Web Marketing for Your Small Business
There are some basic questions about how websites work that I’m often asked. So, I’m putting all those answers together here. There’s nothing mind-blowing about it, but you need to know this stuff to make smart decisions about your own website.
A website basically has three components. There’s the domain name, the server and the content. Users type in your domain name and a server sends them your content. Let’s look at each of these in more detail.
You’ve probably noticed how many people have smartphones these days. But, what does that mean for your marketing efforts? Here’s something you can put into place in about five minutes that will make it easier for smartphone users to discover your online presence and find it when they need to.
Quick Response Codes!
Usually these are called QR Codes, and they’re just a type of bar code. Unlike most bar codes you see, these can store a fair amount of information, topping out at about 3000 characters. And, any smartphone with a camera can decode that data.
Google is rolling out some changes to improve users’ privacy, but there’s a bit of hypocrisy involved. The search engine optimization community is abuzz and there’s a lot of misinformation out there.
The plan includes removing keywords from “referer” data. Read on to learn what referer data is, why I’m misspelling that word, and what Google is changing.
When you visit a webpage, your computer sends various bits of information along to that webpage that you never see. These are called headers. One of the headers is the referer. The referer header tells the site you are visiting where you came from. When you click a link your browser tells the page you land on the address of the page you came from.
The reason it gets spelled “referer” instead of “referrer” is that this misspelling was included in the original specifications for the web, back in 1996. I think it’s a fun bit of internet trivia, but I’ll go back to spelling the word correctly now.
Now, when you do a search on Google or other search engines, the words you search for are included in the address. For example, a Google search for [how to play chess] would take you to an address like:
http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+play+chess
That’s a nice way to do it because then people can link to specific searches. Also, when you click a link after searching, the site you visit is told the address you came from in the referrer header. That lets site owners track what search terms brought people to their website.
That seems harmless enough, but consider another example. Say someone in Syria or Iran were to search for [how to topple an autocratic regime]. Suddenly this whole situation gets serious. That kind of search could get them arrested, or worse.
And, it’s not just the site you visit that can see your searches. Your internet provider can too. Here in the US, our providers snoop into our traffic to mine data that’s sold to advertisers and such. In countries with dictatorial leaders… well, you can imagine.
So, Google is rolling out encryption on searches. Soon, anyone who is logged into a Google account and does a search from the main Google page will have their searches automatically encrypted. This is really great for privacy. They will also be removing all referrer data when you click a search result. Again, good for privacy, but webmasters won’t be able to see what search terms brought traffic to their site.
This has the SEO community up in arms. (Well, this and another little tidbit to be discussed below.) We pay a lot of attention to the keywords that are bringing in traffic. That’s one of the best metrics we have to judge the success of our efforts.
Personally, I’m okay with trading keyword data for better privacy. I believe that the more encryption is used on the web the better. Here’s the kicker, though: Google will pass your search terms on when you click one of their ads.
That’s right, they will protect your privacy unless someone pays them not to. In fact, they’ll be going out of their way to share your search data with advertisers. Normally, when you’re on an encrypted page and click a link to a non-encrypted page your browser will not pass any referrer data. Google will actually be rigging things such that you will send referrer data to advertisers.
All the keyword data isn’t going to just go away. Probably less than 10% of searches will get encrypted this way. If you have a website, be sure you’re making use of this data. You can find the report in Google Analytics under Content » Keywords. In the long term, we might have to look for other metrics. Time will tell.
This post first appeared in my small business email newsletter’s Halloween edition. Sign up with the form at the upper left to get a useful article in your inbox each month.
There’s one easy thing business owners can do to increase the amount of local traffic they get from Google, and many aren’t doing it. I’m talking about claiming your listing in Google Places. Those are the listings that show up in Google Maps and, increasingly, in location-specific search results.
Often times when someone searches for a local business, or category of businesses, Google will show a “7 Box” of local results along with a map. The normal results generally come after this. For example, here’s what I found after searching for [chapel hill coffee].
If you click on the name of the business you will go to their website. To the right of the name is a tally of reviews and “Place page.” That’s a link to their profile in Google Places.
