Is Your Site Like a Cheap Suit?

The saying “on it like a cheap suit” refers to the fact the cheap suits are all over the place from fabric to lack of quality.

I see “cheap suit” Web sites all the time. Sites whose owners think they look all dressed up and believe they are actually giving the impression of being a formal business. When in contrast these sites are clearly reflecting the site’s overall lack of believability and trustworthiness.

When you are out to impress — you simply don’t take the cheap suit approach. For example:

• Would you wear a cheap suit to that dream job interview? Probably not, the next applicant who spent the bucks to look spiffy will make you barely a memory.
• Would you wear a cheap suit to your wedding? Most likely not. If you did that would be telling as to what the future would be like being married to you if you didn’t see the importance of wearing a nice suit for your own nuptials.
• Would you wear a cheap suit to court? Say you had to go to court for custody, traffic issues, DUI, whatever. Do you think a cheap suit would help persuade the judge that you take the issue as seriously as you should. Don’t think so.

Then why would you assume that a “cheap suit” Web site will produce? Cheap suits do not lend to the perception of one being a legitimate and credible business. Would you make your own suit to wear out on the town? No — you are not a tailor. Then, it should go without saying as to whether you should design your own Web site without the proper training, skills and experience.

Impressions are everything when you are trying to convince someone to spend money with you. Wear a cheap suit and don’t be surprised if customers seek out those competitors who realize the importance of presenting a polished and professional image.

The good news is you can always learn — but will your business survive in the interim? If I were you I’d get all over that like a cheap suit!

Physical Address Required

You need to have your physical address available on your site.  Some sites don’t necessitate that information be on every page (non-eCom sites), so at the very least a physical or mailing address should be on your contact page. By not doing so you give the impression of possibly being a fly-by-night.

Would you give out payment information to a site that had no indication of where there were located? Most onliners will not.

The analogy goes that with no address one can easily disappear without leaving any traceable contact information that a customer could have noted when they decided to do business with you. No address? Folks will probably find one of your competitors who will give them that warm fuzzy.

If you are a home based business and don’t want to expose that address to everyone, you can simply get a P.O. Box to use for your mailing address. Then, at the very least folks know where you are and know where to contact you if needed. When I went completely virtual and left the rat race a couple years ago and moved to the country, I signed up for a P.O. Box for those very reasons.

Yes, having a physical address is more credible and convincing to some than a P.O. Box. In my case being I have been established for well over a decade, I am not too concerned about that. Each business needs to make these decisions based on what is best for their business and what perception they want to give.

It’s really a no-brainer and worth the small P.O. Box fees to add that extra level of credibility that is so hard to build online in the first place. When it comes to your Web site, a physical address is required to give your visitors confidence. For eCom sites, you’ll loose business without one.

Why give potential customers an excuse to look elsewhere?

Want to Learn About Web Design?

If you want to make a go out of making money online you do have to learn the basics of Web design.

While many WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors make things easier by negating the need to understand even basic code, they also prevent you from learning some of the little details and intricacies you need to know to make your site the way you want it to be without a bunch of unnecessary gobbly-gook code too!

Check out this resource for thousands of articles, resources, tutorials and more:

 

Learn and invest in your success!

How to Create a Blog

While Blogging is something many folks are doing and many more would like to do, for those just investigating starting a Blog, where do you start? How do you create a Blog?

Based on the number of inquiries I get every day asking that very question it is clear that inquiring minds want to know!

Many hosting companies offer Blog features or installation of WordPress in their control panels for those not into FTP and configuration details. There are a plethora of blogging platforms and tools out there for you to use. Which you use depends on what type of Blog you want to create. One for business or just for fun or a hobby?

Blogging is popular because all the Blog owner really has to do is type. The platforms and applications for Blogging, once in place are pretty much on auto pilot leaving the Blogger to only have to worry about what they want to write about.

