Determining Keywords

It is obvious that choosing the right keywords can do much for your online business exposure optimizing your positioning and searchability with major search engines including Arameda. However, no one says that it is easy. Today we are happy to share with you the article written by James T. Faasse, who studied the keyword issue carefully and made up a small review of online software tools that can help you in finding the optimum keywords.

Determining Keywords
by James T. Faasse

Determining keywords is a critical step in web design. If your website and meta tags do not contain related keywords, web surfers will be unable to find your website when they conduct searches.

The formula is a little tricky - you will need to locate terms that are popular and relevant to your business. These terms may or may not be terms that *you* feel are relevant terms. The optimal terms in a site should be terms that a potential customer would use when searching for a website with your content. In order to achieve success your website should be optimized with terms and phrases that are descriptive, related to your content, and which receive a
significant amount of searches. The caveat, of course, is that you want to find terms and phrases where there is little competition, so you quickly achieve high ranking in the important search engines.

relevant + popular with searchers but not with competitors = success

Markets saturated with other sites competing for search terms make it difficult to find quality keywords. Sometimes it is better to optimize for a less popular term, one that is more targeted at your visitor, as it will likely have a higher conversion rate than a less specific popular term. The first step to determining keywords is brainstorming a list of logical terms and phrases that relate to your product or offerings. This should be done by a number of individuals; sometimes people have very different ideas for search terms and by identifying a variety of people and their search terms you may tap words that hadn't occurred to you. There are a number of free and low-cost tools available online and for download that will allow you to expand and research terms that have been brainstormed. The results typically vary with the tools but overall the tools will assist you in determining where to focus your keyword efforts. The tools will often assist with pay-per-click engines, creating expanded, related keywords or phrases that can be bid on.

In addition to examining log files to see what terms customers are using to find a website, visit competitors' web sites and examine their meta tags for additional terms, use a thesaurus to find related terms, include misspellings of keywords in your meta tag keywords, and optimize for various forms of nouns and verbs, including tenses and plurals.

Keyword Tools

KeywordTumbler - KeywordTumbler takes existing keyword phrases and generates multiple variations, reordering the words. This allows you to build a large keyword list in seconds.

http://www.keywordtumbler.com

TheDowser - Overture Keyword Tool, Google Keyword Sandbox, Keyword Harvester, Google AdWords report analyzer, Google AdWords optimization tool, log file analyzer, conversion tracking and optimization tool.

http://www.thedowser.com

WordTracker - Wordtracker helps you choose the right internet marketing keywords that will help your search engine placement and ranking. Use Wordtracker for keyword research. Web marketing is all about search engine ranking, and that starts with the proper internet marketing keywords. Get a free keyword report and web site promotion information!

http://www.wordtracker.com

Keyword Suggestion Tools - A handy little tool will show you the results of
your query from both Wordtracker and Overture for determining which phrases
are searched most often. Enter a search phrase below to see how often it's
searched for, as well as get suggestions for alternate (but similar) keywords.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Keyword Ranking Tool - This utility can be used to check search engines for
keyword ranking and track search engine ranking for your various keywords over
time, which, as you probably know, is critical when doing search engine optimization.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/keywords/

Overture Keyword Tool - After entering a keyword or phrase, Overture provides
a list of related phrases that have been searched on. The tool provides a count
that indicates the number of times the phrase has been searched on. http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Topword Tool - Topword Tool is a free online tool that analyzes a complete
web page and counts keyword occurrences, as well as keyword phrases (number
in brackets), equal to or above that set in the Minimum Occurrences setting.
It supplies a list of keywords and keyword phrases which are most likely to
achieve the highest rankings on a major search engine. The tool will also analyze
your meta description/keyword and title tags and then, through color coding,
inform you of words/phrases which should be included. The main use for this
tool is checking your optimization and tweaking existing web sites to rank
well.

http://www.abakus-internet-marketing.de/tools/topword.html

Google Suggestion - The Google Suggestion is a new online tool for webmasters.
As you type into the search box, Google Suggest guesses what you're typing
and offers suggestions in real time. This is similar to Google's 'Did you mean?'
feature that offers alternative spellings for your query after you search,
except that it works in real time. For example, if you type 'bass', Google
Suggest might offer a list of refinements that include 'bass fishing' or 'bass
guitar'. Similarly, if you type in only part of a word, like 'progr,' Google
Suggest might offer you refinements like 'programming', 'programming languages',
'progesterone', or 'progressive'. You can choose one by scrolling up or down
the list with the arrow keys or mouse. The tool provides a number that indicates
the number of searches a specific word or phrase has had.

http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Keyword statistics give webmasters a way to tap into what is on the minds
of Internet consumers.

When you can match your marketing efforts to the various
ways people locate their items of interest on the net, potential customers
will be streamed to your site like ants to a picnic.

Hiring a Search Engine Marketer

Hiring a Search Engine Marketer
By James T. Faasse - March 15, 2005



Many website owners put the cart before the horse- anxious for search engine traffic and rankings, the first thing they do once their site is complete is buy a "submit to 1,000 search engines for $29" service. Unfortunately, what they receive is a tenfold increase in e-mail spam but no increase in search engine traffic.

Do-it-yourself SEO is a great way to go- if you've got the time to put in, anyone can effectively optimize a website. However, it makes sense to hire a professional when your time is better spent doing what you do best; running your business.

Where to start? Selecting an internet marketer can be a daunting task. There are a wide range of fee levels as well as different attitudes, strategies and experience levels.

A few pros and cons can help you in your search:

Con: Submit your site to 25,000 Engines

Any service that claims to submit your site to more than 4 or 5 engines is not submitting to search engines at all. Most likely, they are submitting to free-for-all pages or they are spamming directories. Currently, the only engines with significant traffic are Google and Yahoo and to a small extent Teoma (Ask Jeeves). You don't have to submit to any of these engines- they will find your site by crawling links to your site.

Pro: Directory Submission Service

There are professionals who will prepare and submit your listing request to the major directories as well as industry-specific portals. This is a valuable service-- a well-written description as well as a carefully chosen directory category can improve your chances of getting listed quickly and accurately.

Directory listings are valuable links that add to your link popularity and can send traffic in their own right. Many directories are still free but several have paid options that can speed your review. Directories such as Yahoo and Business.com are paid listings only. Directory submission specialists can let you know what options and fees are available.

Con: We Won't Change a Thing on Your Site

Companies that do their optimization "off-site" by building a mini-network of sites or pages on their own site that point to yours aren't really optimizing your site. They may send you traffic, but when you stop paying, the traffic goes away. You can do that yourself with PPC listings!

Other companies create software-generated "doorway" pages or "information" pages - these pages are often created with nonsense words sprinkled with keyword phrases and meant to appeal to the search engine algorithms. The key is that they are only for search engine spiders to see; not humans. They may work for a short while (if at all.) The problem is that these pages have no links pointing to them and aren't very important in the eyes of the search engines, therefore they are not very effective.

