Keystone Click - The Key to Your Web Foundation

There are so many benefits of advertising on the internet. First things that come to mind is that ROI that is easily traceable. You can track every click that a site user makes on your site.

A website is a great tool to go alongside any marketing campaign. The important factor to realize is that web design is very different from print design. Websites can be interactive and need to pop on a screen rather than on a flat piece of paper. Web design is a matter of thinking outside of the flat surface of a print brochure. Web design is thinking how a site user will navigate, what is the site visitor using to view this web site (MAC, PC, Firefox, Internet Explorer, iPhone, etc). Web design is not thinking long term for content, but how to keep content fresh while keeping the task minimal. Web design needs to flow logically as well as be aesthetically pleasing.

Most companies utilize the internet to verify the legitimacy of your business as well as to do research on your product or services. Brochures, publications, direct mail, and all the other aspects of marketing and advertising are still important for your campaign. However, your website will act as the keystone to your campaign.

All of your advertising materials should have a call-to-action. That call-to-action is usually one of three things, a phone number to call (which most people now-a-days are afraid to pick up the phone initially), an address to write to (very retro way to deal with business), or finally a web site address (or email address) to type in. The latter is the most popular and best received by your target audience probably 90% of the time. There are still a handful of individuals who have not jumped on the WWW bandwagon but the majority of active consumers are on the internet and hoping their favorite companies are too.Marketing through the internet saves time and money for both parties involved. Updating a newsletter is much simpler online than in print, (see our blog post about e-newsletters). Also, with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) online marketing is a must. You want to be found when someone searches for you, so marketing yourself on the internet correctly is vital. People are more likely to investigate the first few sites that pop up rather than hunt for another one. Being near the top will give your organization the edge that you need.

Pay per click advertising also takes your company to your consumers. For search engines, you can bid on keywords that are relevant to your target audience. You can also put your ad on sites that your target market may be on. These constant sites usually charge a fixed price per click rather than bidding. The end result is that your market will find you even if they are not actively seeking your services at the time.

The internet is just one more avenue for you to get your name out and generate buzz and sales for your organization. Who wouldn’t want that?

This post may be a bit overwhelming… I’ll do my best to simplify.

Who is this post written for?

Anyone who is interested in ranking well within the search engines and has a basic understanding of how the internet works.

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap is a listing of the pages on your website.  It is used by crawlers (search engine spiders) and site users to easily navigate through your site.  Not only does the sitemap list the pages on your site, it informs search engine spiders how often the content on those pages changes and also identifies which pages you feel are more important.

When should I add the sitemap to my website?

Your sitemap should be added to your site and then submitted to the search engines when the website is complete.  No point in submitting pages that are not complete or will drive to a “Page Under Construction” notification.

Where should the sitemap be located?

According to Sitemap Protocol, it is strongly recommended that you place your Sitemap at the root directory of your HTML server; that is, place it at http://example.com/sitemap.xml.

Why do I need a sitemap?

Webcrawlers find more pages and websites to crawl through links.  Posting your links in one central location that is universally known as your “sitemap” will simplify the “crawling” process for the search engine spiders.

How do I submit my sitemaps to the major search engines?

Before submitting your Sitemap to the major search engines, make sure that your Sitemap is created per Sitemap Protocol as found at sitemaps.org.

Once your sitemap is created, focus initially on the three major search engines and then move onto the many other searching tools available on the web.

GOOGLE.com – Google offers a handful of tools and resources to assist with your site rankings.  First step is to set-up a Google account and sign-up your website with Webmaster Tools.  These tools will crawl your site and confirm the status of your links.  You can also submit your Sitemap here.  A quick overview on submitting to Google.

YAHOO.com – Yahoo! offers a quick overview on how they support sitemaps. Read the overview, and then submit your Sitemap to Yahoo!

BING.com – Bing, MSN’s new search engine, also has a resource area specific for Webmaster Tools.  The instructions to submit your Sitemap to Bing are fairly simple.

To submit an XML-based Sitemap to Bing:

1. Copy and paste the entire URL below as a single URL into the address bar of your browser: http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?sitemap=www.YourWebAddress.com/sitemap.xml
2. Change “www.YourWebAddress.com” to your domain name
3. Press ENTER

Any other search engines you use that we should mention how to submit to them?  Let us know or comment on it and we will add it to this post.