The Place page is a collection of all sorts of data that Google has collected from around the web like reviews, hours of operation, and pictures. The more information Google can find on the web about a business, the more authoritative that business is, thus bringing it higher in those local search results. In local search, mentioning a business, it’s address and telephone number is like a vote of confidence in that business, just like links are for websites in normal search results.
You’re not at the mercy of what Google can find about you, though. Business owners can claim their listing and manually add content. The more content you add, the more Google likes you. So, get out there and claim your listing, and add as much to it as possible. Do a Google search for your business name and city or find yourself on Google Maps to get to your place page. Then, just click the link at the top right that says “Business owner?”
To prove yourself, Google will call the phone number associated with your listing and have you enter a code. It only takes a few minutes. Plus, once you’ve claimed your listing you’ll be able to see statistics about how often your listing shows up for searchers and how they interact with it.
One caveat: These listings are non-transferable. So, don’t have an employee claim your listing while signed in with their personal Google or Gmail account. Generally, the easiest thing to do is create a new Google account to use for the business, and claim the listing with that account.
Chances are that you do some writing from time to time. Maybe it’s just emails to your coworkers. Maybe it’s public-facing verbiage on your website. Maybe you correspond with customers, clients or donors. We do a lot with the written word these days, and it pays to remind ourselves how to do it well.
I’ve put together these 7 rules from a few different sources: Hemingway, Orwell and Bird. If you ask me, it’s worth brushing up on these sorts of things periodically. I should probably do it more often.
Use short sentences.
Hemingway was a master of this rule. He learned it from a newspaper’s style book. Short sentences make your writing easy to digest. That’s very important in our fast paced world.
Eight words make for an easy sentence. Sixteen words is okay. Thirty two is too much. Your reader may lose track and lose interest.
Use short paragraphs.
Nothing deters a reader like a wall of text. Break up your ideas into easy to digest chunks, and don’t make every paragraph the same length.
Break up your text.
There are a number of ways to make your text less intimidating beyond short sentences and paragraphs. For example,
Be positive.
That doesn’t mean to always be happy. It means describe what something is rather than what it is not. Call something affordable rather than inexpensive. That produce is organic rather than pesticide free.
You can compare your offerings to your competitors and still be positive. Just talk about what your offering is rather than what theirs is not. For example, “Acme widgets are 32% stronger than Brand X widgets.”
Use the active voice.
This one will keep your sentences shorter and more potent. You wouldn’t say, “the championship was won by us” would you? No. You’d say, “we won the championship.”
Draw the reader along.
Make it easy for your reader to keep reading to the end.
Build curiosity. Don’t give everything away in a headline. Use curiosity to draw your reader along. What else?
Questions help. You can bridge two paragraphs by ending one with a question. Naturally the reader will go to the next for the answer.
Additionally, you can use carrier words. At the start of a sentence, these tell the reader that there’s something more to get. Examples include, furthermore, plus, also, finally, next and and. (It’s okay to start a sentence with and. You aren’t writing a term paper.)
Stay lucid.
What this all boils down to is clarity. Your writing should make sense and have a logical flow.
A good test is to ask a layperson to read your writing. Ask them if it’s clear. If not, revise.
Finally, I don’t know who said this, but here’s a quotation to keep in mind:
“Something written to please the writer rarely pleases the reader.”
![[No Math Included!]](https://www.petergrandstaff.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/no-math-included.gif "No Math Included!")
When Google first opened their search engine in the late 1990′s it revolutionized the way people found information online. Google came along with a way to show the best results at the top of search results. PageRank (a trademark of Google) is what made this possible. Understanding how it works is vital if you want to make your site show up higher in search engines.
PageRank is a numerical score. The higher the PageRank, the more important and authoritative the web page. It’s assigned to every page that Google indexes. Basically, PageRank is the likelihood that someone clicking links at random will visit a particular page.
Google uses PageRank to figure out what results to show first. It figures out what pages are most relevant to the phrase that was searched for. Then, it filters and sorts those results based on PageRank.
