Simplify the Web

Every business owner wants to make money with their website. Every non-profit wants to increase donations with their website. Every blogger wants to gain some notoriety with their website. While a few websites make money, most actually cost money. What's the difference? What's the secret to success on the web? Several factors determine success on the web, but the first step is to create traffic:

To get business FROM your website, you need to get visitors TO your website!

There are only two kinds of website traffic:

1. Referral traffic, and
2. Organic search traffic.

Referral traffic comes from a number of sources: word of mouth, social media, email marketing, snail-mail marketing, radio, TV, print advertising, paid search (also known as pay-per-click), and so on. Referral traffic requires INTERACTION...you must hand out your business card, friends must refer you, you must create an ad, etc. Most website owners aren't willing to spend the amount of time and attention needed to make this a big success. It's generally worth it, but it's a lot of work.

Organic search traffic, also known as "natural" or "algorithmic" search, is usually a better bet for initial web success. It's still work, but it's a lot less work than creating referral traffic. Let me explain:

When you type something into a search engine, the main part of the page is then filled with search results. THAT is "organic search". It's not paid search, and it's not a directory listing of websites. It's a list of web pages that match what you typed. Looking for local hog-calling contests? Search, and your favorite search engine will try to tell you where you can find them. You can't pay Google to list you higher in organic search...what you see is the result of a complex system of mathematical formulas designed to bring you EXACTLY what you're searching for.

While you can't pay Google for a better listing, you CAN pay a web development company for a better listing...or you can do it yourself, if you know how.

If it were really that easy, everybody would do it. Right? WRONG. It's really surprising how easily you can rank well. It's not a lot of work, but you have to understand how search engines work. Let me explain:

Search engines don't rank websites. They only rank web PAGES. Think about an encyclopedia. Your website is the encyclopedia, and each page is a different article. If someone wants to learn about King Tut, your awesome article about your visit to the traveling King Tut exhibit may be just what they're looking for. Your incredible article about rodent racing is irrelevant to the person searching for King Tut. That's why search engines rank ONLY individual web pages. When a search engine brings a visitor to an individual page, that page is called the "landing page". It's where you land after searching for something.

As I said above, to get business FROM your website, you need to get visitors TO your website. Creating web pages that attract visitors isn't that hard. You just need to give them what they're looking for! If you're a King Tut fan, write about King Tut. If you make widgets, write about widgets. When people search for King Tut or widgets, they'll be sent to web pages that match their search. Here's where the "work" part comes in: each page, to be effective, should only be written about ONE, or possibly TWO, specific phrases. If you write a single page (think about encyclopedia articles) about two different topics, search engines won't rank you well for either topic. The trick is to write about ONE thing per page. The more closely your page matches what the searcher types into the search engine, the better your ranking.

In other words, write. Yes, it's work...but it's less work than hawking your business cards at a local leads group. Why? Simple: to get more referral business, you have to keep spreading the word. When you write a web page, that content stays online for as long as you want it to. It will still attract traffic in 10 years, long after your business card starts sprouting in a landfill somewhere.

If you need a hand getting your website's landing pages running smoothly, feel free to contact us. We'd love to help.

There has been a lot of changes within the social domain these last few months. Many of them have been trying to optimize and take advantage of existing technologies in a way a company can maximize the ROI of the channel.

Many people have found the social media channel a difficult one to break into and maintain. So far it seems the only people taking advantage of the social channel are celebrities and gossip sites like TMZ or Access Hollywood. The question remains for the small business, "How can I take advantage of Social Media and make it work for me?"

The answer is: "not easily".

Social Media has become an excellent way to build your personal presence online or to extend a network of customer service to existing clients / customers. However if you aren't willing to invest the amount of time it takes to keep that steam going, then my suggestion would be to NOT use it in the traditional way. Here are a couple of thoughts you may be able to leverage social media for you but not in a way that you overwhelm yourself and your company.

Google has made some interesting waves in this area in the last couple of months. Waves that make people stop and think about how to make use of the social media market. Google rolled out a major change with caffeine (their latest algorithm)  and a great new integration into gmail called Google Buzz.

Google Buzz seems to be Google's answer to Twitter, yet in an interesting form. Check out this post if you would like a quick down on dirty what it does. It's a streamlined version of twitter only one change, you "buzz" with other people in your contacts. It's a private venue of buzzes and integrated into one of the largest email clients available. Interesting move.

What came out shortly before buzz and is probably a good motivator for Google to come out with a product like buzz, is the real time search results.

Real time search keeps you updated on hot topics on the net at the moment and show up live as they happen within the search results for that topic. It's seasonal basically. If the topic is hot, they'll put it in the results. So, if you want to leverage social in a way that gets you in front of people, try tweeting about a hot topic. It gets your twitter in front of people, builds your network, but doesn't come with the responsibility of staying current and cumbersome for your company.

