Some successes recently that I feel the need to brag to you about:
Voltage Health and Fitness - a personal training business located in Burwood, have just started up their company. Their website was put together themselves, but the SEO was done by Melbourne Online. On first analysis Google didn't even know they existed.
Two weeks later they now rank number 3 on Google for Personal Training Burwood.
Check out their great search ranking for Personal Training.
WaveAV.com.au is an audio visual service in Sydney. We redesigned their website from scratch. Search Engine Optimisation strategies were employed during construction only, no SEO update has been undertaken and yet the site still ranks on the first page at number 9 for Seminar AV Sydney.
See their great search ranking for Seminar AV.
Our own website, MelbourneOnline.com.au concentrates on Internet Marketing and Online stores. It now ranks #7 for Melbourne Internet Marketing and #8 for Melbourne Online Stores. These are tough keyphrases to optimise for, given that Internet Marketers are generally fairly switched on with SEO.
Check out our great search ranking for Internet Marketing.
Check out our great search ranking for Online Stores.
Think about your own core business and check to see where you rank for it on Google.
Visit Melbourne Online for more.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Search Engine Optimisation – Keywords, Keyphrases or Longphrases?
Web designers know that what you are interested in from them is a good looking, functional site with no glitches, so Search Engine Optimisation is rarely at the top of their list of priorities.
If you are doing your own SEO you are going to be considering exactly what search terms you want your site optimised for.
It's sometimes difficult to know what somebody looking for your product would type into Google to find you. If you had a hamburger shop for example you might think you should simply optimise your site for “Hamburgers”, but is that what you would type if you were looking for one?
Selecting Keywords:
Keywords are easy. In our hamburger shop scenario the obvious Keyword is
That's the easy bit.
Selecting Keyphrases:
It's very rare that a searcher would find what they were looking for with a single word. Living in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne I would not expect my local hamburger shop to pop up when I Google “Hamburgers”. I would expect that I would need to enter three or four words before finding exactly what I want. Keyphrases are often referred to as “Long Tail Keywords”. Why? I don't know, “Keyphrases” works better for me.
To produce a suitable Keyphrase from your Keyword, a good idea is to add a location or a description to your Keyword.
When entering these Keyphrases in your Website, use them in your metadata and your copy. Where possible, use the entire Keyphrase but partial is better than nothing if that's all that fits well.
Remember where the possibility of fitting a Keyphrase clashes with good copy, favour good copy every time.
Selecting Longphrases:
Google has reported a recent rise in the number of Longphrases (search phrases of five or more words) entered into a search. A Longphrase is very specific, so if a user lands on your site after searching for it, there is a good chance they want exactly what you are providing.
A user may search Google for
Even if you have a Search Engine Optimisation professional to do your site SEO for you, it is a good idea to start thinking about these Keywords, Keyphrases and Longphrases because nobody knows your business and your clientele like you do. It's no good letting your SEO firm assume you are also a fish and chip shop if all you do is hamburgers and fries.
Visit Melbourne Online for more.
If you are doing your own SEO you are going to be considering exactly what search terms you want your site optimised for.
It's sometimes difficult to know what somebody looking for your product would type into Google to find you. If you had a hamburger shop for example you might think you should simply optimise your site for “Hamburgers”, but is that what you would type if you were looking for one?
Selecting Keywords:
Keywords are easy. In our hamburger shop scenario the obvious Keyword is
- Hamburgers.
- Cheeseburgers and
- Fries.
That's the easy bit.
Selecting Keyphrases:
It's very rare that a searcher would find what they were looking for with a single word. Living in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne I would not expect my local hamburger shop to pop up when I Google “Hamburgers”. I would expect that I would need to enter three or four words before finding exactly what I want. Keyphrases are often referred to as “Long Tail Keywords”. Why? I don't know, “Keyphrases” works better for me.
To produce a suitable Keyphrase from your Keyword, a good idea is to add a location or a description to your Keyword.
- Best hamburgers Melbourne,
- Best cheeseburgers Melbourne and
- Best fries Melbourne
When entering these Keyphrases in your Website, use them in your metadata and your copy. Where possible, use the entire Keyphrase but partial is better than nothing if that's all that fits well.
Remember where the possibility of fitting a Keyphrase clashes with good copy, favour good copy every time.
Selecting Longphrases:
Google has reported a recent rise in the number of Longphrases (search phrases of five or more words) entered into a search. A Longphrase is very specific, so if a user lands on your site after searching for it, there is a good chance they want exactly what you are providing.
