Search Engine Optimisation – What is it? Is it Absolutely Necessary?

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

In its simplest form, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is making your site appealing to search engines such as Google. 
SEO is based around keyphrases. A keyphrase is a phrase (usually no more than four words) that somebody might type into Google if they were searching for your kind of website. For example, if I was looking for a plumber I might Google the phrase: Plumber Melbourne Northern Suburbs. If you were a plumber in North Melbourne who didn't appear in my search results you might question the quality of the SEO of your website. If you were a plumber without a website then you'd be completely invisible to me, but that's another blog for another time.
Keyphrases can be applied throughout your site, especially in your body text, which is the part of the website viewers can see and the metadata which is the part search engines reference first. It goes much deeper than this though, because Google can see your keyphrases in other areas such as image tags, html notes and even filenames. 
The aim of Search Engine Optimisation is to boost your website's occurrence in the results of a search. First page is great. Top 3 is best. Anything beyond page 3 and you may as well not be there at all, because searchers almost never view past page 3 of their results.
Other factors influence your SEO such as inbound links (links to your website from other websites), the layout of your page and frequency of update.

Is it expensive?

SEO as a marketing technique is amazingly good value. It is relatively cheap, fast to take effect and extremely targeted. Results are easily measured through Google analytics and you can even see if the same people that find you on the search are the ones who click on “buy” or whatever your target may be. As far as accountable marketing spends go, SEO is king.

Is it necessary?

Almost invariably, yes. Most people use search engines to find what they're looking for on the Internet. You need to be there when they look and you need to be one of the first things they see.
There are some exceptions. You may only want people to see your site after they've been to your seminar so that the site makes sense. You may have an exclusive clientele who already know the website and other audiences are irrelevant. 
Exceptions to the rule are few and far between and I can safely assume that you, the reader, DO want people to find your website on search engines in which case YES you DO need your site search engine optimised.

I will blog in more depth about SEO in the future, but I write to a small business audience, not web developers, so if you want in-depth discussion you should check out the writings of the clever people on the hubspot blog. 


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Website Hosting Comparison Chart – What Are You Paying For?

The last few years has seen the emergence of hundreds of hosting companies with massively varying costs and inclusions. Companies are offering hosting charged per year, per month, per megabyte, with free emails, free websites, free blogs...  

So what do you really need?

It's entirely up to you, but here are some guidelines:

• Get a hosting package that comes with emails. If you're running a small business you need email with your hosting. Don't keep using your.name@hotmail.com or company@bigpond.com because it just looks unprofessional. If you're going to register www.example.com.au then also get your.name@example.com.au, it's better for business.

• Get at least 200MB site hosting space. Yes you want your site to load as fast as possible and yes you will keep your file sizes small, but by the time you add a few images on each page you're going to be surprised how quickly it adds up.

• Host locally. It's going to be much better for you if you can contact someone in your own timezone with hosting queries.  

• Check your data transfer allowance. If your site becomes a high traffic web destination you may need to upgrade your plan. Be aware of additional fees for exceded limits.

You may need other add-ons such as secure servers, anti-virus solutions, or if you're a web developer you may need any number of application installations, but in these instances you should contact the hosting company for details. Usually they will be happy to add whatever you need.

Here is a quick-reference to just a few of the available hosting companies in Australia, sorted by location. Their prices vary, as do their services, so check out their website for full details before making your final decision. Better still, get on the phone and see what you think of the person on the other end because chances are you will speak to the same person when you need a problem solved later on.

Hosting Provider	Disk Space	Traffic p/month	Emails	Servers	Location	Cost
www.coasthost.net.au	500Mb	20Gb	50	Unknown	Gold Coast	24.90p/month
www.websitehostingaustralia.com	10Mb	2Gb	1	Linux	Gold Coast	$145p/year
www.aussiewebhost.com.au	200Mb	3Gb	20	Linux	Melbourne	$14.95p/month
www.webhostingaustralia.com.au	250Mb	10Gb	1000	Windows 2000, Linux or .net	Melbourne	$299p/year
www.anchor.com.au	250Mb	10Gb	30	Linux, Windows	Sydney	$363p/year
www.netvantage.com.au	100Mb	2Gb	100	Linux	Sydney	$29p/month
www.redalto.com.au	250Mb	5Gb	25	Windows	Sydney	$19.95p/month
www.netregistry.com.au	200Mb	10Gb	100	Unknown	Sydney	$29.95p/month
www.digitalpacific.com.au	10Gb	25Gb	Unlimited	Unknown	Sydney	$249p/year
www.ausweb.com.au	4Gb	10Gb	15	Linux, Windows 2003	Sydney	$29.50p/month
www.redrook.com	500Mb	Unlimited	30	Linux	Tasmania	$33p/month
www.ezihosting.com	500Mb	20Gb	Unlimited	Linux	Tasmania	$274.45p/year

