Website Success Secret: Choosing Website Keywords
September 23, 2008
It’s the year 2000 and your web developer comes to you and asks, “What html keywords do you want to use to promote your website?” You’re thrilled. You don’t know WHAT keywords are, but they sound important and essential. So, you rattle off a list of words you think are important to your business, your website developer plugs those html keywords into a meta tag and you’re off and running.
Long ago in internetland- you could just list the keywords you wanted to target in the “keywords” meta tag and VIOLA! Your work was done. Today, keywords still play an important role in your website.
If you’re like most small business owners, you may not even know what keywords are. Quite simply, keywords are the terms your customers use to find solutions on the internet - you know, the kind of solutions your business offers in the form of products and services.
Now, here’s the rub - the terms people are using to find the products and services you’re offering may be dramatically different than the terms YOU think people are using.
For example, I had a client who offered career coaching services and one of the keywords she thought would be good for her website was “job”. Fortunately, it didn’t take much “keyword research” to learn that when people were searching for “jobs” they didn’t include traditional recruiting techniques and focused more upon the world’s oldest profession.
Are you looking for PR for your company? Did you know that PR not only stands for Public Relations but also Page Rank. So one person might be searching for free publicity while another might be searching for a way to improve your websites positions in the search listings.
How to Get the Right Keywords
So choosing the right keywords is VERY important for your website.
One very popular tool for choosing keywords is the Google Keyword Tool.
Using this tool, you can quickly judge which keywords are best for your website.
For example, in the race for publicity - there are many different keywords you might choose for your public relations company (the keywords are bold and italic)
- News Release - which averages 60,500 searches per month
- Publicity - which averages 135,000 searches per month
- Press Release - which averages 450,000 searches per month
Which of those three words would YOU want to focus upon for your public relations company (3,600 searches per month) website?
While the Google Keywords tool is great, if you want to take your keyword research further - check out Wordze. This powerful program digs deeper and quite honestly, lets you know which keywords are worth targeting for your business.
Building A Business Website: Step 4
September 10, 2008
Step 4 in Building A Business Website:
Create a Website Strategy
Step 1 in Building A Business Website is to determine what you want your website to accomplish.
Step 2 in Building a Business Website is to perform a SWOT analysis. Identify your business’ strengths and weaknesses and determine if your website can help support your business where it is weak.
Step 3 in Building a Business Website is to know your audience. It’s essential to remember that you are not designing this website to please you. You’re designing your business website for your TARGET AUDIENCE.
Now, the fourth step in Building a Business Website is to create a Website Strategy.
In order to develop a website strategy you must first establish clear goals for your business website. Then, you need to establish how you’ll MEASURE your website performance. You’ll need to establish OBJECTIVES in order to measure your website success.
Objectives are the goals of the website while strategies are how you will meet your objectives. So, in order to create a website strategy, you must first set a measurable goal.
For example, if the goal (objective) of your website is to improve customer service, then you’ll need to find a way to MEASURE whether this objective is being accomplished. One way to MEASURE that stated objective is to monitor the number of customer support telephone calls. A reduction in phone calls with a corresponding increase in website traffic is a sign that the website is meeting the objective of improving customer service.
When you have established the objective and how you will measure whether or not those objectives are being met, you’ll then know which metrics to watch.
In the example above, if you didn’t know that the objective of the website was to improve customer service, then you wouldn’t know to monitor the volume of incoming calls for customer services. Without that important metric, you wouldn’t be able to determine whether or not the website was meeting its objective.
Creating a website strategy is simply how you’ll go about meeting the objective for the website. It’s amazing how EASY the whole website strategy discussion gets when you first establish an objective.
With an objective in hand, creating the strategy becomes the “easy” part of creating website success.
Building a Business Website: Step 3
September 8, 2008
Step 3 in Building A Business Website:
Know Your Audience
The first step to building a successful business website is to determine what you want your website to DO for your business.
The next step to building a successful business website is to perform a SWOT analysis of your business- including your competitors.
