Month: January 2012

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When Should You Update Your Website?

I’ve just this week done reviews for several clients about why their organic placement is slipping or is non-existent. There has been a common thread to each of these clients. The code on their site is bad, in some cases really bad. What exactly do I mean?

In some cases a site is so old or has so many problems that a redesign may actually be cheaper than a rework of the code to try to bring a website better performance. Here are several specifics to consider:

  1. Is your website built from a host’s template? Guess what, it may be pretty but contains code that slows page load time (which Google considers and weighs now for organic placement). Additionally there are missed opportunities to build in SEO tactics as you even name elements when you use a template.
  2. Is your site built with FrontPage and you are pasting in content from Word? Did you know that many of these WSIWYG that is What You See Is What You Get editors (not Dreamweaver fortunately) add all kinds of depreciated tags or span and style tags to the actual paragraph itself. This makes a page so very code heavy, slows speed, and makes it very hard for a webmaster to update. If you don’t update a site in FrontPage where it has been created and is how it is managed your can really mess up the webmasters syncing protocol and potentially lock them out from doing further updates. In fact, even worse is that FrontPage has been depreciated by Microsoft and so not even used by most professional webmasters. When I see code that FrontPage has created I know that the site may have been built in 2005  or about that time which is really pretty old technology.
  3. When you consider what it costs to have someone like me review and upgrade the code, rework the content to use SEO tactics on an old site or a template-driven site, a new design may actually be more cost efficient. It is simply not a good idea to spend $2,500 to $3,000 to rework a very old website, or one that is controlled by a template where certain aspects simply cannot be changed.

For sites such as this where the site owner may not have the money for a redesign, there is still hope. There are inbound marketing approaches that can be done in the meantime to help build link activity, and content creation updates that can help a site until there is the budget for a full redesign. Sometimes even just the rework of the home page can put a bandaid temporarily on the problem until there is more money available for a redesign and upgrade.

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What About Google+?

If you are involved in marketing your products and services do you need to keep a Google+ page updated along with Facebook and Twitter? If you have the time, you should consider setting up and maintaining at least a minimal profile and business page at Google+. Am I recommending that you spend the same amount of time and money on Google+ as you invest in exposure on Facebook and Twitter – no I am not. At least not at this time.

I am watching Google+ carefully, but have not rolled out a service offering on the program yet. Although I think that Google+ and Google+ Pages may be good for businesses, for now there is not enough mainstream consumer or business to business activity there yet to warrant a strong financial investment in maintaining your presence. I am mostly seeing professionals such as myself in the Google+ world. There is simply not a strong vibrant consumer or business selling presence on Google+ yet…

What I do see is that Google is integrating Google+ into nearly all of their properties as they continue to roll out enhancements and improvements to the application. The next hurdle will be the authorization of third party API apps that will allow scheduling of status updates. HootSuite is just one of the companies that Google has selected for testing. With the ability to schedule updates and manage multiple accounts Google+ will grow quickly.

I recommend that for many businesses starting now on Google+ to build a presence for the future is a very smart move. I have several clients who started using Twitter right when it came out and now have follower bases of over 2,500. These high follower bases have given these accounts an unusual amount of clout in their industry. Their updates are routinely retweeted reaching an astronomical number of readers. I expect in the long run Google+ will follow this same growth trend.

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Using Twitter for Local Businesses

Twitter is a great place to connect with prospects and customers, but is Twitter practical to use for local selling businesses versus national selling businesses? My answer is yes, Twitter is a great place for national and local selling firms.

It is very important to know that the user demographics are changing on Twitter. It used to be that Twitter users were typically in the field of marketing and were between the age of 30 to 55. Now, there is a much wider use of Twitter and use by a wider age range.

So how can a local selling business use Twitter successfully? Using location focused tweets with hashtags (# used in front of a single keyword or phrase without spaces) can help to build information on your category of business that can be used for Twitter searches. For example, if you are a Chinese restaurant located in Waldorf, Maryland, your tweets could mention #Waldorfchinese, #ChineseRestaurantWaldorf, or #chineseWaldorf within the tweet. By using your business category and location you can reach potential customers who may be using Twitter on their mobile phone while they are out and about.

Another interesting trend that I am seeing, if you are an online store, is when you tweet coupon codes you can boost website sales directly. We’ve recently done a holiday promotion for an online citrus seller and the sales generation with Twitter has been stronger than the sales generation using Facebook. Others in my industry have shared with me that they are also seeing an increase in lead generation with Twitter versus Facebook as well.

With the ability to use location hash tags, Twitter can be a great place for local selling businesses to connect and drive online and offline traffic.

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What Can You Expect With Google Places

Claiming your Google Places page for you business is a very good idea, but what can you expect after you claim your page?

Just because you claim your Google Places page does not mean that your Places page will automatically appear in local search and Google Maps results immediately. It is important to know that Google sometimes has as long as a four week delay before your Places page appears regularly in the search results.

I have found that it takes time for your Google Places page to appear, once set up your page will not be shown automatically the first day you update your account. Sometimes you may wait as long as four weeks before your page appears regularly.

Here are my recommendations for Google Places:

  1. Claim your page.
  2. Add 10 photos and your comments, consider adding a special coupon promotion.
  3. Link to your Google Places page on your blog and in your email signature.
  4. Regularly ask satisfied customers to leave reviews on your Google Places page.
  5. Schedule an update of your page every 30 days. Update your comments and your photos.
  6. Be patient, but be proactive.
  7. If you feel that you are not getting the exposure you want, consider using Google AdWords Express tied to your Google Places page for faster visibility.