Global Marketing Plus

One of the most cost-effective ways to boost your search engine performance is to make sure that the title tags on your website are set up properly. When you search in Google, the search results start with a blue underlined link.

Here’s an example:

What displays in the first line of the website listing is usually what is contained in the title tag of a web page. The keywords you placed in the search box are usually boldfaced in the search results.

So, just what is a title tag, and why does it matter for search engine positioning?

According to the World Wide Web Consortium, the Title tag was designed to help people “identify the contents of a document.” When people view individual web pages out of context (often via search), context-rich page titles help tell the visitor a summary of the page.

Instead of a title like “Home”, which doesn’t provide much contextual background, web designers should supply a title such as “Introduction to HoN3 Model Railroads” instead.

Google and other search engines use these rich contextual clues as a way to hone its search results.

On a web page, the title tag is part of the HTML code. Here’s what the code looks like on Global Marketing Plus’s site:

<title>Website Design, Development, Email Marketing, Content Management, PHP programming Salt Lake City, Utah</title>

Most end users won’t see the title tag. But if you remember back to my email tip about subject lines, the title tag is what a subject line is to an email campaign: It entices the end user to pay attention and open the page to read more.

Top Five Most Common Mistakes for Title Tags:

1. Untitled: When many of the popular programs create a new HTML page, it puts ’Untitled’ into the title tag. It’s up to the Web designer to change this… and since most users don’t see it, sometimes they forget to change it.

2. No Title Tag: Like the “Untitled” tag, another key mistake is simply leaving out the title tag. If you do a view source (Internet Explorer: View —> Source), and the title tag appears like:

<title></title>

… then you don’t have a title tag.

3. “About” Tag: Another common mistake for title tags is to have the title tag refer to a section of your website. But a title tag that reads, “About” doesn’t tell me much about what the company or website is “About.” Instead, have it read:

<title>About the Company: Website Development & Marketing, Email Deployment, and PHP
  programming</title>

This is sure to get more keywords into the title tag, and if you’re searching for a company, you instantly know what they do.

4. Company Name In Title Tag: If you want your company name, we recommend putting your company name at the end of the title tag so it doesn’t dilute the effectiveness of the keywords.

5. Same Title Tag on Multiple Pages: You should have a unique title tag for each page of the site. Why? As each page is unique, you should have a title tag that describes it’s unique content.

I hope you found this search engine strategy helpful. Changing the title tags on a site is a quick, fast and easy way to increase search engine positioning. Let me know if you’d like us to take a look at your site and make recommendations for you (at no charge).

This next strategy for Search Engine Optimization is often overlooked. But it’s key to making sure that people can find you at the top of the page when they conduct a search in Google, Yahoo or another search engine.

Search engines are really good at reading text. But they’re very easily confused. And if Google gets confused when it crawls through your site, you won’t rank very high in search results.

Search engines, for example, can’t read words that are contained in graphics or flash animation. So if your company’s name is only contained in a graphic on your site, this content is ‘invisible’ to a search engine. Same thing goes for product or service names. 

Some designers will tell you that Google can now read flash and you can use it all you want.  However, even Google suggests you be careful and avoid it!

The root of the problem lies with graphic designers. Graphic designers are really good at building graphics, but, unfortunately,  they sometimes don’t know how to create SEO-friendly design.

Most websites, however, are designed by graphic designers who are really good at building graphics, and less interested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It takes more time to have content placed in text, and use a stylesheet to format it so that a search engine can read it. Especially when it’s so easy to create a good looking graphic in Photoshop.

Here’s an example of a graphic: 

By formatting using text and a cascading stylesheet (CSS), I can make it look exactly the same.  However, search engines can read the text version much easier! 

Here’s an example of a site that uses all flash (and is invisible to search engines).

While it looks pretty to humans, to Google the content is completely invisible. Here’s how the site appears to Google in its text cache. (You can see that there is no text or content that appears.)

Now here is a non-flash version of a simular page.  In this case, the intention was not to copy the first page exactly.  If that were the purpose, this page would look almost the same as the first!

Even if you’re not worried about organic search positioning, but are doing paid search engine marketing (like Google Adwords), it’s important that the content on your site is easily digested by a search engine.

Why? Google Adwords ranks the pages on your website, and compares it to your keywords and ad copy. The more relevant Google ranks the text on your site, the less you’ll have to pay for a sponsored ad on Google (and the higher your position).

In Summary: Don’t confuse search engines by keeping your content ‘locked up’ in graphics. It’s a small little detail in the web design process, but one that will pay dividends for a long, long time with increased search results.

I hope you enjoyed this search engine strategy. Let me know if we can help you with your web marketing or search marketing needs.

For businesses that serve specific geographic regions (i.e. Salt Lake City, Utah), you can create search engine ads in Google and Yahoo that only appear to people in your area.

How does this work? A search engine like Google uses a computer’s IP address and other information to discover where someone is searching (including city and state).

Why does Google care where a person is located? Google’s mission is to give their end users the best search results possible. So, if I need someone to mow my lawn in Bountiful, Utah, it does me little good to receive a paid search result from New York (Maybe not even from Provo, Utah, just 60 miles away)!

Thus Google (and the others) tries to match search results to the geographic location of the person searching.

How does Google make money? Google gives businesses and organizations the ability to display paid advertisements (sponsored results) on search results pages. These ads are triggered by keywords you choose (more on this in a different strategy).

You don’t have to pay for your ad to display; you pay Google only when someone clicks on your ad. The technical term is Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. The more relevant your ad (more on this later), the less you have to pay for specific keywords, and the higher up you will appear in the sponsored advertising results.