Now, we’re to what may be the hardest part of building a business website: Knowing Your Audience
This is your business website. You are not designing this website to please you. You’re not designing this website to please your spouse. You’re designing your business website for your TARGET AUDIENCE.
I once had a client who had previously hired a gifted web developer to create her original website. The original web developer correctly “nailed” this client’s personality and developed a site with the client in mind. The site was funky and fresh. I featured photos of the client in a very Audrey Hepburn type of attire/attitude. The colors were dark purple and orange and the art work was very hip and modern.
Unfortunately, this client was providing goods and services to individuals in the financial sector.
So, for the first six weeks after her website was launched, this client was happily cold calling prospective clients. She happily provided her URL for her website to those who showed and interest in her services - and when she did she noticed an alarming trend. When she gave her website address to prospective clients, she noticed that they suddenly refused to take her phone calls. At first she wasn’t alarmed, but when she quit giving her web address and landed a couple of clients, she contacted me in a panic.
We redesigned the site and toned down the “hip” vibe. The original web developer would have said the new site was “stuffy” and “boring”. We went from using purple and orange to navy blue and gray. She got new head shots and this time, she wore a suit and assumed a traditional “formal” pose.
The result was amazing. When she began giving the URL of her new website to prospective clients, she landed 10 of the next 12 prospects who visited her website.
This is an essential Web Site Success Story which clearly illustrates the “design your website with your audience in mind”.
You’re designing this website with your AUDIENCE in mind.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- WHO is coming to your site? (Current customers? Prospective customers?)
- WHY are they coming to your website?
- WHEN will they be coming? (Before the sale? After the sale?
- WHAT do they expect to find when they get to your website?
- HOW can you make your website easier for them to use?
The only perspective that is important when it comes to your website is your visitor’s perspective.
With this in mind, ask potential users to “test” your ideas for your website before you begin the work of development. A potential user’s opinion can offer valuable insight throughout the process.
By asking for your customer’s input, you’ll not only get a better idea of what you need to do to create a successful website for your business, but you’ll also be demonstrating your commitment to them, your customers.
Just be forewarned, you may not always LIKE what you hear. In my business, when I asked my clients how they wanted their website tutorials delivered, I had video in mind for the delivery. Creating an online video is faster and easier than creating a written version. Unfortunately, my clients overwhelmingly “voted” for a hard copy of the tutorials so they could print out the tutorial as they went through it.
It’s all about the customer. Make sure you design your business website with your customers needs in mind!
Keys to Success Statements
September 4, 2008
Keys to Success Statements:
It’s important as you try to climb the ladder of success to head the words of wisdom offered by those who have gone before us.
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)
In other words, according to Abraham Lincoln, an essential key to success is believing that it’s possible! If you believe that you can achieve success, that’s the first step in building the determination you’ll need to succeed.
Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.
Dr. David M. Burns
This is a big one. An essential key to success is to aim for success and not perfection. When you aim for perfection, you get caught in a never ending cycle of making incremental improvements in the pursuit of success. Learning to recognize when good enough is good enough is an essential key to success.
Finally, I’ll end with the immortal words of screen legend Helen Hays:
My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that ‘achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others, and that’s nice, too, but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.’
Helen Hayes (1900 - 1993)
I must admit, I’ve been confusing “success” with “achievement” lately. Sometimes those two things are one and the same. Sometimes they don’t go together at all.
Aim for achievement and forget about success sounds like great advice!
Building A Business Website: Step 2
September 4, 2008
Step 2 in Building A Business Website:
Performing a SWOT analysis
Once you’ve decided upon a GOAL for your website, (Step 1 in Building a Business Website), then it’s time to perform a little further analysis before you begin Business Website Design Preparation.
Prior to beginning the design process of your business website, it’s best to perform a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
- Strengths - this one is usually pretty easy for most entrepreneurs. Where is your business strong?
- Weaknesses - this one is usually more difficult for most entrepreneurs. We’d all like to think we don’t have any weaknesses, however it’s very possible that the website will be the “answer” to an identified weakness.
- Opportunities - we’ve all heard the saying about opportunity knocking. What opportunities are knocking on your business’ door? Can your website be the answer?