The most dangerous companies will tell you that you won't "see" any of their changes- they add hidden links, hidden text, and other tricky techniques designed to fool search engine spiders. Some create different pages that are shown to spiders than to people- this is referred to as cloaking. These techniques can and will eventually get your site penalized or banned.

Pro: We Can Optimize Your Site

A professional SEO is likely to work with you on keyword research, change your tags, your copy, possibly your links and other code on the page. They will optimize the page- making it friendly to users and search engines while making it relevant to the terms you have agreed upon.

They may recommend you remove splash pages, frames, flash navigation, javascript links, or other things that interfere with the user experience and hinder search engine spiders. While there are workarounds and techniques that can help with situations like these, they are not the optimal solution. Even if you choose to leave search-unfriendly elements on your page, your SEO should point them out to you and advise you of the best option.

Con: We Guarantee #1 Listings in the Editorial Results

No one can guarantee you a #1 listing in the search engines' algorithmically determined results for a specific term. The engines do not have special agreements with anyone that allows them to choose where your site will appear!

Read the fine print- often the guaranteed terms are "guinea pig" terms- words no one is searching or optimizing for that even a guinea pig could get you #1 rankings for! Remember that a guarantee doesn't mean they have to achieve the results- simply that they'll give you your money back if they don't.

Other companies guarantee rankings on PPC terms. That's easy enough, you just have to have a big enough wallet to be #1.

Pro: We Guarantee Improved Results

A good search engine marketing firm should be able to guarantee that they will improve the performance of your site in the search engines- you shouldn't be worse off than when they started. Really good companies should be able to improve your conversions, not just your traffic and rankings. Isn't that the ultimate goal?

Don't be surprised if, after a search engine marketer works on your site, your traffic figures decrease. Don't worry- traffic doesn't pay your bills; in fact it actually costs you bandwidth. The quality of the traffic you continue to receive should be improved- more sales or conversions in relation to the number of visitors.

The ideal situtation is achieved when you narrow your search visitors to people who are interested in your site and they are easily able to find the information they want. This is more likely to occur when you stop focusing on unqualified but high traffic keyword phrases and start focusing on terms that really relate to your site.

Go with Your Instincts

Don't let a search marketer change your pages for the worse- slapping keywords on the page here and there may improve your rankings but decrease sales. Optimization techniques should complement and improve your site and good SEO copywriting will improve the focus of the page without losing the marketing edge.

You should feel confident that the search marketing professional you hire knows what they are doing and is willing to explain what they will do to your site and why. There really aren't any "secrets" in search marketing anymore- you can spend a few hours reading at any of the major search engine forums to find out how things work. If a marketer isn't willing to tell you what they plan to do to your site to drive more traffic, you may have a mess to clean up later.

Ask for examples of the marketer's other work; it's the best way to see what they do and how. Don't just look at the ranking reports, take a look at the page and make sure it reads well and isn't using sneaky tactics. Above all, pick someone you trust!

There Should Be More to your SEO Consultant Than Rankings

There Should Be More to your SEO Consultant Than Rankings

Potential clients are after a single goal: “Get me a top-ten ranking at Google.” Some will also mention MSN, and a few will rhyme off a list of search engines and want to rank well at the top 200 of them.

It is time to separate fact from fiction.

Yes, your SEO consultant can get you a top-ten placement at Google. But…

1. If the placement is for “dirty brown shoes”, it probably won't help your shoe store one bit, even if I get you the first place ranking. Few people are actually searching for that term.

2. Being number ten might not help much either, depending on the term. People searching for “Essential Nectar liquid vitamins”, will probably click on the first result they see, or at least on one of the “above-the-fold” results that do not require scrolling. On the other hand, someone searching for “liquid vitamins” might check through two pages of results to familiarize herself with the options available.

3. If your title tag reads like a cheap list of search terms, it will not be enticing. For instance, if it reads: “vitamins, liquid vitamins, multivitamins, multi-vitamins”, you might skip over it in favor of the next result that reads “Liquid vitamins from the Liquid Vitamin Supplements Store”.

4. If your description tag is a mess, people will more likely skip over your listing, even if it does rank number one, in favor of one that sounds like what they are looking for. Google and others use the description tag usually when the term searched for is found in it, so make sure to include your key search terms in a description tag that actually reads well.

I recently responded to a forum question, which went something like this: My site ranks number one for this term at this engine. The term is searched this many times per day, and the engine has this percentage marketshare. Can I expect this many visitors?

That's not an SEO challenge; that's a math problem: searches x marketshare = visitors

I responded with a few factors that override mathematics in the SEO game, including the site's title tag and description tag, as well as whether the term lends itself to scrolling. I also pointed out that it depends on the title tags and description tags of the competition, too.

Another factor that makes predicting traffic difficult is the abandonment factor - how many people click on none of the results because they get interrupted or confused, or abandon the search for a new one because they find themselves off-topic or searching too broadly.

It also depends on how many sponsored links there are and how they are marked. Often at Yahoo and Lycos, for example, there are so many ads that the average searcher might never scroll a screen or two to see the organic (natural) results.

And, of course, it also depends on the color of the walls in the room the searcher is clicking from, the weather outside and how well they slept last night. But there is little you can do about that.

What you can do is to work with your SEO consultant to choose the most effective search terms for your business and make sure he/she develops a title tag and description tag that sell to both humans and the search engines. Then make sure he is monitoring not just the rankings for your key search terms, but also the description used by each of the search engines.

A good ranking at Google and Yahoo is just one measure of your SEO consultant's success. A more complete evaluation is that he/she is your partner in building long-term, targeted traffic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Timothy Faasse` is an SEO consultant

E-commerce - Ingredients for success

E-commerce - Ingredients for success By James T. Faasse

1) Post Contact Information The following information should be posted to the website in an intuitive location: A corporate address Product return address An e-mail address A toll-free number 2) Hire Knowledgeable People to Take Phone Calls Consumers shopping online have the same number of questions as regular retail customers - perhaps even more. It is important to maintain a well-trained and knowledgeable staff of people to answer phones. The more these receptionists assist consumers the better the conversion rates and repeat buying. It is also important to provide incentives for your staff to cross-sell and up-sell products. 3) Big Fonts and Big Pictures Pay Off Isn't it frustrating when you click an image to enlarge an image and it loads the same size? Since customers can't pick up the item (like in a retail store) it is important to show detailed pictures. Large keyword fonts also assist intuitive navigation (and GoogleBot loves big, bold fonts)! 4) Be Prepared If you are trying to get on-line for the Christmas season, don't wait until November to build your online store. It takes months to earn solid positioning in Google. Once you are up and running, make sure you have allocated the proper resources for the Christmas season. Your site's traffic should increase 4-fold during peak Holiday months. 5) Befriend the Postman It is imperative that your e-business delivers packages on time. It's even more important that your products arrives in one piece. Nothing is more frusterating to a customer than late arrivals and damaged goods. 6) Make Return Policies Easy and Fair Maintain a return policy that benefits the end user. It is important to include return labels with the packaging, and provide refunds when requested. Repeat business is your best business. Do what it takes to benefit your customers. Next time they shop they will order from your shopping cart- not someone else's. 7) Simplify your Storefront Customers will wait, on average, no more than 10 seconds per page to download before they choose to shop another web store. Remove graphics that take forever and a day to download, and avoide animated clip-art and annoying music. 8) Intuitive Navigation Eliminate unnecessary clicks. By reducing the number of clicks needed to complete a shopping cart transaction your conversion rates will increase.