Local Search PPC Ads. In Google Adwords, you can create an advertising campaign that will target someone in a specific city or state. You can even specify a 5, 10 or 25 mile radius from a specific location (like your retail showroom or office). Below your local ad, Google will place the name of your local area (i.e. Salt Lake City, Utah)… making it more likely that someone searching in your area will choose your organization vs. an out-of-town competitor.

Local PPC Ads are usually a more cost effective option than a national search engine advertising campaign. As a general rule of thumb, the more geographically targeted and specific you can be, the less money you’ll need to pay to acquire new customers. And make sure you have conversion tracking code placed on your site, so you can measure and track how much you’re paying for each new customer via local search engine advertising.

Please let me know if we can help you acquire new customers through search engine optimization or search engine advertising.

Did you know that 50-70% of consumer and business purchases start with a search engine like Google?

If your website doesn’t appear at the top of a search engine results page (sponsored ads or organic search results), you’re losing potential customers to companies that rank higher.

What can you do? Over the next several blogs, I’ll share with you my top strategies and tactics that can help you acquire new customers via search engine optimization and advertising.

So check back on a regular basis to find new posts.  If you want to add our blog to your feeds to keep current on posts,  click Entries (RSS).

During the past six month, our team has been conducting research to find out what makes a successful website and why other websites never reach their potential.  We surveyed thousands of web visitors to find out what they like and dislike about different websites.  We also studied website statistics for thousands of websites.

How long does the average visitor stay on a website?

Our research shows that a visitor stays only a short time!

0–29 seconds ….about 65% (ave. 12 seconds)!
30 seconds – 2 minutes …about 17%
2 -5 minutes …about 7%
5 -15 minutes …about 5%
15 -30 minutes …about 3%
30 minutes -1hour …about 2%
over 1 hour….about 1%

What causes a person to leave a website so soon? 

We hear lots of complaints about the use of Flash or JavaScript to cycle images and messages on homepages. We wonder: Is Flash truly a killer app? Or is it a sales killer?

I’m not talking about the Flash site introduction pages, which fortunately have nearly disappeared. I am talking about an increasing number of small sites which are cycling images, changing messages, and sending offers across the screen — generally causing havoc among people trying to understand an often complex webpage.

This is not a tirade against Flash or JavaScript. It is an appeal for improved usability.

Problems with Scrolling Messages

Here are the problems caused by changing messages and scrolling offers:

1. Distraction. A large percentage of people, especially those with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), find them incredibly distracting. It is difficult to read — let alone comprehend — a webpage where dominant images continue to change and distract.The first rule to get conversions is: Convey your value proposition. Make clear what business you are in and why it is of benefit to the reader. But Flash often distracts viewers from understanding this essential message.Eyes are naturally attracted to motion and light. If your visitors don’t finish reading a paragraph, they won’t understand the value proposition. And unless they understand your value proposition, nothing will happen. Our user testing constantly reveals this pattern of distraction.
2. Disappearing messages. Some sites cycle images and messages a few times and then stop. However, once the cycling has stopped, it is impossible to go back and look at the messages. Visitors become frustrated when they can’t review them.
3. Ineffectiveness. Flash does not seem to increase the effectiveness of messaging. Flash images alone convey little beyond an attractive look and feel, but these displays often consume 10% to 30% of valuable homepage real estate.
4. Transitoriness. When we allow test users 8 to 10 seconds to view a homepage — and then hide the page — they rarely remember the content of the Flash messages. Far more often they are able to remember simple static headlines.
5. Trained avoidance. Our testing indicates that Flash is becoming like banner ads that people have trained themselves to ignore.

If you watched users get frustrated day in and day out with cycling images and messages, you might lose patience — as we often do — with sites that don’t spend the time to determine exactly the kind of impressions they generate. As you explore new and supposedly engaging website technologies, be sure to test them before fully implementing them on your site.

A: As I mentioned before, submitting your Web site to Google and Yahoo and other search engines is a good way to start. You can also submit your Web site to directories, which contain human-edited links to related Web sites in a hierarchical structure. Not all directories are free, but two of the best-known directories are Yahoo (separate from submitting your site) and dmoz.com.

Prepare your site through “organic” means to be clean, easy-to-use and optimized for search engines. If you aren’t familiar with search engine marketing, I recommend you use the many resources available from Global Marketing Plus.

A: Over 70% of online users search for products to purchase online. (Even those looking for local goods and services).

The more visible your small business is online, the greater your chance for sales. SEM and SEO campaigns can be targeted only to your local area and may be more cost-effective and farther-reaching than traditional local advertising. You can also easily track results, something that can be difficult with other types of advertising.

A: There are four key things that can make a Web site more searchable:

1. Insert keywords/phrases, tile and description meta tags into your Web pages. Limit the number of keywords on each page (to about 8 or 10 keywork phrases).

2. Submit your Web site to be indexed with the two most widely-used search engines, Google and Yahoo. If you have a website with Global Marketing Plus, this is available to you for free, plus you get listed on many other search engines!

3. Pursue mutual links to other businesses with similar but noncompetitive interests.

4. Keep your Web site clean and content-driven; avoid using flash and other complicated graphics.

Lately I have been getting lots of questions concerning search engines. So I thought I would answer some of those questions.

Q: What is search engine marketing (SEM) vs. search engine optimization (SEO)?

A: Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to “paid” or “pay-per-click” listings on search engines such as Google and Yahoo. These listings are essentially paid ads that show up as “sponsored links” or “sponsor results” on search engine results pages when someone searches for a keyword/phrase that your company has bid on.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is also called “organic” marketing and is free if you do the research and work yourself. It involves modifying your Web site to be more search-engine friendly.

More questions will be answered from time to time in this blog.