- Threats - did your competitors hear opportunity knocking before you did? Did they act more quickly? What threats to they pose?
If you have trouble making this analysis, ask yourself the following questions:
- Who is number 1 in your industry? Number 2? Number 3?
- What are each of these competitors doing that you’re not?
Perhaps your competitors are providing free tools to prospective customers via their website. Maybe they’re offering discounts to customers via the web or they are offering better customer support as a result of their website.
Try to look BEYOND the visual impression your competitor’s website makes. A beautiful site which isn’t functional is NOT an asset. You’re asking these questions now so your website can be professional AND functional!
Finally, perform an in depth analysis of your competitors’ websites. See what content they’re providing. You’ll also want to look at which keywords they focus on and who’s linking to their site.
You might think you’re finished with your competitive analysis but you’re not because what if your competitor is in the middle of their own website re-design because the current version isn’t working for their business at all!
So, in order to tell if your primary analysis is a road map you should take (or a warning to the direction you don’t want to take) , take a look at their website via one of the “traffic spying” sites such as Compete and Alexa.
However, low traffic numbers may not mean an unsuccessful web site, so the best “test” of a competitor’s website is to create a free email account and contact your competitor via their website. How long does it take to get a reply? A reply that comes in within 24 hours means that your competitor is serious about their website. If a week or more has passed without a response, consider their website to be a WARNING to your business on how NOT to run a website.
Far too often, business owners play the “me too” game when developing their website. I once had a client who INSISTED upon copying a competitor’s site. Six weeks later, the competitor launched his new redesigned website. Turned out my client had unknowingly been emulating a website that wasn’t working for her competitor.
An essential key to website success is to rerform a SWOT analysis before you begin building your business website. It’s a key to creating a website strategy that works!
Installing Plug-ins to Improve Wordpress SEO:
September 2, 2008
In the first post of this series on How to Make your Own Website, we looked at the importance of choosing the right domain name.
In the second post of this series, we looked at how important it is to find a quality web host.
In the third post of this series, we looked at why your website should be a blog.
Then, we covered installation of Wordpress blogs on your own hosting provider.
Now, in this post, we’re going to share some of the best Plug-ins for Wordpress self hosted blogs.
Here’s the list of essential plus ins Acumen Web Services includes in their blog installation:
- Akismet
Protects you from spam comments. Requires you sign up with a separate account with Wordpress.com to activate, but it WELL worth the effort! - AskApache Password Protect
This plug in essential adds some serious password protection to your WordPress Blog. Not only does it protect your wp-admin directory, but also your wp-includes, wp-content, plugins, etc. plugins as well. Imagine a HUGE brick wall protecting your frail .php scripts from the endless attacks of automated web robots and password-guessing exploit-serving virii. - Commentluv
Automatically grabs and displays a blog commenter’s most recent blog post. - Google (XML) Sitemap Automatic Generator
Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. Every time you make a blog post, this plug in automatically generates a new XML site map for your blog. Google was the first to “require” sitemaps for indexing and now Yahoo, MSN, Ask, etc all use this format as well.It’s not enough to just post new keyword articles to your blog style website. You MUST have this plug-in uploaded and installed to enjoy the full power of a self hosted Wordpress blog. - No WWW
When you install Wordpress, it defaults to http://yoursitename.extension. Sometimes, people will type in a www in front and if they do that when they’re creating links to your blog, then the search engines won’t recognize them as the same as links without the www. - Post Keyword Research
This is a new essential!!! Allows you to easily do keyword research BEFORE you title that blog post! - Replace WP-Version
If a hacker tries to force his way into your Wordpress installation, one of the things he/she will need to know is what version of Wordpress your blog is running. If your blog is running 2.3.1 or earlier, it has a security hole that allows spammers to actually INJECT hidden code into your blog. This plug in hides that information. - Robots Meta
One of the files you need to chmod to 666 is the Robots.txt file. This plug in allows you to alter that file without using FTP. - Secure and Accessible PHP Contact Form
Protects your inbox from spammers using your contact form to contact you. - WordPress.com Stats
Since you already got your API from Wordpress.com, go ahead and install this plug in and use that API code here as well.