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Online Stores – Boost retail success

By now nearly everyone has purchased something online whether from Ebay, Amazon or some other online store. Most transactions have gone well. People have learned that credit card fraud is minimal as long as you are shopping with reputable sites and that middle-man services such as PayPal can be trusted.
It's not surprising, then, that so many people are migrating their retail habits online.

An online retailer provides so may options to a modern customer and we know already how modern customers LOVE options.  
Online stores provide:

• Shopping from the comfort of home

• Home delivery

• Easy price comparison with other stores

• No face-to-face sales (modern customers hate the hard-sell)

For businesses this means that if you sell a product or service, particularly to a consumer market, failure to provide an online store can mean not only that you don't flourish, but also that your current customer base is starting to leave you in favour of your opposition's online store.  

The benefits to a business of having an online store are ample.  

• Your customer WANTS an online store.

• Sell to multiple customers. Worldwide. Simultaneously. 

• An online store is a salesperson that works 24/7 and takes no leave.

Once you make the decision to get an online store:

• Make sure it's easy to use.  

• Provide options for your products – size, colour, accessories, etc.  
  Research other online stores selling the same products and check out their prices. Compete.

• If you sell a service rather than a product provide a booking form or calendar of availability.

• Provide your refund and warranty policies. This will save time and hassles.

• Make your store colourful and fun without being busy and crowded. A good designer will already know how to do this.

• Provide good service around your store. Dispatch items quickly. Pack them well. Provide a copy of the receipt. Send via registered mail.

It's all very easy stuff and your customers will thank you with repeat business.

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Six points to consider before commissioning a website

I turn up to a lot of meetings with clients who are ready to take their business online, but aren't quite sure why. This isn't a problem for me, I'm in the business of online marketing and I'm happy to steer you in the right direction, but it will help your understanding if you have already pondered the points below.

1. WHY do you need a website?
Okay, so you've reached a decision – it's time to expand your business to include the online world. Everyone's doing it. Everyone has reasons to do it. What are your reasons to do it?  
It may be that you think there are more customers out there for you who shop online rather than in stores; it may be that you would like to take your business to the global market without having to travel; or that an online presence is expected of all businesses these days and you will feel invisible without a website.
Knowing your reasons for needing a website will help you address the remaining points.

2. WHO will be the audience of your website?
People expect different things from a site depending on their age, gender and interests. Think about your demographic. 
Think about whether your intended audience would go to the internet to find your kind of product or service. For example, if you're a lawn bowls association your members may not even have computers.  

3. WHAT is the goal of your website?
A website needs a clear goal.  
The goal may be to get your customer to purchase from your online store, register personal information, fill out your survey, click an ad or link, contribute content, dial a phone number... Your goal might simply be to impart information.
You may have multiple goals on your website.  
Be clear about what it is that you're trying to achieve. Simply having a website will not increase business.  

4. WHAT domain name will you choose?
The domain name is part of the web address of your site (eg. www.melbourneonline.com.au).  
You need to decide on two parts of this: The top level and second level domains.
The top level domain in our web address is the .com.au part. .com.au means that this is a commercial (com) site located in Australia (au). Most companies trading in Australia use this option because it gives Australian customers the feeling that they are dealing with a local company. If, however, you are looking to trade worldwide and you feel that appearing local will limit your international business, perhaps just a straight .com is better for you. This is the choice of most world-focus businesses.
If you are a community, government or not-for-profit organisation you may choose an entirely different domain. Check out the list of options.
The second level domain in our web address is the melbourneonline part. It's our business trading name, but you're not limited to your trading name. We could have called our site webdesign.com.au or webuildwebsites.net
The important thing is to make sure people can remember it. No strange spelling, no ridiculously long names.  

5. HOW will people find the website?
A website without traffic is like a retail store on a backstreet: Customers won't just find you, you need to let them know you exist.
There are plenty of ways to get people to your website, but have a think about how you could already drive people to visit. If you have a bricks and mortar store perhaps printing the web address on the window would help. If you have a newsletter you could print it on there, same if you advertise in print media, etc.
Seriously consider an internet marketing specialist's services. It's a completely different world online.

