Search Engine Optimization With Focus

Internet Suicide

Focus Internet Services

If I was going to fix you up on a blind date, and I told you that the person you would be going out with is “all flash and no substance” you probably wouldn’t think this person was going to be very good for you in the long run.  This is a perfect analogy for your business website and your online presence.  The program isn’t called “Flash” accidentally!

The majority of business owners probably think a website is a website.  If it is on the internet, it’s a website and that is it, right? Nothing could be further from the case, and there are many different ways to construct a website that each serve different purposes.  The first question my company asks when looking at a project is “what are we trying to accomplish here?” The answer from business clients is usually “attract more customers and make more money.”  Believe it or not, that simple answer just gave us a clue about how businesses commit suicide on the internet.  They don’t understand how one type of website or another might have dire consequences on attracting new customers.

If you came to us to build your website and you told us that you were satisfied with the current number of clients you had and were not looking to ever attract a new one, then we would explore a flashy, “branding” website that was very cool and moved around and did cool things using Flash.  We would understand that using that type of setup would potentially kill your search engine rankings on Google, Yahoo and every other search engine.  We would know that you would probably not lose positions involving your business name itself, however the competition for generic terms would probably be impossible.  We have rarely been approached by anyone that didn’t want to attract new customers, and most business owners we speak to understand that Google is the way many people find them.  One decision you need to be fully understanding before you make it is if Google is more important than being cool.  If your customers already know who you are and are going to your website looking to be impressed, then the flashy site is wonderful.  If you would like the people who have never heard of you to consider your business when they search for your types of products, then the flashy site is internet suicide.  As a side note, there are plenty of web design companies out there who specialize in flash and who will not explain this to you because if you make an informed choice it probably would be to not use them.  They are giving you poison and telling you it is Cool-Aid.

Google and all search engines read code and text in order to decide what a website is about.  Flash is essentially a movie that has no real text or code for Google to read.  While strides are being made to help search engines understand the contents of a flash website, we are still far from perfect in this regard and I know very few business owners willing to gamble the profits of their business on how well Google can read it today.  Basically, if Google can’t understand what your site is about it is not going to index you higher than a site it understands.  Isn’t the first rule of business making the customer be able to find you by getting a good location? Why would you build the flashy, cool store and put it in a location nobody can find?  Chances are, it is because you didn’t understand the limitations and were dealing with a company whose job it was to keep you from understanding them.

We are currently assisting a company who listed one of their goals to be “being found on Google for our products.” We built them a temporary website to begin the process while they decided on the specifics they wanted on the site.  During this time we optimized the temporary website and ultimately placed it at #3 in searches for their services in Las Vegas.  Unfortunately they went against our advice and went with a design company to build the new site who promised them it would be “hot, trendy, cool, and very Vegas.” When the flash site was delivered it was slow loading (Google killer,) entirely flash (Google killer,) had no text (Google killer,) and didn’t even include basic descriptions (Google killer.) As the website got crawled and began to disappear in the rankings, the company came to us to ask what to do.  We are trying to help, but basically the easiest answer would have been “next time don’t commit suicide.”

For more info: Raymond Santopietro is the President of Focus Internet Services

Las Vegas SEO
702-767-4637 focusinternetservices@gmail.com.

Focus specializes in online marketing, branding and exposure for small to medium-sized businesses.

 

I am not speaking about all advertising agencies, but I bet I am speaking about yours…at least when it comes to internet marketing.  How can I say such a thing with such conviction? Because I used to work for them.

