Websites are dead long live the blog!

Gone are the days when blogs were just for geeks and places for people to rant about a topic or their life in general.

Nowadays it has become harder to tell if you are looking at a regular website built with HTML or a WordPress blog.  Blogs now look and feel like a regular website.

There are two main types of blogs:

Hosted Blogs - you, (or your webmaster), install blogging software like WordPress on a web hosting account.

Free Online Blogs - services like Blogger and BlogSpot offer the option of opening an online blogging account on their servers.

Hosted blogs actually have many advantages over traditional websites, here are a few of them:

• Much less expensive to set up than a traditional website
• Quicker to get up and running
• Users can maintain the blog without any technical knowledge (and without Web Designer costs)
• The search engines love blogs making your marketing efforts easier
• There are plenty of professionally design templates to make your blog stand out
• Adding regular content is a breeze and you can even schedule updates to occur on a regular basis

Ok, so traditional HTML based websites aren’t exactly dead, (in fact I still use them for my eCommerce sites that have thousands of products), but for the average small business that wants a web presence, a blog is certainly the way to go.

Local Search Marketing the Rebel Way!

Traditionally local businesses strive to get their website listed on the first page of Google.  This is a great goal and there are many SEO, (Search Engine Optimization), companies out there who can help you optimize your site to achieve better search marketing results and some that can even help get you that elusive first page listing over time.

The problem with traditional SEO methods is that even if you get to page one of Google, your prospective clients still have the option of clicking on 9 other of your competitors on that page alone.  Obviously killer copywriting in your listings description will help to ensure you are the one that gets clicked first.

That’s great, but you could do better (just had a flashback to my school days then!):

Local Search Marketing… the Rebel Way!

What’s wrong with 2 listings on Google or 3 or maybe even 10?  Well if you talk to most SEO’s they will tell you that you have one website and therefore can only get one listing - BULL!

I admit I always want more, more dessert, more beer and you guessed it more listings.  When I go into a niche market I want to own it, not just be a part of it.  For my own sites and my clients sites I’m going to dominate Google for the search terms I’m going after.

Image you have a bookkeeping firm in Ardmore Oklahoma and someone types in “Bookkeeping Ardmore OK”, wouldn’t it be the coolest thing if they saw the following results:

Out of 10,200 competing pages, my client has multiple listings at the top of Google’s first page.

If anyone clicks on any of these top listings they all lead to my client… now that’s the Rebel Way!

Another client now has 23 of the top 30 listings on Google with 204,000 competing pages (actually they have a bunch more listings, but I don’t bother looking past the 3rd page - and neither will your customers!).

So what would you prefer?

- The SEO way: One Listing
- The Search Marketing Rebel Way: Multiple Listings and total Google Domination!

Flash on your website - Cool or Ego Trip?

I think most of us would agree that Flash Technology is pretty damn cool.

The problem is who is it there for?  Potential customers just get distracted or annoyed by it.  Search Engines… well don’t even get me started on Flash and the Search Engines - the long and short of it is they can not read Flash, so you get no benefit from using it on your site.

I’ve even had clients who have had a large web design company build their entire site using Flash (for lots of money as you always pay a premium when working with Flash).  12 months later I get a call asking for help as their site is not ranked anywhere… really?  I guess that’s another site that’s going to need to be rebuilt!

So why would anyone use Flash on their website?  I guess it boils down to the business owner’s ego.  It’s very aesthetically pleasing and it’s great when someone comments on how cool your website is.  Cool is great, but I’d rather take cold hard cash thanks.  Flash is not going to help me close a sale, so I don’t use.

My advice, steer clear of singing and dancing websites and concentrate on a clean easy to use website with loads of great content.  Your customers will thank you for it and search engines will eat it up.  The Results:

• Better Search Engine Rankings!
• Better Sales Conversions!
• More money in the Bank!

Web Design Companies Suck!

I’ve just put the phone down from a potential new client and they have just told me an oh so familiar story:

• Web Design Company charged $3,500 to build client a website 18 months ago
• Client very happy as site looks great
• 18 months later - client gets no traffic to their shiny new website
• Client now very unhappy!

I hear this all the time.  Having a great looking website is not enough.  I get really mad when web design companies build a website for a business and do not explain that they will not get any visitors (and therefore no business), unless they market that website.

Having a website will NOT get you any business - Marketing your website WILL get you business!

Small businesses do not understand how Search Engine Marketing works.  In my opinion it’s the responsibility of the the company that builds their website to explain how to market their website online.  Here lies the problem… most web designers don’t know either!

Building a website and marketing a website are 2 different skill sets and it’s rare that you find someone with both.

Bottom line: If you have a website, you need to do the marketing to get your website ranking at the top of the search engines.  If you don’t, do not expect to get any business as no-one will be able to find your website.

Social Media Slap - Bull

The last couple of weeks I’ve been hearing a lot of noise about Google’s Social Media Slap.

Yes Google has again performed another update and yes the search engine marketing game has changed - a little!

As usual some websites and social media sites have benefited and others have lost ground.  You may have seen some sites ranking improve and some may have disappeared from the search results completely.

SO WHAT…

This is the nature of marketing online.  Google makes the rules and we manipulate them to our advantage.  Diversification is king, if one method is no longer working, focus on another.  My eggs are never all in one basket, I have an arsenal of tactics that I implement for every one of my sites, so when Google changes it’s algorithm it rarely affects me much.

Bottom line…

Make sure you are not focusing all of your energy on one type of search marketing.  This way if Squidoo gets slapped, who cares, you also have Hubpages, Wordpress, Article Marketing and video marketing working for you.