How to Create a Simple Website
August 30, 2008
One of the most important keys to create a simple website is to recognize what you want your website to do for your business.
Peter Drucker once said that the purpose of business is not to make a sale, but to keep a customer. The properly developed web site is a killer application for not only getting new customers but keeping your current customers happy. The key is to develop a web site that focuses on the web’s primary strength which is communicating information.
Are you creating a website to capture a prospective customer’s attention before he/she makes a purchase? More and more, internet users are using the medium to do research online before making a purchase. In the case of appliance purchases, more than 80 percent of consumers go to the web first before making a purchase.
You website doesn’t have to be complex or complicated to help someone make a buying decision. As a matter of fact, simpler is better when it comes to creating a website.
A Wordpress self hosted blog is an easy, simply way to create an effective and successful website. These blogs can look more like websites than blogs by simply choosing the right “presentation”.
How To Make Your Own Website: Wordpress Installation
July 28, 2008
This is the fourth post in the series on How to Make your Own Website.
In the first step, we looked at the importance of choosing the right domain name.
In the second post of this series, we looked at how important it is to find a quality web host.
In the third post of this series, we looked at why your website should be a blog.
Now, we’re going to cover basic installation of your Wordpress blog.
I stated in the second post that there are only TWO web hosts I can recommend from personal experience that offer the Fantastico Cpanel for blog installation.
To install Wordpress, you merely log into your cpanel with the address provided in your activation letter.
In the Cpanel, you’ll see an option for Fantastico Control Panel. That’s where you want to go. The Fantastico Control Panel offers you one click installation of Wordpress.
Now, once you’ve installed Wordpress, you’ll need to do a few simple “tweaks” to make your wordpress blog even better.
FIRST: Log into your Administration Panel
SECOND: Click on Settings. Under “General” change the time to your local time.
THIRD: This is the most important “tweak” you can make to Wordpress.
Click on the PERMALINKS like under Settings.
The “default” setting is not the most SEO friendly setting available.
By default your Wordpress posts will be displayed like this:
http://keystowebsitesuccess.com/?p=123
You’ll lose out on a significant amount of Search Engine Mo-Jo by leaving this setting with the default value.
If changing this makes you nervous, then choose the option:
http://keystowebsitesuccess.com/2008/07/sample-post/
If you’re feeling brave, there are two other “advanced” options you can use:
- Click “Custom Structure” and paste in the following: /%postname%/
- Click “Custom Structure” and paste in the following: /%category%/%postname%/
The first option makes the permalink of your posts appear like this:
http://keystowebsitesuccess.com/sample-post/
The second option makes the permalink of your post appear like this:
http://keystowebsitesuccess.com/category/sample-post/
Both of these are far superior to the ?p=123 name for posts.
See, when the search engines index your blog post, the name of the post plays a role in your ranking. By changing this value to http://keystowebsitesuccess.com/sample-post/, the title of the blog post can do it's job to help your post get good SERPS.
In order to make this “stick”, you’ll have to change the permission the htaccess file to 666.
If working with an FTP program or doing a chmod to change a file permission gives you the willies, then be forewarned, it’s not going to get any better from here on out.
Acumen Webservices will take care of all of this type of work so you can get down to creating blog posts and blog pages.
While you’re in there, upload and chmod your robots.txt file to 666 as well.
It’s at this point I also upload essential plug ins. More about that next!
Website Success: A Strategy That Works
July 5, 2008
A common question asked by small business owners is this: “How do I build and promote my web site so I can get lots of traffic?”
There is a proven system for achieving website success. When you follow the following steps, you’ll be on your way to creating a successful website.
Website Success Strategy #1: Creating a Website That Can Be Found By the Search Engines.
Proper coding is essential to website success. Creating a website that can be found by the search engines is ESSENTIAL. It’s been estimated that 4 out of 5 visitors who arrive at a website came there via the search engines.
Website Success Strategy #2: Creating a Website That Can Be Easily Understood By Human Visitors.
