 1 of Google?  Very few.

2 or perhaps 3 for most searches.

You’ll see directories, recruitment sites, education courses and wikis taking up most of the Top 10 sites.  In many industries, they take up Page 2 and 3 as well.

The reason is that those sites, which are built by web-designers, aren’t optimised to appear on Page 1.  So if your web-designer says they know and can do SEO, ask them how many of their clients are on Page 1 of Google.

To be fair, I don’t have a clue about creating a design for a web-site.  I know my limitations. Make sure the service providers you employ are honest about their limitations.

Everyone will produce a better result that way.

Technorati Tags: 5S SEO, Search engine optimization, SEO, Website design

How Much Money Are You Losing Because Customers Can’t Find Your Website?

When people look in Google for a local service provider like yours, it’s because they have a real need and they want it sorted.  And the exciting thing is, they are willing to spend money to do it.

The big question is?

Where will they spend the money?

The answer is with a company on Page 1 of Google, and in all probability, the one nearest the top.  Is that you or is it a competitor that will be getting their money? (No.1 gets 41.2% of clicks).

“But it’s not like that in my industry”
Imagine when you want to find a supplier? A plumber, an accountant, an air-con guy, whatever?

What do you do?

• You go to Google to look for a local supplier – like 80% of people do
• You are busy so you only look at Page 1 – like 94% of people
• You click on the top website that looks promising – like 41% of people
• You have a very quick look at the site and if it says “Welcome to our site. We give great service, we’ve been in business…..” you click away and go to find the next site – like 97% of people
• You look for a site that tells you straightaway what you want – like 85% of people
• You give them a call or send an email – like 60% of people

Yes, over 60% of searches for local businesses end up in a sale… with the websites that are the easiest and quickest to find.

And guess what? The people with money to spend on your industry do exactly the same.

“But my website comes up in Google”
If you think typing your website address in Google means you are found, that’s a very costly mistake.  Only 15% of websites are found by typing in the address.

For the other 85%, people type in phrases related to your service.  Usually they type in a problem they have not the solution they want. For example, how to stop a leaking tap

People search using many different variations of the service you provide. Your site must use those Search-terms, the layman’s terms, not the expert’s. or you have no chance of being found.

The next question.
How do you know what words people use when they search?

You can use this free tool in Google  https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Then

• Learn what it all means.
• Understand it.
• Workout how to use it.
• Find out how much competition you have for each Search-term.
• Decide which is the best combination of search volume and competition.
• Find out what to put on your website and where.
• Write the right type of pages that will be found.
• Check if you’ve got it all right.
• Do it again until you get it right.

Or…….

To save you time and get Page 1 results like many other businesses already have, you can:

Click here to find out how you can get onto Page 1 of Google or
Emailandrew@gigmarketing.biz or
Call (0064) 021 458089 for a complimentary 30-minute consultation to show you how to get among the spenders.

Can you afford not to?

Technorati Tags: 5S SEO, Search engine optimization, SEO

A quick summary of some of the topics we discussed.

The 3 Secrets to Rapid Google Rankings

A 3 keys for your site

Learn new languages…… your prospects’.
Use their languages… everywhere.
Don’t rely on good design for website success – search engine optimization gets you higher in Google.

B Home page

Don’t have “Welcome to our site.  We’ve been in business for xx years. ..blah blah blah.”
That’s for the About Us page.

Instead write about the services and the people you serve using the language from A above.

C Follow the marketing route instead of product route.

For your Services page, break one general page into 3 pages, one each for your top services plus a general one for the other services.

• Visitors see immediately what they are looking for
• Easier for Google to see the service
• Could be ranked among the few providers for that service rather than among the bigger group of  generic providers  e.g. heating installation instead of plumbers.

As you review the call in your mind, you may be curious about your own website’s ranking.

• You may want to know how you could get your site higher in Google.
• Maybe you want to generate more sales leads from your site.
• Perhaps you think your site needs to be optimized to get ahead of your competitors.

To learn how you can improve your ranking in Google with your 27-point Search Engine Assessment Test (SEAT),  click the Paypal button to the right and then enter your details below.

For the first three people, I will buy your 27-point Search-Engine Assessment Test (SEAT) – value $147.

Or discover the best Search-terms for your website with the Search-term, Traffic and Competition Analysis (STACA) report.

This shows up to 200 different Search-terms under each category or service you offer.  It gives you:

• the exact terms people type into Google,
• how many times per day (Traffic) and
• how may other pages use each term (Competition).

This gives you a complete view of your market place and allows you to select the best combinations of Traffic and Competition so you can get easier rankings (less competition) but still with reasonable traffic.

It also enables you to design your site based on what people are searching for.

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The 5S SEO Google Ranking Method

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Thank you.

Andrew Haddleton

andrew@gigmarketing.biz

0064 (0)21 458089

Technorati Tags: 5S SEO, Search engine optimization, SEO