At the Inc. Growco conference last week we had many, many conversations about the best ways to set up websites. As a general rule of thumb, here’s a rundown on a few of the platforms commonly mentioned.

WordPress
We love WordPress – it’s easy out-of-the box if you want to start a simple site (with many templates to choose from or buy at a small fee) and upgrade to a custom-designed template later. It’s highly customizable for SEO, and imposes a structure that naturally leads you toward good search engine optimization tactics from the start. It’s flexible enough to manage small and large sites alike, and offers many plug-ins that extend functionality without the need for expensive custom programming. One of the factors that makes WordPress particularly “safe” for entrepreneurs is their large developer community – you will never be at a loss to find someone who can pick up where your last developer left off. Most unbelievably, it’s free – music to the ears of most entrepreneurs!

Drupal
We love Drupal, too! With the launch of Drupal Gardens, you no longer need a hard-core programmer to start using Drupal, making it an option for companies just starting out. We’d generally recommend WordPress unless there was a specific feature of Drupal you needed, just because of the larger development community with WordPress (for now). One of the features that distinguishes Drupal is its ability to manage permissions – giving specific people or departments access to different parts of your website. Along these lines, it also handles workflow management / approvals far more naturally than WordPress. Generally, it’s more extensible than WordPress, making it a great tool to create sophisticated websites while maintaining easy-to-edit content.

Squarespace
Squarespace looks promising, but as a newer entry, it’s unclear what their claim to fame will be. Some of the SEO features require upgrades, and it’s simply too new to have the same kind of following WordPress or Drupal enjoy. However, if you know of a feature that makes Squarespace unique please let us know in the comments – we’d love to hear about it!

Last week I spent 3 days working with builders and contractors at seminars held by Wimsatt Building Materials to help them grow their business online. One theme emerged as we travelled from city to city teaching new groups – many business owners were unaware of Google Places and its power to get them better visibility in Google with this simple, free tool.

Google Places is relatively new in the grand scheme of SEO, but its impact is growing larger by the day. Google is actively changing search results for place-based business — businesses that have a geographically defined trade area. Google Places is just as critical to our national franchise and real estate clients as it is to local roofing companies. Why?

In traditional search results, aggregators often won through their sheer volume of content and links, frequently pushing actual businesses out of the opportunity to appear on page one. This effectively forced businesses to purchase ads with the aggregators to be found.

Now Google tends to favor listings for single, physical, locations in searches that are geographically oriented. If you’re lucky, Google has already created one of these listings for you that you simply need to “claim” and update. If they haven’t, you can easily create a listing. Either way, your next step is to visit Google Places and optimize your listing!

If you’re beginning the process of optimizing your places page, the key things to focus on are:

• building out your listing with keywords. Notice who shows up in competitive searches and how the keywords from your search are bolded in the places results. That’s what you want to happen for your business! Don’t go overboard, though, or you stand to violate Google’s quality guidelines. In particular, don’t pack keywords into your business title unless they belong their naturally (don’t put “Jim’s West Side Plumbing – Ann Arbor, MI” if the name your company goes by is is just “Jim’s West Side Plumbing”).  The description is really the best places to deliver those juicy keywords.
• building out your listing with content. Ultimately you want your places page to be “lived in” – full of relevant information, pictures, videos, etc. In some lines of business your places page may be the only page your customer visits before making a decision to call you. Make sure your first impression is a good one – remember your competition is always as close as one click of the back button!
• cultivating reviews. You’ll see in many searches that locations with reviews show up closer to the top of the list. The algorithm isn’t that simple of course, but more reviews are a great place to focus your time and attention because they help your ranking AND they ultimately help your potential customers make a decision. Having more reviews also draws attention to your listing in cases where Google shows star rankings, increasing your odds of getting clicked on and giving you the opportunity to showcase why you’re the best choice for that consumer.

Good luck with your Google Places listing!

As fellow entrepreneurs, Linda and I are often meeting with friends and colleagues looking for the best way to get started with a new website. And the great news is, today’s tools for building websites are remarkable equalizers. Here are a few of our favorite tips and tools, written with entrepreneurs in mind. If you’re a large corporation in a competitive space, your “to-do” list will be more complex. However, many general principles apply across sites of all sizes.

