Create an online environment that foster a connection

At this point you should be giving some thought to your social media efforts.  That sounds broad, but thats because you should be thinking about social medial in each step of your online business.  Connections are being made around the web between google plus and google, facebook and bing, yahoo and delicious (just to name a few).

Selling a product to a new customer is much harder than a friend getting another friend to try your site out.  The more social connections your business can make (regardless of what your business is) the easier your sales/positive actions will come to you.

So don't be afraid to put a facebook icon on your site, or a facebook sign in your brick and mortar store.  If you are selling real estate then make the connection so you can build and investors list.  Marketers have just begun to tap the power of social media.

Video, Forums, Circles, Groups.......  the list goes on and on.  Find ways that you can use social media to help your business.  Indirect sales through social media creates a buzz for you and word of mouth travels much faster electronically.


Good Luck and keep up the good work!

Bing - Continuing to do what it does

Bing continues to offer more to business owners and mobile devices.  One the new version released      

• The Bing daily image will be displayed.      
• Users will receive region-specific home page information.     
• Image search is enabled.     
• Auto suggestions and recent search item suggestions are now enabled.      
• Bing Maps has been optimized for a split view that shows the map and directions on the same screen.    
• Bing Maps has added seamless image updates when you scroll to new areas of the map.  
• A “Share on Facebook” option has been added to many pages, including restaurant pages, images, and more.

So what does this mean for you, well I am sure when you give this some thought you can brainstorm the possibilities.  Some of the main things that come to mind should be the connection between Facebook and Bing maps.  How exciting, this is Bing's efforts against google places for business.  So plan on doing more with your Facebook Business Page to excel in Bing's map system.

Good luck with your mobile optimization.

Tending to the Basics

If Google, Youtube, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Twitter are controlling the majority of your traffic then don't bite off more than you can chew by adding another engine or social platform to your plate.  Learn (the most that you can) about each one of the big hitters and choose a focus.

Chances are you may find that you do not need to do anymore than the big 6 above.  When you are working with your online business it is easy to get caught up in too much.  There are so many other areas to focus on that it can be very overwhelming.

Let me suggest starting with Google and then branch out from there.  Within Google you can work on your Page Rank, Google Places, Google Buzz, Google Plus, Google Adwords, and Google Adsense.  There are other areas, but you can grow into those.  Luckily for you (for the most part) google offers great support to help you.

Create a plan to follow weekly.  Just a little work (30-60) a night will go a long way month after month.

Quick SEO tips

1. Content is king, so focus your content (well written  content) on your primary keyword phrase.
2. Don't get too focused on PR, it is just a small part of the "Algorithm" and a lower PR can out rank a higher PR in a SERP
3. Use the keywords in your site to link, don't use an off word for a link.  Example use key word great widget to link if great widget is the key word.  Don't create a link  from the word "link here".
4. Choose a domain name that is keyword friendly, don't choose a domain that does not have your keyword phrase.
5. Add  fresh content regularly
6. Googles submission process can take weeks.  Get a link from a quality site and you can get spiders so much faster.
7. Make sure your site is not on a blacklisted server.
8. If you are using a blog optimize your post title tag separate from your blog title.
9. Don't be stingy with your links.  If you want people to link to you, then you need to link out.  The link will come.
10. Remember SEO is not a one shot process.  Plan on working on your optimization a little every day.

Getting out of the sandbox

Getting out of the Search Engine "sandbox" does take work.  If you are an E-commerce site the"sandbox" can be a little frustrating as bills from running a business come up.  The "sandbox" does exist and there will always be some kind of delay (especially if you are doing all the SEO work yourself) but that doesn't mean you have to only focus on one search engine.  There are a number of search engines out there that are much easier to index in and get good results.  You can get 50 of your traffic from other search engines so while your site ages and become "worthy" to join the rest of the index.

Here are a couple of ways to help shorten your "sandbox" time.
1. build links from authoritative site. - Sites that are considered important
2. Try a social approach, authoritative blogs and forums can help.

Inclusion into directories like dmoz.org and yahoo are a good place to start.   Both directories have good and bad reputations out there, but this is a good place to start.  I don't think the sandbox is a bad thing, it is effective and it helps to weed out your competitors that really are not committed.

So I guess you have to ask yourself, are you committed?

To many alt tags

Lets start by covering some basic information.  

Basic definition - The alt attribute is used in HTML and XHTML documents to specify alternative text.  In HTML 4.01, the attribute is required for an Image or something that fits this tag.  There are some common misconceptions out there.  For example the alt attribute isn't always meant for an image.  It can be an alternative for the image. 

If you were to look at the html code it would look like this - <img src="yoursite/home1.jpg" width="357" height="400" alt="camera - zoom lens"> or <img src="yoursite/home1.jpg" width="357" height="400" alt="man taking pictures of senior class">

When the Alt tag is done correctly then your Tag (the text string) should show if the image does not for one reason or another.  This can help your on page SEO to some degree.  However most people go over board and use them as keywords and then flood the page.  That will make your key word saturation way to high and should be avoided.  While every image should have alt tag that doesn't mean every tag should be a keyword.  