Traditional mid-sized advertising agencies were always a viable alternative to large agencies and their high prices for small to mid-sized businesses.  The little guys just couldn’t afford those big agencies, so they sought the help of smaller “boutique” ad agencies that had smaller staff and could focus on their campaigns more effectively.  This worked until the world changed and people started using the internet to get information.  Traditional advertising worked less and less effectively, yet cost more and more.  Internet advertising was cheap by comparison and growing in it’s effectiveness.  The problem is that traditional agencies didn’t understand it, didn’t have the staff to understand it, and were actually kind of offended that it was working because it diverted funds away from their core products of magazine ads, billboards, television commercials and direct mail.  As more and more attention got focused on the internet, traditional agencies decided they wanted into this game, probably because the alternative was closing their doors.  There is a huge problem with simply making a decision to “become an interactive agency.” They didn’t understand what they were doing.

As a business, chances are you are paying 50% more for your web design, your SEO and interactive marketing if an agency that does other forms of advertising is handling it.  The same designers that are building your ads, campaigns and SEO are available directly to you….because they do not work for those agencies.  The way ad agencies responded to the desire to become interactive and web savvy was not to hire staff, but instead enlist the services of freelancers, then put their name on the work and mark it up 50%.  In reality, the freelancer probably knows more about the medium than the agency, and is guiding the process.  How do I know this? Because it was my job at those traditional agencies.  I created lists of freelancers that were appropriate for projects.  I talked with clients about how our agency would succeed in online campaigns.  I got projects because of the successes the agency had in the past (in traditional campaigns) and the name recognition of the agency.  Then we gave the projects to freelancers to do the work.  In the end, we put it into our portfolio, told the client we did it in house, and nobody knew any better.  The clients never thought to question anything because the campaigns were successful.  After all, they were created by highly skilled people who understand the medium and do quality work.  The only thing the clients didn’t know is that the agency they were paying had hired another smaller agency to actually do the work…then marked the price up.

This is commonplace in the advertising world.  Agencies hire companies like the one I own to produce results, then they claim they do it themselves.  I have even had an agency print business cards with my name on them to make sure the potential client we were pitching didn’t know that they could have gone directly to me and my company.  This is especially common with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as it is a long and labor intensive process that most agencies cannot staff for effectively.  If you approach any mid-sized advertising agency in Nevada and ask them to do SEO for your website as part of your campaign, chances are they have called my company (or one like it) to handle it in the background.

We received an email this morning from an agency as the monthly newsletter.  In the email we read the catch-phrases that we had trained them to say in order to seem like they knew what they were talking about.  They also got a lot of crucial information incorrect that could easily harm a campaign.  We were very happy that they did not name anyone from our company in the email.  If you own a business and use the internet, then you need a qualified company handling the strategy and production in that campaign.  Do yourself a favor and call a company that specializes in internet marketing.  If you don’t, then the agency that you hire will….they just won’t tell you.

For more info: Raymond Santopietro is the President of Focus Internet Services

Las Vegas SEO
702-767-4637 focusinternetservices@gmail.com.

Focus specializes in online marketing, branding and exposure for small to medium-sized businesses.

Web 2.0

Focus Internet Services

A new study from the University of Missouri called “The Effect of Searching Versus Surfing on Cognitive and Emotional Responses to Online News” is confirming what online marketers have suspected for years, that people become emotionally attached to businesses that they find are providing them with useful information.  Purchasing decisions are made emotionally, and will generally favor businesses that you feel are speaking to you and providing information that is of value to you.  In a nutshell, it is a perfect argument that the quality content that is created for your website is not just for pure search engine optimization and  rank building, but also serves to build revenues by influencing people to shop at your location or utilize your services.

71% of American adults utilize the internet on a daily basis.  The majority of those Americans respond that they are influenced by content on the internet to make decisions in their life, including buying decisions.  By becoming emotionally connected to the public as an information source, you are also creating new sales.