A user may search Google for
- Low fat cheeseburgers and fries in Melbourne,
- Hamburgers order online Halal Melbourne
- Where is the best place to get Hamburgers in North Melbourne?
Even if you have a Search Engine Optimisation professional to do your site SEO for you, it is a good idea to start thinking about these Keywords, Keyphrases and Longphrases because nobody knows your business and your clientele like you do. It's no good letting your SEO firm assume you are also a fish and chip shop if all you do is hamburgers and fries.
Visit Melbourne Online for more.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Search Engine Optimisation – How much should I spend?
Search Engine Optimisation is still considered a black art to some extent, because only Google (and other search engines) programmers really understand the science behind it.
What you're paying for when you hire an SEO professional is not only their time spent on your site, but for the expertise they are constantly accumulating by keeping up with changes to search trends and search engine behaviours.
SEO professionals spend a lot of time at the start of their career using trial and error to find the best way to get sites ranking higher on Google. You're paying to skip straight to the results, to not spend hours obsessing over wording, layout and headings. You're paying, as with any profession, to not have to learn the art yourself.
So how much is a reasonable fee for SEO?
SEO comes in a few forms, so lets look at them separately.
What is a reasonable fee for a single SEO analysis?
I have heard of ridiculously high costs for a single analysis – up to $80k in one case, but that was for an intricate analysis of an extremely large corporate site so it may have been justified.
Rest assured that this is not the ballpark for most businesses.
In general if you want an SEO analysis including recommended changes for a site under ten pages you should expect to pay $600 - $1500 depending on the number of keywords and pages you'd like analysed.
What is a reasonable fee for a one-off SEO analysis including implemented revisions?
This will depend on various factors relating to both your industry and your site such as:
What is a reasonable fee for ongoing SEO?
This will depend on all the same dot points as above, but in general you should allocate $2k - $8k per year for ongoing Search Engine Optimisation. This should include monthly reports so you can monitor the effectiveness of SEO efforts. Most SEO companies will want you to agree to at least 6 months.
Prices increase if your site has more pages, if you want to optimise for more keyphrases or if you are trying to tackle high-demand keyphrases. If you want to incorporate link-building, that's an entirely different task again.
What you're paying for when you hire an SEO professional is not only their time spent on your site, but for the expertise they are constantly accumulating by keeping up with changes to search trends and search engine behaviours.
SEO professionals spend a lot of time at the start of their career using trial and error to find the best way to get sites ranking higher on Google. You're paying to skip straight to the results, to not spend hours obsessing over wording, layout and headings. You're paying, as with any profession, to not have to learn the art yourself.
So how much is a reasonable fee for SEO?
SEO comes in a few forms, so lets look at them separately.
What is a reasonable fee for a single SEO analysis?
I have heard of ridiculously high costs for a single analysis – up to $80k in one case, but that was for an intricate analysis of an extremely large corporate site so it may have been justified.
Rest assured that this is not the ballpark for most businesses.
In general if you want an SEO analysis including recommended changes for a site under ten pages you should expect to pay $600 - $1500 depending on the number of keywords and pages you'd like analysed.
What is a reasonable fee for a one-off SEO analysis including implemented revisions?
This will depend on various factors relating to both your industry and your site such as:
- Quality and quantity of competition for your selected keyphrases
- How many keyphrases you have selected
- How many pages and how much text on your site.
- How much content needs to be written from scratch
What is a reasonable fee for ongoing SEO?
This will depend on all the same dot points as above, but in general you should allocate $2k - $8k per year for ongoing Search Engine Optimisation. This should include monthly reports so you can monitor the effectiveness of SEO efforts. Most SEO companies will want you to agree to at least 6 months.
Prices increase if your site has more pages, if you want to optimise for more keyphrases or if you are trying to tackle high-demand keyphrases. If you want to incorporate link-building, that's an entirely different task again.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Small Business and the Internet
Many if not most small businesses are still owned by the older generations who consider themselves beyond learning about computers and the Internet. This blog is for them.
The smartest business mind I've ever encountered belongs to Rod Dally, now in his 60s. He used to say “I don't know anything about the Internet but I know we need to use it”.
That may not sound so profound to you, but I think that for a man who knew nothing about the Internet, knowing that he must put it to use was as far as he needed to go. He went about managing his store and staff and simply arranged for others to manage the Internet side of things for him.
Before we knew it the business had an operational mailing list, a Website showing specials and events and a login section for frequent customers. It was a huge success and the business flourished.
