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The 4 Critical Parts of a Great Logo Design

Doug Williams @ 4:26 am

This blog entry was posted on July 30, 2010.

Branding is how you make your company memorable. Your logo is a visual icon of your branding. You use your logo on your website, business cards, letterhead, brochures and in your email. A great logo is memorable, creates a visual impact and helps your company become easily remembered. So, what makes a great logo?

It is simple, distinctive, represents the company and has the illusion of action.

  1. Simple means that it is not overly complex, can be reduced to a small size on a business card and doesn’t have many complex and competing elements. Simple also means good contrast and a bold look.
  2. Distinctive means being unique and memorable, graphic (not just letters), not being cluttered in look and something that has a unique look. The colors, shape and font should be used in combination to help the business stand out and not blend in.
  3. Represents the company and is meaningful and appropriate for the company.  It should have permanence so it won’t have to be changed.
  4. Illusion of action means the logo has the appearance of motion and doesn’t just sit there. The challenge here is to keep it simple while still showing action.

A simple great logo may not be easy or quick to create, but it is powerful in your company’s branding for marketing strategies or Internet marketing.

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Filed under: Business Consulting,Website Design



How to Use Wikipedia as a Source for Website Traffic

Doug Williams @ 6:53 am

This blog entry was posted on July 28, 2010.

Wikis are a collaboration tool right? Wikipedia is a reference tool and not an advertising platform? The answer to both questions is yes. Wikipedia isn’t a direct marketing medium. It is the largest online encyclopedia that is created, and maintained by its user community. Wikipedia however can be an excellent source for referral traffic.

Wiki marketing methods are an indirect type of marketing. You are NOT trying to promote your company or your products. You are presenting valuable resource information that would appeal to your targeted website visitor. You are also contributing to the wiki community.

Wikipedia is the most popular wiki on the Internet and it is highly valued by users of the Web. Today, Wikipedia has a Google PR9 with over 75 million unique visitors each month and is ranked by Alexa as #7 on the entire Internet. Yahoo reports over 6 million links directed toward Wikipedia. Links from Wikipedia are very valuable and can produce a nice stream of visitors to your website.

Wikipedia is a Web-based, free-content encyclopedia where any visitor can edit or add content, including links to valuable references. The Wikipedia community will quickly remove biased or self promoting information. Your goal needs to be to enhance the articles or write new ones.

Here is a process that works.

  1. Find Wikipedia articles that are already flagged as looking too much like an advertisement and still related to your website content.
  2. Write an unbiased, authoritative page on your website or blog that is a great resource to the Wikipedia article.
  3. Re-write or edit the Wikipedia article to improve it.
  4. Add a link to your new website page or blog posting under the References section or External Links section. Note: This must be a great resource page that supports the article.

You have now added a highly valued link to your website that will stay and you have helped improve Wikipedia. This is a great win-win strategy.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies,Wikis



You Need to Ask Your Website Visitor to Take Action

Doug Williams @ 5:34 am

This blog entry was posted on July 26, 2010.

Don’t just sit there… Do something! “Ask and ye shall receive” also works in web marketing. If you don’t ask, your website visitors won’t know what you want them to do. Always ask your readers to take action. It could be call now, sign up now or to click the purchase link in your email.

If visitors leave your website without buying or at least leaving behind their email address, then why invite them to your website? Without prompting, most people will put off buying or taking action. Visitors need clear instructions on how to proceed. Using calls to action throughout the website helps convert visitors into prospects.

What action do you want from your visitors? Build this into your navigation. Each page should have its own call to action. This needs to be planned into the business website design. People arrive seeking solutions to a problem or need. They are thinking “what’s in it for me?”

Write using action oriented words to get your message across as quickly as possible. Speak to your reader’s emotions and engage them with your words. Don’t be elusive or try to reach everyone. Instead of saying, “Our service will help you be more effective in your marketing efforts.” Try saying, “Close 30% more sales with our service.”

Your website should guide take visitors through your selling sequence. Each page should be designed with a clear action designed in. This could be the next step in your sales process, request a quote, buy now of call now. Avoid making the user think and decide their next step.

The most important thing in any offer is that it be clear and concise. There is an old marketing maxim is that “a confused mind always says no.” Too many choices or a weak call to action and your website visitor will say that’s interesting and simply move on.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



7 Ways to Measure Your SEO Success

Doug Williams @ 2:47 am

This blog entry was posted on July 24, 2010.

Begin your SEO journey by defining how you will measure success. Decide what is important and select multiple measurements that you will track. Each metric gives you a slightly different view of how your website traffic initiative is working. Start by measuring each metric for several weeks to give a snapshot to establish your baseline.