One flaw in the study referenced is that they recommend outbound marketing tactics to capitalize on this information.  In essence, they are telling businesses to place ads in spaces that are likely to be indexed by search engines.  This advice is incorrect and should instead recommend inbound marketing tactics to draw traffic to your content within your own space.  Basically the content is what gets you indexed and what allows people to find it when searching.  This can be compared to old-school methods of advertising being suggested for online campaigns, they simply don’t work and will fail.  Think about it this way…in the past you wanted to advertise your business with a billboard.  You found the busiest road you could and put a billboard on it for all traffic to see.  You then hoped they would remember you and call you when they were ready to buy.  Content creation for seo and online marketing is more like finding a place where traffic needs to travel and building the road itself, and because you own it you can build the only store on it.  Your content builds the traffic, creates the emotional connection, boosts your own rankings, and creates more customers.

For more info: Raymond Santopietro is the President of Focus Internet Services (SEO) 702-767-4637 focusinternetservices@gmail.com . Focus specializes in online marketing, branding and exposure for small to medium-sized businesses.

Twitter has grown far beyond the “What are you doing right now” concept that it was born from.  It is now being used in ways that Biz Stone probably never dreamed of, and for important knowledge spread, social communications and relationship building.  Companies have been trying to define how it is used for years, only to have it expand right before their eyes.  Companies like mine (Las Vegas SEO) now have people dedicated only to utilizing the Twitter platform for our clients in any way beneficial to the program.

1. Share Links

Sharing interesting links on Twitter is easy.  All you have to do is keep it under the character limit of use a url shortening service.  This is one of the simplest ways to communicate with people of like interests, by allowing them to find the links you have found.  Be social and share the knowledge. 

2. Build A Network

Searching for certain topics and friending interesting people in those subjects, as well as posting your own thoughts on subjects builds communities, and networks.  Assembling communities of like minded people is the purest form of social networking.

3. Expand The Levels Of Your Relationships

Discuss your subjects of interest pro-actively.  Through the service you can discuss and make your opinions known, which is the root of all bonding and friendships.  You will begin to feel a connection to your network, even though you may have never met them personally.

4. Content Distribution

Twitter is a fantastic way to seed content that lives in other places, like your personal or company blog, your website or forum.  Seeding the viral spread of content through the Twitter service is as easy as typing the URL.

5. Community Involvement

Discussing real world events on the Twitter service allows news to spread quickly.  It allows niche-news to have a forum for discussion, and it allows stories to spread that may have been ignored by other media.

6. Public Relations

Discussing your product, brand or opinions actively with people who have something to say about you is invaluable.  Picture good customer service being allowed to be viewed by everyone at the same time.  Unhappy customers want to talk, and can become your most loyal customers if they feel that you handled the situation correctly.  Happy customers will also talk if they have an opinion, especially if you make it easy for them.

7. Ongoing Communication

Twitter exists as a way for groups of people to communicate, so why not use it within the company for communications themselves. 

8. Watch Your Brand

Staying involved with your brand means understanding what people are saying about it.  Through Twitter you can search for mentions of your brand, and get involved in conversations if need be.

9. Organically Build Using Other Social Media

Your content on your website, blog or forum will be assisted in its search engine placement by inbound links to it.  Twitter allows these links to not only be easily posted, but spread and replicated.

10. Employment

Many companies are now using Twitter to recruit and hire.  Explore the medium and see the talent pool grow.

11. Building Your Brand

Discuss your company and brand on Twitter.  Company communications with the public used to be difficult.  Today, there is an open mic for your company to use to grow that customer base.

12. Single Communication Platform

Instead of using multiple forms of communication like email, im, and office memos, try using Twitter as the single place that communication happens.  It will get people comfortable with using the internet, and keep communications flowing at the same time.

Twitter

www.focusinternetservices.com

Social Media is the hottest thing in marketing today.  It is estimated that 5 out of every 10 Tweets on Twitter are brand oriented.  Naturally everyone with a business wants a piece of the pie, because there are literally millions of people out there who could be getting your brand message.  Here are a few ways to waste your time as a business owner, and therefore fail on Twitter:

1. Set it and forget it.

Creating a Twitter profile is the easy part.  Branding it to have nice design and a message is also pretty easy.  Many businesses approach our firm to do “social media marketing” without understanding what that means.  Many believe it is simply creating a profile and putting it online.  After all, there are millions of people out there who are going to stumble across your profile, friend you because the page looks so good, and then beg for advertisements to flood their message boxes….right?

