The great thing about the "Internets" and Internet Marketing is that you can be as creative as you would like with your strategy to grow brand awareness, customer loyalty, sales and leads. As long as you stay within the accepted (white-hat) rules of SEO, web design conventions and track your campaigns you will be able to measure your success (or lack thereof).
As our populace grows more comfortable and gains experience with utilizing search engines their queries are becoming more and more sophisticated. SEO and internet marketing professionals are keenly aware of this. Long-tail search phrases or phrases that contain a geo-location (area, city, county, state, region) are becoming more and more prevalent. Because of this, businesses that offer products and services in multiple cities are faced with the challenge of getting their website to come up for geo-specific keyword searches utilizing SEO.
Trying to optimize a website to come up in search for multiple locations utilizing SEO is difficult to do, even with a robust geo-targeted landing page strategy. This is because your website, on the whole, will be oversaturated with city names. When Google spiders your site it may become confused as to what location is the most important to rank you for. Should you have a competitor in one of the cities you wish to rank for that is only in that city and they have an optimized website, they will more than likely come up higher in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) than you. What's the best strategy to overcome this challenge? Geo-Targeted Microsites.
Rather than optimizing one main website to come up for multiple geo-specific searches consider building several mini or micro-sites with unique URLs targeted for specific local search queries in your internet marketing campaign. If it's done on the right technology platform and optimized properly it can be affordable and highly effective. The affordability comes from recycling the webdesign across your microsites. This methodology will increase your company's SOV (share of voice), leads and ultimately sales. It's also a strategy that I have successfully deployed and tracked over the last 16 months while reaping the benefits of the hundreds of leads the strategy has provided. Below are the search engine results achieved by deploying highly optimized geo-targeted microsites.
Geo-Targeted Keyword Phrase: Fort Wayne Web Design
Strategy: Microsite and SEO
Geo-Targeted Keyword Phrase: Indianapolis Web Design
GOSHEN, IN, - Mike Gingerich, a Web Technology and Internet Marketing Consultant for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., along with Troy Rumfelt, President of Digital Hill presented, "Web Marketing for Business" to business owners and Dealers of Borkholder Buildings in Nappanee, IN (Elkhart County) today.
The presentation was done at the invitation of Borkholder CEO, Dwayne Borkholder, and was designed to inform the Borkholder Dealer Network on the social, technological and business changes necessary to stay competitive today, with a focus on effective websites, Internet Marketing, and Social Media. The event was a follow-up to the successful launch of a new Borkholder website, New Energy Homes, a new division of Borkholder, which focuses on building Net Zero Green homes and buildings. New Energy recently opened a model Net Zero home in Nappanee, Elkhart County. Digital Hill built and launched the new website for this Elkhart County Manufacturer.
Below are slides from this Internet Marketing and Social Media Presentation:
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, 3-D Animation, Web Application Development, and Internet Marketing and Promotion Strategies in Goshen, Elkhart County, Northern Indiana and throughout the country. They can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
FORT WAYNE, IN, April 1, 2010 - Chad H. Pollitt, a Web Technology Consultant and Internet Marketing Manager for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., will present "Social Media Do's, Don'ts and Rules of Engagement" to business owners, managers, entrepreneurs and independents in Fort Wayne.
The "Change or Die" seminar series is designed to educate Fort Wayne business people on the social, technological and business changes necessary to stay competitive today. The event is sponsored by OurSpace, LLC located at 825 S. Bar Street in downtown Fort Wayne and will begin at noon on April 1st. There is no charge to attend the event and door prizes will be given away.
Seats for the panel discussion are limited so reserve your seat via RSVP: ourspacefortwayne@gmail.com.
Since 2002, Chad H. Pollitt has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, executing and tracking robust web marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations and is an internet marketing expert. He holds a BS in Entrepreneurship from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and an Internet Marketing Masters Certification from the University of San Francisco's prestigious School of Business and Management.
Chad is a decorated veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and an Internet Marketing Manager at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., the leading web development and internet marketing agency in the Midwest. His white papers and articles have been published in over a dozen newspapers and websites throughout the world. With over 10 million dollars of tracked ROI for SEO alone, he has been a guest lecturer, blogger, keynote presenter and featured on multiple radio shows, podcasts and in The Wall Street Journal.
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, 3-D Animation, Database Development, and Web Marketing and Promotion Strategies in Northern Indiana and throughout the Country. They can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
Our president Troy Rumfelt gives his tips on web design, Internet Marketing, and social media in an article published in the South Bend Tribune recently.