Be Findable
The easiest way to be findable as an entrepreneur on a limited budget is to use tools designed from the ground up to be easily read by search engines such as Google. WordPress is a great choice here. You can start with a freebie version and customize things along the way as you have budget and time. Yes, there are other similar tools – although comparing them is a job for another article. Trust us when we say that few platforms have a vibrant community of coders and designers that support them like WordPress, so among other advantages, it’s simply going to be easier to find people to help you when you adopt a mainstream platform.

Keep Your Design Simple
Because we’re a little biased toward making sure you’re findable, we’re going to encourage you to focus on content and moving forward with the simplest design possible. Save your energy for the content. Custom design is awesome and great, and we love our design friends and we want you to keep them busy! We also want you to get started as efficiently as possible, to which end you may consider starting with a ready-made WordPress theme. More than a simple template, themes allow you to customize many aspects of a site formerly left to true coders.

Did We Mention Content?
Being findable is all about having content on your site that your target audience will be searching for. This requires understanding the language of your target audience, as well as having some volume of content that fits that audience. Building your site in a framework such as WordPress encourages blogging/content generation, and blogging naturally adds a diversity of keywords and keyphrases to your site. Even blogging once a week is enough to make a difference, and as you add new content, you’ll find that your site is found for a wider variety of searches – without having to pay to show up in search. There’s a lot of nuances we’re skipping here, but none of them matter if you’re not generating content in the first place. Writing is your secret weapon. If it’s not your bag, hire a copywriter to interview you and write articles. It’ll be the best investment you’ve ever made.

Include A Call to Action
What’s a call to action, you might ask? Just conjure up an old Billy Mays ad: “Call Now!” “Order in the next 15 minutes, and get a second one a free!” etc. If you’re bothering to attract someone to your site, you need to know what you want them to do when they get there. That’s your call to action. Make it clear. Make it big. Make it bold. Just like Billy.

Measure!
When you’re starting out, it’s tempting to say that you’ll know when this is all working because the phone will ring. While true, that’s a lagging indicator that doesn’t provide sufficient feedback to guide systematic improvements to your site. To gather that data, there are two free tools every site needs: Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. There are others, but if you’re only going to do two, start with these.

In addition to installing those tools (start collecting data now, even if you don’t plan on using it right away) we recommend measuring a couple more things:

• Track phone calls. Eliminate guessing. Know exactly which phone calls came from the web. One of our favorites tools for phone tracking is Mongoose Metrics, which scales nicely from a single phone number designed to track all web leads, to enterprise class solutions with staggering numbers of unique phone numbers and sophisticated tracking that integrates with other systems like Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
• Use contact forms. Avoid using simple email/mailto links like the plague. Use a contact form to collect information – just enough information and no more. In the early days, chances are you would prefer to follow up and ask a few more questions than risk losing the lead because the form scared a prospect away. And if at all possible, make sure the contact form flows automatically into some sort of customer database / CRM tool. With tools like salesforce.com this is cheap and easy even for small organizations. And it’s a lot easier to implement when you’re still small. Do it now.

While this list may not sound very “SEOy”, that’s the ironic thing about how Search Engine Optimization has evolved. It used to be about title tags and such, but these days those tactics are often just the cost of entry. It you want to turn your website into Your Online Sales Engine, you’ll need more than the “traditional” SEO tactics – you’ll eventually need to build a system like the one we’ve outlined here.

Keep us posted on your progress – we can’t wait to hear your results!!

If you’ve been lucky enough to hear John Hill speak, then you can skip this post. He’s positively brilliant about explaining how LinkedIn is a cornerstone of any job search.

I wrote two years ago in this blog how shocked I was that students are not counseled by career services in networking online; and today I’m glad that people like John and Terry Bean are out there preaching, because the situation hasn’t changed nearly as much as it should.

In talking recently with a current student at the University of Michigan, I was encouraged to hear they were counseled to “reach out to friends and relatives” – terrific advice. But the idea of doing that through LinkedIn as well as the real world hadn’t been broached.(!) While I’m sure that the UM is so large that it’s happening in some places and not others, my point is that LinkedIn coaching is still not standard practice at many educational institutions.

Why am I so passionate about this? In part, I know too many people looking for jobs. It’s a tough time to be in Michigan. But it’s also a great time to be in Michigan! There are people creating jobs in all sorts of places! And where are you going to find the movers and shakers? Online.

