"For Optimum Web Success, Optimize!"

Your website can be one of the most valuable components of your marketing mix. But if prospective clients can't find your site, it can't do its job. Surprisingly, 80% of business websites have not yet been "optimized". Thus, they can't be "found" (or ranked) by popular search engines like Google and Yahoo! This process is called SEO (search engine optimization) which is both an art & science that incorporates marketing strategy, functionality, design and writing with programming corrections on a website.

Historically, most websites were designed to be cute "online brochures", simply delivering a variety of information. In subsequent years, business owners came to believe that clever Flash animations would increase their site traffic or sales. They didn't - but the belief kept lots of web designers and programmers happily employed.

Next came the era of eCommerce, with many enlightened businesses actually making their websites work for them. These maturing site designs offered a wealth of good marketing strategy and functionality, including tailored announcements to clients, point-and-click retrieval of product sales collateral, online registration forms that could be completed 24/7, database searches that quickly found what was needed, and interactive pages. By making useable information available online, these sites saved employees and clients/customers time, making the companies more efficient and ultimately more profitable.

Today, even though most businesses are now incorporating some of this more sophisticated functionality into the design of their websites, many still stumble when it comes to proper "site optimization". This service is most effective when it incorporates search marketing+optimizing solutions. Business owners are often not aware that just like a car needing an engine overhaul around 100,000 miles, a website requires tuning up to fit within new search engine guidelines with algorithms that often change weekly. And optimizing a site without incorporating marketing strategy is like changing your car's oil without filling your flat tires - you just won't get very far.

Many websites were designed by companies who are not optimization-savvy marketers, so no matter how cute or clever a site you visit, it doesn't have the marketing component with optimization to become ranked #1 on Google (or even close to the top of the search list). For example, with the outrageous increase in gasoline costs, I wanted to find a hybrid car so I googled "Toyota hybrid San Francisco". Go ahead-try it: After 15 clicks I still couldn't get to a page that would just tell me pricing, condition of the car and availability. And the phrase "hybrid in San Francisco" is so far down on Google's list that some dealership is losing thousands and thousands in sales from not optimizing their site in a local search. That is only one example demonstrating how almost every website has these same issues because the alchemy of "marketing+optimizing" is just still in it's pioneering stage and businesses haven't known where to find this specific help. Fortunately, it's right here in the Bay Area!

HOW CAN THIS BE SOLVED?

First, add tools to capture the clients who visit your website. This can be done in a friendly, reward-driven manner so you can build a relationship with site visitors to turn them into clients over time. Also, dynamic pages or Java coding are more difficult for search engines to index, so programming should be carefully evaluated by an optimizing expert to ensure those pages are 'legal' in terms of what Google and Yahoo (the top search engines) will allow. Start a blog, if you haven't already - it's easy and gives readers a chance to get to know you. Here are some useful, yet silly tips from Seth Godin, a whiz at search marketing.

More commonly, websites rely on writing that is incorrect for the medium - web and print promotion require an entirely different style - and many sites include few or no searchable keywords. If keywords are included, they're usually selected based on (mostly incorrect) assumptions about what target clients are looking for, rather than careful research and analyzed data that shows the keywords web visitors are actually using in a search.

Other common errors include the use of graphic files that are built incorrectly, with file names, directory structures, and navigation that are not programmed correctly to support optimization. "Doorway" "Splash" or "Gateway" pages (like a one page click-through ad) are also obsolete - they conflict with search engines, as do the many other amateur "optimizing tricks" like repetitive use of your keywords or burying words in hidden colors that have been used in the past, essentially kicking a site off the search ranking. So, if you have those pages, remove them and get a programming evaluation to determine what items require correcting.

Just like an auto, you wouldn't spend extra time and money changing a radiator if all it needed was more fluid. The same principle holds for a website - don't spend the time or money changing design, navigation or programming unless a marketer with an optimizing expert on their team is making those corrections for you. Why? Because major corrections can often be made through simple programming fixes or inexpensive marketing strategies (like the Toyota hybrid site adding pricing next to the auto images so they don't lose site visitors - or sales - because people cannot find what they need right away) and an experienced 'marketing+optimizing team' will know the most cost-effective solutions for you. That’s what we do!

Countless website owners have been sold a service that registers their site on 200 search engines, believing it will get them more highly ranked. But since most engines actually search each other, this investment is entirely unnecessary, and doesn't improve ranking at all. Paid advertising, 'sponsorship' and purchased keywords are still being evaluated for their presumed success. But consider this: Studies that monitor where people look on the screen demonstrates that their eyes skip over paid ads (the grey or blue area on the top or right of your browser’s screen) to look at "natural" search results - those that are found strictly via relevancy. So is it worth the expense? Probably not in most instances when the natural search optimization is properly built. Free and easy to use tools like blogging might bring as much attention to a site as paid ad words so testing and consideration of the most appropriate website marketing can save thousands in a budget.

Recent research from Nielson Net Ratings shows that the number of U.S. web searches grew a whopping 55 percent in December 2005 over December 2004, indicating more people are trying to find things online. Clearly, it's critical for businesses to ensure that their websites have a "marketing+optimization" tune-up which should include: strategies to turn web surfers into clients through a one-on-one marketing evaluation; re-engineered home page design; corrected marketing messages & re-writing to fit the medium; business functionality and exact programming fixes for each site. The good news is that most sites can be optimized relatively quickly, easily and affordably.

FROM BROCHURE-WARE TO BUSINESS

If truth be told, my own website began as a cute "brochure-ware" site that only enabled potential clients to read about my products, abilities, and services. Now, I've learned how to make my site work for me - it sells products literally while I'm sleeping to people worldwide who really need the tools my company offers. This revamp of my own site was the test for this "marketing+optimized" service.

One of the common requests my clients make is for a company profile or bio for a press kit or to supplement their promotional materials. My own online product that writes such profiles has been #1 on Google and Yahoo! for many months since I changed it’s marketing approach and optimized it using this "marketing+optimized" service. This gives my company the benefit of both essential elements - allowing a business to reap optimum web success.

If you're ready to get started take a look at our "search engine optimization" service. I have the best team at a very do-able price.

Allison Bliss Consulting can be reached at: 510-864-8500 or at: http://www.allisonbliss.com/services.htm