Unless you are famous or are discussing the most important news on the planet, people are not actively searching for you or your opinions (your main opinion is to buy your products, of course.) How many people will stumble across your profile just because it is there and friend you? Probably very few, and chances are it is because they are trying to sell you something themselves.  You must face the facts that you are not that important to the public, and instead approach social media from a “giving” viewpoint. What this means is that you are “giving” something valuable to them, news, tips, tricks, information, offers, etc.  In return they may choose to “give” you something valuable as well, their time and patience listening to you.  This is the essence of social media, and if you aren’t going to put in the time to create something valuable, then don’t waste your time.  It simply will not work.

If I was to come into a party that you were attending and step in between you and the person you were talking to, then demand that you watch commercial after commercial for a business, how long would you be interested, if not completely irritated? Ask yourself that before you try this at home.  Social media is only effective when it is approached like carefully planned pr or news.  Become important with your content, then ask people to give you their time.

For more info: Raymond Santopietro is the President of Focus Internet Services

Las Vegas is a unique business environment because it deals with two very distinct groups as customers – tourists and locals.

One of the necessities with regard to success in any business climate is the accurate identification of who your customer is, and where they are finding your information. Las Vegas businesses generally can identify their customer pool as “tourist-based” or “locals-based” pretty easily, usually by the proximity of the physical business to Las Vegas Blvd. and the tourist area. 

Businesses who identify themselves as catering to the local population should not think of their online marketing efforts any differently than their traditional campaigns, and just as you do not need to advertise with billboards in California for a dental office with a single location in Henderson, you do not need to necessarily cater to a global audience on the Internet.  This method of advertising is referred to as “local search,” and is of crucial importance to understand when crafting your internet marketing strategy.

“Just because you can, does not mean you should.”

The Internet is a communication tool that makes accessing information from the other side of the globe as easy as if it were in the next room of your home, and the lure of the “global audience” is very tempting for businesses.  Essentially, the information you distribute online is accessible everywhere on the planet, but you must understand that the ability to communicate in such a large pool makes it far more difficult for your voice to be heard in the crowd. 

Search engines have gone to great lengths to provide “localized” results so as to return more accurate results when someone is searching for businesses in their area, and you as the local business owner should utilize their methods to your advantage to become the “big fish in a small pond” as opposed to “just another fish in the ocean.”

When searching for some product or service that is within a certain geographic area (usually due to the person not wanting to drive beyond their local city), the overwhelming majority of search engine users will modify their search by placing the city or state name in front of or behind the keyword or key-phrase they are interested in.  For example, someone looking for a dentist in Las Vegas would generally type in “Las Vegas dentist” or “dentist Las Vegas” as opposed to the single term “dentist.”  Searchers have been conditioned quite well to use this method after receiving limitless amounts of Web sites outside of their local range if they do not use the city as part of the search.  The searcher understands how to use the engine to get local results, and you as a business owner must understand how to present yourself in local results of this type.

Search engine optimization is creating a situation on your Web site that search engines find favorable with regard to certain words or phrases.  Essentially, you are optimizing your site to be found for a targeted list of terms that identify your business or products.  The single most important aspect of this to realize is that the phrase “dental office” is not the same as the phrase “Las Vegas dental office” and therefore will not provide the same results when searched for. 

Many times the results will show a far different result in your placement in the list, and the site that comes in at #1 for the search term “dentist” may not even show in the first 50 pages for “Las Vegas dentist.”  This is why it is crucial to identify who you are as a business and understand the way you are referred to by your customer pool before you begin your online marketing efforts.  Your voice has to be far louder when you are trying to speak to the entire planet than if you are trying to speak to your neighbors.