  1. Rankings reports: Check the rankings of your primary keyword phrases. Do this on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Chart these on a weekly or monthly basis to detect trends and improvements. you will also want to implement a companion long tail strategy.
  2. Search traffic: Measure the volume and percentage of daily unique visitors that resulted from organic search. You will want to separate search traffic from referral and paid (PPC) traffic.
  3. Keyword traffic: Measure the volume and percentage of traffic coming from your targeted keywords. Track your daily averages of both unique visitors and total visits that occur.
  4. Indexed pages: SEO should include a content growth plan for your website. Measure and track the number and percentage of pages indexed by each of the major search engines. This can uncover structural issues that exist on your website.
  5. Number and quality of links: Measure the number and quality (Pagerank) of inbound links to your website. Measure the percentage of links that have keywords in the anchor text. Measure the percentage of links that are deep links (not to the home page).
  6. Visitor engagement: Is your campaign attracting the right visitors? Measure how well your website interacts with visitors by measuring and tracking bounce rate, time on site and page views per visitor.
  7. Conversions: How well does your organic search traffic do in converting into leads, sales, subscriptions or downloads? Set-up goals for each type of conversion and track the total number and percentage.

Use these metrics to measure progress and show opportunities to make site changes and changes to your SEO campaign.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



SEO Comes Down to Keywords and Backlinks

Doug Williams @ 12:31 am

This blog entry was posted on July 22, 2010.

There are many technical aspects to Search engine optimization (SEO). Too many people get caught up in the detail. In SEO there are only two things to focus on: keywords and backlinks. Everything else is a distraction.

It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an expert. It doesn’t matter if you are starting from scratch or trying to tune up an existing site. Keep your attention on keywords and backlinks and then measure your results. It is as easy as 1-2-3.

  1. Keywords: Research and select keywords that are relevant to what you do. Many people try and select phrases with high numbers of searches first and relevance second. Make relevance your first priority. If you attract someone to your website, they won’t stay if you don’t have what they are looking for. You will want to use these keywords visibly and prominently on your website… not just in the META tags.
  2. Backlinks: Getting incoming links from other websites is very important in your SEO effort. A large number of backlinks from relevant websites signals the search engines that your website is very important. Using your keyword phrases in the anchor text tells the search engines what your web page is about.
  3. Measurement: Track your major metrics on at least a monthly basis. I like to track number of pages indexed by Google, number of links as reported by Yahoo, Home page authority and domain authority as reported by Open Site Explorer, Alexa rankings and actual rankings in the SERPs for my 5 primary phrases. Each month I work to get some improvement in my measurements.

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Filed under: Link Popularity,SEO Strategies



How Does Blog Marketing Work?

Doug Williams @ 4:14 am

This blog entry was posted on July 20, 2010.

Marketing is about creating visibility of your product to the right people at the right time. Blog marketing does this using blogging as your medium. Blogs are a powerful way for businesses to reach and interact with potential customers.

Businesses have adopted blogs to build up their brand and attract new customers. Blog marketing is focused and has a purpose. Your blogging journey begins by choosing a topic that your targeted audience will want to read and that you will enjoy writing about. A blog allows you to converse with your target audience.

Blog marketing is an educational based marketing where you share your opinions, your expertise and your advice. Blogs are not about selling; they are for branding and interacting. Blogs work best when they are added to your website.

The job of your blog is to attract readers. In addition, blogs are a natural link magnet that attracts inbound links if you write interesting, original and engaging posts. Bloggers will then carry these conversations back to their own blogs and of course they will reference your blog posting with a backlink.

Adding “linkable” content to your site is the natural link building method. These backlinks help not only your blog, but also your website if your blog is part of your website.

Blogs are active while websites are passive. Blogs broadcast their content out to the web via RSS every time there is something new. Websites, on the other hand, wait to be discovered by search engine spiders. It’s like the difference between fishing and hunting. You can sit and wait for fish, or you can actively hunt and pursue.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



SEO and the Theory of Relativity

Doug Williams @ 5:25 am

This blog entry was posted on July 18, 2010.

I have my own Theory of SEO Relativity that has to do with search engine optimization and should not be confused with Einstein’s Theory dealing with space-time. In this Williams theory of SEO relativity, the more closely related and cohesive the content is on your web page, the higher your website rankings will be on Google.

It is about creating highly focused content on your web page AND on your entire website to get the best possible search engine rankings. The idea is to create a sharp and crisp definition of what your website is about in the eyes of the search engines. (if search engines had eyes). You do this by keeping keywords, content and even all your web pages laser focused around a single topic or theme.

WILLIAMS THEORY OF SEO RELATIVITY

  1. Search engine rankings for an individual web page is proportional to how closely related the keywords, the text content and topic are around a single idea or concept.
  2. Search engine rankings for an entire website will be proportional to how closely individual web pages relate and are organized around a single idea or topic.

So how do you apply this SEO theory of relativity?