Rumfelt talks about using social media in web design and Internet Marketing, and how businesses can use social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging to help them be found in this new age of digital networking. Rumfelt mentions using tools such as Facebook and new applications like Facebook TabSite to effectively engage audiences and share your message. Facebook has had phenomenal growth in the past year moving into mainstream acceptance. In fact, recent data published by Nielsen noted that active Facebook users spent 7 hours of time in January on the Facebook portal.
Digital Hill Multimedia is a full service web design and Internet Marketing firm serving Goshen, Elkhart, South Bend, and Fort Wayne regionally, as well as national clients from coast to coast.
South Bend, IN, March 11, 2010 - Mike Gingerich, a Web Technology and Internet Marketing Consultant for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., will present to the CB Richard Ellis | Bradley South Bend Area team on social media marketing and its business benefits in a presentation entitled "Social Media for Business."
The Summit Club in downtown South Bend, IN, will be the host venue for the March 12 social media marketing presentation. Attendees include regional brokers and team members of CB Richard Ellis | Bradley in the South Bend area.
To be covered in the Presentation:
Business applications for social media
Personal Branding on the web
YouTube, Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others
Social Media Search Engine Optimization
Since 2006, Mike Gingerich has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, and tracking robust web design and Internet Marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations, and is an accomplished Internet Marketing consultant. He holds a M.S. in Organizational Development and Leadership from Shippensburg University of PA, and a B.A. from Bethel College in Mishawaka, IN. Mike is a Web Design and Internet Marketing Consultant at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., a leading web design and internet marketing agency for South Bend and across the Midwest.
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, 3-D Animation, Application Development, and Internet Marketing and Promotion Strategies for South Bend, Northern Indiana and throughout the Country.
For inquiries regarding web design, Internet Marketing, and Social Media strategies, they can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
I often get asked to search engine optimize sites that have been built and deployed already. These projects actually take more work and resources to optimize than if the site was being built from scratch and tend to be strategically flawed sales funnels in internet marketing. SEO should start before any line of code is written, design considered or site map developed. SEO starts immediately after target demographics are defined and personas are developed. Why should SEO be started before the other steps above? The reason has to do with the on-page factor we in the SEO and internet marketing world call Keyword Themes.
Put yourself in the shoes of a search engine and consider what a website looks like to a search engine spider while the site is being indexed. Search engine spiders are looking at source code. What is in source code? A whole bunch of letters, numbers and character strings that tell web browsers what and how to display a website and its functionality. Many internet marketing professionals are not programmers and tend to forget this.
Search engine spiders keep track of every character string it's confronted with and the number of times they're presented. This process creates a ranked list of words for every page and is critical for SEO. The words at the top of this list (1, 2, 3, etc.) are that page's keyword theme according to the search engine. Each word is assigned a significance based on the search engine spider's perception of several on-page factors (i.e. placement, repetition, Page Title, Header Tags, Bolding, Alt Tags, etc.). Once a search engine has spidered more than one page and determined the pages keyword themes it can combine the ranked keyword lists from all of the pages it's spidered to determine an overall website keyword list. This final list shows your website's keyword theme. Google's Webmaster Tools reports on website keyword themes:
Because of keyword themes it is very important to do a keyword workshop to create a list of keywords your potential customers may type into the search engines. These keywords allow you to predefine what every page's theme will be and what the overall website's theme for SEO will be before it goes live. Assign a primary keyword or phrase to every page on your website. This assignment will drive all of the content on that page. Otherwise, you're crossing your fingers and hoping Google ranks you for those keywords. That is not SEO.
In order to convince the search engines that a particular phrase should be the overall website theme it is important to make your homepage's primary keyword phrase the secondary keyword phrase for the rest of the pages in the site. That way the overall keyword theme is well represented throughout the website and your SEO attempts will have a better chance for success.
Websites that are optimized after they are developed tend to have multiple pages with no real SEO value or don't fit within the keyword theme strategy. These pages actually hurt your SEO and chances of high rankings because they dilute your overall website's keyword saturation with meaningless words.
The Rule of 1, 3 and 7 in Internet Marketing & Website Design
Every website and internet marketing campaign should have one major measureable goal. Once this goal is defined a strategy can be developed and tactics can be deployed. The key to this goal is the word measurable. Sometimes, when I take on a new client, they begin by telling me how they want an "informational" website only. For starters, all websites are informational, and second, informational is not a measurable goal.