E-commerce - Reasons to sell online

E-commerce - Reasons to sell online By James T. Faasse`

1) Money- It's here folks! E-commerce sales total in the billions of dollars every year. Not millions. Billions! 2) The early bird earns market share. Those who are first to enter a market will most likely control it. You probably aren't the first in your field to launch an e-commerce business, or even the hundredth- the sooner the better. 3) E-commerce is affordable. Small businesses often fear they don't have the resources to compete with the big boys. Thanks to application service providers (ASP's), small businesses can sell product on the web for as little as $79/ month. Learn more about shopping cart software and ecommerce hosting. 4) Lower operating costs. Dealing with clients over the Internet reduces operating costs. A recent survey yielded estimates that $7 is saved every time a customer checks their order status via the web compared to calling. 5) E-commerce is conducted worldwide. Sure, orders can be taken over the phone and by fax, but e-commerce enables a customer from Bangladesh to conduct business with a company in Nebraska. 6) Affluent consumers shop online. Over 65% of online consumers have a household income that exceeds $52,000. 7) Items can be added to your shopping cart 24-7. E-commerce enables your businesses to operate 24 hours a day seven days a week (as long as you have a reliable e-commerce host, that is!) 8) E-commerce is growing and growing and growing. Thousands of homes add the Internet each day. E-commerce is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's about solid business fundamentals and marketing strategies. With the proper mix and a lot of hard work, you can make your e-commerce dream a success.

Anchor Text Tips to Sky Rocket Your Search Rankings!

Anchor Text Tips to Sky Rocket Your Search Rankings!

Google/Yahoo bombing is the practice of placing terms you want a given page to rank for in anchor text that links to that page. Huh? Ok, here's an example: if I wanted this page to rank highly for the term "President of the Internet" I'd create a link like this: President of the Internet and have all my friends and friendly readers post that link and text on their sites.

Discuss anchor text optimization in WebProWorld.

With enough pages carrying that same text and link I'd knock the
current president from his perch. (He's also governing
in Yahoo , by the way...)

Google bombing is also effective on pages that don't want to rank for certain terms - Miserable Failure is one example.

The ability to manipulate search results this way indicates the weight that the two most searched engines give to the text webpages use to link to other web pages.

Matt Bailey of The Karcher Group believessearch engines attribute this value to the anchor text because it, "is very important to the user; it should describe the content of the target page and the subject
matter."

James Faasse of iNETready described the way text link works this way: "by identifying your pages through relevant keyword links you are "telling" the search engine which keywords the linked pagesrepresent. The rule applies for both internal and external anchor text."

"Proper use of anchor text," said James, "can help you show the relevancy of your web pages to key search engines to help rank for desired keywords."

I wrote to James, Matt, and two other SEO experts recently and asked them about their thoughts on anchor text and anchor text best practices.

"Anchor text is extremely important to rankings, especially in Google. I've seen some evidence in Yahoo, but not to the extent that Google rankings can be influenced," said Matt. James Faasse of iNETready said, "I believe in the value of anchor text."

Anchor Text Best Practices

Matt's anchor text best practices include excellent general guidelines for you to follow:

1. Do what's best for the user.

2. Make it easily understood by the user.

3. Don't try to hide your intentions.

4. Be honest about the anchor text. What it says is what you should get.

James's anchor text best practices offer some specific advice that will help you make anchor text decisions on your site:

Use Judiciously

1. Navigation maps (the text-links at the bottom of each page) Nav Maps are a great place to put keyword enriched anchor text. These text-links tend to be found at the bottom of each page in a site. An important note is that these links WILL be used by site visitors and MUST be created and phrased with live-visitors and SE Spiders in mind.

2. Links on the INDEX page

The INDEX page of a site is the most powerful real estate found that URL. Again, all work on the INDEX page MUST consider live-visitors before SE Spiders. When keyword-enriching text on the INDEX page, there are often ways to link into internal pages. This is a good thing as it pushes spider traffic while associating the keyword (anchor text) with the specific page

linked to. An important consideration is that the INDEX page often has a higher page rank than internal pages.

3. Links on Internal Pages

Links on internal pages are not as important to search engine rankings as on the INDEX page. Nevertheless, each internal page is terribly important to the clients and can add to a good internal linking strategy.

4. External Links

Links coming from other URLs should use effective anchor text. With larger campaigns we can mix and match the keyword phrases targeted through anchor links in order to associate keyword phrases with specific internal pages.

Fathom , a moderator from WebProWorld , offered these six suggestions to those who want their anchor text to work well for them:

1. Important link positioning top left to bottom right. (throwing tons of links at bottom helps little).

2. Exact anchors that best support the content on the link to page It's great to use tons of links where the anchor text suggest importance to "web design" however if the page is specific to "web development" then the use of "web design" link anchors will be less effective.

3. The use of "broad" has the benefit of aiding "broadly" e.g. using links to a website about "college degrees" where the link indicates "degrees" has the benefit of gaining associate degrees, bachelor degrees, masters degrees, as well as the specific subject matter for the degree itself link computer science degrees.

A link anchor however about "masters degrees" dilutes the value to other degrees e.g. bachelor degrees - so it is a game of tradeoffs.

4. If attempting to do item #3 for "web" to capture "web design", "website design", "web development", "website development", a text link anchor looks quite inappropriate.
Thus the value of image links e.g. where the broad term is less apparent and the image actually reads "web design".

5. Avoid "stop words" such as and, with, by, from etc.

6. Internal site linking structure has a significant impact of supporting and
propagating weight, relevancy, and PageRank to similar topical pages... e.g. Google's indented secondary results for a specific query helps show this. If you are listed (ranked) with only a single results listing - your internal linking structure is likely the cause, and fixing this can help improve overall results.

James Faasse of iNETready contradicted some of what Fathom said, however. "In terms of anchor text being found on relevant vs. irrelevant sites I have yet to see any substantial proof supporting the claim that relevant websites will yield a better return in the natural rankings." From a purely pragmatic perspective though, if you've got links on a page that's more relevant to your site you're
more likely to get foot traffic in that way rather than if you've got your text links up on unrelated/irrelevant sites.