Adding a fresh look to web site design is important to stay ahead of the competition. Depending on the target audience, product and/or service being offered, change needs to take place. Why? Times change. Industries change. Most important are the technology changes. Stay abreast of the latest changes and utilize current technology trends to surpass competition.

A redesign encompasses applying a new look and feel. However, just as Cameron Moll discusses in his article “Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign” it is important to re-evaluate the navigation and flow of content with the current web site. Constant changes in technology continue to bring new tools that will simplify and organize a message.

To put an actual value on how often is difficult because a number of factors are involved such as the industry, the product and/or service offered, and the target audience. Some companies will say every two – three years, while others will push for every year. In reality the best practice for maintaining a healthy site is to constantly be re-evaluating it. A couple of questions to ask while reviewing your site include: is the content strong enough, is the navigation clear for prospective and current customers, and does my site cater to current trends in the industry?

A clear advantage for constant updates on a website are the search engine ranking benefits. Search engines thrive on finding new content. The goal of most search engine companies is to showcase the most current and most relevant sites available to a search query. Therefore an article posted online a week ago will show up higher on the search engines than an article posted three years ago on the same topic.

Taking a double-edged sword here, the SEO side of a redesign is not a subject to be taken lightly, there are a number of steps to consider when redesigning that allow you to keep current site rankings. The URL is the key to your SEO. If the redesign is drastic, then each unique page address could change. Ensure that you do one of two things: keep the same URL or put the proper redirects in place with the new URL.

Ultimately, the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality does not apply to a web site. The Internet is a tool of innovation. Be the leader and embrace that within your industry.

In today’s challenging times it is hard to keep a positive attitude on the growth of your business. However, try to think outside the box and move some of your focus on how you can help others succeed. We believe strongly in the “Pay-It-Forward” mentality.

The term was widely popularized by the book, followed by the movie, “Pay It Forward” in 2000.

A quick summary about the book and movie:
A school social studies assignment leads to social changes that spread from city-to-city. Assigned to come up with some idea that will improve mankind, a young boy decides that if he can do three good deeds for someone and they in turn can “pay it forward” and so forth, positive changes can occur. What appears to initially be a failure, is indeed a success that is not immediately known but is traced backwards by a reporter who is a benefactor. A deeper summary of the movie can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223897/plotsummary

Take this thinking and apply it to the web. A simple and easy way to Pay-It-Forward online is to add links to your website for other companies. Linking boosts search engine rankings both for your site and the site you are linking too.

Useful tips for your Pay-It-Forward linking campaign:
• Link to sites and companies that you believe in and want to see succeed.
• Linking to quality sites is more important than the quantity of sites.
• Use keywords in the link that will help the other site succeed in their SEO rankings.

Informational and inspiring sites about Pay-It-Forward:

• http://payitforwardnow.blogspot.com/
• http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/
• http://www.payitforwardmovement.org/

SEO, what is SEO, its lingo in the Internet Marketing industry. Broken down, SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. SEO is the practice of building a website to be search engine friendly. Basically, if you are selling widgets, and someone goes to a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Etc.) and types in the word “widgets”. Who’s site would you want to show up on the first page of Google? Yours of course. Well, SEO is the continuous process to assist your website in the top placement under the keywords that directly relate to your product or service.

There is a phrase that truly sums up the SEO practice:

Content is King, Linking is Queen.

The content on your website needs to reflect the search words that your target audience will be typing into a search query. If you are selling widgets and your website talks about your great customer service without referencing the word “widgets”, it is unlikely you will show up once “widgets” is searched.

The second half of that statement, Linking is Queen is actually just as important as your content. Search engines have spiders (hence the word WEB) that crawl from website to website. The path they take to get from one site to the next is by the links that are built in the site. As you can see on our website, we have a number of links exiting our site and pointing to other sites.

Now, don’t go and add a bunch of links to your site just because. Links are given a rating by the search engines. Its almost a popularity contest. Whoever has the most links pointing to their site, receives the higher rating. However, it’s not that easy. But these are the basics of SEO.

A quick overview of the process we utilize for SEO can be found at http://www.keystoneclick.com/services/marketing/index.html