Even if you don't think your business needs the Internet, it will be of benefit to you to read on to discover what other businesses (possibly including your competition) are doing.
Small businesses can grow their success by using the Internet to:
There are plenty of other reasons to migrate your business online.
There are very few reasons not to.
If you are still unsure whether you need to give your business a presence on the Internet, ask someone you know who uses the Internet. Ask them how they would find someone who offers your products or services. Chances are they'll say that they would Google it. And if you're not on the Internet then Google will show them your competitor who is.
If you'd like ideas about where to go from here, call me.
Visit Melbourne Online for more.
The smartest business mind I've ever encountered belongs to Rod Dally, now in his 60s. He used to say “I don't know anything about the Internet but I know we need to use it”.
That may not sound so profound to you, but I think that for a man who knew nothing about the Internet, knowing that he must put it to use was as far as he needed to go. He went about managing his store and staff and simply arranged for others to manage the Internet side of things for him.
Before we knew it the business had an operational mailing list, a Website showing specials and events and a login section for frequent customers. It was a huge success and the business flourished.
Even if you don't think your business needs the Internet, it will be of benefit to you to read on to discover what other businesses (possibly including your competition) are doing.
Small businesses can grow their success by using the Internet to:
- Gain new business: Yellow Pages is no longer where I go to find a business whether I'm looking for an electrician or a Web designer. And I'm in the majority now. I want to see a little bit about the business I'm about to employ before I phone them. The Internet allows me to do that. And if your business isn't on the Internet I don't even get a chance to consider you, because I'm not going to phone fifteen companies to chat about their services, but I WILL visit fifteen Websites and choose based on what I find.
- Encourage repeat business: Special offers for frequent customers and loyalty programs can be cheaply and easily implemented through your Website. You can start them from scratch, integrate them with existing programs or run them separately. I enjoy getting the latest offers from businesses I frequent. I don't enjoy spam, so make sure you decide what is a reasonable time between mailouts.
- Expand clientele: The World Wide Web has a reach, as the name suggests, worldwide. You may find that your business can start shipping product or offering services to an entirely new market interstate or internationally. I am quite comfortable these days purchasing products from overseas using my credit card. I know I need to wait for postage, but I'm OK with that.
If you are modifying your business specifically to gain international customers you may be eligible for a Government grant through Austrade.
- Network: Use blogs, mailing lists and social networking sites (like Twitter) to share expertise with your peers around the world. Find out what did and did not work for them, give and get advice. You may even develop a relationship with someone where you refer clients to each other. I love chatting with fellow professionals. I don't see someone in my industry who'd based in the USA as direct competition, so I feel I have nothing to lose, but everything to gain by being candid.
- Research: Make use of your Website and email lists to find out from your clients whether you are meeting their expectations. Find out what they love about your service and if there are any reasons they might go elsewhere. It makes me feel important when a company asks my opinion. And by giving it I feel I have made a difference.
- Raise company profile: A Website gives you a presence to people who may otherwise not have seen you. This site gives the viewer the chance to see all the information you care to provide about your company, products and services. The more I know about a company the more I feel comfortable dealing with them.
There are plenty of other reasons to migrate your business online.
There are very few reasons not to.
If you are still unsure whether you need to give your business a presence on the Internet, ask someone you know who uses the Internet. Ask them how they would find someone who offers your products or services. Chances are they'll say that they would Google it. And if you're not on the Internet then Google will show them your competitor who is.
If you'd like ideas about where to go from here, call me.
Visit Melbourne Online for more.
Monday, March 2, 2009
B2B vs B2C – Selling technique differences
I know my mandate here is to blog about strictly online issues, but this one overlaps into the physical world a little, so forgive me.
There is an aura around business-to-business (B2B) selling that makes people lose their sales minds, much more so than business-to-consumer (B2C) selling. Business owners in the B2B world seek experienced B2B salespeople to stock their workforce, claiming that this experience is essential to performing well in the role. Today I'm going to tell you why that's entirely unnecessary.
B2C sales is involved. Take it from someone who has been put through just about every avenue of sales training that exists, B2C sales is intense. Consumers are demanding. They shop around for the best price, they do their research on their product, they have bad days, each one of them has a different expectation of the product, a different need and a different style of communication.
As a B2C sales person it's your job to go through the steps with the individual: Greeting; assessing need; developing rapport; dispensing information; assisting with research; matching product to consumer; closing the sale; following up...