Additional elements beyond the optimization of your Web site itself are your local directories, blogs and Web sites.  There are countless spaces online for you to list your business, and people use these spaces to find out information about you.  Studies show that upward of 70 percent of  people making a purchase decision are influenced in some way by something they read or heard online.  The decision to eat at your Las Vegas Indian restaurant, shop at your Las Vegas costume store, search your Web site for their Las Vegas apartment or tan at your Las Vegas tanning salon many times will be made by reading the reviews or comments someone has posted about your business online.  Make sure you utilize these spaces to understand your customers and what they are saying about you by not only listing your business, but becoming active and involved.  Examples of local Web sites and directories are easily found by searching on Google or Yahoo, just remember to put the “Las Vegas” into the search phrase.

Lastly, you have probably noticed the click-able links that have been written into this article.  These are provided as examples of localized search engine optimization methods that do not involve the code of your website itself.  Using external placements on the internet to inject links back to websites is one of the single largest elements that assist your rankings on search engines, and they should be localized as well.  Essentially, the text that makes up the link is being read by Google as having something to do with the site it is representing, and therefor assisting Google in making an informed decision on where to place that site in searches for those phrases.  By localizing these links as well, you create a far more powerful presentation for both the “Las Vegas” portion of the search and the keyword.  The combination of these elements assists Google in ranking you higher when the terms are combined by your potential customers.

Local search engine optimization is more difficult in Las Vegas than in other cities that are not so tourist based because the only tip off to Google that a person is local or not is the IP address of the computer they are using.  Results that are returned are easily overwhelmed by larger businesses that are competing for tourist dollars,  however making your business known in Las Vegas by locals using the internet is not impossible if undertaken keeping these elements in mind.  Simply understanding that you are a “Las Vegas business” instead of a “worldwide business” is the key to success.

Facebook

My SEO company is approached constantly by businesses who want to use social media as their advertising.  Social media campaigns (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace) all all the rage in the marketing world, and are a large component of any integrated marketing strategy for businesses that desire success on the internet.  This does not mean, however, that the social media strategy should be the single component that your marketing relies upon.  I recently read a list of ten things that social media cannot accomplish on its own.  Here are the highlights:

Social Media Cannot:

1. Substitute for marketing strategy.
2. Succeed without top management buy-in.
3. Be viewed as a short-term project.
4. Produce meaningful, measurable results quickly.
5. Be done in-house by the vast majority of companies.
6. Provide a quick fix to the bottom line or a tarnished reputation.
7. Be done without a realistic budget.
8. Guarantee sales or influence.
9. Be done by “kids” who “understand social innately”
10. Replace PR.

Smart companies will utilize social media within their integrated marketing campaigns.  Smart companies will understand it’s pros and cons before charging headlong into a campaign that has unrealistic expectations or goals. Smart companies will understand that just because another company is using social media does not mean they are using it correctly, or are showing any level of success through it’s use. 

I will take the next ten parts of this series explaining each part of the list individually, and hopefully provide a little knowledge on how it can be used appropriately and how it is used inappropriately.

For more info: Raymond Santopietro is the President of Focus Internet Services (SEO)

702-767-4637 focusinternetservices@gmail.com.

Focus specializes in online marketing, branding and exposure for small to medium-sized businesses.

One question we get asked a lot as a Las vegas SEO company is if your search rankings for your website are adversely effected if you register your url for the minimum 1 year time, or if you get benefits from registering it for a longer time (say 7 or 10 years.)  Historically, pretty much every seo company and every single domain registration company has agreed that the longer the url is registered for, the more committment to the project it shows to the search engines, and therefor the more seriously they would consider ranking it higher than another url with “less seriousness.” Well, Google has finally gone on record stating that registration length does not effect rankings.

Below is a  Google Webmaster Help thread has a post from Googler, JohnMu, who said outright that it doesn’t make sense for Google to use this as a ranking metric.