Buzz with people you know. Find people within Gmail that you don't know and buzz with them. Both these approaches keep you under wraps and let you grow as fast as you can handle without feeling overwhelmed.

by Tony Scialdone

Most of us know, without thinking, to be careful of what we do online. Certain activities may not be totally private or secure. We realize that our passwords should be kept secret, that our online banks are supposed to be safe from prying eyes, and that almost anything we put online can be found by someone, sometime.

It's what we don't know that can get us into trouble.

When we sign up for an online service like GMail or Facebook, we agree to abide by their Terms of Service. We're also informed about their privacy policies. Unfortunately, most of us don't really pay that much attention at the time. We're in a hurry, after all...so we assume that everything will be okay. Unfortunately, that could cause problems down the road. Here are a couple of examples:

1. In 2009, Facebook endured a firestorm of controversy over a change in their privacy policy. Essentially, Facebook users were concerned about their profile information being made public, including their pictures. The idea was simple: if you put it on the Facebook website, Facebook could use it for their own gain. Once it was there, it was theirs. When Facebook lovers turned into a frothing mob, they backed off.
2. Google Buzz is today's Next Big Thing. It allows GMail users to 'follow' each other (a la Twitter) and to share content they like (a la Facebook) for others to read. What's the problem? It's simple: the information about who you follow, who follows you, and what you share is available to the public. You can change that by changing your privacy settings, but the damage is done when you sign up.

Now, it's good that both Facebook and Google Buzz let you turn these things off, and keep your info private. However: we all know that most users won't even know that the issues, let alone what to do about them. When was the last time that you read the privacy policy for your online email account? Do you know whether your Facebook profile information will show up in a Google search?

Try this: do a Google search for your own name, and see what comes up. If there's too much info there, ask yourself where it came from. Write yourself a note so that when you log into your online accounts, you'll take a moment to review their policies. Almost anyone can change a privacy policy without notifying you (banks are one notable exception), so your knowledge about your account might be out of date. Most of us aren't afraid to let the world see into our private lives, at least a little bit...but most of us have no idea how much of our private lives have been made public.

by Tony Scialdone

"Social media" is very hot right now. Almost everybody wants a Facebook page and a Twitter account. While there's nothing wrong with having either, many businesses are finding that their social media strategies are failing...and failing big.

Studies by Canadian marketing guru Andrew Ballenthin have shown that fewer than 10% of business owners are using social media to its full potential.

Though the number of failed internet marketing campaigns (75% - 90%) is high, that hasn't put off small business owners from trying to put social media to work. A recent BizLaunch survey found that more than 49% of small business owners have invested up to 101 hours in social media marketing during the past 12 months.

Why is the failure rate so high?

I have a theory, and it comes from years of working with clients on the front lines. Most of the organizations I've worked with simply don't make room for the amount of work involved in making social media campaigns successful. Most want to create a website, create a Facebook page, and create a blog...but very few will follow up with regular new content, regular involvement, or regular strategizing.

Those individuals and companies who have made the web work have done what the others won't do: work long and hard. If you want to be considered a mover and shaker in your niche, you have to DO THE WORK that a mover and a shaker does. One can't wish for success and expect it to become reality...instead, success requires consistent involvement with your community over time. Here are 3 truths I've learned in the dozen years I've been online:

1. Success requires a willingness to work with no immediate return.
2. Success requires the ability to give away your time, your information, and your goodwill.
3. Success requires a long-term view.

There are very few overnight internet sensations. The few that do get a lot of attention aren't typically businesses, they're usually cost-free entertainment. Making your organization's online presence a success isn't a 'set it and forget it' kind of thing. Like everything else your organization does, an online marketing campaign has to fit your goals, values, and priorities. 

The rest is pretty easy.

We have done plenty of posts on some simple tips to keep in mind when doing Search Engine Optimization. Plenty of people on the Internet would have you sign up and let them help you and your site be found on the Search Engine Result Pages. Most of them will have a basic checklist of things they work with and what they will use to reel you in.

We here at DotComOnomics try to make Search Engine Optimization simple. Why? Because it is. Quite simply, if you have content that deserves to be found then we can help you get your site out of its own way and be found. SEO isn't difficult, but it takes a strategy and a simple approach. So why would we tell you so many great tips when working on Search Engine Optimization?

It's a simple answer. We feel once you know the basics of Search Engine Optimization then we feel you'll be infomed. If you are informed of what is involved in the SEO process, then you'll feel better and in more control of the situation. Basically, after we sit down and discuss things with you about what you can do to optimize your site for search engines, the next step is straight forward. Do you want to do it yourself or pay someone who knows what they're doing to do?

It's like cars. If you want to tinker around with it and get it running, you are more than welcome; but if you are on a tight deadline and want to get your car running sooner, you usually take it to a mechanic...so, do you fix your site yourself over time or do you take it to an SEO Mechanic and have them rework things a bit?

The choice is yours.