When a visitor arrives at your website, they should know IMMEDIATELY what exactly it is you offer. Don’t make them hunt through your site, looking for exactly what it is that you do.
I recently visited a website where the domain name suggested that it was a job search portal, and sure enough, there were job listings displayed. However, there was also a large chunk of the page devoted to a software offering that would enable a company to create their own job search portal. I still don’t know if the site was just a demo site for the free software, or if the free software was an advertisement for another site.
Don’t confuse your visitor. Make it clear what you offer and how much it costs.
Website Success Strategy #3: CreatingTightly Targeted Content
In order to accomplish the second website success strategy, you’re going to have to create tightly targeted content. This may mean creating more than one website for your company’s products and services. If your product or service appeals to many different target audiences, it’s a great investment to create a tightly targeted website for each audience.
Website Success Strategy #4: Great Content = Lots of Incoming Links
The search engines are powered by robots. These robots can’t determine whether the content on your website is well written or not. What they can determine is how many other sites are linking to your content and that is how they will judge whether your content is any good.
That is why you want to create GREAT CONTENT for your website… great content that attracts lots of links from other websites.
Great content is more than well written articles. Unfortunately, well written articles are as likely to be pilfered as linked. However, great content could be a widget which website owners can feature on their websites. When they feature these widgets on their websites, they’re leaving a link back to your website.
For example, Wordle offers a unique way to display your blog’s content in a visually engaging manner.
The image to the left is the Wordle for this website’s content.
Each Wordle which is displayed on a website brings yet another incoming link to the Wordle site. The search engine robots can’t see what the content is, but they can see the hundreds of new incoming links to the Wordle site each day.
In the search engine robot’s eyes, Wordle must have some GREAT content to be getting all those links.
Providing such a tool from your website is a GREAT way of building those all important incoming links.
Those incoming links not only show the search engines how great your website is, they also provide hundreds if not thousands of “breadcrumb trails” for human visitors to follow as well.
Great content helps your website in two ways. First, it gives your website more authority with the search engines. Websites with lots of links rank higher than websites with fewer links. Second, all those incoming links to help human visitors find your website without the help of the search engines.
Website Success Strategy #5: Patience
Patience is truly a virtue when it comes to creating a website success strategy. Trying to take shortcuts will only lead to getting your website banned from the search engines.
One thing the search engines seem to LOVE is a “mature” website. The older your website gets, the better it will do with the search engines. If you take a look at the top natural search engine results, you’ll notice the top ranked sites are usually several years old.
These five Website Success Strategies are the foundation for each and every successful website.
Get More Traffic to Your Website
June 29, 2008
If you’re like most website owners, one of the ways you define website success is by the number of visitors who come to your website.
Building a web site is like erecting a billboard in the Alaskan Wilderness. No matter how brilliant your design and clever your content, unless people can find your site and see your efforts, it’s guaranteed that your web site won’t produce results.
The Small Business Administration polled the best and brightest of small business and found that:
- 100% use the Internet
- 97% use e-mail
- 94% have Web sites
- 56% use Internet ordering / e-commerce
So what can you do to be assured your website can be found? Since over 80% of all website traffic is generated by search engines, your site must be among the first twenty or so listings.
Getting listed and ranked well in the various search engines is a unique mixture of art and science called SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION or SEO.
SEO will produce DRAMATIC results for your web site and your business. Take note: SEO is not web site submission. That is but a small part of what SEO is.
Search Engine Optimization means to OPTIMIZE and prepare your website in the best possible way to achieve the highest ranking possible in EVERY major search engine!
Each search engine ranks sites based on different criteria. It’s important to hire someone who knows how they differ! There are also many “dirty tricks” which may or may not help your site get better rankings. These tactics usually are picked up quickly by each search engine and are severely penalized. In other words, get caught using these and you’ll find yourself banned from the very lifeblood of your online business.
One of the fastest and easiest ways to create a Search Engine Friendly website is to base your website on a self hosted Wordpress blog. A Wordpress blogs acts like a search engine friendly content management system so even someone with limited knowledge about the search engines and how they work can create a website that ranks well with the search engines.