6. WHEN do you need the website functional?
There are a few things to consider when thinking about deadlines. One is that Google only promises to index your site within 60 days of submitting it. It usually gets done faster, but it can't be promised. Until your site is indexed by search engines it is practically invisible. 
Before the site can be submitted to google it must be live (available to public). Getting to this point can take anywhere between a couple of days and a couple of months depending on what functions and extras you have requested.  
Is your designer going to drop everything and start right away? Probably not, because chances are they have other clients who also need their sites finished ASAP.
Give your designer as much lead time as you can.

Once you have considered these points and perhaps discussed with colleagues, you are going to be armed with much more applicable information when you brief your designer on your requirements.

 

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Web Design – Basic mistakes and simple fixes

I was recently asked to critique a friend's business website and was surprised to find the basic errors made by her business' web designer. I hope you can learn from their mistakes:

Colours:
The first thing that stands out visually about a website is use of colour. This can set the mood of the site before anything else.  

• Avoid using washed out colours. From a mood perspective it's boring and from a fashion perspective pastels went out two years ago. 

• Choose colours that best set the mood you want for the site. Sometimes you are limited by a client's specs if they request company colours, but even then use them to your best advantage. If all else fails, go for black or white.

• Use contrasting colours for text and background. It's no good having white text on a grey background – users won't even bother trying to read it.

Images:

Photographs, logos, cartoons, etc. are there to provide visually stimulating points on your site. Make them work for you.

• Use only quality images. It is a poor representation of any business to have photographs that look like they were taken with a phone camera. Get a professional photographer if necessary.  

• Stock photography is a good alternative if all else fails.
  

• Make sure your images are big enough to be seen clearly and crop to suit.

Text:
Hopefully your website has content worth reading.

• Body text should be at least 12pt. If your demographic is 50+ then it should be 14pt.

• Keep the homepage as free from text as possible. People will use images, menus and links to navigate to text if they want to.

• Use a font that is available on most browsers. Sure, Mistral looks like handwriting, but IE can't read it so nearly 50% of your viewers will see rubbish.

Copy:

This is the actual wording of your site. 

• Proofread. A typo, misspelled word, poor punctuation, incorrectly placed apostrophe... All these things can lose you credibility with a reader.

• If your client provides the copy, proofread for them. If you find errors politely point them out to your client and ask if they'd like you to correct them.

• Make sure the wording flows. People typically skim through page text so make sure it's succinct and easy to absorb. 
  

A little bit of extra thought in the design phase can save time correcting errors after completion. Your websites will be more successful, business will be better... It's not rocket surgery but it's easy to forget.

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What is Internet Marketing and why do I need it?

In a falling world economy we find businesses redirecting their advertising spending to more accountable methods of promotion, namely Internet Marketing.

Measuring the success of Television, radio and other accepted mainstream advertising methods is notoriously difficult and companies can only guess what affect, if any, it has on their demographic. Furthermore, there is a spill over of demographic capture: Sure you may get your new beach clothing range exposed to predominantly 16-30 year olds, but half of them are the wrong gender for your product and of the remaining 50% only half are interested in surfwear – that's 75% spill.

Internet Marketing is far more targeted.  

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns allow you to specify demographic or search criteria so precisely that you can expect less than 10% spill. 

• Banner advertisements can be placed on websites where you know your precise demographic will be looking.

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) helps your website appear to people specifically searching for your kind of product.

Allow me to elaborate:

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a very cost-effective form of advertising where you only pay when a user clicks on your ad. Many PPC providers are extremely accurate in their demographic selection, particularly the social networking sites which gather statistical and personal information about each user.  
This would allow your beach clothing range to be advertised only to males 16-24yo in Queensland who like surfing. 

Banner advertisements are ads for your product on other websites. Costs vary and usually depend on traffic (hits) to the site. Success can be measured by how many referrals that site sends to yours.  
Your beach clothing range might be best advertised on www.surferspath.com (a surfing resource).

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the biggest growing industries in internet services. Research shows that Google users rarely look past page 3 of their search results, so it is important for companies to have their websites appear high in the list for their relevant keyphrases.  
SEO could help your beach clothing range appear on the first page when people search for “surfwear Australia”.

If your business is looking to spend less money advertising more effectively (and who isn't?) internet marketing might be the solution.

Visit Melbourne Online for more.