Testimonials add something very special to your website, when they’re authentic. It’s a third party who presumably has nothing to gain by saying good things about you. Readers are more inclined to believe a third party, but poorly executed testimonials just won’t do.
You can go on and on about how great you are and all the benefits people get when they do business with you, but it’s still just you talking. You’re biased, and people know it… “Of course they say it’s the best thing since sliced bread, they came up with it!”
When a third party talks about how great you are, it’s completely different. They don’t profit when you make a sale. Yet, they took the time to write a few words expressing their satisfaction. A visitor to your site can read some testimonials and feel reassured that real people have gotten real benefit from doing business with you.
Of course, since the testimonial is on your website you could have written it yourself or edited it heavily. In fact, a lot of people do write the testimonials themselves and ask clients to sign off on it as if they had written it. Don’t do that. Your testimonials will all sound the same and people will not be swayed by the words.
Your testimonials must be authentic, and there’s a few basic things you can do to make sure they come across as the words of real, three-dimensional human beings:
Get people to write their own testimonials. The main reason I hear why people write testimonials for their customers or clients is that they asked for testimonials and never got them. It’s not because people don’t want to write them or don’t have time. It’s because they don’t know what to say.
When you ask someone for a testimonial, give them some guidance. Ask them what benefits they received from buying your products or services. Ask them what they would tell a close friend who was considering buying your products or services. Whatever you do, don’t just say, “Can you send me a testimonial?”
Everyone has their own voice and that’s the single most important thing to capture in order to make your testimonials authentic. The varying tone and voice in your testimonials will make everything believable to the reader.
Give attributions for each testimonial. Real people have names, occupations, and live in specific places. Provide that info along with the testimonial!
Nothing says unauthentic like testimonials without names. Granted, some industries shouldn’t give out names for confidentiality reasons, but whenever possible provide a name.
If you serve a wide geographic region you can show that off by listing the location with each testimonial. This will reassure readers that you’re a match for them even if they live further away from your home base. Additionally, it adds another layer of authenticity.
Listing the occupation of your testimonial’s author is another way to show visitors they’re in the right place, that what you offer can help them. This is especially useful in the business to business market. It lets you demonstrate that you either serve a wide range of industries or have a specific niche that you focus on.
Got pictures? Use them! Reading words and names is one thing. Seeing someone’s face is another. If feasible, provide a picture along with each testimonial. Outside of video, nothing will make your testimonials more three dimensional than a picture.
Remember to capture and showcase the unique voice and identity that goes with each testimonial. Your visitors will recognize the authenticity and be reassured by the third party validation.
Of course, testimonials aren’t as powerful as reviews in third party websites or publications, or word of mouth. They are a powerful sales tool, though. I suggest having a section of your website devoted to showing them off, and using them any place where a visitors will be making a decision on whether to do business with you or not.
You'll find In-Page Analysis under the Content section.
When you click the In-Page Analysis link you’ll be taken to a page that shows your website within Google Analytics. You’ll have a column on the left with lots of handy stats for the page you’re looking at. Even better, you’ll see a little bubble by every link on your site showing what percentage of clicks were on that link.
When you first start this feature up you’ll see your site’s homepage. Look at the link stats. Since every website is different and has different objectives it’s hard to give universal advice about what your numbers should ideally look like. Think about what path you want visitors to take through your site and see if the numbers match your ideal. If not, make a note of the issue.
After you look at the homepage, click one of your links and have a look at the next page. Consider where you’d like visitors to go after that page and see if your click statistics match up. While you explore, pay attention to the Entrance and Exit percentages in the left column as well. A high exit percentage on your Contact page is normal. On your homepage, it’s a problem.
You can explore your whole site this way, and I suggest you do. It never fails to amaze me how quickly I can find actionable information this way.
I expect Google will be improving the In-Page Analysis feature a lot as time goes on. Perhaps eventually they’ll even give us click heat maps showing exactly where clicks happen, down to the pixel. Of course, by then you’ll be a pro with this feature because you started using it religiously after reading this, right?
Note: If you have the kind of website that you log into as an administrator, you may need to log out before this feature will work correctly.