It takes a measurable goal to correctly determine ROI. An example of a measurable goal for a non-ecommerce website might be to grow the email data base by 50% over the next six months, or to increase the number of web-tracked phone calls by 75% in the next quarter.
The Rule of 1
If your goal is measurable then the Rule of 1 applies. The biggest boldest callout on the whole website should be some form of email capture or web-tracked phone number based call to action. This could be done via a robust Contact Us, UVP, moral bribe or portal strategy. Otherwise, you're just hoping your website visitor is compelled enough by your content to look for your contact us link, click on it, and fill out your form.
The Rule of 3
This rule is comonly utilized as a segmentation best practice in internet marketing. Segmentation strategies using the Rule of 3 clearly highlight three specific paths that a visitor can take that will help that visitor solve a problem. More than three paths can be presented, but the callouts should be clearly grouped in threes or less and be cleary separate from the other groups.
Below is an example of the Rule of 3 and the Rule of 1 on the same website. You'll notice there are 5 destinct major paths a visitor can take. The first three, Laser, Optical and GPS represent segmentation to convert a visit into a sale. The other two callouts are for lead capture and survey equipment services which are secondary goals. Therefore, they are cleary separate from the three major segmentation paths. This was done utilizing design, color and shape differences.
The Rule of 7
Ever wonder why phone numbers have seven numbers? It's because the average human mind can remember, handle and digest up to seven numbers at once. This same idea holds true for websites and throughout internet marketing. Never present a visitor with more then seven callouts or links of equal weight to sort through. Your site will suffer from poor click-through rates because visitors don't have the patience to sort through all of the information you're trying to present them with. You can present more then seven paths but they must be cleary presented in groups of no more then seven. This can be done utilizing headings, design, color and shape differences.
During my Internet Marketing career I've been fortunate enough to work with and be exposed to many different companies, agencies, designers and internet marketing professionals. Some of which are considered international leaders in the internet marketing community while others talk a mean game, but fall very short on results. Each and every person has their own idea of what makes a successful website. This experience has allowed me to test and verify dozens of concepts and ideas on the best way to design a website that converts as many people as possible.
What I've found isn't rocket science. It can be summed up in one word - Simplicity. Less truly is more. Unfortunately, most web development companies want to sell you a big bloated website with lots of pages, functionality and links because they can charge more for it. Even if it's a detriment to your website conversion performance. The below concepts are so obvious it baffles me when internet marketing professionals ignore them.
People go to the web for two reasons only:
To be entertained or to solve a problem -> QUICKLY.
1. Establishing the number one goal of the website and making it the biggest eye catching callout on the homepage.
If your core competency is plumbing then there should be a big fat "Schedule Your Plumbing Appointment Today" callout, or something to that effect, and not a small text link that is buried in a list of a bunch of minor services you provide. This callout should present a phone number and contain a link to a contact page or an actual form on the callout to capture email addresses. Why is email capture so important? What other "tangible" asset can a non-ecommerce website provide a plumber? Email addresses have a monetary value and by having a visitor's email address you keep them in your sales funnel until they opt out.
2. In less than a second it should be completely obvious what the website is for.
Whether this is done graphically, with large text or both, it is critical that a website visitor knows exactly what they can expect from a website within .6 seconds. Also, don't use industry jargon to communicate this message. Remember, your visitors have a problem and they've gone to your site for a solution. If they understood your jargon they wouldn't be on your site. This message should be displayed above the fold. Flash can be used, but correctly and sparingly.
3. Don't try to make your website everything to everybody and stick to your core competencies.
This will frustrate your visitors because they'll easily get lost in all of the navigation you present them with. You only have four seconds to get someone to click on a link. Most website's function like sales funnels, but if that funnel has 50 different entry points on the home page you'll cause the visitor to have to sort through them. Drop down navigation is notorious for this. Remember, people are on your site for entertainment or to solve a problem. Most companies are in the business of solving problems so solve them quickly without making your visitors hover over 10 drop down menus to figure out where they need to go.
4. Offer and test UVPs and/or Moral Bribes.
If you have a non-ecommerce website and don't have a unique value proposition or moral bribe than you are basically crossing your fingers and hoping the phone rings. What if that person never goes back to your site? If you would have collected their email address with a UVP or moral bribe you could continue to market to that person whether they go back to your website or not. If someone is on your website because they have a problem than offer them something of unique value to help them solve their problem in exchange for an email address. Never expect the classic, "sign up for my newsletter" to significantly grow your email database in internet marketing.