Well, I imagine you're ready to start optimizing your text links. Remember to focus on those within your site as well as those your link partners use to mention you. Anchor text is an important way of showing the search engines, as well as your visitors, just what they're getting when they land on the page. And, for now, it's a powerful way to raise your ranking for particular keywords.

SEO Through Well Built Web Pages

SEO Through Well Built Web Pages

Search engines have moved beyond simply calculating keyword density and link relevance. More and more, the major search engines are mastering the ability to identify natural human language and evaluate a web page based on natural human language. AskJeeves.com was the first search engine to attempt to move to a natural human language system, although they focused on the user input aspect of search rather than evaluating the natural language of a web page itself.

By learning to identify natural human language, search engines are able to greatly reduce the amount of search engine sp@m. Search engine advances continue, especially on the heels of Google's suspected algorithm change which will enable Google to weigh the relevance of links against the content of their pages. Search engines will continue to look at the entire content of websites and continue to attempt to identify the real subjects and themes of any given site.

As search engines learn to better identify the natural language structure of websites, sites that are well formed will have a natural advantage. Although good search engine rankings will always depend on more than just the structure and content of a website, the content of a website will always be the heart of a page's rankings.

Make a Search Engine's Job Easy

Search engine spiders have a lot of work to do. Not only do they spider billions of pages every month attempting to discover new web pages and update already discovered web pages, these spiders need to parse through hundreds or even thousands of lines of code trying to distinguish between titles, content, structural code, and even the occasional keyword stuffing by search engine spammers. By simplifying your website, you make the job easier for the spider and allow the spider to index more pages on your site in a shorter amount of time.

Avoid Bloated Code

Unfortunately for the sake of design, many website owners have paid absolutely no attention to how efficient their code is. As a result, they may have a lot of extraneous, unnecessary code. The result of bloated code is a page that may be difficult and confusing for a search engine to decipher, or the spider may misinterpret the code.

Fortunately, HTML and CSS is quickly catching up to the design standards of website professionals. Using proper HTML and CSS, you can design extremely appealing websites that do not rely on tables for their layout. If you would like to see just how versatile and effective HTML and CSS is, look at the examples laid out at CSS Zen Garden. CSS Zen Garden is a website that displays the power of CSS and properly formed HTML. There are several different designs all using the exact same HTML, but through CSS they are able to build sites that look completely different from each other.

If you want to see something very amazing about what CSS Zen Garden is doing, follow these steps. View the HTML of their page. It does not matter what style you are viewing, the HTML is the same for every style. Then copy that code and paste it into your HTML editor and view the output. The page that you will see is an extremely basic looking page. More importantly, though, the page that you will see is a very well organized page which would be easy for any spider to understand.

Learn More About HTML

If you are like most website owners, you know very little about HTML. You may know a little bit of code, but it really does not seem worth your time to learn the inner workings of HTML. If you feel this way, then you are really missing out on great SEO opportunities.

HTML is built to naturally identify parts of your web page that are more important than others. It was built to be extremely organized. Using the organization that HTML provides, you can help a search engine spider identify the parts of your website that are more important. Below are some uncommon tags that HTML provides that you can use to help organize your content:

Alt Tag – Most website owners know about this, but including an Alt Tag on your images is actually required if you want to have a properly formed website.

- The acronym tag allows for a website to explain what an acronym stands for. For example, the acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. However, when the spider comes to your website, all it will see is SEO which may mean various things. The acronym tag will allow you to add this keyword to your text. The use of this tag should look like this: seo

- Although using tables to determine the layout of your website is becoming a practice that will soon be extinct, tables will still be necessary. The caption tag allows you to identify what a specific table is about. An example: Table 3.2. Raw Sales Data

- If you ever want to display programming code on your site, you should use the code tag which will set that text off as being programming code. Example:

The H Tags – H1 tags became popular in SEO circles once website owners learned that Google did pay attention to this tag. However, there are actually 6 different heading tags. The H1 tag is the most important while the H6 tag is the least important. If a search engine were to try to create a table of contents from a website, it should be able to do so from the H tags.

These are just a few examples, but HTML provides several tags for your content to help you organize your material, and help search engines know what to emphasize in your content.

The lesson from this should be that learning HTML is not an endeavor that has few benefits. There is a lot of HTML that can help you both simplify your code and add more content to help your rankings.

Consider Moving to a Table-less Layout

The demands of web surfers unfortunately increased faster than website technology could keep up. As a few website owners were able to present visually appealing websites through tabled layouts, web surfers quickly became used to the graphic rich and well organized content. Unfortunately with tabled layouts, HTML code became sloppy and full of information that dealt only with the layout of the site, not with the content.

Fortunately, web technology is catching up. It appears as if Internet Explorer 7, which was announced to be released this summer, will finally adhere to the CSS2 standards. If you are not familiar with CSS, just read that previous sentence as being a very good thing. As was demonstrated by the example of CSSZenGarden.com, CSS can be used to create a page that is as appealing, if not more appealing, than standard tables.

Most website owners know CSS to be a tool that they can use to edit the appearance of text and the colors of their site, but CSS is also a tool that can be used for the layout of your site. As CSS comes out with newer versions (CSS3 is in the works), layout will become a more important development.

So how do you move to a table-less layout? The answer is simple: learn HTML and CSS.

The Side Benefit: Accessibility

Did you know that blind people surf the Internet? That may not seem shocking initially, but consider that the Internet is a highly visual medium of transferring information. Blind people are able to use web readers and Braille machines that interpret HTML code.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of websites are not accessible for blind people because they are not well formed sites. By moving to a well formed website, you will be adding access for an audience who marketers really do not focus on.

Article Tip: Search engines love websites that adhere to W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Bringing it Back to SEO

Many website owners are reluctant to take the time, energy, and monëy to really learn HTML and CSS, or to learn how they can make their websites truly accessible. However, in the end, they could be hurting their search engine rankings once search engines move closer to identifying natural human language.

The creators of HTML have done a magnificent job in creating a structure that can be used to organize your content in ways that make search engine optimization extremely easy. As the owner of your website, you should take care to make sure that it is running the way it was intended to. You wouldn't purchase a car that fails to meet basic standards of quality, so why would you trust your company's income to a website that is based on code that does not meet the quality standards of the Internet?

Designing your site properly does take time and effort, but the rewards are numerous. Not only will you have the satisfaction of having a website that is both light in its code and efficient, but search engines will be able to identify the key points of your content much easier, thus giving you more control of your rankings.

[ ebusiness_small_business ] How To Find Your Best Niche Market Bob Leduc | Contributing Writer | 2005-02-23

What is your target market? When I ask business owners that question I usually hear something like...