A bunch of TLDs do not publish expiration dates — how could we compare domains with expiration dates to domains without that information? It seems that would be pretty hard, and likely not worth the trouble. Even when we do have that data, what would it tell us when comparing sites that are otherwise equivalent? A year (the minimum duration, as far as I know) is pretty long in internet-time .

This is probably a good indication that Google does not consider it when ranking, however it still remains my opinion that it cannot hurt.  You will register at a cheaper yearly price, you will not have to worry about potentially expiring while you are not paying attention, and possibly….yes possibly….Google may still have some use for this information and factor it in tomorrow, te next day, or whenever they choose to.  Additionally, Google’s position on the use of this data does not effect the point that other search engines might be using it.  It simply cannot hurt.

More than anything else, it appears as though it is a good marketing scare tactic used by registrars to convince you to spend more money.  It seems like in the end the choice is up to you.

I was reading an article this morning on imediaconnection.com about the next stages of development of the internet, and specifically the transition between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.  The article was an interview with Clark Kokich, the CEO of Razorfish.  I share the same opinions and philosophies with Mr. Kokich regarding the transition from Web 2.0 to 3.0 not involving new technology, or newly developed applications (of course the new barcode technology using the built in camera on cell phones as barcode readers is pretty interesting) but instead finally figuring out a way to use all the developed technology in an integrated fashion.  One thing I have noticed is the desire to use new methods and technologies, both on client and agency ends, but few are looking at those uses realistically or with strategy in mind.  I can’t tell you how many times I have heard “we need to build them a microsite” from people who aren’t thinking about technology at our disposal having to have a realistic purpose that is good for the client.  I used to work for a company here in Las Vegas called CyTek Studios that was incredibly forward seeing.  They pushed new technology on clients at the clients expense, instead furthering themselves at the expense of the client goals.  For example, the push to build heavy flash sites integrating 3d and video was the desire from the agency’s standpoint, because we could win FWA awards with such projects.  Never was load time or end-user experience taken into consideration.  We would build flash sites for e-commerce customers who would come back to us a month later to ask why nobody was buying anything on the site.  Amazing how easy it is to understand why that was happening if you simply step back to not be blinded by the desire to use new tech.  The site took too long to load on a typical user’s machine.  Nobody could find it through search.  They didn’t have flash installed.  There were a million reasons why it wouldn’t work that were ignored because the agency wanted to push the boundries.

An integrated campaign uses available technologies respoonsibly, and with strategic purpose.  It analyzes new technology for realistic uses that make sense.  Experimentation is wonderful in a branding campaign, but must be tempered if there are client goals that go beyond branding.  Too many agencies want to jump into digital experimentation, but cannot see how everything works together to achieve client goals.  

This brings me back to Web 3.0, and the use of technology at our disposal in a responsible way.  This was the main reason I formed Focus Internet Services, to create a management system that would keep the use of technology in check, maximize budgets by understanding strengths and limitations of different mediums, and use statistics to make accurate choices.  We have had enough testing time to understand that there are dropoff rates when we ask customers to click through to another page.  We understand that you must use a balance of text and images in email deployments in order to have a higher delivery rate.  We understand that you must be presented in search on the first page for your keywords.  We understand that there is a statistical difference in conversion in calls to action between PPC customers and organic search customers.  The data is there, we must understand how to use it effectively for our customers, instead of focusing on “pushing the boundries.” This isn’t Star Trek, its business….start thinking of your customers instead of yourself.

Focus Internet Services was formed as an integration company.  Bridging the gaps between technologies and business communications, we serve as a hub positioned to solve problems through effective managment of resources.  We manage projects by digging into the strategic plan and using established statistics to make accurate decisions and predictions.  We act as stategic planners, resources, outsource managers, and general council on internet based projects.  We understand the goals from a business end, assess the technology from a geek end, and execute the project from the customer end.  We can be reached through our website at www.focusinternetservices.com and are available for a limited amount of projects.