Let’s suppose you want to create a website both for your local landscaping business and also include a section about your hobby of collecting hand-painted thimbles. You reason that you don’t want to spend money on two websites.

This is a bad idea. These are two very different topics and two very different audiences. These two topics create confusion. This should be two separate websites if you want to be found in the organic search results.

Let’s suppose you have a website that focuses on your local florist business. You want to expand your business and maintain the great rankings you currently have on Google. You would do better staying with very closely related services such as wedding bouquets and funeral flowers than you would expanding into gift baskets. ( still related, just not very closely related)

Keep your website focused and your topics very closely related for the best SEO results.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



Do You Know Why Your Website Visitors Aren’t Buying?

Doug Williams @ 6:26 am

This blog entry was posted on July 16, 2010.

You have a steady flow of visitors coming to your website, but they just leave without doing anything. Why? You have a professional looking design. You check your traffic stats and people are finding you what seems like the right phrases. What could be wrong?

Here are 6 possible causes for visitors just leaving.

  1. Wrong audience: Are you attracting people that are even interested in what you offer? Perhaps you are not using the right keyword phrases to attract the right visitors?
  2. No clear action: The action you want taken should be clear from the instant a visitor arrives. Locate the call-to-action above the fold so it is visible without scrolling down. Tell your visitors what to do. The first word in the call to action text should be an action verb like: Buy now, Get a quote, etc.
  3. Offer not visible: Use big call-to-action buttons that will clearly stand out. Website visitors take just a few short seconds to make a decision of what they want to do. If they don’t see what to do, then they will quickly move on.
  4. Too many Offers: A page should not have more than 3 possible actions on it with only one being a primary action. It could be Buy now, learn more and sign-up now. Too many possible actions and visitors become confused and just hit the back button.
  5. Not valuable enough: People will sign up or take action if there is clear value in it for them. If it is not compelling, then they will not take action.
  6. Not easy: Perhaps you are requesting too much information, have too long of a sign-up process or you require registration before they can buy from you. Remove any barriers or surprises to make it easy for them to do business with you.

Every page should have a call-to-action. Developing your call to action is one of the first steps in planning your website. The call to action should be clear in the headlines, the navigation and in the organization of the website. A clear call to action gets results.

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Filed under: Web Usability,Website Design



How Many Backlinks Are Enough?

Doug Williams @ 12:26 am

This blog entry was posted on July 14, 2010.

If you have read anything about search engine optimization (SEO), you have come across the term backlinks. These are incoming links from other web pages to your web pages. A good number of quality backlinks signals the search engines that your website is important enough to be rewarded with a top ranking. Backlinks are an important building block of the SEO process.

There are 5 facets to look at to determine if your website has enough backlinks.

  1. Quantity: You can measure the sheer number of backlinks using a tool like Yahoo Site Explorer. A larger number of backlinks in general is better for your website.
  2. Quality: How important is each of these backlinks? Look at the PageRank (PR) of each inbound link. You want at least some of these backlinks to be high PR backlinks.
  3. Relevance: How relevant is the page linking to your site to your topic? You links from other web pages that are closely related to your subject.
  4. Anchor Text: This is the clickable text in the hyperlink. It is sometimes called the link text. You would want keywords to be used in the anchor text rather than “click here.”
  5. Variety: You want your backlinks to come from as many different sources as possible. This would include blogs, web directories, articles, press releases, social book marks, etc.

SEOmoz has a free tool that allows you to measure the success of your backlinking called Open Site Explorer. Pay attention to both Page Authority and Domain Authority to see if your website has enough backlinks.

Hint: Compare the number one rated site for your target phrase against your website.

Click here for a free analysis of your website’s backlinking.

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Filed under: Link Popularity



Your Website Should Not Be About You

Doug Williams @ 5:07 am

This blog entry was posted on July 12, 2010.

This is a mistake that many businesses make. They create a website that is focused on them. Their goal is to explain why they are the best and logical choice to do business with. They talk about their qualifications and expertise. But this is just plain wrong.

The exception to what I am talking about would be if you are a celebrity. If you are a celebrity, then people do come to your website to learn about you. They want your biography, films you have made, etc.

What should your website be about? That depends on why your visitor came to your website. They came seeking some solution to a problem or need that they have.

Here is an example. If your company provided fertilizers and lawn care products, then your visitors would arrive looking how to improve their lawn and make it greener. They did not arrive to learn about your company or even to have the merits of your fertilizer explained… at least not on your home page.

Instead discuss what they came to learn on your home page. Discuss your company on the about-us page. Discuss the specific benefits of your fertilizer on your products page. This is all about creating a customer focused website.

Here is another example. If you are an attorney, then your visitors arrive looking for help with specific legal issues. Address these on your home page and go into depth on your credentials in the about-us section.

As you layout your website, remember it is about them, not about you. You will get a better response from visitors if you address their reason for coming and talk about what they want to learn.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



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