* Small Business Owners

* Opportunity Seekers

* Doctors

* Homeowners

Do you define the targeted market for your business similar to one of these? If you do, you're working harder and spending more money than necessary to promote your business. And you're getting only a fraction of the sales you should be getting.

When you target a broad audience like those listed above, you're only targeting prospects who CAN USE your product or service. Your marketing efforts will be considerably more profitable if you target prospects who are LIKELY TO USE your product or service.

One of the best ways to do that is to find a "niche market".

What Is A Niche Market?

A niche market is a narrowly defined group that includes all of the following:

1. Individuals in the group have the same specialized interests and needs.

2. They have a strong need or desire for what you offer.

3. You have (or you can create) a compelling reason for prospects in the group to do business with you instead of with someone else.

4. You can easily reach individual prospects within the group.

5. The group is large enough to produce the volume of business you need.

6. The group is small enough that your competition is likely to overlook it.

Why You Must Narrow Your Focus

A niche market enables you to target your sales messages with great precision. The more narrowly you define your niche market the easier it is to cater to the specifically defined interests of people in that market.

For example, some businesses describe their target market as "opportunity seekers". But this is a broad audience. You cannot cater to specifically defined personal interests of individuals in this group because it may include all of the following:

* Executives who want to get out of the corporate environment and start their own business.

* New mothers who want to start a home based business.

* Students who want to generate some extra income.

Any promotional message to this group would have to be very general. But people don't respond to general talk. They respond only when they feel you are talking directly to them about their individual needs.

Special Advantage: A highly defined, small niche market can insulate you from competition. Other small businesses are likely to overlook it. Large businesses will find the market segment too small to bother with.

How to Find a Profitable Niche Market

One way to find a good niche market is to evaluate your existing customers. Can you uncover a segment of customers with similar characteristics?

For example, I recently talked with a network marketer working with a health products company. About a year ago she noticed that many distributors in her organization were health or physical education teachers.

She now has a lot of success targeting a niche market of female physical education teachers who are married, have children and are members of the same professional association.

Another way to find a niche market is to work backward from the benefits you offer. Start by listing all the benefits provided by your product or service. Then list some of the characteristics of prospects whose current situation can be dramatically improved by those benefits. You should begin to see a narrowly defined group emerge as a niche market.

It's Your Bottom Line

How specific is your target market? Can you develop sales messages so sharply focused your prospects believe you're talking specifically to them?

If not, use the information in this article to help you find the best niche market for you. Then tailor your sales messages to the specific interests and needs of that niche market. You'll see an immediate increase in your sales and profits.

7 Crucial Elements Of Visitor Friendly Websites Peter Lenkefi | Contributing Writer | 2005-02-23

Approximately a decade has passed by since the birth of Internet commerce and online service users and shoppers have grown up.

They know what they're looking for, they know where to get it from and they grab it in an instant. They're in and out of your virtual shop in a second. They're fast and furious...especially if the can't find what they were looking for.

So how can we make them stick? How can we make them coming back?

Well, here are 7 crucial elements which can significantly help to solve this basic problem if applied properly.

1. Consistency in layout and navigation

According to multiple online surveys visitors prefer sites where pages have a white background, and the colour text is black. Consistency in navigation is a must.

People get used to the navigation system on your web page very easily. During their multiple visits they are looking for the same navigation points, and if they can't find them where they were at their previous visits, they get confused and leave.

Use the same colour scheme all the way through your pages. Try to match colours and design your pages simply but tastefully. If you are not a designer type, don't be shy to ask for help or to purchase a simple pre-designed template.

Nowadays lots of sites offer beautifully designed web page templates. They can be easily modified,handled and tailored to your needs.

2. Clear Copy, More Sales!

Try to be as clear as you can. Don't use jargon or complicated expert language. That would definitely scare your visitors away.

Highlight benefits but also show features if necessary. Write from the heart. You need to show your visitors that you are an expert, and also an authority. In other words, they need to feel that you know your stuff.

3. Fast Loading pages

Stay away from image heavy design, use text navigation and if your sales copy or page happens to be too long, break down your pages into small tables. This will significantly speed up your web pages loading time.

4. Headlines, taglines, logos : Brand It!

Use shorter headlines or calls to action on every page if possible.

Headlines will make your visitors read further down your copy.

Use taglines all the way through on your pages to brand your site and highlight your unique selling proposition.

Show your logo on each and every page to give a better chance to further brand your product, service or company.

5. Personal photos, addresses, phone numbers: Build Credibility!

Online commerce is a faceless process. People still pretty reluctant to pull out their credit card and give you a buck or two. You need to ease their reluctance as much as you can.

The easiest and fastest way is to put your company address and phone number onto each and every page. That would immediately show that they're dealing with a real company or person.

Put up a about us page and upload a personal photo of yourself.

That will definitely build instant credibility.

6. Audio greetings and customer testimonials.

With nifty little audio tools now you can create a short audio greeting and put it up to your web site. The human voice will significantly build more credibility ands help to turn visitors into buyers.

Collect testimonials from your previous customers and put up the best ones to you web pages. New visitors will see that you have been in business for a long time and made dozens even hundreds of people happy with your products or services.

7. Be available and answer enquiries promptly

Whenever you receive a customer enquiry via email answer as fast as you can. Fast prompt enquiries will convert to sales very soon and will separate you from the lousy pack. Collect generic enquiries write up the answers and put up a page as your FAQ center.

Copyright 2005 Peter Lenkefi

What You Can Learn About SEO Copywriting From Infomercials

What You Can Learn About SEO Copywriting From Infomercials
By James Faasse - February 23, 2005

One day while working in the kitchen, I was half-listening to the TV in the other room. There was a silly informercial on for a double boiler, something that's been around for centuries. However, this infomercial called it a name like "the Chocolate Dream" and was touting the item as the miracle cure for boring desserts. Although I knew this was a commercial for a simple item I already own, I found myself following along with the pitch.

What's the Problem?

The first order of business was to define the reason why I could not live without this miracle appliance. According to the Chocolate Dream infomercial, my family is falling asleep at the table over their pound cake and turning up their noses in disgust at the cookies being offered to them. Life just has no spark, and everything is dim and grey. Heck, the family isn't groomed and they are badly dressed to boot !

What problems do your customers face? Why do they need your product? Often you either have to create demand or enhance demand for what you sell. By pointing out that you understand their problems, you create trust.

What's the Solution?

Why, the Chocolate Dream, of course! With the Chocolate Dream, the lighting is suddenly warm and glowing, the kids have brushed their hair, and Bubba has put a shirt on over that stained undershirt and suddenly looks a lot like Alec Baldwin. The family looks on in delight as they are served chocolate-dipped strawberries, molded chocolate candy, and they nearly explode with happiness as a chocolate fondue appears at the table. Life is again fun and full of promise.