Here are some considerations and links to resources here on my site and elsewhere in regard to how to create a Blog:

• If you already have a Web site, you can easily add a Blog by installing WordPress on your established server. Or check your hosts control panel for a WordPress installation tool.
• If Blogging for fun, you can setup a free blog @ Google’s Blogger.com or WordPress.com. While these services are not as flexible (you get what you pay for) if you want to Blog purely for hobby (non-commercial) reasons, and don’t want anything too fancy, either of these services will do.
• If for Blogging for business, you need to get your own hosting server (about $5-10 a month) so you can have your own domain and use your domain e-mail address. Free services won’t do in this case. Plus most themes are now oriented to being an entire Web site that includes a Blog. So you can manage your entire site and Blog at the same time.

The basics on how to create a Blog:

• WordPress Themes: There are a ton of free theme archives out there but you have to be careful because free themes generally include not only the author’s link in the footer, but links to sometimes questionable sites and affiliate programs as well.

  I have no problem linking to the developer who offers free themes however including additional promo links that many times are encrypted and cannot be removed, is going a bit to far.

  So with that said here are links to the themes I prefer to start my search at:

  • StudioPress Themes
  • iThemes
  • Woo Premium Themes
  • Professional WP Theme Gallery
• WordPress Support:
  • Development Blog
  • Documentation
  • Plugins
  • Suggest Ideas
  • Support Forum
  • Themes
  • WordPress Planet

My resources:

• Articles and Posts on Blogging and Social Media
• WordPress Setup & Consulting Packages

Once you have WordPress installed it is just a matter of tweaking what you want to change and then start dancing at the keyboard!

Have Fun!

Poor Rankings? Think About This…

Last week I covered the reality of how Search Engines work with my updated posted on the Ten Commandments of Search Engines. This post has been “out there” for over a decade and I make a point of updating it annually.

Funny, though… not so much has changed over this time period. Quality, unique, fresh content will always rule the day.

But what if you haven’t understood ranking and popularity issues up until now or plain old were in denial hoping to avoid the hard work that produces the results you so desire?

Here are some things for you to ponder and process:

• Check your stats! Get intimate with your Web sites’ statistical data. Review them minimally at the end of each month because by not doing so you simply do not have the information you need to make those productive and all so important decisions moving forward. Do you see traffic coming from the big name Search Engines/Services? If not, get to work!

  Your stats show exactly what phrases you are being found by and from what service so that you can accurately track and build upon what is working! They show top entry and exit pages and so much more. Without your site’s statistical data there is no way you can get the full picture of what is happening on your site now to know what your next move should be.

• When was the last time work was done on your site? Those files are dated and Search Engines can come by and eventually ignore you if they don’t find anything new. Fresh, growing, content rich sites garner better rankings and backlinks. Stale, outdated, static sites are not very interesting now are they?

  Don’t fall into a false sense of security that modifying your site by moving or changing keywords or head tags is the shortcut or solution. Never rely on those control panel hosting tools, that purport that all you have to do is click here and check that and shazzam — optimization is complete!

  Changes must be complimented by having a strategy, marketing efforts, then more strategy tweaking, then ongoing content additions, then more marketing efforts, then….

• If you have not reviewed your site specifically for optimum Search Engine rankings either by boning up on the topic yourself or with an experienced consultant the specializes in doing so, know you are most likely not using the strategies and variables both visibly and in your code to boost your rankings. Be warned though, this is just part of your effort to gain organic/natural listings and needs to be combined with other proactive activities to gain rankings that produce ROI.
• How many links do you have to your site? There are numerous free tools for you to data mine your backlinks.

  Links to your site boost your “popularity levels” with some of the crawlers – but only when done correctly and with diligence. Keep in mind that all links are not considered equal! Free for All (FFA) or cooperative link exchange pages can actually cause your rankings to suffer. Quality sites linking to you that are complementary in topic work best.

  Popularity levels are also tracked by how visitors behave when presented with your site. This is where quality design and laser targeted titles and descriptions backed with quality content keep visitors on your site and stop those dreaded bounce backs you may have heard about.

  Bounce back is the term that describes site visitors who “bounced back” by hitting the back button. Why would someone hit the back button after arriving at your site? This can be an indication that the site is either misleading in content or not of adequate quality to keep the visitor there. If they click in and click right back – that is not a good sign and you could loose positioning. It is sort of a catch 22 in that if your site isn’t ranked in the first place you cannot even begin to build a popularity ranking.

