Website Technical Optimization – Basic Stuff, High Rewards

Original post – on Atomic Ideas

When I sit with clients, prospects and colleagues, I try to spend the time both teaching and learning. In particular, when I coach many of the smart people that I am thankful to work with, on a variety of digital marketing and social media business strategies, I have a tendency to often lose them. This is most likely because of the speed that I explain things.

I have a bad habit of assuming that people know what I am talking about because I get very passionate about sharing my experiences and knowledge. Ask my wife and she will not only agree but laugh that I am stating this fact.

The critical focal point in the first sentence above, however, is learning. I have found that as I am teaching others, I can actually learn more than I am teaching in many cases. For example, (take a social assessment and strategy development for a B2B company) – I’ve consulted with some very intelligent and savvy business people in the B2B arena on social assessment projects – but I’ve learned to become a better listener. Which, ( …BTW) – allows me to be a better learner and ultimately a better teacher.

Outside of an extremely detailed assessment ( among other deliverables) – including “listening” to the social landscape of:

* Brand mentions

* Competitors

* Customers, across several industries

* Service offerings/products

Prior to developing a strategy – the recommendation to begin improving their web sites is sometimes needed first and foremost. As my colleague Shauna Nicholson states, “It’s like dressing up before you go out to a business event.” However, what if your client really likes their current site? (Even if it has not been updated since 2001) Feeling that there is nothing needed for improvement. In fact, they feel that:

* The creative is great. (In reality: It looks like 1998 is calling!)

* It has functionality and conversions are great. (In reality: They don’t know the potential that they are missing.)

* It must be optimized correctly, right? Just leave it and let’s move forward with Twitter and Facebook, right?

How do we explain this most basic step? Putting your clothes on before you go out… a small (but very important) part of the overall strategy, without irritating or losing a client? Here are some slivers of the website technical optimization pie that can hit a cord with a President of a large B2B organization.

Let’s say that Google, Yahoo and Bing are the hosts of a major trade show in your industry. Anybody that you ever dreamed of getting in front of is your audience – and they are at this trade show, which gives you many opportunities to tell them all who you are and what you do. You go outside of your booth passing out some really great items to draw them to your booth (as well as having the opportunity for your hosts to draw traffic to your booth…) But, what happens when they get there?

Let’s look at what you are telling your hosts first:

Page Title - Does your page title (or tradeshow banner) effectively tell Google (or your trade show host) who they should recommend visiting your booth?
(Is it relevant and descriptive to the industry you serve?

Meta Description – Does your meta description effectively tell Yahoo what you do?
(Does it match the visible text?)

Meta Keywords – Are your keyword effective and relevant?
(Are they consistent with the content page by page? (Each page individually optimized?))

Then… there is your audience (what if they come):
They’re Heeere! Once your users show up, is your website clear, consistent and easy to navigate? Or is it cold, gloomy and/or hard to understand? I’ve personally spent more time at trade show booths that have occupied my attention (without overwhelming me) and offered great information. The same goes for websites. So, you have a 24-7 (365 days a year) trade show going on and your okay with a dingy booth with incomplete messages and no one hanging around, eh?

Driving traffic to a site can be the easy part – in some cases, outside of the fact that we want to get relevant traffic – we want to look the part. Do we have a nice outfit on, have our hair combed, teeth brushed and flossed with a smile on ready to do some business?

Increasing Relevance to Improve Ranking

I can’t stress the importance of research, strategy and planning (enough) in any good marketing strategy. I attempted to describe this in my post from this April titled: Moving the Needle with “New Media” – Technically Speaking (under the subheading: Finally, don’t just throw your time or budget away!) A solid digital business strategy will ensure that the work done has an incremental and long-term value for years to come. Is this branding at its best?

Yesterday, I was training a small group on best blogging practices. Good thing, I’m able to use my own blog as an example of how content marketing has a “shelf life of years.”

I have started several blogs over the years either for friends, clients and even myself – all with a variety of different purposes or strategies. This very blog (http://www.freshmenz.wordpress.com) (originally) started in May of 2008 to discuss products that my family uses in our home.

In May of this year, I started using this blog to discuss topics of interest to share certain passions, experiences and stories in my life. Thus, I began writing somewhat regularly on this blog. As it began to pick up popularity with my content on social media and digital marketing, this caused some confusion with some of my audience.

For example, I had a Michigan business coach tell me that he loves my blog but “what is up with Freshmenz Enterprises offering UV air purifiers, laundry products, UV water purifiers, etc?” Although he knows why, I understood what he meant. It is confusing to a user searching for this information (potentially looking for air and water purification products) and end up coming to a blog (mostly talking about digital media and social strategies.)