The benefits are what convince people that your product will solve their problem, even if they weren't really aware they had a problem before that point. Notice that we aren't talking yet about how it works, we are merely setting the stage by showing how the problem is solved by this product. It creates a happy family and prevents what's-for-dessert stress.

Is There More?

Of course, there's more! If you order NOW, not only will you get the Chocolate Dream, but you also get this nifty dipping fork set, a fondue pot, fun candy molds, and SO MUCH MORE. Sure, you can buy a double-boiler at any kitchen appliance place, but you you won't get these great extras!

A unique selling proposition strengthens your position with the client and gives them a reason to buy from you instead of anyone else. It also gives them a reason to keep coming back if your product is a frequent purchase.

If You Place Your Order Now...

If you want the Chocolate Dream, you need to go get your phone NOW and call, because they aren't sure how many more they can sell at this price,and the free gifts will run out soon.

This is a key point that many many pages of website copy miss.. a call to action. You want to let the customer know how to order and encourage them to place the order now, before they browse any competing websites or forget how to find you. It doesn't have to be as blatant or as cheesy as an infomercial, but make sure there are calls to action throughout your copy.

What is a Chocolate Dream? A Chocolate Dream is...

If you listen to an infomercial, you will notice that they never refer to the product as "it".

The Chocolate Dream will brighten your life, the Chocolate Dream is easy to clean, with the Chocloate Dream,you'll never have to worry about what to have to for dessert again.

Many writers today will tell you if your copy isn't natural or in a conversational style that it's poorly written. However, infomercial copywriters know that repetition is the key to branding and product recall, so they repeat the name as often as possible.

If you are writing a conversational-style piece, or informational copy, it may not make sense to repeat the product name throughout. However, if you are writing copy to sell or increase relevance with the search engines, think infomercial.

You can definitely go overboard with repetition, but keep relevance, branding, and recall in mind when writing sales copy and be sure to use the relevant phrase throughout.

List the Features In the body of the infomercial, there is a list of the features of the Chocolate Dream.

• It's easy to use.
• It's dishwasher safe.
• It works with your existing range.
• It packs together for storage in small places.
• Etc...

Most websites use their features to sell, completely missing the problem/solution demand; the elements that really sell. While the features need to be in the copy, they don't come first. And the more you show the benefits associated with each feature, the more compelling the copy will be.

Who Needs the Chocolate Dream?

It's obvious that the Chocolate Dream is targeting caucasian, American moms. They show Mom slaving over the oven; later she's shown beaming with joy over being able to please her family and clean up quickly. She can also throw impressive parties!

The target audience is also clear from the channel selection- they've chosen to advertise on daytime TV, children's shows, and women's channels.

Does this mean they are alienating single men, grandmothers, or minority dads? NO. They aren't turning down any orders from anyone, however they are focusing their efforts on the demographic most likely to purchase, increasing the effectiveness of their ads and lowering their overall advertising costs.

What do Infomercials Teach Us About Web Copy?

• Define The Problem.
• Deliver Your Solution.
• Explain the Benefits, Not Just the Features.
• Have a USP, or a Reason Your Company is Different.
• Use Calls to Action Liberally Throughout the Copy.
• Repeat the Key Phrases Frequently.
• Target Your Audience for Best Results.

No need to reinvent the wheel; infomercials sell millions of dollars of products a year. The formula works! It can be easily adapted to your website copy, regardless of whether you sell products or services. So don't delay, start writing today!

Marketing Know-How that's Guaranteed to Work!

Back to the Marketing Know-How that's Guaranteed to Work Successfully in Every Medium!

From the desk of James Faasse`

Dear Business Owner,

Direct marketing "The business of selling goods and services and raising money over long distances" began on June 10, 1194, when he great French Cathedral of Chartres burned to the ground.

In order to rebuild, Bishop Regnault de Mouçon wrote to the rich and noble families of England and France asking for money. Although those first letters do not exist, no doubt the bishop laid on a guilt trip and perhaps promised immortality by memorializing the donors in the stained glass windows

When televangelist Dr. Robert Shuler commissioned Philip Johnson and John Burgee to create the great Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California he sent out a mailing asking the TV faithful to " buy" a window for $15 and rewarded the donor with hunk of Plexiglas as a thank you. Just like Chartres only 800 years later.

Since the fire at Chartres, a vast treasury of direct marketing rules, secrets, canons and customs has evolved "the results of 800+ years of testing and reading the numbers." No other advertising or marketing discipline can touch this body of information.

The main reason for the dot-com crash of 2000 is that the hotshot little twenty-somethings who created the protocols did not know squat about the lessons of the past--the rules of marketing, copy and design. What's more, they did not want to know them. "This is a new medium and a new paradigm,"they crowed. "We don't need you old timers."

The majority of these kids are out of work while we graybeards are busier than ever.

So back it's to basics. Back to the marketing know-how that has grown up over the centuries and works successfully in every medium" print, phone, fax and E-commerce."

Again, welcome.

And good hunting!

James Faasse Rules for Internet Success

James Faasse Rules for Internet Success

In my opinion, marketers can make profits on the Internet. The first step is to recognize four disadvantages.

1. Unlike traditional marketing where the sales person controls the direction and pace of the sale, the prospect and customer are in total control -- and a mouse click away from oblivion.

2. Your Web site is situated in the armpit of the world, a venue akin to Times Square in the 1950s, with girlie shows on one side of you and Hugo’s Trained Flea Circus on the other.

3. Unlike telemarketing -- where a wrong number is a bit of an embarrassment -- a mis-entered URL can lead even the most well-intentioned prospect or customer off on a journey of discovery and zero business for you.

4. Given the terrible publicity about hackers, cyberthieves, privacy invaders and scam artists, your prospects and customers will not have the same immediate trust or sense of safety as they do in Home Depot, Circuit City or a local supermarket. For this reason, Net marketers are losing a lot of business.

5. The entire point of your Web site is to get yourself book marked by prospects and customers; everything else is secondary. No bookmarks, no regular return visits.

6. Once book marked, your Web site must become addictive. Examples of addictive Websites: www.Drudgreport.com (I check it two or three times a day for the latest news and dish); www.eBay.com where new stuff is continually coming up for sale.

7. How do you make it addictive? In order to lure people back often, it is imperative that your Web site be updated weekly -- if not daily -- with interesting, useful material.

8. With a Web site, you are always open for business. People expect instant gratification. Finalize an order with Amazon.com and you receive an immediate confirmation via e-mail. This is the current model. Order fulfillment must also be quick and flawless. According to a study in the U.K., 77% of companies fail to respond to an e-mail inquiry within 24 hours; 33% of companies fail to respond at all. If these statistics are even remotely akin to yours, you have no business being on the Web.

9. The Internet must be treated as one of many marketing channels -- along with direct mail, space advertising, broadcast, retail, and telemarketing. Remember that most dot-coms that hit the skids were trying to do business entirely on a piece of glass in the homes and offices of fickle, easily distracted prospects and customers. That model works for AOL, Yahoo and maybe e-Bay and E-Trade, but not many others.