• You have to participate! Visit sites, forums and Blogs that relate to the topic of your site or where your site visitors may hang out and participate. Participation in of itself, if anything, is the magic bullet so many are looking for. Participating is what builds awareness of your site and awareness breeds links to your site. Don’t want to participate? Then you have no choice but to lower your expectations accordingly.
• What are your traffic levels? If you have low traffic, your listings are lean and you need to get a plan! If you have high traffic but are not getting the inquiries or orders you desire the question then becomes why aren’t visitors contacting you — why aren’t they converting? From bad copy to poor quality graphics or even lack of certain info necessary to build confidence, the answers to that question are unique to each site and market.
• Never go to Search Engines and type in any phrase you “think” you “want” to pull by. Remember, you should have advised your developer specific phrases for this purpose during the creation of your site and those are the terms you should search for.

  If you didn’t have this discussion with your developer, know most likely that your site simply isn’t optimized. SEO requires a strategy that includes keyword research which is then backed by the creation of specific and deliberate content.

  Every Search Engine will list your site differently for the very same keyword phrases based on their own unique set of criteria that is constantly changing. This is called an algorithm and each search site’s algo is different. That is why competitors within the very same industry will pull quite differently based on how they are structured, what keyword phrases were targeted and how, when the site was developed and by who, actual content, popularity and link ratios — and, most importantly, how aggressive they are with their ongoing marketing efforts.

What’s the bottom line? Primarily there is nothing passive about this issue. No serious site owner should sit back and rely on free Search Engine listings or Google alone when there are so many other things they can be doing to gain additional exposure by being involved and participating. Search Engines should only be considered a part of your online marketing program – not the sole focus or end-all-be-all.

If disappointment is yours, it is because you have not used technology to it’s fullest by being involved, embracing its reality or making the commitment to ensuring results based on information provided. Both of which can be changed from this moment forward!

Optimize Schmoptimize!

“In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.”
- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
English Author, Lexicographer

With all the talk in regard to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) one could come to the assumption that all you have to do is optimize your pages and Shazam! your site is in the Top 10 and the orders/contacts/conversions will flow in!

I believe this comes from a desire for that hype to be true. Many feeling that by just optimizing their site, then crossing their fingers or wishing on their lucky search engine rabbit foot, that rankings and therefore orders or conversions will happen.

Now fast forward to the reality of now and optimizing is one of the most talked about silver bullets. Just optimize — that’s all you have to do! However, all too often critical considerations are being ignored or flat out disregarded before “optimizing.”

Here are just a few:

• Do you having a quality, consistent design to optimize?
• Did you investigate if you are entering an overly saturated market?
• Is your pricing competitive?
• Do you have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition)?
• Is your shipping and handling overpriced?
• Do you have a strategy, methodology or business plan?

Need I go on? Without the above, optimizing is a waste of time and the site owner’s money. Regardless of what Spam or the Black Hat SEOs want everyone to believe, optimizing is futile without having your ducks in a row on these important issues first.

Optimization is an important part of getting rankings — but not the end-all-be-all. Not the silver bullet, not the magic pill, not the miracle cure to getting solid rankings for a poorly conceived Web site. Just a piece of the puzzle that includes well written optimized content catering to site visitors first, then search engines, while making sure all the other important variables are also in place.

Yes, optimizing your content is a smart thing to do. But you can’t optimize your site to the point where the text is no longer readable to human beings and expect to get orders, contacts or conversions. You can optimize your site to death, however, if you have a product that is not in demand, or at the wrong price on a poorly designed site — you’ve just optimized a site that will not produce regardless of its rankings.

Optimization is only part of having a comprehensive marketing program — not the Holy Grail as so many would have you believe! You need to look at your overall site marketing strategy, which should include all the tools available to you to market your interactive site for best network exposure.

From Blogs to Social Networks to autoresponder campaigns, to content that grows like a corn stalk; without these added to your program, you can optimize until the cows come home but the fat lady will never sing.

Don’t optimize before you strategize!

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