Who’s connected to the movers and shakers? Build a network in LinkedIn, and you’ll have access to the address book of everyone you know. Then look up a company you want an intro to, and find out who can make the intro for you. Easy peasy.

Then learn how to ask for an intro. It’s an art. Learn what a good ask looks like. Talk to Terry Bean – he is a great coach at the ASK. He’s also got a great book on business networking that ought to be required reading for anyone in a job search – the same rules apply. For nine bucks you can’t afford not to check it out.

John has some great tips on the ask, too. In particular, he suggests tapping into alumni networks. He’s done an exemplary job of building the MSU alumni network – and using it to help students – and the university make helpful connections. Every college needs someone like John!

If you haven’t already checked in out, LinkedIn has added an invaluable job search feature. You can search jobs by keyword and by zip – both within LinkedIn and through the aggregator Simply Hired. Take a gander if you’re doubtful about the existence of jobs in Michigan. My bet is that you’ll be (pleasantly) surprised.

Happy hunting!

If you’re like most marketing managers we talk to, chances are you’re using Google Analytics and learning some good stuff! Chances are you’ve also got some nagging feeling that there’s more to learn if only you had time to fully explore Google Analytics and discover all the truly great stuff hidden inside.

However, given the world shortage on time, and given Google’s propensity to add new features to Analytics every time you log in, we’re sorry to say the odds aren’t exactly in your favor. That was, until you found Pure Visibility. (Wink. Wink.)

Seriously though, we hear this conundrum repeated every day. You are not alone! And since we are an organization full of problem solvers, we have a couple ideas that may help:

1) A “Drivers Ed for Google Analytics” course, designed to help you get to all the good stuff faster. We know you’re busy so we’ve boiled it down to one day, with a nice long lunch so you don’t have to fall too far behind on email – or you can check out an awesome restaurant while you’re downtown Ann Arbor. We’re sure you’ll come away with something that changes the way you think about your business; and you’ll be armed with data to make decisions like never before.

2) We also provide analysis as a service. Most often it’s bundled with our other internet marketing services that together, are designed to increase your sales. The magic in that analysis is worth a post of its own so we’ll tackle that another day.

In the meantime, we hope to see you at a class someday soon!

In nearly 15 years of writing for the web, one thing I’ve seen change dramatically is the role of meta tags in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This post is specifically about keyword tags – and their slow, painful death.

Today, Google doesn’t use meta keyword tags at all, as Google Engineer Matt Cutts explains in this short video:

While this topic has been hashed out in all the professional SEO forums, the death of the keyword meta tag is still not common knowledge – despite Danny Sullivan’s heroic attempt to bury the keyword tag way back in 2002. Here’s a quick history of how keyword tags evolved, and why Danny is right.

Back in the “good old days” when I started optimizing, there were FAR fewer web pages, and even fewer companies cultivating the web into a viable sales channel. Google didn’t exist yet, and neither did paid search. Hand-curated directories were still prevalent, and search engine algorithms were nascent. Back then, title tags and keyword tags ruled. Submitting your site to prominent directories and creating well-written pages with thoughtful keyword and title tags might be all you needed Own Page One ®.

Over a decade later, the web is MUCH bigger (here’s a nice Google post on how big the web has become) and consequently the algorithms used to rank sites are far more complex. In addition to handling more content, algorithms have evolved to increase fairness and avoid attempts at gaming the system.

Those attempts include “keyword stuffing”, a practice used by less-than-scrupulous optimizers to gain visibility by showing up for popular but irrelevant searches, such as for pop stars, or (forgive me) porn. So basically, Google gave up and doesn’t use keyword meta tags anymore.

Among other things, one of the more important factors in Google optimization are back links (hence Google’s original name, BackRub). Back links used to come exclusively from other websites – in today’s world, they often come from social media sites. Links from social media sites show recency and relevancy – which are factors currently favored by most algorithms (roughly speaking).

That said, is it possible other search engines use keyword tags? The short answer is “no”. No major search engine uses them. Even Yahoo! – the last holdout – admitted to (nearly) ignoring the keyword meta tag in an industry conference in October of 2009. As with nearly everything in SEO, it’s possible to find an edge case where you might actually want to use a keyword tag, but for all practical purposes, it’s time to put it to rest.

In summary, our advice is to invest in more fruitful SEO activities, and skip the keyword meta tag.

Happy optimizing!