10. You cannot be all things to all people. Niche Internet marketers will find and service niche clients profitably. Example: My friend Barry Rose in England has a nifty little Web business selling fully restored vintage fountain pens to collectors (www.Write time.co.us). Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.com keeps adding new categories and continues to burn through more and more money.

11. “Your job is to sell,” says freelancer Jack Mason, “not entertain.” This was recently echoed by developer Willard Rouse (Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and the Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston). “The concept of building it and they will come is a lot of crap,” said Rouse in The New Yorker. “Build it, sell the hell out of it and they will come.”

12. Look at the selling on the Web as direct mail on glass and apply the old tried and true, marketing proven rules, a number of which follow.

13. “More than half our buying decisions are based on emotion.”
--Jack Mason

14. “When emotion and reason come into conflict, emotion wins every time.”
--John J. Flieder

15. “Make it as easy as possible for the customer to order.”
--Elsworth Howell

16. “If you want to dramatically increase your response, dramatically improve your offer.”
--Axle Anderson

17. “You cannot bore people into buying anything.”
--David Ogilvy

“The seven key copy drivers -- hot buttons -- which change human behavior, are: fear, greed, guilt, anger, exclusivity, salvation, flattery. If your copy isn’t positively dripping with one or more of these, tear it up and start over.”
--Bob Hacker

19. The 13 most powerful and evocative words in the English language are:
you - save - money - easy - proven - guarantee - health -
love - new - results - discovery - safety - free
Use them unsparingly.

20. The Internet is the only print medium that allows you to test in real time (and far more cheaply than mail, phone or broadcast), giving you readable results in as little as a few minutes. Take advantage of this.

21. Make sure what the prospect first sees on your Web site directly relates to the message and the medium that brought the person there. In other words, don’t make a specific promise in direct mail or space and then fulfill with your basic, self-congratulatory home page aimed at everybody; this will result in a mental disconnect.

22. “The prospect doesn’t give a damn about you, your product or your company. All that matters is, ‘What’s in it for me?’

-- James Faasse`

10 Killer Internet Marketing Tips To Multiply Your Sales

10 Killer Internet Marketing Tips To Multiply Your Sales

By James Faasse`

It always amazes me, even after 10 years of online ecommerce websites, how people believe the age old adage "Buld it and they will come." Sorry to burst your bubble, but that only happens in movies. When marekting an online business it really is no different in philosophy than your bricks n' mortar shop.

Why are your web site sales down, you might ask yourself. It looks pretty, it's easy to navigate and I offer products that people need.

RULE #1

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! McDonalds has a great product and great branding and excellent marketing. However, take that same model and put each store in the middle of a corn field in Timbuktu and you'll have a business that fails, or at least gets very few visitors on a lonley highway.

It's the same with the internet. Your web site must be located on prime realestate... that means prime search engine keywords that target your market, so when a search is done on "web hosting" for example your site will come up within the top 10 or at least the first page. Top 40 or first 4 pages is good for starters, but since 80% of all people DO NOT browse past the first page, your rate of success is slim using natural search engine optimization. You must be in the top 10 listings, more effectively within the first five on your trageted keyword search.

Natural, or "organic" search engine listing is the most affordable and cost effective advertising for you on the web. It may require an initial investment from $1,200-$3,000, but it is well worth the traffic and business you'll recieve. Infact you'll recieve more traffic and return on investment on conversion (turning browsers into buyers) than you will with the yellow pages. Let's face it people... the yellow pages is going out of business, why do you think it now cast hundreds and even thousands per month to place an ad? Because they are loosing to the search engines!

RULE #2

MARKET, PROMOTE AND OFFER DISCOUNT SPECIALS WHEN STARTING UP A NEW BRAND! I have one client who refuses to listen to my consultation on her clothing store. She has a great product, niche market and a beautiful website with great photos. Now when she was ranked high on search engines she recieveda 1200% increase in targeted traffic within 30 days, however, she had only a few sales, which she failed to follow thru on because she did not check her email daily, or her store admin section.

Her product also is expensive because she targets higher end income people. However, the downside is that she limits her companies growth working harder and not smarter. She goes to shows and sells clothing, she drives around to sports and health clubs and sets up accounts and she does word of mouth. She does place her web site address on her business card, but her brand name is not descriptive of the product she sells. For example: Sportswear from Belize is better than "MiaBelizia". Who the heck knows what that is? I don't... do you. The point is assume people do not know what you are selling and you have to explain it to them like a 4 year old... make it easy. On the web you have 7 seconds to make an impression!

If you sell a product in your bricks n' mortor for $50 dollars sell it on your site for 10% or more off just for buying of your store. You wind up saving on travel expense and time from having to sell in person. On the web you have less overhead and can afford to give thos eshoppers a discount just for visiting online, plus it is incentive to get word out to sell more of your product because shoppers are always looking for the best deal on the web!

Now my other clients who listen, they have increased their traffic, conversion and cash-flow... simply following the strategies and methods I put before them on how to market and sell on the internet.

Here are 10 killer ways to boost your sales!

1. When you make your first sale, follow-up with the customer. You could follow-up with a "thank you" email and include an advertisement for other products you sell. You could follow-up every few months.

2. You could upsell to your customers. When they're at your order page, tell them about a few extra related products you have for sale. They could just add it to their original order.

3. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to your website, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into three sales.

4. When you sell a product, give your customers the option of joining an affiliate program so they can make commissions selling your product. This will multiply the sale you just made.

5. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products. You could include an ad on or with the product for other products you sell. You could make sales for the reproduction rights and sales on the back end product.

6. You could cross promote your product with other businesses' products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and have other businesses selling for you.

7. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon for other related products you sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.

8. Send your customers a catalog of add-on products for the original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will buy the extra add-ons.

9. Sell gift certificates for your products. You'll make sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your website.

10. Send your customers free products with their product package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.

35 Quick Tips for Writing A Press Release

35 Quick Tips for Writing A Press Release

Layout
1. 1-2 pages in length.
2. Double-space.
3. 1.5 to 2 inch margins.
4. Use company stationary with logo and slogan.
5. Avoid bright or dark-colored paper.
6. Center 'News Release' at top.
7. Place a 'release date' under 'News Release'.
8. On second page, type 'page 2'.
9. Use company stationary with logo and slogan on page 2.
10. Leave out 'release after' date on second page, all else should be the same.
11. At end of press release, type '-30-' or '# # #'.
12. Include both black & white, color, and a variety of font sizes (but no more than four).