Back in 2007, I had started an e-commerce website (using the domain http://www.freshmenz.com) and set up a low budget website with a shopping cart to sell these products directly. I mass distributed a press release and was also very active in social communities engaging people with similar interests, sharing and collaborating on information about the green technologies that I was passionate about, used in my home and offered via my e-commerce website.

Content Marketing Relevancy

I originally intended for people to find me and ask me how these products have helped my family. At that time, I found how to becoming a valuable resource for people online (rather than trying to sell directly to them) results in developing many great relationships. I developed a nice customer base with customers all over the United States because they found my content useful and/or informative (via various locations on the Internet.)

Today, I use this domain for my blog yet this content still exists on hundreds of web sites driving traffic to this property. Although, I am still a resource for these products the user experience may be confusing for those who click through looking ti find information on how to clean their clothes without using laundry detergent (e.g. LaundryPure). That is… unless they find this specific post (or some other specific previous post), it is easy to understand how they could easily be lost, confused and annoyed. The fact that this content has a shelf life for many years is exactly why you want to have a solid strategy in place first (and foremost.)

I’ve worked with small brands (e.g. Freshmenz Enterprises), medium brands and large International brands on digital marketing efforts that use content to become an authority in a variety of different areas. Whether you are a major automotive supplier, a non-profit organization, a small business or a professional blogger… your Internet presence needs a strategy for long-term success.

I apologize for (originally) not having a specific plan in how I would use this domain and this blog. However, it has been a great example to show friends, colleagues, prospects and clients. Does your brand have a long-term digital strategy?

Social Intercommunication – Be A Good Billboard

We all depend on each other, in some fashion, right?

Growing up, I played a lot of soccer. As an average soccer player, I had to allocate extra practice time. However, I was fortunate to have great coaches and teammates continually pushing me to become better. All I had to do was be open to getting help. Becoming a better soccer player eventually just fell in place.

I knew that I was a small part of a great team and I was a part of a community that supported us. We (players, parents, administrators, community fans and friends) were in it together – To share in the fun, to learn and teach each other how to become better soccer players, to win without gloating and to hold our heads up high when the game was lost.

In Middle School, our coach (Phill Seasock) taught us when you step on and off the bus, you represent our school, our city and our community – “we are driving billboard!” As a good leader, Seasock’s teachings about the game of soccer were not as important as the respect that he intertwined in each of us – respect for ourselves and respect for others around us (including the other teams.) We played good soccer as a team and individually acted as gentlemen, always (on and off the field.)

Coach Seasock and his 1991 middle school soccer team.

Just as in the case with Middle School soccer players… Today, things are conceptually not very different in regards to social media. Whether you are a part of a team, group, company, community, etc. – you become “a digital billboard.”

Last night, Refresh Detroit (follow on Twitter @refreshdetroit) held a discussion with a diverse panel of excellent speakers (including, Evan Deutsch, Dalila Akli, Chris Kochmanski and Shannon Paul moderated by Marie MacNee) who provided valuable dialogue about:

· best practices for writing web copy
· users interaction with copy
· copy writing for (SEO) search engine optimization
· writing for social media

Please feel free to view the great discussions here…

Part 1 http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1415776

Part 2 http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1415935

Focusing on the last bullet, Chris Kochmanski (with over 30 years of strategic marketing experience), stated something that struck my interest, “I generally tend to write in a more conversational tone… online.”

Following up on this last point from Chris, Shannon Paul started out by saying, “The Internet is a social place…” How can a brand elevate the human level? How can you become a resource?

Shannon’s blog post (“Don’t Be That Guy”) from last summer concisely sums up how you should approach the digital space without being offensive or rude. Maybe my (yet another) analogy is an overkill but imagine your billboard standing out as an offensive eyesore, rather than blending in with the scene – nicely. In social intercommunication, your punishment is not detention or extra laps at the next practice. It creates a bad reputation and futile relationships.

I’ve probably been that guy in some cases (we all have most likely) but the key is to remember – as Shannon also explains…” it’s not too late to change your ways.” You really can’t hide your true character – the community will quickly identify the persona that you present, masking your true motives. Deceptive behaviors for a desired impression when interacting with other people will read like a blinking billboard displaying, “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”

Finally, I was having a conversation with a colleague about all of the opinions and discussions surrounding social media. He stated, “Everybody wants to be the smartest guy in the room.” Absolutely, who wants to feel bad about themselves or feel useless, the key is to be respectful not boastful – remember that we are all part of a community. Share what you know. Don’t be an eyesore – a showboat. Be a good billboard – a resource. Play nicely with others, even if there are disagreements. Especially when representing a brand/company/team…in the community.

We all depend on each other. I’d say so!

How do you depend on others or help those who depend on you?

Also, check out Shannon’s great presentation on:

Overcoming Obstacles to Social Media Integration

View more presentations from shannonpaul.