1. Miniature golf, Par 3 courses, 18 hole golf courses - The keyword phrase you're going after determines what type of course you're playing on. Coming up number one on Google for the phrase "New York" would be like playing in the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club and winning. However, going after the phrase "Ligonier grocery stores 24 hours" is like playing on your favorite miniature golf course, quick and easy.
2. A perfect game is impossible - Nobody can hit 18 hole-in-ones in a row. But, just like golf, in SEO you just have to play better than the your competitors to win. In SEO, your competitors are the organic links on the first page of Google.
3. Teeing off, Short Game, Putting. A good 300 yard drive reminds me of a website launched with its on-page SEO factors carefully crafted with keywords put in all of the right places. That's exactly how you want to start a round. However, you still can lose if you don't pay attention to your short game (off-page factors) or putting (programming).
4. Sand Traps - Sometimes good SEO and internet marketing professionals accidently get websites caught up in bad keyword neighborhoods, link farms or even red flagged by Google. This is a result of losing focus and being sloppy.
5. Mulligans, Blackhat, Cheating - SEO is no different than golf: People cheat. If they get caught Google will throw them out of the SERPs. Golfers get tossed from the tour.
6. Golf Equipment, Instruction - Ever try to shop for golf equipment online? There's thousands of items available for sale that allow you to play the game or improve your game. SEO and internet marketing is no different.
7. There's no guaranteed winner - Nobody can guarantee results in SEO just like nobody is guaranteed to win in golf. However, some people and companies can have a pretty good record of SERP placement over time. If you're going to invest, invest in a solid track record. I usually bet on Tiger Woods.
8. Keyword Research, Mental Game - How often do you hear that golf is a mental game? Even the best players in the world can have a poor round if their head isn't in it. I've seen lots of SEO professionals do everything right in SEO, but fail because they chose the wrong keywords to go after. Doing good keyword research and preparation for SEO and internet marketing is like having your "mind in the game" in golf.
9. Getting good takes time - Nobody steps on a golf course for the first time and plays like a pro. SEO is no different. Depending on the keyword you're working on, it could take 12 or more months to see first page placement in Google. Patience is a requirement in the SEO business.
10. Basketball is a sport, but it's not golf - Don't expect your web designer or IT programmer to get your website to the top of the SERPs. SEO is a completely different sport. Nobody would expect Charles Barkley to beat Vijay Singh in a tournament.
11. Golf Carts, Cigars and Beer - What do these have to do with SEO? Not much, but believe it or not, SEO professionals are not a bunch of computer geeks that don't like to have fun. If you don't believe me, attend a search conference or internet marketing after party. . .
FORT WAYNE, IN, February 24, 2010 - Chad H. Pollitt, a Web Technology Consultant and Internet Marketing Manager for Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., will one of four panel members discussing social media marketing and its business benefits in "Social Media Explained."
Also appearing is Eric Hall of EH Design, Scott Howard of ScLoHo Marketing Solutions and Jean Bansemer. The social media marketing panel will meet Wednesday, February 24th at noon and is open to the public as a brown bag lunch event. There's no cost to attend and door prizes will be given away. The event is sponsored by OurSpace, LLC located at 825 S. Bar Street in downtown Fort Wayne.
Reviewed by the panel:
Small business applications
Personal Branding
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others
Seats for the panel discussion are limited so reserve your seat via RSVP: ourspacefortwayne@gmail.com.
Since 2002, Chad H. Pollitt has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, executing and tracking robust web marketing strategies for over 100 client companies and organizations and is an internet marketing expert. He holds a BS in Entrepreneurship from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and an Internet Marketing Masters Certification from the University of San Francisco's prestigious School of Business and Management. Chad is a decorated veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and an Internet Marketing Manager at Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc., the leading web development and internet marketing agency in the Midwest. His white papers and articles have been published in over a dozen newspapers and websites throughout the world. With over 10 million dollars of tracked ROI for SEO alone, he has been a guest lecturer, blogger, keynote presenter and featured on multiple radio shows, podcasts and in The Wall Street Journal.
For over 12 years, Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. has specialized in Web Design, E-Commerce, SEO, Web Hosting, Social Media, Flash, 3-D Animation, Database Development, and Web Marketing and Promotion Strategies in Northern Indiana and throughout the Country. They can be contacted at 1-888-537-0703 or www.digitalhill.com.
Professional Website Development