Each of these steps is essential to a successful transaction. The individual needs to respect you (preferably LIKE you, but not necessarily) enough to take on your opinion of the product and believe the information you give about it. You need to involve yourself in the sale to ensure the individual gets what they WANT and NEED.
If this is all done well then there will be no miscommunication which will mean less likelihood of refund or negative word-of-mouth publicity. It also means more chance of positive word-of-mouth publicity and repeat business.
B2B is totally different, isn't it?
No. It's not.
Whether you're selling a $100 item to a consumer or a $100,000 item to a business, chances are there is still an INDIVIDUAL making the decision.
So what's the key?
Here are some points to help you in your next sales situation, regardless of who you're selling to and how much the item or service costs:
If B2B has ANY difference to B2C sales, it's that when an individual purchases something on behalf of a business they are accountable to the others within that business which exposes them to criticism. If you do a good job and sell them exactly what they need, a business is much more likely to return to you next time because they know you're a safe bet.
So in B2B sales, the above points are even more important for you to follow.
Visit Melbourne Online for more.
There is an aura around business-to-business (B2B) selling that makes people lose their sales minds, much more so than business-to-consumer (B2C) selling. Business owners in the B2B world seek experienced B2B salespeople to stock their workforce, claiming that this experience is essential to performing well in the role. Today I'm going to tell you why that's entirely unnecessary.
B2C sales is involved. Take it from someone who has been put through just about every avenue of sales training that exists, B2C sales is intense. Consumers are demanding. They shop around for the best price, they do their research on their product, they have bad days, each one of them has a different expectation of the product, a different need and a different style of communication.
As a B2C sales person it's your job to go through the steps with the individual: Greeting; assessing need; developing rapport; dispensing information; assisting with research; matching product to consumer; closing the sale; following up...
Each of these steps is essential to a successful transaction. The individual needs to respect you (preferably LIKE you, but not necessarily) enough to take on your opinion of the product and believe the information you give about it. You need to involve yourself in the sale to ensure the individual gets what they WANT and NEED.
If this is all done well then there will be no miscommunication which will mean less likelihood of refund or negative word-of-mouth publicity. It also means more chance of positive word-of-mouth publicity and repeat business.
B2B is totally different, isn't it?
No. It's not.
Whether you're selling a $100 item to a consumer or a $100,000 item to a business, chances are there is still an INDIVIDUAL making the decision.
So what's the key?
Here are some points to help you in your next sales situation, regardless of who you're selling to and how much the item or service costs:
- Do right by your customer. This is a practice all employers should encourage, because it's good for everybody. I got fired from a job when I was younger because I talked an elderly couple out of taking out a mortgage on their home that they already owned outright. I talked them into the sale, then out of it once I looked further into their financial affairs. The boss was not impressed. At another company I was promoted for the same attitude. Guess which company is still trading...
- Believe in your product or service. You might think that you're the world's best salesperson because you can put on your poker face and sell water to a drowning man, but people don't like to be sold to by a poker face, nor do they appreciate ending up with something they don't need. Believing in what you sell will allow you to get excited about it, and excitement is infectious, and people like that.
- Practice full disclosure. Everything has limits, most things have faults. Be honest about what those faults and limits are. Chances are it won't lose you the sale, in fact it will give more weight to your positive statements and cement trust between your customer and yourself.
- Deliver what you promise. Or more. Definitely not less. From the sales conversation your customer is going to know exactly what to expect and all your good work can be undone very quickly if you have promised something that isn't delivered. Surprises are only pleasant if they're something you want, don't let your customer be unpleasantly surprised.
- Keep your refund and dispute policy flexible. Sometimes a company can gain even more credibility when something goes wrong. If your company is at fault, admit it. Rectify the problem. Worst case scenario you end up doing what the ombudsman would have ordered anyway, and you avoid the wasted time, cost and tension that ensues. That said, if you follow the preceding steps, you probably won't ever get to this stage.
- Communicate. Do it during the sales process. Do it during the transaction. Make sure the customer has your contact details and invite them to contact you if they have any questions. Be happy if they do. Follow up after the sale if it's appropriate, especially after big spends (cars, houses, website builds...) because not only does it make your customer feel important, it also allows you to check on your product and gauge your success in customer satisfaction, which will help with the next sale.
If B2B has ANY difference to B2C sales, it's that when an individual purchases something on behalf of a business they are accountable to the others within that business which exposes them to criticism. If you do a good job and sell them exactly what they need, a business is much more likely to return to you next time because they know you're a safe bet.
So in B2B sales, the above points are even more important for you to follow.
Visit Melbourne Online for more.
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