Ideally you should have maybe 2 alt tags that are keyword heavy.

Good luck with your alt tags.  Hope this was helpful.

Conversion Rates On Your Website

How well does your website convert visitors?  Keep in mind a conversion is not only the sale of products or services.  The entire site is a converting tool.  When a visitor spends time on your website there a many things you are trying to "convert" on.

• email capture
• contact information
• phone call from customer
• survey completion 
• product purchase
• service purchase
• appointment setting

These are just some of the basics.  To create a well oiled machine that converts consistently is easier than you would think, just pay attention to your customer.  As you gather more emails, complete more surveys, etc you will find it easier and easier to work with your customer. 

Use A/B testing to create an environment of study.   Do not test more than one element on one page a day.  

Good Luck

Google Plus is coming

"Google Plus" is a project that is currently under the scope.  If you haven't received an invite then lets hope you get one soon.  The entire thought process of Plus is really special.  You will now have the best of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Yelp, Foursquare, Skype etc.

You can create your own click/ circles - you can do conference or group video calls and really share the good stuff virally.

So what does that mean for a online business owner.  Well it give you even more avenues and tools to promote your business socially.  If you get the chance to set up a Google Plus account don't pass it up.  If it takes off like Google hopes it will be the future of social media.

Google Knols are your friends

Think of a environment where experts are invited to share what they know.  Now consider this there are readers/followers on thousands of topics already in place.  Well, Google has created this environment and made it free for you.  So if your wondering how to use it for your business lets go through a few bullet points.

1. You could use this platform for content creation.
2. A Knol can have a link in it back to your home page.
3. You can create a Knol for each product category or product with links back to each product page.
4. You can create link popularity for your blog (s).
5. You can place your product video in your Knol.
6. You can place a training video about your industry/product/store.
7. You can create popularity and a following for a YouTube channel.
8. You can add images that you would like tagged for images searches in SE.

These are just a few ideas of how you could use a Knol to help your current website.  This is just another free tool that is out there for your use.  With a little imagination you can really take advantage of what is available to you.

Feedback from friends......

Many times over the course of a year you will get a remark from a friend or from a one off visitor about your site's navigation, color scheme, layout etc.  How should you take that?  Well there are a number of reactions you could have, but the your first reaction should really be nothing at all.

You should keep a log of feedback so you can really make good decisions on changes.  If your site is converting visitors to buyers, how valuable is your friend or family members opinion?  Hopefully you are thinking "not much" because you are making good money on your business.

However if 40% of your visitors are all saying the same thing, then you should probably change something even if you love it.  There is a line you wak between what you like, what your friends, like and then what your buyers like.  Don't get them confused because they are not always the same.  As a matter of fact, very seldom are they the same.

This is why A/B testing is so good.  You can get feedback every week if you are really focused on your traffic.  Make sure you are taking the one off comments with a grain of sand, and you are acting on the important stuff.


Work hard and do something positive with your online business this week!

Building links in a Forum.... yes or no?

Are all back links the same?  The answer is no, some argue that you should only focus on content heavy link building.  I personally think it depends on your goals and efforts.  Not all links are valued the same because everyone is trying to accomplish something different.

You should think about the links you build for your business.  You can save yourself a lot of wasted time, by thinking through a game plan.  Are you building links in Forums?  If so are the forums relevant to your site?

Good forums regulate users and posts, you can't just sign up and start posting your links.  That may sound like bad news but those are the forums you want a links from, because those kind of links are going to be taken down quickly and they will have a better rating than forums you can manipulate.

The right kind of forum is popular, credible, and gets high traffic.  It will create an awesome email and buyer list as the months go on.  The great links you will create can be just an added bonus.

Using Twitter for your site benefit

Twitter offers you a number of tools.  It is quick, concise, and super convenient to send/receive tweets.  Here are a few bullet points to remember.

• Twitter is a "micro blog"
• No difference between personal and business accounts
• No limit to number of the accounts.
• Fans are followers
• No images
• No videos
• "Retweet" is king, sending it viral

So what does all that mean, well its simple.  Twitter allow you the platform to send out small blurbs of information, advertisements, and updates to followers who want your tweets.

Plan on putting together a twitter account designed to build followers (specific followers).  The bigger the list of followers the greater your chance of success.  A good tweet grabs attention and provides a link to "more" details on the tweet that grabbed attention.  

Your twitter account should be a niche, just like your web business.  Many "twitter users" engage twitter as a type of search engine.  So choose the key words set up for your twitter account is important.  

As you get better with your tweeting and with your overall account, you will find that your followers will click the "retweet" button in their account.  At that point you will start to see a spike in your social efforts.

It isn't hard, its social and that my friend is the most powerful force on the internet right now.  So practice up and good luck with your social efforts.