In this era of smart spending, many organizations are evaluating every expense – including domain names. Sure, domains are dirt cheap through many services these days, but if you have a few domain names, and you buy several extensions to each, you’re eventually spending real money.

So, how important is it to maintain the renewals? As with many things in life, “it depends.” In this case, the root questions we can turn to are:

1) Is there a potential impact to your brand if the domain that lapses falls into the hands of a competitor or other site you’d rather not be associated with?

2) If that happened, what would be the cost? That includes the impact on your brand, legal fees, time that could have been spent on proactive efforts, etc.

3) Most importantly, is the savings now worth the risk of what might happen later?

Chances are that makes it a simple question.

The only real gray area is which extensions are important. You’re going to find many differing opinions on which matter, but here’s our take:

The “no brainers” to protect:

• .com
• .net
• .org

For key domain names, consider also:

• .biz
• .info

And if you do business in other countries (or think you might someday):

• reserve the relevant country extensions as well

The next most commonly asked question is – what about .mobi? Personally, I don’t see it taking off. Technology now enables a site to adapt itself to the browser, which is much more elegant (read: user friendly) than forcing people to learn a new domain extension. A quick check of some popular sites reveals even in highly competitive markets, few companies have bothered to reserve a .mobi domain.

If you are interested in doing everything you can be to protect your sites’ domain name (just owning it isn’t always enough!), see also: http://www.circleid.com/posts/help_domain_name_hijacked/.

Also, please note that there are some good ways to maintain the domain names in your organization that you should think about before things get too messy!

Click fraud is the bane of my existence. And NOT because it’s actually a problem. The PROBLEM is that every time a fear-mongering article comes out about click-fraud, I no longer get to talk about how we can help businesses grow. Instead, I get to spend my time talking people down out of trees. To put it mildly, it gets in the way of our goal to transform the Michigan economy one business at a time.

I am inspired to address the issue of click fraud after reading this New York Times (NYT) “article” (it’s actually an ad, but someone forwarded it to me that thought it was an article, so clearly the advertiser got their money’s worth). The ad takes the typical assault on Google AdWords to a whole new level. It quotes the director of the Center for Digital Democracy, which claims Obama ought to immediately address the issue:

Click fraud should be at the top of the priority list with Obama and the F.T.C.

Here’s my unusually unabashed take: if your paid search suffers from click-fraud, well… somebody isn’t doing their job. (And I’m not talking about Obama!)

Read More

At a recent talk I gave to the Lake Superior Ad Club, I was asked to recommend some good books on SEO. The first book that came to mind is O’Reilly’s Website Optimization, which is very recently published and has a great section on search engine optimization. We contributed chapters on paid search, and are honsetly impressed by the team of authors Andy King was able to pull together for this book. The work on SEO is no exception. However, not wanting to sound self-serving, I promised to do some research and supply more suggestions. Read More

I am frequently asked about online tools for managing event registrations, so this time I dug up an analysis Mark wrote while evaluating which tool we would use here at Pure Visibility. It’s not an exhaustive list; rather, we focused on some of the most inexpensive event management services and the major points of differentiation between them.

Eventbrite
We chose Eventbrite because there is no charge for free events (like our Donuts & Search Engine Marketing) and they charge 2.5% of the ticket price for paid events with a maximum charge of $9.95. They recently implemented a survey feature which is convenient, and they also allow you to accept many types of payment methods. They allow a little bit of customization to the event page for your event and they offer many different ways to promote your events (feeds, buttons, etc.) They offer good reporting features, the ability to print name badges, and the ability to offer discounts.

Brown Paper Tickets
This is a free solution that allows you to set up a page on the Brown Paper Ticket site where you can post events and links to your site. You cannot actually sell tickets through the site; they use a 3rd party which charges the same fee as Eventbrite (2.5%). Eventbrite is more of an all in one solution whereas this site is more like a Craigslist for events.

RegOnline
RegOnline appears to be a good tool, but they charge no matter what type of event you are hosting (free or paid events.) $4.75 per registrant for events under 120 attendees, and $3.50 per registrant plus $150 for events with more than 120 attendees. There is also a charge to accept credit card payments. It appears that they offer more customization and support with registration forms/event webpage; they allow you to print name badges, and have some good reporting features. It has many of the same features as Eventbrite, but the price point made Eventbrite win out.