Format
13. Inverted pyramid (biggest point or major message first).
14. Straight to the point at the beginning.
15. First and second paragraphs devoted to your main message.
16. Secondary information comes AFTER main message.
17. No pussyfooting around, be clear up front, at the very beginning.
18. Don't go on and on.
19. In the third section, establish a connection with you.
20. Use a problem/solution format.
21. Comparing and contrasting ideas can be inside the problem/solution format.
22. Be careful of your facts, spelling and grammar
23. Only one news release per e-mail or envelope.

Information to Include
24. Newsworthy information, not sales copy
25. All the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How elements. Their order depends on level of importance.
26. Enticing headline which summarize the material/news.
27. Photos if available, or where they can be accessed in press section of your web site. No stock images.
28. No cover letter.

Distribution
29. Don't send press release out in a mass e-mailing
30. Don't pester contacts
31. Editors will not distribute anything sloppy, difficult to read, or understand.
32. Mail release by first class mail.
33. Don't use any type of labels, including your return address.
34. Add 'PRESS RELEASE' and 'Release Date:' on outside of envelope.
35. Places to send press releases: writers@[magazines]; writers@[newspapers]; trade journals in your industry; print magazines on the topic; online agencies that distribute news releases.

9 Keys to an Effective Logo

9 Keys to an Effective Logo

The right logo, with the right characteristics, will boost your visibility, credibility and memorablity ­ which means more business for you!

These characteristics include:

Consistency in use of your logo, tagline, materials. Repetition of similar elements, used in the same or similar ways, helps people to remember who you are and what you do.

Memorability, so that your logo stays at the forefront of your potential clients' minds. That way, they'll think of you next time they have a need.

Meaningfulness, so that your logo can spread the message about the distinguishing characteristics of your business.

Uniqueness, which helps you stand out from the crowd. For example, if everyone in your industry uses a particular symbol (i.e., travel agencies often use globes in their logos), try to use something else ­ that way, your logo doesn't just look like everyone else's.

Professionalism, in the quality of the graphics, the printing and the paper on which your materials are printed.

Timelessness in your logo will ensure that you don't have to redesign your logo in just a few years and that your investment and equity in your design will be lasting.

Differentiation between the colors in your logo ­ and not just in terms of hue, but in terms of value as well, so that it translates well either to black and white or greyscale and colorblind people are able to see it.

Unity among the different elements in the logo. The logo must fit together as a single unit, and not just appear as a jumble of elements pasted together.

Scalability, so that your logo looks equally good on both a business card and on a sign for your business (or a billboard!), and at every size in between. Your business's name should be legible at different logo sizes ­ be sure that your designer chooses a font that is easily readable.

Having a professionally designed logo can really give your business a jumpstart and helps your business get the attention ­and clients­ you need to succeed.

Consumers Search Before Buying

Consumers Search Before Buying

When hunting for stronger sales, it is wise to go where the game is. When the game gets very much smarter, wise hunters learn to adapt. - quote found inscribed in obscure cave formation near Fernwood BC.

As the oft' quoted phrase goes, "...the more things change, the more they stay the same." This phrase can be applied to the search engine marketing sector time and time again. Though several events in the business world of search attracted major media attention last week, interest in organic search has re-emerged among webmasters and search marketing agencies.

Two years after the popularization of pay-per-click programs, advertisers are starting to form sophisticated strategies combining managed PPC campaigns and consistent organic placements.

Consumer behaviors are rapidly changing as buyers are researching their purchases online before spending their money. A recent study,"Search Before the Purchase " from DoubleClick and comScore Networks notes half of all online purchases are preceded by multiple product-specific searches.
A similar tendency occurs in the brick and mortar retail world with consumers using search engines as product catalogs researching products, vendors and even the fastest routes before heading out to shop.

The study also offers a number of valuable insights into how consumers use search engines to research products they are interested in. Using a list of 30 sites from the Apparel, Computer Hardware, Sports/Fitness, and Travel industries, the researchers examined the habits of 1.5 million U.S. Internet users.

It followed the long-term behaviors of identified people who made at least one purchase on one of the 30 sites in the survey. The findings will not surprise organic search engine marketers as they confirm the high value of strong search engine placement.

Know what your potential buyers want to know.
Keyword selection stands out as the most important point in the survey. On average, about 75% of pre-purchase search is conducted using generic terms. Only 18.1% - 28.5% of searchers looked for brand names. It is only when consumers are close to making a final purchase decision that they enter brand names into search engines.

Travel consumers tend to know what they want.
As part of their methodology, comScore looked at the number of searches conducted using generic terms and brand names and compared the results with the number of actual clicks those searches generated. While search users looking for travel information only typed brand names 21.2% of the time, they clicked on (eventually purchasing) brand name generated results 21.5% of the time, the lowest disparity between use of brand in search and actual clicks generated by brand-names.

Apparel buyers tend to think about clothes, a lot.
In the apparel sector, search engine users typed a brand name 27.5% of the time, clicking through an average of 32% of the time. Interestingly, a high degree of pre-purchase research is seen in the apparel sector often starting months before buying. Six to ten weeks before actually selecting a product, online shoppers start entering generic terms. As the weeks go by, they hone in on specific brand names and brand items until they find exactly what they are looking for. Similar behaviors are shown in the three other sectors studied.

Immediate ROI is a poor way to gage success.
Much like television advertising, sales on search engines stem from effectively branding a product and putting that brand in front of consumers time and time again.

According to the study, "...most buyers complete their in-market search engine research two or more weeks before the make a purchase online." The correct way to measure the success of an optimization campaign is heavily debated in the Search Engine Marketing community and centers around Return on Investment (ROI) vs. Top 10 Placement.

Many SEOs believe that the achievement of Top10 placements should be the reportable goal while others believe that ROI is the only relevant outcome. According to the results of the study, both are important with ROI (as assumed by clicks) directly related to consistent first page placements throughout the research/buying cycle.


Brand it and they will come.

Ultimately, search engine users are looking to make the smartest, most cost-effective purchase possible. The study proves what most SEOs have known for years, search users are increasingly savvy consumers. With a world wide web of information in front of them, search users are instantly accessing the information they feel the need to know before buying.

While researching, they are going to come across several brand names, some more than others. The search world shares the rule of branding with other forms of traditional media. Regardless of how a search engine user sees your product name, the more often they see it, the better chance they will at least look at your products.

As with the various traditional marketing vehicles, first page search engine placement plays a large role in consumer confidence and loyalty. A product or brand reference that consistently appears in the Top10 organic results with corresponding PPC results and advertising on other relevant websites tends to sell best.

Perhaps the most interesting development in the world of search this week is a sense of a newly minted pattern developing in SEO/SEM techniques. The DoubleClick - comScore study is one of a growing number of papers showing the high value of organic results as part of an overall search marketing strategy. Today's search environment offers advertisers more options than any other medium that has ever existed.

The success of a search marketing campaign is greatly enhanced with organic search engine placement but the end result comes down to how advertisers and their search marketers uses the increasing number of tools at their disposal.